Kat Von D Accepts DJ Deadmau5′s Marriage Proposal — Via Twitter






Saturday was just another crazy day in the love life of Kat Von D – you know, marriage proposals via Tweet, etc.


After a two-month hot and heavy romance with Canadian DJ Deadmau5 (followed by a November breakup), the pair is not only back together, they’re engaged — and it all went down on Twitter.






PLAY IT NOW: Meet The Six Little McGhees


“I can’t wait for Christmas so…. Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?” Deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) Tweeted on Saturday, along with a photo of the engagement ring he plans to get the tattoo artist.


Click HERE to see the ring – complete with a diamond flanked by (what else?!) two skulls!


VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars Who Got Engaged In 2012


Kat replied with a series of exclamation points, to which Deadmau5 romantically responded with, “Holy f***ing s**t. im engaged and stuff!”


The freshly-minted engaged couple then thanked their followers for their support.


“Mi corazon!!! Thank you all for the lovely congratulations!” Kat wrote. “Please excuse me while I go squeeze the hell out of my fiance!”


VIEW THE PHOTOS: Guess The Celebrity Ink!


“Thanks for the well wishes and support from the horde and everyone else!” Deadmau5 Tweeted. “brb while i spend the rest of my evening with my future wife icon smile Kat Von D Accepts DJ Deadmau5s Marriage Proposal    Via Twitter


VOTE: Will Kat & Deadmau5 make it down the aisle?


VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood’s Smokin’ Hot Couples


Prior to her whirlwind romance with Deadmau5, Kat was recently engaged to Sandra Bullock’s ex-husband, Jesse James, but the now-ex-couple broke it off in June, 2011.


As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Kat and her new fiance, dubbed “Kat and Mau5″ (mouse), were first spotted together in September, and the DJ called Kat “The love of my life” just one month later.


One month after his declaration of love, the pair broke up.


– Erin O’Sullivan


Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Kat Von D Accepts DJ Deadmau5′s Marriage Proposal — Via Twitter
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Auction of Greta Garbo’s dresses, caps fetches $1.6 million






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A two-day sale of clothing, jewelry and other memorabilia belonging to reclusive movie star Greta Garbo fetched $ 1.6 million, more than three times the original estimate, according to Julien’s Auctions.


Garbo’s Louis Vuitton streamer trunk, which sold for $ 37,500, was among the top sellers in the auction of 800 items which began on Friday, along with three leather driving caps she wore in a 1924 car advertisement that fetched $ 15,000.






A U.S. passport issued to her in 1964, which carried an estimate of $ 3,000-$ 5,000, also sold for $ 15,000, and a 1930s black velvet evening dress that had an estimated value of $ 1,200 went to the highest bidder for $ 13,750.


“Greta Garbo commanded Marilyn Monroe prices,” Martin Nolan, the executive director of the Beverly Hills auction house, said in a statement. “Her beauty, extraordinary screen presence and fashion trending style were proven to be timeless.”


Garbo, one of Hollywood’s greatest stars and beauties, died in New York in 1990 at the age of 84. She retired from film and public life decades earlier in 1941.


All of the items in the sale, including a platform bed she designed with antique Swedish carvings, photos, luggage and documents, had been kept in storage before her family decided to sell them in the auction that was announced in August.


Garbo started her Hollywood career in silent movies such as 1927′s “Flesh and the Devil” and was among the few actors to successfully transition to talkies, becoming iconic not only for her beauty, but for her brains and the streak of independence she displayed on film and in her personal life.


The Swedish actress earned four Academy Award nominations, her first for 1929′s “Anna Christie,” and was finally given an honorary award for unforgettable performances by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1954.


(Reporting by Patricia Reaney and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Auction of Greta Garbo’s dresses, caps fetches $1.6 million
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Obama: ‘We can’t tolerate this anymore’



President Barack Obama assured the grieving, shell-shocked Newtown community on Sunday that "you are not alone" and vowed sternly to wield "whatever power this office holds" in a quest to prevent future mass shootings.


"We can't tolerate this anymore," Obama said from behind a podium on the stage of a Newton High School auditorium, as adults wept, or hugged, or sat quietly, many hugging small children. "These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."


"In the coming weeks, I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens -- from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents, and educators -- in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have?"he said.


The speech, broadcast nationwide, offered the bold suggestion that Obama might engage lawmakers on the subject of gun control -- a topic that has not been among his top priorities during his presidency.


