Believe it or not, the European Union's public data hasn't been very public: despite a 2003 directive, there wasn't a clear right to reuse weather or other vital data, whether it's for an app or a service. Logic is taking hold now that 27 countries on an EU Council committee have endorsed a European Commission revision opening the floodgates. The new rules would require that EU countries explicitly permit citizens and companies to reuse public information, either for free or no more than the basic cost of sending it out. The revamp would also push availability in open formats, along with expanding the directive's coverage to archives, libraries and museums -- you know, repositories of nothing but public knowledge. Both the European Parliament and individual governments will have to sign the changes into law sometime in the (likely not-so-near) future, but the shift could lead to a sudden wealth of data for Euro-centric hardware and software.
most of them were captive bred, I do not support selling? of wild caught animals at all. As long as a responsible owner buys the animals I?m happy, because there are worse homes for them and irresponsible owners and uneducated kids who buy them cheap and let them die. Once they?re at a show its too late to let them free or any nonsense like that. By the way it?s ?bred? not ?breeded?. Stop making up words, and im sure the animals are happy to not go home with you.
Most people living in America are seeking some improvement in various areas of their life. There are different areas in each person?s life where they want to makes these changes. If you are looking to apply some self improvement to your life, look no further than the wonderful advice that is contained in this article.
It is important that you feel comfortable using the abilities that you have. Everyone is skilled in different areas, which makes the world such a diverse and fascinating place to live. You should concentrate on talents you currently have rather than worry about those you do not possess at this point.
When you are working on your personal development, you should realize you deserve to be the best you can be. You need to be aware that you owe that to yourself. When all is said and done, you will realize that you have done everything that you can possibly do, and that you will not regret the decisions that you have made.
If you desire to be successful in life, you will need a respectable coach who knows what he or she is doing. Most people who are winners have a great mentor and coach behind them. All of us are students and teachers in one way or another. This is the way knowledge is passed down, and human progress happens. A great coach, mentor or teacher plays a huge role in most success stories.
TIP! Get to know the types of habits successful people use, and have those habits become a part of your life. Transform your lifestyle one small step at a time by selecting just a couple of things to work on at once.
Choose one element of your life to focus on improving. You may want to improve multiple aspects of yourself, but keeping a narrow focus makes it easier to define and achieve your goals. Adopting new habits one at a time will make it easier to maintain them.
Succeed at everything you set your mind to. Follow your passions to decide what to excel at. We cannot be the best at everything we try, however, we can bring inspiration to others by giving everything the best effort. Enhance your standing in your niche, and your self-esteem will climb too.
Your physical well-being and mental health are connected. Partake in regular exercise and stick to a nutritious diet. Remember that a healthy body can lead to a healthy mind.
A great self help tip to deal with anxiety is to accompany a friend to the movies. This gives you the opportunity to engage in a social activity that does not have a lot of risk. This also allows you to be around a large group of people in a stress-free environment.
TIP! Stress is the foe of happiness. When we have to deal with stress, it takes its toll on the body in a physical and mental sense.
Make friends who are positive-minded and bring joy to your life. This will help to boost your self-esteem as well as give you a bit of a break from the kind of people that spend their time badmouthing your dreams and goals every chance that they get.
Eliminate unnecessary stress from your daily life. You only create more stress than before when you over-react to negative events, and that is pointless. Expect occasional setbacks as you work to achieve your goals. Keeping this in mind will make it easier to handle any challenges that come your way.
A great suggestion to enhance your personal development is to make certain that value is placed on those things you think of as being the best. Therefore, you have to know what you value, and make it a priority for you.
Not only is getting organized an achievement in itself, but it will help you to meet other goals faster. You can stay on track if you tackle small things first. Keep track of your progress via a planner or use a journal just for your goals in personal development.
TIP! If you?re never able to meet the goals you set, consider whether those goals aren?t right for you and your situation. Compare your goals with the goals of others that you can research online.
Create goals that you can accomplish and live the life you love. Identify your weaknesses and strive to overcome them so you can become a stronger, better person.
Always look for opportunities to compliment another person. If you treat other people with kindness, you will be more likely to treat yourself with kindness too.
For the many people who are interested in improving various aspects of their lives, it?s often difficult to know what steps to take fist. This article can help you figure out where to start, but you must be determined. If you notice that you are starting to lack motivation, read over this article again to lift you back up.
Stop worrying. When you worry, you create a made-up situation inside of your mind that hasn?t yet happened, and in all likelihood, probably never will. Try not to worry about everything. Also, think about the worst that could happen, then start taking steps to overcome the worst case. Then, you are prepared to handle whatever gets thrown your way. Excessive worrying solves nothing.
TIP! Eradicate disorganization from your life entirely. You will feel accomplished and your mind will feel clearer.
Read the following article, you might find it very interesting! 5 Tips For Dealing With Unrequited Love
Bowdoin College, an elite university located in Maine, has recently found itself the nexus of a massive influx of controversy.
?And it?s all because its president talked down the wrong person.
Bowdoin College (Photo Credit: AP)
Bowdoin President Barry Mills reportedly engaged in a golf game during the summer of last year with philanthropist and investor Thomas Klingenstein who, while not being a graduate of Bowdoin, was himself interested in the college?s approach to education. The result was an apparently awkward conversation during which Klingenstein complained of Bowdoin?s excessive celebration of ?racial and ethnic difference,? in his words, rather than of ?common American identity.?
It is unclear precisely how sharp the conversation got, but it evidently distressed Mills enough that he decided to mention Klingenstein (albeit not by name) in his subsequent commencement address as a particularly unpleasant golfing partner who?d interrupted his backswing to spout racist platitudes.
Bowdoin College President Barry Mills (Photo Credit: Centre College)
Needless to say, Klingenstein found this response galling. What he decided to do about it, however, is almost certainly unprecedented: Klingenstein decided to commission researchers to do an academic report on Bowdoin?s culture, both academically and outside the classroom, to see just what the college was teaching its students. The result was a 355 page report by the conservative National Association of Scholars that systematically broke down Bowdoin?s entire culture and worldview with extreme frankness. TheBlaze took a look at this report, and spoke to one of its authors, and you may be alarmed at the results.
What did that report find? That Bowdoin College, and indeed most of its peers in the elite liberal arts college community, is in fact:
A) Obsessed with identity politics to the point of using them as an excuse to teach irrelevant and/or trivial courses, and to admit underqualified and undereducated students
B) At once entirely unconcerned with fostering healthy sexual behavior in students and consumed with making sure they follow inconsistent and ideologically motivated norms; and
C) Disingenuous in their purported support for critical thinking, which only extends as far as thinking critically about topics which the college finds institutionally inconvenient
The report, which runs 355 pages, is split into two sections ? first, there is the preface, which assesses the facts regarding Bowdoin and makes specific value judgments regarding those facts. Second, there is the report itself, which only explains the college?s behavior without passing judgment on it. The evidence for each of the above conclusions is too ample to rehearse in full, but a few highlights can be offered as examples to illustrate just what Bowdoin teaches.
