2 killed, at least 125 injured in marathon blasts

Two explosions near the Boston Marathon finish line killed at least two people and injured at least 115.

Marathon finish line

Of the 23,326 who started the marathon, 17,584 finished; 4,496 did not. The last people crossed the finish line at 2:57 p.m.

Boylston Street and Exeter Street

The first explosion occurred a few hundred feet short of the finish line at about 2:50 p.m. on the corner of Boylston Street and Exeter Street.

Boylston Street and Ring Road

The second explosion, just 13 seconds later, occurred further from the finish line near Boylston Street and Ring Road.

Dartmouth Street

A third bomb was found on the other side of the finish line, near Dartmouth Street. It was dismantled by authorities. At least one more device was found and dismantled.

Source: bostonglobe

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Law and Politics: Obama’s new Gitmo problem

While the Guantánamo Bay prison camp has faded as a political issue, the conditions there have been dramatically deteriorating. For several months, prisoners have been mounting intense protests, in response to grievances with guards and frustration with their legal status. They have conducted hunger strikes, battled with guards, and thwarted the camp’s surveillance system.

On Saturday, U.S. officials decided the prisoners had gone too far. Officials raided the camp, emptying prison cells, and forcing some detainees into isolation.

The Miami Herald’s CarolRosenberg, who has covered Guantánamo for over a decade, reports that while the U.S. has sought to provide more humanitarian conditions for detainees, the recent tensions reflect frustration with the endless legal limbo in the camp:

By the time President Barack Obama took office, the prison camps had established communal confinement in a prison called Camp 6 that was more in the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, with … TV, books and, for well-behaved captives, wristwatches…But [there have been] mounting tensions at the camp… following a particularly aggressive cell search held Feb. 6.

…Lawyers for the captives said a wide-ranging hunger strike was underway, and some described seeing long-held, once plump prisoners wasting away before their eyes. The strike, they said, was sparked by what the captives considered abusive searches of their Qurans … fueled by years of frustration at their status of legal limbo.

Rosenberg reports that there are 43 prisoners on hunger strike. The U.S. is now force-feeding 13 of them, in order to keep them alive. The guards have also lost a measure of “control over life” in the prison, Rosenberg reports: ”The captives could be seen systematically disobeying communal camp rules. They covered surveillance cameras in individual cells with cereal boxes. They refused to admit food carts to the cellblocks.”

Obama officials emphasize that they had advance notice about recent changes at the prison, such as moving detainees into individual cells, and they are monitoring developments closely. That may be fine for crisis management, but there is very little talk about actually addressing the core problems at Guantánamo Bay.

About 166prisoners remain in the camp today. That reflects progress–over 700 men have been imprisoned there–but also stalemate. Twelve years after the Afghanistan war began, these remaining prisoners are people who have been cut off from their entire world, mostly without any trial to address the charges against them, let alone their guilt or innocence. And that’s not all.

It is well known that many detainees are not high-ranking terrorists. As early as 2003, Donald Rumsfeld privately objected to how many “low-level enemy combatants” wound up in the prison. According to a comprehensive 2006 analysis of Defense Department data, most detainees were not affiliated with terrorist groups. (The report was from Seton Hall University, applying a terrorist definition was based on the U.S. government’s terrorist list.) A high error rate, of course, does not mean the prison should just be emptied.

Nor could it, since Congress severely restricted the Obamaadministration’s options for transferring detainees. As one former National Security Council official told me last year, “Congress has put up as many roadblocks as possible to keep the Guantanamo Bayprison open.”

So the prison stays open, while the door to fair trials is pretty much closed.  A reassessment of Guantánamo justice is long overdue.

Source: msnbc

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Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

Softbutter, for greasing the pan
Flour,for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.
SERVINGS: 16 (PER BROWNIE); Calories: 243; Total Fat: 13 grams; Saturated Fat: 8 grams; Protein: 3 grams; Total carbohydrates: 28 grams; Sugar: 22 grams Fiber: 1 grams; Cholesterol: 83 milligrams; Sodium: 82 milligrams

Source: foodnetwork

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Man dies after shooting self at NASCAR race in Texas, medical examiner says

A medical examiner says a man who died in the infield during a NASCARrace at Texas Motor Speedway shot himself in the head.

The Tarrant County medical examiner's office on Sunday said the death of 42-year-old Kirk Franklin of Saginaw was a suicide.

Fort Worth police have said a man who was camping in the infield died of a "self-inflicted injury" after getting into an argument with other campers. The incident happened late in the Spring Cup race.

Police spokeswoman Cpl. Tracey Knight has said alcohol may have been a factor. Knight said several people witnessed the incident, but nobody was in danger.

Track spokesman Mike Zizzo say the death occurred "in or around apickup truck" in part of the infield near the middle of the backstretch.

Source: foxnews

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Adam Scott wins Masters, the first for Australia

Carrying the weight of a continent on his back and hauling around the burden of expectation for years hasn't been easy at times for Adam Scott.