"We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage?" Obama said.  That the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year, after year, after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"


There were sobs from the crowd as the president read the first names of the 20 children slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday and paid tribute to the six adults who died defending them. Twenty-six candles in twenty-six shining glass vases shone from the base of the podium.


Obama anticipated — and dismissed — some of the time-honored arguments against stricter restrictions on guns. "We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true," he said. "No single law no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society."


"But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this," he said. 


Across the country, people grieved for the 20 children — six and seven years old — and six adults killed in one of the worst mass shootings in America's history.


In Newtown and elsewhere, mourners gently piled notes, stuffed animals and American flags, balloons and flowers, in makeshift memorials where candles fluttered.


New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz played wearing a shoe that read "R.I.P. Jack Pinto" in black marker, an homage to a child slain in the massacre. Flags from coast to coast flew at half-staff. As the president's motorcade climbed the hill up the school, he could glimpse a few homes with Christmas lights -- but most were dark.


"Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation," the president said. "I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts."


"I can only hope it helps for you to know you are not alone in your grief that our world too has been torn apart. That all across this land of ours, we have wept with you. We've pulled our children tight," Obama said. "And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it."


In the auditorium where the president spoke, the audience included a large number of elementary school-age children, some carrying cuddly toys like teddy bears, according to pool reporter Stephen Collinson of Agence France-Presse.


Before the service, Obama met privately for more than an hour with families of the victims and emergency workers who responded to the crisis. As those workers entered the auditorium, the crowd erupted in a standing ovation. Some traded long hugs with members of the audience.


"We needed this. We needed to be together," said Rev. Matt Crebbin, the senior minister at Newtown Congregational Church. "These darkest days of our community shall not be the final word heard from us."


Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, describing his meeting with Obama, said that the president had called Friday "the most difficult day of  his presidency."



By 4 p.m., the line cars trying to reach the interfaith vigil stretched more than 2 miles from Newtown High School back through Sandy Hook -- and its growing makeshift memorial -- to Saint Rose church, the site of several vigils for (and hoax threats related to) Friday's massacre.

In Sandy Hook center, a lawn displayed lights with the phrase "FAITH. HOPE. LOVE." Across the street, a sign wrapped around a street lamp read, "Heaven must have been short on 27 angels."



The president spoke about the shooting on Friday,  his voice choked with emotion, one finger wiping away tears as they welled up. He vowed to "take meaningful action, regardless of the politics" to try to prevent future such tragedies. But hours before,  White House press secretary Jay Carney had decreed that "today's not the day" to discuss possible gun control measures.


The Obama administration has reportedly considered new gun restrictions in the past, only to shelve them.


The White House has shied from seeking tough new action from Congress — where new restrictions on gun purchases would likely run into stiff Republican opposition.


Obama's speech was the fourth in his presidency to memorialize a mass shooting. After the January 2011 rampage in Tucson, AZ, where then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was critically injured, the president spoke at a memorial for the six people killed, including Christina Taylor Green, 9.


Dylan Stableford contributed from Newtown



Read More..

Keep thimerosal in vaccines: pediatricians






NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A mercury-containing preservative should not be banned as an ingredient in vaccines, U.S. pediatricians said Monday, in a move that may be controversial.


In its statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed calls from a World Health Organization (WHO) committee that the preservative, thimerosal, not be considered a hazardous source of mercury that could be banned by the United Nations.






Back in 1999, a concern that kids receiving multiple shots containing thimerosal might get too much mercury – and develop autism or other neurodevelopmental problems as a result – led the AAP to call for its removal, despite the lack of hard evidence at the time.


“It was absolutely a matter of precaution because of the absence of more information,” said Dr. Louis Cooper, from Columbia University in New York, who was on the organization’s board of directors at the time.


“Subsequently an awful lot of effort has been put into trying to sort out whether thimerosal causes any harm to kids, and the bottom line is basically, it doesn’t look as if it does,” Cooper, who wrote a commentary published with the AAP’s statement, told Reuters Health.


In a 2004 safety review, for example, the independent U.S. Institute of Medicine concluded there was no evidence thimerosal-containing vaccines could cause autism. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to the same conclusion in 2010.


With the exception of some types of flu shots, the compound is not used in vaccines in the United States, which are distributed in single-dose vials.


And nobody is arguing that should change, according to Dr. Walter Orenstein, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases and a researcher at the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta.


But in countries with fewer resources – where many children still die of vaccine-preventable diseases – it’s cheaper and easier to use multi-dose vials of vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus, for example.