A) Identity Politics
National Review?s Eliana Johnson, another reader of the report, summarized a few of its highlights on this point in an article last week:
The report documents an increasingly fractured academy that has no common curriculum and in which so-called identity studies take priority over a study of the West. It highlights, for example, the 36 freshmen seminars offered at Bowdoin in the fall of 2012. They are designed to teach writing and critical-thinking skills and to introduce students to the various academic departments. Some of the subjects are unsurprising: The Korean War, Great Issues in Science, Political Leadership. Others seem less conducive to critical thinking and fruitful classroom discussion: Queer Gardens, Beyond Pocahontas: Native American Stereotypes; Sexual Life of Colonialism; Modern Western Prostitutes.
Queer Gardens, an exploration of the work of gay and lesbian gardeners and of ?the link between gardens and transgression,? simply ?does not teach critical thinking as well as Plato?s?Republic,? the report notes; nor does any subject that has ?no canon of works that embody exemplary achievement in the difficult dialogic task of critical thinking.?
To many observers, such information might itself seem demonstrative. Yet the evidence goes beyond even these scattered examples. For example, in the section of the report that deals with distributional requirements, the authors observe (emphasis added):
When Bowdoin adopted the 2004 version of its distribution requirements, it took care to also provide a fuller rationalization for them than had been the case in previous iterations. In the new redaction the requirements were linked to a programmatic commitment to the ideal of ?diversity,? which was in turn given a prominent place in the college?s new statement, ?A Liberal Education at Bowdoin College.? Diversity serves an interesting function in the search for an underlying principle to give ?coherence? to both the requirements and cohesion to the larger curriculum. It gives a warrant for politicization while at the same time frees faculty members, departments, and students to go their own ways. In effect, the elevation of diversity to the level of governing principle institutionalizes the incoherence that it ostensibly corrects. As far as divergent departmental interests go, it is an agree-to-disagree arrangement that demands very little of anyone other than deference to one of the shibboleths of the Left.
Double standards also abound. For instance, while students who choose to major in history are given the option to major in US history or European history, all history majors are?required to take at least four courses that teach about history unrelated to either the US or Europe. In other words, history majors can leave Bowdoin with absolutely no instruction in the history of their own country, but cannot leave with no instruction in the history of non-Western cultures. The ideological bias is fairly obvious.
Nor does this concern with presumptively underrepresented subject material or peoples stop in the classroom. The report?s section on Academic Preparedness recounts several faculty members agonizing over how affirmative action admits are academically ill-prepared for the university?s rigor, in spite of their professed commitment to ?diversity.? In fact, the college apparently provides surreptitious extra help to these students to prop them up through their tenure at Bowdoin, in spite of their publicly professed belief that diversity and academic standards are not at odds. The report notes:
In the Minutes of the Faculty, the ?underpreparedness? of students is most emphatically linked with the college?s pursuit of racial diversity. This probably reflects a genuine gap in the level of academic performance of black students and members of other racially-defined segments of the student population. That is not something, however, that we can document, and even if true it might disguise a larger problem. ?Majority? students may generally perform better than black students, but majority students may also be ?underprepared? in significant ways. Indeed, that?s what the data nationwide attests, and there is small reason to think that Bowdoin is an exception.
This part is important to note, if only because it gives needed context to one of the report?s recommendations ? namely, that more
Protestors at Bowdoin place a sign in the hand of a statue of Civil War soldier Joshua Chamberlain (Photo Credit: Space4Peace)
introductory and/or survey courses in American history and other core topics be offered. While Bowdoin only admits 1 in 6 of the students who apply, and thus should presumptively count on those students having a superior grasp of such topics already, its extensive diversity programs make such a hope illusory. Reached by phone, Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, and one of the authors of the report, was devastatingly frank on this point.
?Courses that were truly taught at the introductory level might be below some of the students? ability,? Wood told TheBlaze, ?but then again, Bowdoin has a policy of admitting quite a few students either for athletic reasons or for diversity who don?t come anywhere near the academic attainment of the usual students. Those students may not need remedial courses, but they do need something. And Bowdoin has nothing to offer them.?
And if students want to avoid learning these basic concepts, but instead just imbibe politicized opinions without ice or water? The school?s so-called ?studies? departments are happy to provide that as well. For just a sample:
Africana Studies today offers courses such as ?Affirmative Action and United States Society,? ?Black Women, Politics, Music, and the Divine,? ?Transnational Africa and Globalization,? ?History of African and African Diasporic Political Thought,? ?The African ?American Experience in Europe,? ?Protest Music,? ?Global History of the Ghetto,? ?A History of the Global AIDS Epidemic,? ?Martin, Malcolm and America,? ?Spirit Come Down: Black Women and Religion,? and ?Race and Sexuality in Modern America.? This seems a scattered miscellany of topics, perhaps representing the scattered miscellany of the academic specializations of the faculty. It doesn?t, in any case, add up to a coherent curriculum. It is something of a model of the entropy?pedagogical, intellectual, and curricular?that is characteristic of the college. It does convey the ?intersectionality? of the various identity-based programs. Africana Studies is plainly allied with Gender and Women?s Studies and with Gay and Lesbian Studies.
B) Inconsistent attitudes toward sex
One of the elements of the report that may draw some derision both from liberals and from more libertarian readers is the implicit urging by the authors that universities like Bowdoin act?in loco parentis to their students, IE in the place of parents. The meaning of this suggestion is, quite plainly, that the university should attempt to inculcate moral norms in their students, especially with regard to sex.
In contrast, the authors argue that Bowdoin not only does not build character where sex is concerned, but actively encourages libertinism and dysfunctional attitudes among students by handing out condoms like candy and offering free coverage for venereal disease. It?s a moralistic position that some readers may find to be at odds with the report?s twin insistence that universities should promote openness of all kinds, even to conservative ideas, but Wood insists there?s no tension between the two.
?We are, and we say we are, operating from the premises of a classical liberal education, which is meant to shape mind and character, and both issues are in play at Bowdoin,? Wood told TheBlaze. ?They have an idea of what the student?s mind should be like. They have an idea of what the student?s character should be like. Are they teaching different ethics? For sure they are. Is teaching ethics a bad thing? Not at all. But once you say you?re teaching ethics, it seems to me to be fair play to question what ethics you are teaching. And in this case, much of what they are teaching is open to a meaningful critique as destructive of the lives that are employing those values. I don?t see anything from Bowdoin that defends promiscuity as a good, but they promote it anyway.?