Since his days as a dashing amateur in Australia he has been a beacon of hope for a proud sporting nation yearning for the next Greg Norman.

Although Scott notched wins across the globe and captured huge tournaments such as The Players Championship, the Tour Championship and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, the 32-year-old had come up short in the majors, the most coveted of all golf events.

He also was known for a crushing defeat — he failed to hold a four-shot lead with four holes to play in last year's British Open at Royal Lytham and lost to Ernie Els by one shot. Doubt started to percolate that perhaps Scott just didn't have it in him to win a major and that he has underachieved.

But he never lost his cool — nor his nerve. Turns out he is as resilient as he is talented. And on a gloomy Sunday that tempered the beauty of Augusta National's grounds, with bouts of rain from above perplexing players on the putting surfaces below, Adam Scott silenced his doubters and left with a green jacket.

With a final-round 3-under-par 69, highlighted by a birdie from 25 feet on the 72nd hole and a great break on the 13th hole when his ball didn't roll into Rae's Creek and he walked away with a fortunate birdie, Scott finally won a major championship by taking the Masters with a birdie from 12 feet on the second playoff hole to beat Angel Cabrera.

Source: usatoday

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Kobe Bryant Has Successful Surgery to Repair Achilles’ Tendon

KobeBryant’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successful, however the Los Angeles Lakers star will be sidelined for at least six to nine months as he recuperates, the team and doctors said today.

Bryant, 34, tore his left Achilles’ tendon in the closing minutes of Friday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

The All-Star shooting guard, who has carried the Lakers all season, hobbled to the free throw line after the injury to take his two free throws for being fouled. He hit them both, tying the game 108-108, before going to the locker room. The Lakers went on to win the game.

Bryant, who was averaging 27.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists,was operated on by Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Stephen Lombardo of the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Group.

Bryant, the NBA’s fourth all-time leading scorer, has dealt with injuries in the past, but never one as serious and potentially career-ending as this one.

“You need your Achilles’ tendon, muscle, tendon here, to allow you to walk,” said Dr. Robert Klapper, chief of orthopedic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Group.

With the athlete’s discipline and determination, though, Klatter said, it’s possible he could make a comeback.

Bryant took to Facebook on Saturday to vent his frustration at the injury that ended his season.

“All the training and sacrifice just flew out the window with one step that I’ve done millions of times! The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. Why the hell did this happen?!? Makes no damn sense,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Nevertheless, the basketball star vowed to return to the court.

“One day, the beginning of a new career journey will commence,” he wrote.  ”Today is NOT that day.”

Source: abcnews

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Aurora Borealis tonight? Dazzling northern lights forecast

Seattle, NewYork, Pittsburgh, and Washington might see a display of the northern lights after sunset. At least that's what some forecasting models are saying.

Thanks to a big solar flare that left the Sun Thursday,Accuweather.com is generating some buzz online by predicting a "dazzling" light show tonight:

"The flare is also expected to cause vibrant northern lights from the Arctic as far south as New York, the Dakotas, Washington and Michigan, with a smaller possibility of it going into Pennsylvania and Iowa, evenKansas. The lights are currently estimated for 8 p.m. EDT Saturday arrival, with a possible deviation of up to seven hours. If the radiation hits much after dark settles on the East Coast the lights may be missed and will instead only be visible for the West."

They've also provided a pretty cool map (see above) that may or may not prove accurate.

Solar flares are waves of charged plasma that come streaming toward our planet at about four million miles per hour. When they hit the Earth's upper atmosphere they release visible light and are channeled toward the Earth's poles by the planet's magnetic field. The norther aurora borealis is called the northern lights. The displays over the southern pole are called the southern lights or aurora australis. 

This particular blast of plasma may also put on a light show over parts of Europe and Russia too. Accuweather says the British Isles, and as far south as the northern parts of Germany, Poland,Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia may see the northern lights.

Accuweather's Hunter Outten has been updating this latest aurora borealis watch on the company's Facebook page. At 3:35 p.m., he wrote:

"Still have not seen any key signs yet of the CME close to hitting the planet. Looks like the time is shaping up right on schedule for anywhere from 5-9PM EDT."

CME refers to the Coronal Mass Ejection, the burst of plasma released from the Sun. Mr. Outten shares how he's tracking the arrival of the plasma burst via the compression of the magnet field with this NOAA chart..

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has its own forecasting model, including a chart, which is a lot harder to parse. You can check out the Ovation Auroral Forecast there.

The opportunity to see the northern lights at many of these latitudes is a rare treat, but the usual caveats for celestial events still apply. A successful sighting will be dependent on a variety of local factors, such as cloud cover, full moon, and urban light pollution.

And if you happen to be in Fairbanks or Yellowknife tonight, the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute says the prospects are also good for viewing  the aurora borealis.

Source: csmonitor

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