Thimerosal prevents the rest of a multi-dose vial from getting contaminated with bacteria or fungi each time a dose is used.


Researchers estimated it could cost anywhere from two to five times as much to manufacture vaccines for developing countries without thimerosal, and both transporting vaccines and keeping them refrigerated would be much harder as well.


“If we had to take the thimerosal out of those multi-dose vials, we’re having a hard time completing the task of getting every kid immunized now, that would add a tremendous burden,” Cooper said – and more children would probably die as a result.


“Children who can now be protected from these life-threatening diseases could become vulnerable,” Orenstein told Reuters Health.


The new statement is published in the AAP’s journal Pediatrics.


Thimerosal contains a type of mercury called ethyl mercury. Toxic effects have been tied to its cousin, methyl mercury, which stays in the body for much longer.


Earlier this year, the WHO said replacing thimerosal with an alternative preservative could affect vaccine safety and might cause some vaccines to become unavailable.


Mercury, however, is still on the list of global health hazards to be banned in a draft treaty from the United Nations Environment Program – which would mean a ban on thimerosal.


Reducing mercury exposure “is a wonderful thing,” Orenstein said.


However, “We need this exception because thimerosal is so vital for protecting children.”


He said keeping thimerosal in vaccines is essential mostly for humanitarian reasons – although preventing childhood diseases in the developing world could also help the U.S. because other countries can serve as reservoirs for illness.


“For American parents, this is more looking at the world and our role and responsibility in protecting the children of the world than it is a direct impact,” Orenstein said.


SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online December 17, 2012.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Keep thimerosal in vaccines: pediatricians
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment




Read More..

Nigeria governor, 5 others die in helicopter crash






LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A navy helicopter crashed Saturday in the country’s oil-rich southern delta, killing a state governor and five other people, in the latest air disaster to hit Africa’s most populous nation, officials said.


Nigeria‘s ruling party said in a statement that the governor of the central Nigerian state of Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, died in the helicopter crash in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The People’s Democratic Party’s statement described Yakowa’s death as a “colossal loss.”






The statement said the former national security adviser, General Andrew Azazi, also died in the crash. Azazi was fired in June amid growing sectarian violence in Nigeria, but maintained close ties with the government.


Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, said four other bodies had been found, but he could not immediately give their identities.


The crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m. after the navy helicopter took off from the village of Okoroba in Bayelsa state where officials had gathered to attend the burial of the father of a presidential aide, said Commodore Kabir Aliyu. He said that the helicopter was headed for Nigeria’s oil capital of Port Harcourt when it crashed in the Nembe area of Bayelsa state.


Aviation disasters remain common in Nigeria, despite efforts in recent years to improve air safety.


In October, a plane made a crash landing in central Nigeria. A state governor and five others sustained injuries but survived.


In June, a Dana Air MD-83 passenger plane crashed into a neighborhood in the commercial capital of Lagos, killing 153 people onboard and at least 10 people on the ground. It was Nigeria’s worst air crash in nearly two decades.


In March, a police helicopter carrying a high-ranking police official crashed in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing four people.


Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Tumblr Users Flock to Mashable Comment Thread






Tumblr Is Down


When Tumblr went down Wednesday evening, users flocked to Mashable to express their rage and disbelief.


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: Mysterious Package Addressed to Indiana Jones Arrives at UChicago]


Where were you the day that Tumblr went down? Whether you were at home, at work or on the move, it’s possible that you somehow ended up on Mashable. That was the case for thousands of Tumblr users, who, desperate for their GIF fix after a Tumblr outage on Wednesday, found themselves commenting on a Mashable story about the glitch.


Frustrated Tumblr frequenters left without a blogging platform transformed the comment thread on Mashable’s story into a makeshift Tumblr dashboard. Users gathered to commiserate, voice their anger and post GIFs to express their feelings. The micro-community that sprung up in the post made these the top comments on Mashable this week.


[More from Mashable: The Top Comments on Mashable This Week]


We recently renovated our commenting system to allow readers to embed video and images, a feature Wednesday’s commenters took full advantage of. By the time Tumblr was again functional, the story had accrued over 4,000 comments. Users traded domain names, discussed their blogs and, above all, bemoaned a lack of access to the site. YouTube user moviepimpdj posted a video of the rapidly moving comment thread.


This week we also saw major changes to Facebook’s privacy settings, with our readers feeling mixed emotions about the shift. The community mused on what 2013 might hold with respect to responsive design.