?Are we being judgmental about that?? Wood continued. ?To a certain degree, we are, and there?s plenty of evidence in the psychological literature and the sociological literature that the lifestyle being promoted has negative long-term consequences on people hooking up, with multiple sexual partners, etc, have less stable marriages, have much higher divorce rates. The psychological consequences of this behavior pattern appear to set in and have long-term damage. Those are things that Bowdoin could at least consider or talk about to students in the same context of telling them they have sexual freedom.?
Yet even this license-focused approach has its limits, as for all its claims not to be morally invested in sex, Bowdoin is very much interested in promoting specifically ideological ideas about one particular facet of sex ? namely, consent. Indeed, an entire play is put on at the beginning of the school year for freshmen intended to drill the importance of this concept into their heads. And while the concept of consent to sex is itself completely noncontroversial, Wood says the way Bowdoin understands it is inconsistent and difficult to parse.
?Bowdoin has not only an explicit set of rules about consent, but the rules being somewhat difficult to envisage, they also follow their rules with a bunch of hypothetical scenarios in which you can test yourself as to whether you?ve adequately internalized the rules,? Wood explained. ?We do have a section in the report about that. It?s not intuitive to me. For example, one of the scenarios involves two young men. One of them invites the other to his dorm room to watch videos, and while watching videos, tries to take the hand of the other boy, and he refuses, and tries a second time, and is refused a second time, and at that point, the guest leaves. Is that a case of sexual harassment? Their answer is ?Yes, it is.? On the other hand, a male having sex with an intoxicated female who indicates willingness is perfectly okay under Bowdoin?s rules, so we?re in the realm here where the definitions are slippery, but since they?re promoting such an act of an adventurous approach to sexuality, there?s bound to be misunderstandings.?
Moreover, according to Wood, when Bowdoin does try to instruct its students about sex, it uses ideologically motivated, junk information.
?One of the things we looked at was the feminists on campus are quite worried about the low rate of reported cases of sexual assault and rape,? Wood explained, ?and they have gone back repeatedly to both broaden the definitions and to find other ways to try to increase the rate of reporting, under the supposition that the assaults and rapes must be happening, but aren?t being pursued through the legal channels. They?ve been frustrated in this quest that even after lowering the definitions and putting many forms of encouragement in place, the rate of harassment claims is very low?They?re also fond of citing and continue to cite, despite its being an utterly discredited statistic, that something like one in four undergraduates in college will be raped. It?s made out of whole cloth. There?s nothing to substantiate that level of rape anywhere in America, let alone on college campuses.?
In other words, Bowdoin doesn?t teach its students to follow any set of sexual norms at all?unless those norms happen to be the ones advanced by the same identity groups who dominate the rest of the conversation on-campus.
C) Lack of critical thinking
Bowdoin professes to support ?critical thinking? in classroom discussions, and to encourage ideological diversity in order to speed this process. In fact, given that President Mills? speeches apparently make reference to a relativistic conception of ?the common good? with fair frequency, some might even argue the school?s commitment to ?critical thinking? and independent-decision making could err too far in one direction. Fortunately, in practice, this philosophical problem is avoided. Unfortunately, it is avoided in a way that the report?s authors suggest hamstrings critical thought far more than it ought:
Official Bowdoin projects two broad purposes: it aims to teach students to think critically and it aims to help them to develop into good citizens. Our claim that critical thinking is a Bowdoin goal is not likely to be contested by either the Bowdoin community or outside observers. Bowdoin is explicit and emphatic in its promotion of this goal. The first requirement for critical thinking is a genuinely open mind. ?Openness? and ?critical thinking? aren?t quite the same thing, of course. The first is really a precondition of the second. But for the moment we will treat them as near synonyms and bring in other requirements of critical thinking only as needed.[...]
The two Bowdoin goals?global citizenship and openness?actually push against each other. Openness requires skepticism and a sincere willingness to look for hidden assumptions, but Bowdoin?s understanding of global citizenship requires that some very large questions be settled in advance. A commitment to global citizenship requires a commitment to diversity (in its current understanding, the notion that each of us is defined in the most meaningful ways by the group to which we belong) and to the racial preferences that follow from diversity; to multiculturalism (all cultures are equal); to the idea that gender and social norms are all simply social constructs (an assumption that justifies virtually unlimited government intervention necessary to achieve the global citizen?s understanding of sexual justice); and to ?sustainability? (which assumes that free market economic systems, and the materialistic, bourgeois values that drive them, are destroying the planet). These are notions that are not meaningfully ?open to ?debate? at Bowdoin; indeed, a commitment to global citizenship requires that they not be open to debate. Students are encouraged to ?think critically? about anything that threatens the college?s dogmas on diversity, multiculturalism, gender, and sustainability, etc., but, for the most part, not to think critically about those dogmas themselves.
This problem is so pervasive, the report alleges, that not only is there an absence of openness to conservative ideas, but the campus actively stereotypes them as ?boorish,? and many classes treat liberal dogma as settled truth in their own syllabi. For instance, the ?women?s studies? department describes itself as follows:
Courses in Gender and Women?s Studies investigate the experience of women and men in light of the social construction of gender and its meaning across cultures and historic periods. Gender construction is explored as an institutionalized means of structuring inequality and dominance.
Whatever one thinks of these ideas, they are hardly settled truth. The idea that gender is socially constructed, let alone that such a hypothetical construct would function to preserve dominance, is debatable even within academic culture. Yet the college simply defers to the department in allowing this apparent politicized reading of controversial concepts to continue.
Conclusion
These three problems barely scratch the surface of the full report, which also points out problems with Bowdoin?s uncritical attitude toward environmentalism, its ambivalence about the free market, the persistently opinionated stances of its President despite his apparent role as a neutral arbiter, or the uniformly Democratic voting habits of its professoriate. The report?s impact on Bowdoin as yet is unknown, but as criticisms go, it is quite possibly the most harsh analysis of a college?s culture since William F. Buckley?s book ?God and Man at Yale? in the early 20th century.
Editor?s note ? We?ll be discussing this story and all the day?s news during our live BlazeCast from 12pm-1pm ET?including your questions, comments & live chat:
Related: What?s happening to First Amendment freedoms on campus?