What were your favorite comments from the Mashable community this week? Get involved with the discussion by signing up for Mashable Follow. You could see your voice in our next weekly roundup!


Image courtesy of Flickr, kurichan+


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Greta Garbo’s dresses, caps fetch high prices at auction






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An auction of film legend Greta Garbo‘s belongings got off to a roaring start on Friday, with her clothing, jewelry and other memorabilia fetching more than ten times pre-sale estimates in many cases.


Bidding was brisk and high as more than 800 items belonging to the reclusive Swedish actress, including the bed she slept in, went up for sale over two days at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills.






A 1930s black velvet evening dress with an estimated value of about $ 1,200 sold on Friday for $ 13,750. The winning bid for three leather driving caps worn by Garbo in a 1924 car advertisement was $ 15,000, compared with an estimate of $ 200.


Her U.S. passport issued in 1964, which carried an estimate of $ 3,000-$ 5,000, fetched $ 15,000.


All the items come from the estate of Greta Garbo, who died in 1990 in New York at the age of 84 after retiring from movies and public life in 1941.


Her great-nephew Derek Reisfield told Reuters when the auction was announced in August that the family had kept her belongings in storage before deciding to sell them.


The collection includes vintage and designer dresses, shoes, furniture and photos from Garbo’s Hollywood heyday, as well as the platform bed she designed using antique Swedish carvings to reflect her Scandinavian heritage. The bed, due to be sold later in the auction, carries an estimate of $ 800-$ 1,200.


Among other early items sold on Friday was a single page Swedish summary bank statement from 1956 that fetched $ 1,125, a Swedish military jacket ($ 4,062), and a 1960s silk brocade evening coat ($ 12,800).


The buyers for the various items were not immediately known.


Garbo started her Hollywood career in silent movies such as 1927′s “Flesh and the Devil” and was among the few actors to successfully transition to talkies, becoming iconic not only for her beauty, but for her brains and the streak of independence she displayed on film and in her personal life.


She earned four Academy Award nominations, her first for 1929′s “Anna Christie,” and was finally given an honorary award for unforgettable performances by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1954.


(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

'Always smiling': Portraits of Connecticut victims


Most died at the very start of their young lives, tiny victims taken in a way not fit for anyone regardless of age. Others found their life's work in sheltering little ones, teaching them, caring for them, treating them as their own. After the gunfire ended Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the trail of loss was more than many could bear: 20 children and six adults at the school, the gunman's mother at home, and the gunman himself.


A glimpse of some of those who died:


___


Charlotte Bacon, 6, student


They were supposed to be for the holidays, but finally on Friday, after much begging, Charlotte Bacon's mother relented and let her wear the new pink dress and boots to school.


It was the last outfit the outgoing redhead would ever pick out. Charlotte's older brother, Guy, was also in the school but was not shot.


Her parents, JoAnn and Joel, had lived in Newtown for four or five years, JoAnn's brother John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday.


"She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."


___


Olivia Engel, 6, student


The images of Olivia Engel will live far beyond her short lifetime. There she is, visiting with Santa Claus, or feasting on a slice of birthday cake. There's the one of her swinging a pink baseball bat, and another posing on a boat. In some, she models a pretty white dress; in others, she makes a silly face.


Dan Merton, a longtime friend of the girl's family, says he could never forget the child, and he has much to say when he thinks of her.


"She loved attention," he said. "She had perfect manners, perfect table manners. She was the teacher's pet, the line leader."


On Friday, Merton said, she was simply excited to go to school and then return home and make a gingerbread house.


"Her only crime," he said, "is being a wiggly, smiley 6-year-old."


___


Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal


Dawn Hochsprung's pride in Sandy Hook Elementary was clear. She regularly tweeted photos from her time as principal there, giving indelible glimpses of life at a place now known for tragedy. Just this week, it was an image of fourth-graders rehearsing for their winter concert; days before that, the tiny hands of kindergartners exchanging play money at their makeshift grocery store.


She viewed her school as a model, telling The Newtown Bee in 2010 that "I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day." She had worked to make Sandy Hook a place of safety, too, and in October, the 47-year-old Hochsprung shared a picture of the school's evacuation drill with the message "safety first." When the unthinkable came, she was ready to defend.


Officials said she died while lunging at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.


"She had an extremely likable style about her," said Gerald Stomski, first selectman of Woodbury, where Hochsprung lived and had taught. "She was an extremely charismatic principal while she was here."


___


Madeleine Hsu, 6, student


Dr. Matthew Velsmid was at Madeleine's house on Saturday, tending to her stricken family. He said the family did not want to comment.


Velsmid said that after hearing of the shooting, he went to the triage area to provide medical assistance but there were no injuries to treat.


"We were waiting for casualties to come out, and there was nothing. There was no need, unfortunately," he said. "This is the darkest thing I've ever walked into, by far."


Velsmid's daughter, who attends another school, lost three of her friends.


___


Catherine Hubbard, 6, student


A family friend turned reporters away from the house, but Catherine's parents released a statement expressing gratitude to emergency responders and for the support of the community.


"We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy," Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard said. "We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy."


___


Chase Kowalski, 7, student


Chase Kowalski was always outside, playing in the backyard, riding his bicycle. Just last week, he was visiting neighbor Kevin Grimes, telling him about completing — and winning — his first mini-triathlon.


"You couldn't think of a better child," Grimes said.


Grimes' own five children all attended Sandy Hook, too. Cars lined up outside the Kowalskis' ranch home Saturday, and a state trooper's car idled in the driveway. Grimes spoke of the boy only in the present tense.


___


Nancy Lanza, 52, gunman's mother


She once was known simply for the game nights she hosted and the holiday decorations she put up at her house. Now Nancy Lanza is known as her son's first victim.


Authorities say her 20-year-old son Adam gunned her down before killing 26 others at Sandy Hook. The two shared a home in a well-to-do Newtown neighborhood, but details were slow to emerge of who she was and what might have led her son to carry out such horror.


Kingston, N.H., Police Chief Donald Briggs Jr. said Nancy Lanza once lived in the community and was a kind, considerate and loving person. The former stockbroker at John Hancock in Boston was well-respected, Briggs said.


Court records show Lanza and her ex-husband, Peter Lanza, filed for divorce in 2008. He lives in Stamford and is a tax director at General Electric. A neighbor, Rhonda Cullens, said she knew Nancy Lanza from get-togethers she had hosted to play Bunco, a dice game. She said her neighbor had enjoyed gardening.


"She was a very nice lady," Cullens said. "She was just like all the rest of us in the neighborhood, just a regular person."


___


Jesse Lewis, 6, student


Six-year-old Jesse Lewis had hot chocolate with his favorite breakfast sandwich — sausage, egg and cheese — at the neighborhood deli before going to school Friday morning.


Jesse and his parents were regulars at the Misty Vale Deli in Sandy Hook, Conn., owner Angel Salazar told The Wall Street Journal.


"He was always friendly; he always liked to talk," Salazar said.


Jesse's family has a collection of animals he enjoyed playing with, and he was learning to ride horseback.


Family friend Barbara McSperrin told the Journal that Jesse was "a typical 6-year-old little boy, full of life."


___


Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, student


A year ago, 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene was reveling in holiday celebrations with her extended family on her first trip to Puerto Rico. This year will be heartbreakingly different.


The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, said the family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's sterling reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town and said the child's 9-year-old brother also was at the school but escaped safely.


Elba Marquez had just visited the new home over Thanksgiving and is perplexed by what happened. "What happened does not match up with the place where they live," she said.


A video spreading across the Internet shows a confident Ana hitting every note as she sings "Come, Thou Almighty King." She flashes a big grin and waves to the camera when she's done.


Jorge Marquez confirmed the girl's father is saxophonist Jimmy Greene, who wrote on Facebook that he was trying to "work through this nightmare."


"As much as she's needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me, Ana beat us all to paradise," he wrote. "I love you sweetie girl."


___


James Mattioli, 6, student


The upstate New York town of Sherrill is thinking of Cindy Mattioli, who grew up there and lost her son James in the school shooting in Connecticut.


"It's a terrible tragedy, and we're a tight community," Mayor William Vineall told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. "Everybody will be there for them, and our thoughts and prayers are there for them."


James' grandparents, Jack and Kathy Radley, still live in the city, the newspaper reported.


___


Anne Marie Murphy, 52, teacher


A happy soul. A good mother, wife and daughter. Artistic, fun-loving, witty and hardworking.


Remembering their daughter, Anne Marie Murphy, her parents had no shortage of adjectives to offer Newsday. When news of the shooting broke, Hugh and Alice McGowan waited for word of their daughter as hours ticked by. And then it came.