President Barack Obama hugs Newtown, Conn., family members after speaking at the University of Hartford in Hartford, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama said that lawmakers have an obligation to the children killed and other victims of gun violence to act on his proposals. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama hugs Newtown, Conn., family members after speaking at the University of Hartford in Hartford, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama said that lawmakers have an obligation to the children killed and other victims of gun violence to act on his proposals. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Obama holds his hand to his ear during a visit to the University of Hartford, in Hartford, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama visited the school to highlight gun control legislation and to meet with the families of victims from the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Mark and Jackie Barden, parents of 7 year-old Daniel, left, walk with Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of 6 year-old Ana, center, and an unidentified woman from Air Force One to waiting White House vans after landing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2013 with President Barack Obama and other families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
President Barack Obama stands in the door of Air Force One, top right, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2013 with families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? As Senate Democrats approach a key decision on gun legislation, relatives of victims of the Connecticut school shootings mounted a face-to-face lobbying effort Tuesday in hopes of turning around enough lawmakers to gain a Senate floor vote on meaningful gun restrictions.
The families were meeting privately with senators Tuesday. They had breakfast with Vice President Joe Biden at his residence in the Naval Observatory, according to an administration official not authorized to speak publicly about the private meeting.
President Barack Obama's gun control proposals have hit opposition from the National Rifle Association and are struggling in Congress, nearly four months after the issue was catapulted into the national arena by December's slaying of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn.
Conservatives say they will use procedural tactics to try preventing the Senate from even considering firearms restrictions, headlined by background checks for more gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Democrats criticized Republicans anew for trying to prevent a gun debate, a move that will take a hard-to-achieve 60 votes to overcome. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stood on the Senate floor before a poster-sized photo of a white picket fence with 26 slats, each bearing the name of one of the Newtown victims.
"We have a responsibility to safeguard these little kids," said Reid, D-Nev. "And unless we do something more than what's the law today, we have failed."
On Monday, Obama pressed the issue at the University of Hartford, just 50 miles from Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the killings occurred.
"If you want the people you send to Washington to have just an iota of the courage that the educators at Sandy Hook showed when danger arrived on their doorstep, then we're all going to have to stand up," the president said.
The administration was continuing its efforts to pressure Republicans, with Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder making remarks Tuesday at the White House, joined by law enforcement officials.
Senate Democrats are approaching decision time on whether they should try to get Republican support for expanding background checks for firearms sales or will follow the shakier path of pursuing the cornerstone of Obama's gun control effort on their own.
Democrats were holding a lunchtime meeting Tuesday to assess whether Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., had reached an acceptable compromise ? or had a realistic chance of getting one ? with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Party leaders were giving Manchin until later Tuesday to complete the talks, and a decision by Democrats seemed likely in the next couple of days.
An agreement between the two senators, both among the more conservative members of their parties, would boost efforts to expand background checks because it could attract bipartisan support. Abandoning those negotiations would put Democrats in a difficult position, making it hard for them to push a measure through the Senate and severely damaging Obama's gun control drive.
In a preview of the Senate's debate, 13 conservative Republicans delivered a letter Monday to Reid. They promised to try blocking lawmakers from beginning to consider the measure, a procedural move that takes 60 votes to curtail, a difficult hurdle in the 100-member chamber.
The conservatives, who included Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the Democratic effort would violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms, citing "history's lesson that government cannot be in all places at all times, and history's warning about the oppression of a government that tries."
"Shame on them," Reid responded as he brought Democratic gun legislation to the Senate floor, though debate did not formally begin.
Georgia's Sen. Johnny Isakson, a conservative Republican, said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning" that "the issue on background checks is how far they go and whether they violate rights of privacy." But he also said he believes the issue "deserves a vote up or down" in the Senate.
Reid could try beginning Senate debate on legislation that has already been approved by the Judiciary Committee. It would extend the background check requirement to nearly all gun purchases, strengthen laws against illegal firearms purchases and modestly boost aid for school safety.
If Reid does that, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will join conservatives' efforts to prevent the measure from being debated, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said.
In hopes of enhancing the prospects for Senate approval, Reid has been hoping a bipartisan deal could be struck. There are 53 Senate Democrats and two independents who lean toward them, meaning GOP support ultimately will be needed to reach 60 votes to move ahead.
Manchin has been hoping for a deal with Toomey that would expand the requirement to sales at gun shows and online while exempting other transactions, such as those between relatives and those involving private, face-to-face purchases.
Currently, federal background checks are required for sales by licensed gun dealers but not for other transactions. The system is aimed at preventing criminals, people with severe mental health problems and others from getting firearms.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., has also continued working for a bipartisan deal. Kirk, though, is considered too moderate to bring other GOP senators with him.
___
Eds: Associated Press reporter Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand was close to four-week highs against the dollar on Monday, as the currency continued to benefit from the accommodative policies of major central banks.
The rand was at 9.0880 to the dollar at 0612 GMT, slightly firmer than its close in New York on Friday.
The Bank of Japan's announcement last week that it would inject around $1.4 trillion into its economy to combat deflation boosted riskier assets, including the rand.
Weaker-than-expected U.S. non-farm payrolls data on Friday also suggest the Federal Reserve is unlikely to end its bond-buying programme soon.
"For the time being, the probability is high and growing that high yielding EM currencies will experience some sustained portfolio inflows, South Africa included," Tradition Analytics wrote in a note.
"The probability is high that the zero interest rate policies being implemented abroad will be forced on to EM type economies with those central banks likely to respond to the negative growth outlooks by reducing their own interest rates."
Government bond yields were lower, falling 2.5 basis points on the 2026 issue to 7.125 percent and 1 basis point on the 2015 paper to 5.34 percent.
Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research has shown that the way our minds react to and process emotions such as fear can vary according to what is happening in other parts of our bodies.
In two different presentations on April 8 at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London, researchers have shown for the first time that the heart's cycle affects the way we process fear, and that a part of the brain that responds to stimuli, such as touch, felt by other parts of the body also plays a role.
Dr Sarah Garfinkel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Brighton, UK), told a news briefing: "Cognitive neuroscience strives to understand how biological processes interact to create and influence the conscious mind. While neural activity in the brain is typically the focus of research, there is a growing appreciation that other bodily organs interact with brain function to shape and influence our perceptions, cognitions and emotions.
"We demonstrate for the first time that the way in which we process fear is different dependent on when we see fearful images in relation to our heart."
Dr Garfinkel and her colleagues hooked up 20 healthy volunteers to heart monitors, which were linked to computers. Images of fearful faces were shown on the computers and the electrocardiography (ECG) monitors were able to communicate with the computers in order to time the presentation of the faces with specific points in the heart's cycle.