Authorities told the couple their daughter was a hero who helped shield some of her students from the rain of bullets. As the grim news arrived, the victim's mother reached for her rosary.


"You don't expect your daughter to be murdered," her father told the newspaper. "It happens on TV. It happens elsewhere."


___


Emilie Parker, 6, student


Quick to cheer up those in need of a smile, Emilie Parker never missed a chance to draw a picture or make a card.


Her father, Robbie Parker, fought back tears as he described the beautiful, blond, always-smiling girl who loved to try new things, except foods.


Parker, one of the first parents to publicly talk about his loss, expressed no animosity for the gunman, even as he struggled to explain the death to his other two children, ages 3 and 4. He's sustained by the fact that the world is better for having had Emilie in it.


"I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.


___


Noah Pozner, 6, student


The way Noah Pozner's parents saw it, no schools in New York could compare with those in Newtown, a relative told Newsday. So they moved their family — Noah, his twin sister and his 8-year-old sister.


"At this stage, two out of three survived. ... That's sad," said Noah's uncle Arthur Pozner, of New York City's Brooklyn borough. "The reason they moved to that area is because they did not consider any school in New York state on the same level. That's one of the reasons they moved, for safety and education."


Noah's siblings were also students there but were not hurt. Noah's uncle recalled him as "extremely mature."


"When I was his age, I was not like him," Pozner told the newspaper. "Very well brought up. Extremely bright. Extremely bright."


___


Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau, 30, teacher


Lauren Rousseau had spent years working as a substitute teacher and doing other jobs. So she was thrilled when she finally realized her goal this fall to become a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook.


Her mother, Teresa Rousseau, a copy editor at the Danbury News-Times, released a statement Saturday that said state police told them just after midnight that she was among the victims.


"Lauren wanted to be a teacher from before she even went to kindergarten," she said. "We will miss her terribly and will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream."


Her mother said she was thrilled to get the job.


"It was the best year of her life," she told the newspaper.


Rousseau has been called gentle, spirited and active. She had planned to see "The Hobbit" with her boyfriend Friday and had baked cupcakes for a party they were to attend afterward. She was born in Danbury, and attended Danbury High, college at the University of Connecticut and graduate school at the University of Bridgeport.


She was a lover of music, dance and theater.


"I'm used to having people die who are older," her mother said, "not the person whose room is up over the kitchen."


___


Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist


When the shots rang out, Mary Sherlach threw herself into the danger.


Janet Robinson, the superintendent of Newtown Public Schools, said Sherlach and the school's principal ran toward the shooter. They lost their own lives, rushing toward him.


Even as Sherlach neared retirement, her job at Sandy Hook was one she loved. Those who knew her called her a wonderful neighbor, a beautiful person, a dedicated educator.


Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, told the South Jersey Times that Sherlach rooted on the Miami Dolphins, enjoyed visiting the Finger Lakes, relished helping children overcome their problems. She had planned to leave work early on Friday, he said, but never had the chance. In a news conference Saturday, he told reporters the loss was devastating, but that Sherlach was doing what she loved.


"Mary felt like she was doing God's work," he said, "working with the children."


___


Victoria Soto, 27, teacher


She beams in snapshots. Her enthusiasm and cheer was evident. She was doing, those who knew her say, what she loved.


And now, Victoria Soto is being called a hero.


Though details of the 27-year-old teacher's death remained fuzzy, her name has been invoked again and again as a portrait of selflessness and humanity among unfathomable evil. Those who knew her said they weren't surprised by reports she shielded her first-graders from danger.


"She put those children first. That's all she ever talked about," said a friend, Andrea Crowell. "She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day."


Photos of Soto show her always with a wide smile, in pictures of her at her college graduation and in mundane daily life. She looks so young, barely an adult herself. Her goal was simply to be a teacher.


"You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," said Mayor John Harkins of Stratford, the town Soto hailed from and where more than 300 people gathered for a memorial service Saturday night. "That speaks volumes to her character, and her commitment and dedication."


___


Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie, Mark Scolforo, Allen Breed and Danica Coto contributed to this report.


Read More..

Child deaths and bitter cold in Syrian refugee camps






ZAATARI, Jordan (Reuters) – One-year-old Ali Ghazawi, born with a heart defect, faced a battle for survival even before his family fled Syria‘s civil war. It was a struggle he lost two weeks ago in the bitter winter cold of a tented refugee camp in north Jordan.


Ali died two days after undergoing a heart operation in Zaatari camp, which houses at least 32,000 refugees who escaped fierce bombardment in Syria’s rebellious southern province of Deraa, cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.