"Our results show that if we see a fearful face during systole (when the heart is pumping) then we judge this fearful face as more intense than if we see the very same fearful face during diastole (when the heart is relaxed). To look at neural activity underlying this effect, we performed this experiment in an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scanner and demonstrated that a part of the brain called the amygdala influences how our heart changes our perception of fear.
"From previous research, we know that if we present images very fast then we have trouble detecting them, but if an image is particularly emotional then it can 'pop' out and be seen. In a second experiment, we exploited our cardiac effect on emotion to show that our conscious experience is affected by our heart. We demonstrated that fearful faces are better detected at systole (when they are perceived as more fearful), relative to diastole. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see -- and can guide whether we see fear.
"Lastly, we have demonstrated that the degree to which our hearts can change the way we see and process fear is influenced by how anxious we are. The anxiety level of our individual subjects altered the extent their hearts could change the way they perceived emotional faces and also altered neural circuitry underlying heart modulation of emotion."
Dr Garfinkel says that her findings might have the potential to help people who suffer from anxiety or other conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"We have identified an important mechanism by which the heart and brain 'speak' to each other to change our emotions and reduce fear. We hope to explore the therapeutic implications in people with high anxiety. Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and are very prevalent in the UK and elsewhere. We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is processed and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for these people, and also for those, such as war veterans, who may be suffering from PTSD.
"In addition, there is a growing appreciation about how different forms of meditation can have therapeutic consequences. Work that integrates body, brain and mind to understand changes in emotion can help us understand how meditation and mindfulness practices can have calming effects."
In a second presentation, Dr Alejandra Sel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at City University (London, UK), investigated a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex -- the area that perceives bodily sensations, such as touch, pain, body temperature and the perception of the body's place in space, and which is activated when we observe emotional expressions in the faces of other people.
"In order to understand other's people emotions we need to experience the same observed emotions in our body. Specifically, observing an emotional face, as opposed to a neutral face, is associated with an increased activity in the somatosensory cortex as if we were expressing and experiencing our own emotions. It is also known that people with damage to the somatosensory cortex find it difficult to recognise emotion in other people's faces," Dr Sel told the news briefing.
However, until now, it has not been clear whether activity in the somatosensory cortex was simply a by-product of the way we process visual information, or whether it reacts independently to emotions expressed in other people's faces, actively contributing to how we perceive emotions in others.
In order to discover whether the somatosensory cortex contributes to the processing of emotion independently of any visual processes, Dr Sel and her colleagues tested two situations on volunteers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain response to images, they showed participants either a face showing fear (emotional) or a neutral face. Secondly, they combined the showing of the face with a small tap to an index finger or the left cheek immediately afterwards.
Dr Sel said: "By tapping someone's cheek or finger you can modify the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex inducing changes in brain electrical activity in this area. These changes are measureable and observable with EEG and this enables us to pinpoint the brain activity that is specifically related to the somatosensory cortex and its reaction to external stimuli.
"If the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex when a fearful face is shown has greater electrical activity than when a neutral face is shown, the changes in the activity of the somatosensory cortex induced by the taps and measured by EEG also will be greater when observing fearful as opposed to neutral faces.
"We subtracted results of the first situation (face only) from the second situation (face and tap), and compared changes in the activity related with the tap in the somatosensory cortex when seeing emotional faces versus neutral faces. This way, we could observe responses of the somatosensory cortex to emotional faces independently of visual processes," she explained.
The researchers found that there was enhanced activity in the somatosensory cortex in response to fearful faces in comparison to neutral faces, independent of any visual processes. Importantly, this activity was focused in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas; the primary area receives sensory information directly from the body, while the secondary area combines sensory information from the body with information related to body movement and other information, such as memories of previous, sensitive experiences.
"Our experimental approach allows us to isolate and show for the first time (as far as we are aware) changes in somatosensory activity when seeing emotional faces after taking away all visual information in the brain. We have shown the crucial role of the somatosensory cortex in the way our minds and bodies perceive human emotions. These findings can serve as starting point for developing interventions tailored for people with problems in recognising other's emotions, such as autistic children," said Dr Sel.
The researchers now plan to investigate whether they get similar results when people are shown faces with other expressions such as happy or angry, and whether the timing of the physical stimulus, the tap to the finger or cheek, makes any difference. In this experiment, the tap occurred 105 milliseconds after a face was shown, and Dr Sel wonders about the effect of a longer time interval.
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Ocean explorers want to get to the bottom of GaliciaPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice researchers: 3-D seismic survey will give best-ever view of ancient North Atlantic rift
HOUSTON (April 8, 2013) An international team of scientists and technicians led by Rice University will spend 45 days in the North Atlantic this summer to gather the most detailed information ever about the geology of the ocean basin that formed at what was once the center of Pangaea.
Geologists Dale Sawyer and Julia Morgan of Rice and Donna Shillington of Columbia University are leading the $6 million international project to study the Galicia rift northwest of the Spanish coast where, unusually, sediment has not deeply buried formations that have existed at the bottom of the ocean for millions of years.
A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to Rice of more than $1.2 million will put five faculty members and graduate students on the 50-plus crew aboard the Seismic Vessel Marcus G. Langseth, owned by the NSF and operated by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The Langseth stopped in Galveston last month, where Sawyer took stock of its tools. He and Morgan have been waiting for their ship to come in since proposing the project eight years ago. "We had to wait for other seismic studies, creating a critical mass of work in the Atlantic in order to bring the ship from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic," Sawyer said.
For 45 days the ship will trace a spiraling path -- Sawyer compared it to mowing a lawn -- over the rectangular 64-by-22.4 kilometer target. Throughout the journey, the 15 scientists and their technicians and students will analyze data and make critical decisions on optimizing data quality.
Sawyer will represent Rice on the ship, joined by graduate students Sarah Dean, Brian Jordan and Mari Tesi Sanjurjo and adjunct faculty lecturer Steve Danbom. All will begin analyzing the massive amount of data the ship will collect while on board, but the results will take years for geologists to fully process and understand, Sawyer said.
"Between 225 and 110 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean opened up between Africa and North America, and the breakup propagated northward, opening a new ocean and pulling Spain and Portugal apart from what is now Newfoundland," Sawyer said. "What makes this unusual is that it is a volcanic-starved rift."
Elsewhere on the planet, lava flowed upward into rifts and created oceanic crust. "We found in the last 20 years that most margins are volcanic-dominated," he said. "They actually pull apart, lots of magma comes up and the sea-floor spreading process begins immediately. Galicia is at the other end of the spectrum. Volcanic-dominated margins are thought to be caused by unusually high heat in the Earth's mantle, while magma-starved margins are caused by cooler mantle rocks.
But the volcanic crust hasn't reached the Galicia, where sections of the Earth's mantle in the form of peridotite lie just under a thin layer of sediment. At this rift, the crust is neither oceanic nor continental, but of a different type. These formations may tell geologists a great deal about the rifts that appeared when the great continent split and began evolving into the map we know today.
"The sediments are thin," Sawyer said, "so we can do seismic characterization and potentially drill into these rocks without having to go through 10 or 15 kilometers of sediment.
"One of our objectives with the 3-D survey is to find the best places to drill," he said. "Now we can see the fans of sediment deposited on the broken and tilted continental crust blocks, but we don't know when they broke and how quickly." The images should allow them to gather core samples at the right places. "Then we have paleontological evidence we can date, and then we can start to know."
To learn all this, the team will make 3-D images of the upper 20 kilometers of the rocks under the ocean. The RV Langseth will tow four cables, each 6 kilometers long, carrying nearly 2,000 hydrophones. The towed cables cover a width of 600 meters as they rake through the water. Constantly on the move, the ship fires an array of compressed air guns towed behind the ship. Airgun shots will be fired every 37 meters (once about every 16 seconds), and the seismometers will sense the reflections that come back from the seafloor and from rock layers. Using sound to see what eyes can't, the signals are translated into an accurate three-dimensional image of the geological terrain below.
Before the Langseth sails from Vigo, Spain, on June 1, the German Research Vessel Poseidon and scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom will drop about 80 ocean-bottom seismometers in a grid on the same patch of ocean floor that the Rice-led team will survey.
"The ocean-bottom seismometers give us much better information about the speed of sound through the rocks, and that tells us a lot about what kind of rock the seismic wave is traveling through," Sawyer said.
Several oil companies are interested in this work, Sawyer said. Although the sediments to be studied are thin and unlikely to yield oil or gas, other places in the world with similar magma-starved rifting and thick overlying sediments are virtually certain to contain hydrocarbons. Images taken through the thin Galicia sediments will provide information about what to expect in hydrocarbon-bearing areas elsewhere, he said.
###
Read the NSF abstract: http://tinyurl.com/dyljq34
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/04/08/ocean-explorers-want-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-galicia-2/
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
R/V Marcus G. Langseth: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/office-of-marine-operations/langseth
GeoPRISMS: http://www.geoprisms.org
Julia Morgan: http://earthscience.rice.edu/faculty/morgan/
Rice researchers who will study the Galicia rift off the coast of Spain this summer are (from left, front) Sarah Dean, Steve Danbom and Mari Tesi Sanjurjo and (from left, rear) Brian Jordan, Dale Sawyer and Julia Morgan. All but Morgan will make the 45-day cruise to map the terrain under the rift. (Credit: Colin Zelt/Rice University)
The Galicia rift, west of Spain, is a unique magma-starved margin dominated by mantle rock. An international team led by Rice University will perform a seismic survey of the region this summer.
David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu
Mike Williams
713-348-6728
mikewilliams@rice.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Ocean explorers want to get to the bottom of GaliciaPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice researchers: 3-D seismic survey will give best-ever view of ancient North Atlantic rift
HOUSTON (April 8, 2013) An international team of scientists and technicians led by Rice University will spend 45 days in the North Atlantic this summer to gather the most detailed information ever about the geology of the ocean basin that formed at what was once the center of Pangaea.
Geologists Dale Sawyer and Julia Morgan of Rice and Donna Shillington of Columbia University are leading the $6 million international project to study the Galicia rift northwest of the Spanish coast where, unusually, sediment has not deeply buried formations that have existed at the bottom of the ocean for millions of years.
A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to Rice of more than $1.2 million will put five faculty members and graduate students on the 50-plus crew aboard the Seismic Vessel Marcus G. Langseth, owned by the NSF and operated by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The Langseth stopped in Galveston last month, where Sawyer took stock of its tools. He and Morgan have been waiting for their ship to come in since proposing the project eight years ago. "We had to wait for other seismic studies, creating a critical mass of work in the Atlantic in order to bring the ship from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic," Sawyer said.
For 45 days the ship will trace a spiraling path -- Sawyer compared it to mowing a lawn -- over the rectangular 64-by-22.4 kilometer target. Throughout the journey, the 15 scientists and their technicians and students will analyze data and make critical decisions on optimizing data quality.
Sawyer will represent Rice on the ship, joined by graduate students Sarah Dean, Brian Jordan and Mari Tesi Sanjurjo and adjunct faculty lecturer Steve Danbom. All will begin analyzing the massive amount of data the ship will collect while on board, but the results will take years for geologists to fully process and understand, Sawyer said.
"Between 225 and 110 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean opened up between Africa and North America, and the breakup propagated northward, opening a new ocean and pulling Spain and Portugal apart from what is now Newfoundland," Sawyer said. "What makes this unusual is that it is a volcanic-starved rift."
Elsewhere on the planet, lava flowed upward into rifts and created oceanic crust. "We found in the last 20 years that most margins are volcanic-dominated," he said. "They actually pull apart, lots of magma comes up and the sea-floor spreading process begins immediately. Galicia is at the other end of the spectrum. Volcanic-dominated margins are thought to be caused by unusually high heat in the Earth's mantle, while magma-starved margins are caused by cooler mantle rocks.
But the volcanic crust hasn't reached the Galicia, where sections of the Earth's mantle in the form of peridotite lie just under a thin layer of sediment. At this rift, the crust is neither oceanic nor continental, but of a different type. These formations may tell geologists a great deal about the rifts that appeared when the great continent split and began evolving into the map we know today.
"The sediments are thin," Sawyer said, "so we can do seismic characterization and potentially drill into these rocks without having to go through 10 or 15 kilometers of sediment.
"One of our objectives with the 3-D survey is to find the best places to drill," he said. "Now we can see the fans of sediment deposited on the broken and tilted continental crust blocks, but we don't know when they broke and how quickly." The images should allow them to gather core samples at the right places. "Then we have paleontological evidence we can date, and then we can start to know."
To learn all this, the team will make 3-D images of the upper 20 kilometers of the rocks under the ocean. The RV Langseth will tow four cables, each 6 kilometers long, carrying nearly 2,000 hydrophones. The towed cables cover a width of 600 meters as they rake through the water. Constantly on the move, the ship fires an array of compressed air guns towed behind the ship. Airgun shots will be fired every 37 meters (once about every 16 seconds), and the seismometers will sense the reflections that come back from the seafloor and from rock layers. Using sound to see what eyes can't, the signals are translated into an accurate three-dimensional image of the geological terrain below.