“I covered my son with two blankets, but he was not warming up, and he turned blue before he passed away in my hands,” said his sobbing 22-year-old mother, alone with a three-year-old daughter after she left her husband in Deraa and crossed the border in November.


Ali was the fourth baby to die in three weeks in the windswept camp. United Nations aid workers say none of the deaths were the direct result of conditions in Zaatari, yet they highlight the challenge facing relief agencies scrambling to provide basic shelter for half a million refugees in the region.


“These deaths are a result of cumulative factors, some related to shortage in needs and natural causes. But on top of that, the reality that conditions are harsh cannot be ignored,” said Saba Mobaslat, program director at Save the Children.


Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey each host more than 130,000 registered refugees, and relief workers predict the numbers will only increase as violence escalates around the capital Damascus.


Mirroring Syria’s youthful population, almost 65 percent of Jordan’s camp residents are newborns and young children.


“Every night we are getting children as young as four days old, six days old, one week, two weeks old, and it’s a real struggle to try to make sure that everyone survives,” said Andrew Harper, Jordan head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).


“Women are giving birth on the border, and people are coming across pregnant. It’s a situation where we just need to redouble efforts, particularly as we move into winter, because you have hundreds of pregnant women who cross the border,” Harper said.


Families often send the most vulnerable to safety, he added, so alongside the very young in Zaatari are many older refugees. “Last night we had a couple who were 97 years old,” he said.


“CHILDREN’S CAMP”


Along the main road in the middle of the camp’s muddy and gravel streets, children of all ages race around the makeshift market place that sprang up after the camp opened in July.


Many families join in, out of enterprise or necessity, selling everything from hot falafel to household goods, old clothing and fresh vegetables.


“It’s a children’s camp. You walk into it and there are children everywhere. It’s in your face. The male adults are staying behind, and a woman comes with 10 children without her bread earner,” Mobaslat added.


In one of several UNICEF-run playgrounds, among seesaws, swings and volunteers giving music lessons, the scars of war are fresh in the minds of most children.


“I long for my home, and I hope Bashar falls to get back to my home. It’s much better than here, where we are humiliated,” said Mohammad Ghazawi, 12, who came to play after a break from selling cheap cigarettes.


Their elders complain that two thin blankets per refugee distributed in recent weeks were not enough to warm them in tents that let in rain water despite zinc reinforcements and waterproof layers that have helped insulate them.


“Kids are dying from cold and lack of blankets. My kids shiver at night, and one has constant diarrhea,” said Mohammad Samara, 46, who fled heavy shelling in the southern Syrian town of Busr al-Sham in October with his wife and four children.


Carsten Hansen, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which has set up a heated tent that receives families on arrival, says much progress has been made to help distribute aid.


“Everybody is trying to mobilize resources … in order to react to bigger numbers and a huge influx,” Hansen said, adding that 6,000 gas heaters had been airlifted to Jordan to help heat the tent camp.


FROM CRISIS TO DISASTER?


Harper said UNHCR was working to prevent “this humanitarian crisis becoming a major disaster”. But he said that while aid teams were racing to improve conditions at Zaatari, there were 100,000 other registered refugees living outside the camp and probably another 100,000 unregistered, whose living conditions were not improving.


In Lebanon, too, host to 154,000 refugees, many face a bleak winter, and aid workers expect their numbers to more than double by the middle of next year.


In the Bekaa Valley town of Bar Elias, a woman from the northern Syria province of Idlib says her home for the last year has been a wooden shack with only plastic sheeting to protect from the rain. Plastic bags are stuffed into the roof as extra insurance against leaks. “There is no water, no electricity, no school for my kids,” she said in a croaky voice.


“My husband is sick. The situation is very bad.”


Mads Almaas, NRC country director in Lebanon, said many more may flee Syria over the winter to escape worsening conditions there, putting even greater strain on relief efforts.


“The violence will not only continue but also get worse. And even in the increasingly likely event of the fall of Assad, we don’t think the violence will end,” he said.


Almaas said the United Nations would launch a regional response plan on Wednesday anticipating a total of 300,000 registered refugees in Lebanon by mid-2013. “At first we thought it was too high. Now we are concerned it is too low,” he said.


In Turkey, which hosts 136,000 refugees, camps for the most part have facilities such as portable electric heaters, and refugees receive three hot meals a day from the Red Crescent. But temperatures can plunge below freezing in the rugged terrain along the 900 kilometer (560 mile) border with Syria during the winter months, and rain can be torrential and cause flooding.


Overcrowding remains a concern, with extended families cramped in single tents and ever more refugees arriving as fighting across the border drags on.


Across the region, aid workers fear an explosion in violence could leave them seriously overstretched.


“Right now funds are sufficient. What is a challenge is if we get any shocks, something like 5,000-10,000 refugees arriving (in Lebanon) in a matter of hours,” Almaas said.


If fighting swept through the center of Damascus, thousands of Syrians could flee to the Lebanese border in a matter of hours. “For that, we are not prepared as the NRC. I also question the international community’s capacity.”


(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Nick Tattersall in Ankara; Editing by Dominic Evans and Will Waterman)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Top Canada court upholds anti-terrorism law in unanimous ruling






OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada‘s Supreme Court on Friday upheld an anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, ruling unanimously that those who choose to engage in terrorism must “pay a very heavy price.”


The law’s constitutionality was challenged by Mohammad Momin Khawaja, convicted in Canada of terrorism for involvement with a British group that had plotted unsuccessfully to set off bombs in London.






It was also challenged by two men accused of terrorism by the United States for trying to buy missiles or weapons technology for the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers.


The court rejected arguments that the law’s definition of terrorism was overly broad. It upheld Khawaja’s life sentence and confirmed the orders to extradite the other two to the United States.


Khawaja, a Canadian of Pakistani descent, was the first to be convicted under the law. He was sentenced in 2008 to 10-1/2 years in prison, and his sentence was then extended to life after appeal by the government.


The trial judge noted that Khawaja referred to Osama Bin Laden as “the most beloved person to me in the … whole world, after Allah.” He was found to have participated in a terrorism training camp in Pakistan and to have designed a device dubbed the “hi fi digimonster” for detonating bombs.


“The appellant was a willing participant in a terrorist group,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the 7-0 decision, adding that he was “apparently remorseless.”


“He was committed to bringing death on all those opposed to his extremist ideology and took many steps to provide support to the group. The bomb detonators he attempted to build would have killed many civilians had his plans succeeded.”


The law applies to any act committed for a political, religious or ideological purpose with the intention of intimidating the public by causing death or serious bodily harm, or substantial property damage, or causing serious interference with an essential service.


The court also ruled that Canada can proceed to extradite two men the United States has accused of involvement with the Tamil Tigers, which waged a bloody war for independence in Sri Lanka and is considered a terrorist organization by Washington and Ottawa.


The Canadian government declined to comment on when they would be extradited.


Piratheepan Nadarajah was alleged to have tried to purchase surface-to-air missiles and AK-47 assault rifles for the Tamil Tigers from an undercover officer posing as a black-market arms dealer on Long Island, New York.


The other man, Suresh Sriskandarajah, was alleged to have helped Tamil Tigers get electronic equipment, submarine and warship design software and communications equipment.


They surrendered to the government ahead of the court decision, their lawyers said.


BEYOND ‘LEGITIMATE EXPRESSION’


The court disagreed that the federal law’s terrorism provisions had put a chilling effect on Canadians’ freedom of expression and was disproportionately broad.


“Only individuals who go well beyond the legitimate expression of a political, religious or ideological thought, belief or opinion, and instead engage in one of the serious forms of violence – or threaten one of the serious forms of violence – listed (in the law) need fear liability under the terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code,” McLachlin wrote.


She quoted with approval the appeals court decision in the Khawaja case that faulted the Ottawa trial judge’s sentence for failing to send a “clear and unmistakable message that terrorism is reprehensible and those who choose to engage in it will pay a very heavy price.”


The original sentence of 10-1/2 years does “not approach an adequate sentence for such acts,” she concluded.


Khawaja’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said it was a “terrible day” for his client and said too often people were investigated or prosecuted for their religious or political beliefs.


“It’s a … very unfortunate ruling for minorities in this country, and we’re extremely disappointed with the result,” he told reporters in the foyer of the Supreme Court.


Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the decision was important as Canada was not immune to the threat of terrorism. “The court sent a strong message that terrorism will not be treated leniently in Canada,” he said.


The cases are Mohammad Momin Khawaja v. Her Majesty the Queen. (Ont) (34103); Suresh Sriskandarajah v. United States of America, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (34009), Piratheepan Nadarajah v. United States of America, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (34013).


(Additional reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Jackie Frank and Xavier Briand)


Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..