Before the Langseth sails from Vigo, Spain, on June 1, the German Research Vessel Poseidon and scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom will drop about 80 ocean-bottom seismometers in a grid on the same patch of ocean floor that the Rice-led team will survey.
"The ocean-bottom seismometers give us much better information about the speed of sound through the rocks, and that tells us a lot about what kind of rock the seismic wave is traveling through," Sawyer said.
Several oil companies are interested in this work, Sawyer said. Although the sediments to be studied are thin and unlikely to yield oil or gas, other places in the world with similar magma-starved rifting and thick overlying sediments are virtually certain to contain hydrocarbons. Images taken through the thin Galicia sediments will provide information about what to expect in hydrocarbon-bearing areas elsewhere, he said.
###
Read the NSF abstract: http://tinyurl.com/dyljq34
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2013/04/08/ocean-explorers-want-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-galicia-2/
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
R/V Marcus G. Langseth: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/office-of-marine-operations/langseth
GeoPRISMS: http://www.geoprisms.org
Julia Morgan: http://earthscience.rice.edu/faculty/morgan/
Rice researchers who will study the Galicia rift off the coast of Spain this summer are (from left, front) Sarah Dean, Steve Danbom and Mari Tesi Sanjurjo and (from left, rear) Brian Jordan, Dale Sawyer and Julia Morgan. All but Morgan will make the 45-day cruise to map the terrain under the rift. (Credit: Colin Zelt/Rice University)
The Galicia rift, west of Spain, is a unique magma-starved margin dominated by mantle rock. An international team led by Rice University will perform a seismic survey of the region this summer.
David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu
Mike Williams
713-348-6728
mikewilliams@rice.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
This undated image made available by Teva Women's Health shows the packaging for their Plan B One-Step (levonorgestrel) tablet, one of the brands known as the "morning-after pill." In a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration, a federal judge ruled Friday that age restrictions on over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill are "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" and must end within 30 days. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York means consumers of any age could buy emergency contraception without a prescription _ instead of women first having to prove they're 17 or older, as they do today. And it could allow Plan B One-Step to move out from behind pharmacy counters to the store counters. (AP Photo/Teva Women's Health)
This undated image made available by Teva Women's Health shows the packaging for their Plan B One-Step (levonorgestrel) tablet, one of the brands known as the "morning-after pill." In a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration, a federal judge ruled Friday that age restrictions on over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill are "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" and must end within 30 days. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York means consumers of any age could buy emergency contraception without a prescription _ instead of women first having to prove they're 17 or older, as they do today. And it could allow Plan B One-Step to move out from behind pharmacy counters to the store counters. (AP Photo/Teva Women's Health)
This undated handout photo provided by Judge Edward Korman shows U.S. District Judge Korman of New York. In a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration, a federal judge ruled Friday that age restrictions on over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill are "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" and must end within 30 days. The ruling by Korman means consumers of any age could buy emergency contraception without a prescription _ instead of women first having to prove they're 17 or older, as they do today. And it could allow Plan B One-Step to move out from behind pharmacy counters to the store counters. (AP Photo/Judge Korman's Office)
PREVIOUSLY OFFERED 021413; chart shows frequency of use of emergency contraception
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama supports requiring girls younger than 17 to see a doctor before buying the morning-after pill. But fighting that battle in court comes with its own set of risks.
A federal judge in New York on Friday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to lift age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraception ? ending today's requirement that buyers show proof they're 17 or older if they want to buy it without a prescription. The ruling accused the Obama administration in no uncertain terms of letting the president's pending re-election cloud its judgment when it set the age limits in 2011.
"The motivation for the secretary's action was obviously political," U.S. District Judge Edward Korman wrote in reference to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who made the 2011 decision. The FDA had been poised to allow over-the-counter sales with no age limits when Sebelius took the unprecedented step of overruling the agency.
If the Obama administration appeals Korman's ruling, it could re-ignite a simmering cultural battle over women's reproductive health ? never far from the surface in American politics ? sidetracking the president just as he's trying to keep Congress and the public focused on gun control, immigration and resolving the nation's budget woes.
"There's no political advantage whatsoever," said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. "It's a side issue he doesn't need to deal with right now. The best idea is to leave it alone."
Still, Obama has made clear in the past that he feels strongly about the limits. And as a politician whose name won't ever appear on a ballot again, it's hard to see the downside in sticking by his principles.
"As the father of two daughters, I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine," Obama said in 2011 when he endorsed Sebelius' decision.
The Justice Department said it is evaluating whether to appeal. Allison Price, a Justice spokeswoman, said there would be a prompt decision. And the White House said Obama's view on the issue hasn't changed since 2011.
"He supports that decision today. He believes it was the right common-sense approach to this issue," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday.
Appealing the decision could rile liberal groups and parts of Obama's political base that are already upset with his forthcoming budget, which includes cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security. But currying favor with conservatives who want the ruling to stand also is unlikely to do much to help Obama make progress on his second-term priorities.
"It won't help him with Republicans in Congress to get policy matters attended to," Sheinkopf said.
Also weighing on Obama and his aides as he decides how to proceed is the unpleasant memory of previous dust-ups over contraception, including an election-year spat over an element of Obama's health care overhaul law that required most employers to cover birth control free of charge to female workers as a preventive service. That controversy led to a wave of lawsuits that threatened to embroil Obama's health care law, already under fire for a requirement that individuals buy insurance, in even more legal action.
When Obama offered to soften the rule last year, religious groups said it wasn't enough. Obama proposed another compromise on the rule in February to mixed response from faith-based groups.
If the court order issued Friday stands, Plan B One-Step and its generic versions could move from behind pharmacy counters out to drugstore shelves ? ending a decade-plus struggle by women's groups for easier access to these pills, which can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex.
Women's health specialists hailed the ruling Friday, arguing there's no reason a safe birth control option shouldn't be available over the counter and dismissing concerns that it could encourage underage people to have sex.
But social conservatives, in a rare show of support for Obama's approach to social policy, said the ruling removes common-sense protections and denies parents and medical professionals the opportunity to be a safeguard for vulnerable young girls.
"The court's action undermines parents' ability to protect their daughters from such exploitation and from the adverse effects of the drug itself," Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Half the nation's pregnancies every year are unintended. Doctors' groups say more access to morning-after pills ? by putting them near the condoms and spermicides so people can learn about them and buy them quickly ? could cut those numbers.
The morning-after pill contains a higher dose of the female progestin hormone than is in regular birth control pills. Taking it within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. But it works best within the first 24 hours. If a woman already is pregnant, the pill has no effect.
Absent an appeal or a government request for more time to prepare one, the ruling will take effect in 30 days, meaning that over-the-counter sales could start then.
___
Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.
Indian police move the body of a British woman murdered on Dal Lake in Kashmir (Picture: AFP / Getty)
A British woman has been found murdered on a houseboat in India, the British High Commission in Delhi has said.
The 24-year-old is believed to have been stabbed to death and was discovered lying in a pool of blood inside her accomodation on the Dal Lake early this morning, according to reports.
Dal Lake is a popular tourist destination (Picture: Google Maps)
A Dutch national who had been staying in a neighbouring boat has been held on suspicion of her murder.
Abdul Ghani Mir, the Inspector General of Kashmir, told NDTV in India he was arrested attempting to flee the area with only his passport.
A Dutch nation was arrested attempting to flee the Valley (Picture: Alamy / File)
?The Dutch national had fled from the houseboat in the night, leaving behind his belongings,? he said.
?He was trying to flee from the Valley, carrying only his passport. We flashed an alert for his arrest.?
A Kashmiri fisherman throws a net on Dal Lake (Picture: AFP / Getty)
The owner of the houseboat?said the woman had been staying their for the past two months and was like a ?daughter? to him.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it is looking into the reports.
A spokesman said: ?We are aware of reports of an incident involving a British national in Srinagar, Kashmir.?
William Hague: The Foreign Office is looking into the reports (Picture: Reuters)
The Dal Lake is an integral part of tourism in Kashmir and is home to a large collection of houseboat.
?While preliminary investigation has confirmed that the 24-year-old woman was murdered, we are investigating other angles,? a police source told ITV News.
DENVER (AP) ? A white supremacist prison gang member was arrested and another was still being sought for questioning Friday in the death of Colorado's prisons chief as authorities investigated whether the gang had any ties to the killing.
James Lohr, who has the words "Hard" and "Luck" tattooed where his eyebrows would be, was taken into custody early Friday in Colorado Springs. He was wanted for questioning in the slaying of Department of Corrections Director Tom Clements.
Authorities believe Lohr was in contact with gang associate Evan Ebel days before the killings of Clements and pizza delivery man Nate Leon. Police said they believe Ebel killed Leon and Clements less than a week before he died in a Texas shootout, but the motive is unclear.
Clements was shot to death March 19 in Monument, just north of Colorado Springs. Leon was killed two days earlier. His body was found in the Denver suburb of Golden.
Colorado Springs police arrested Lohr after a short foot chase that started when officers tried to stop the car he was driving, according to a statement. Lohr was booked on felony evading charges and also was held on three outstanding arrest warrants unrelated to the Clements case. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Investigators said surveillance video from a business showed a firearm being thrown from Lohr's vehicle before his arrest. Two men are then shown spotting the gun and later returning to take it. Investigators said the men aren't in trouble, but investigators want to find them so the gun can be taken into evidence.
Authorities issued an alert Wednesday asking other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for Lohr and Thomas Guolee, both of Colorado Springs, who were identified as 211 Crew members. Ebel was a member of the same gang.
Lohr, 47, and Guolee, 31, are not being called suspects in Clements' death, but their names surfaced during the investigation, El Paso County sheriff's spokesman Jeff Kramer said. Both were wanted on warrants unrelated to the Clements investigation.
Kramer has said it was possible that one or both of the men were headed to Nevada or Texas.
Guolee's mother, Deborah Eck, told The Denver Post that Guolee called her husband a week and a half ago to ask for a ride to the police station so he could turn himself in for what she believed was a parole violation. But she said they never heard back from him.
Police came to her house Wednesday looking for Guolee.
"One cop said if he would have turned himself in for violation of probation, he probably wouldn't be in the situation he was now," Eck told the newspaper.
Lohr has been wanted in Las Animas County in southeastern Colorado. He was arrested for violating a protection order in Trinidad on Dec. 1, 2012, after police found that he'd been drinking with friends at a tattoo shop. According to court documents, drinking was a violation of a protective order against him, and he was arrested. Lohr then failed to appear in court in that case Feb. 20, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Lohr has a shaved head in his booking photo. In addition to the words on his eyebrows, he has a shamrock ? a tattoo favored by some 211 Crew members ? near his right eye.
Lohr has a criminal record going back to 1992. In 1996, after he pleaded guilty to burglarizing a home, court records show he was ordered to have no contact with his estranged wife after she told police he repeatedly broke into her home and stole items to pawn.
In 2006, Lohr was charged with burglary with a weapon and assault causing serious bodily injury. Court records show those charged were dismissed because of a lack of evidence.
Court records show Guolee was arrested in 2001 after a member of the Crips gang told Colorado Springs police he was jumped by Guolee and another gang member because they believed he was a member of a rival gang. The witness told police Guolee and the other gang member punched and kicked him in the face and left him bleeding.
In 2007, Guolee was charged with assault and intimidating a witness while in the El Paso County jail after an inmate said he was assaulted by three men, including Guolee, because they thought he was going to testify against a suspect in another case. Authorities said the man was beaten so badly he could have been permanently disfigured.
The complete court records were not immediately available, so the outcome of some of those cases was unclear. Authorities also have not released the subject of Guolee's warrant.
On Thursday, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced a sweeping review of Colorado's prison and parole operations, as more evidence piled up showing how Ebel slipped through the cracks in the criminal justice system to become a suspect in Clements' death.
Ebel was released from prison four years early due to a clerical error and violated his parole terms five days before the prisons chief was killed.
Officials said the state will audit inmates' legal cases to ensure they are serving the correct amount of time. They'll ask the National Institute of Corrections to review the state's parole system, which is struggling under large caseloads.
Colorado lawmakers also are considering spending nearly $500,000 to hire more parole officers because of what happened with Ebel.
Ebel was killed in a shootout with Texas authorities March 21. Investigators have said the gun he used in the shootout also was used to kill Clements when the prisons chief answered the front door of his home.
Ebel has been the only suspect named in Clements' death. Investigators have said they're looking into the gang he joined in prison and whether it was connected to the attack, among other possible motives.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A court has ended the first week of jury selection in a civil case over Michael Jackson's death with 60 potential jurors selected.
Jury selection will resume Monday and is expected to stretch into the following week in an effort to find enough people to hear a case filed by Jackson's mother against concert giant AEG Live.
Katherine Jackson claims the company failed to properly investigate and supervise the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's June 2009 death.
Potential jurors have filled out a 24-page questionnaire that assesses their knowledge of the case, Jackson's family and their views on celebrities and multimillion dollar verdicts.
In-person questioning of potential jurors will begin on Wednesday.
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