Syrian troops fire at Israel's on Golan Heights

And the IDF wisely fires back:

JERUSALEM ? The Israeli army said it targeted a Syrian army position with an antitank missile Sunday after one of its patrols came under fire from the Syrian side of the frontier on the Golan Heights, the latest flare-up in a zone made increasingly volatile by Syria?s civil war.

An Israeli military official said the Syrian firing appeared to be deliberate, unlike previous incidents in which errant shells from fighting between rebels and government forces in Syria landed in Israel-held territory.

The cease-fire line between Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan, which had been quiet for decades, has become increasingly unsettled as fighting has intensified between Syrian government troops and rebels in the area near the frontier.

After shots were fired at an Israeli patrol vehicle early Sunday, Israeli forces launched a Tamuz guided antitank missile that destroyed a Syrian machine-gun position identified as the source of fire, military officials said. There was no immediate response from Syria.

The incident followed a similar shooting Saturday, when an Israeli patrol jeep was hit by gunfire from the Syrian side, causing light damage but no casualties, the army said. The exchanges led to the temporary suspension of work in the area on a new Israeli border fence along the Golan frontier, according to the military.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned in a statement that if Israeli forces are fired on from Syria, Israel will ?immediately silence the sources of fire when they are identified.?

?We view the Syrian regime as responsible for every breach of sovereignty,? Yaalon said. ?We will not allow the Syrian army or any other element to violate Israel?s sovereignty by shooting into our territory.?

Syria could be plotting an attack on Israel, presumably as a way to rally other Islamic countries behind them.

Source: http://telchaination.blogspot.com/2013/03/syrian-troops-fire-at-israels-on-golan.html

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Good Reads: Amazon mysteries, Africans step up, state of the states, knowing voters

This week's round-up of Good Reads includes a look at elusive and isolated Amazon tribes, signs of progress across Africa, the well-being of Americans, and the savvy of US voters.

By Marshall Ingwerson,?Managing editor / March 15, 2013

A couple runs at dusk along the shore of Lake Hefner, outside Oklahoma City.

Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman/AP

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The Amazon Basin is often cited as a global repository of biodiversity. But it?s also the last bastion, perhaps, of human cultural diversity. In Smithsonian magazine, Joshua Hammer recounts the recent spotting of what may be the last two isolated tribes in the Colombian Amazon: the Yuri and the Pass?. They were spotted from airplanes by experts seeking to confirm their existence and to strengthen protections against outside intrusion.

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Mr. Hammer points out that the common term ?uncontacted tribes? is not strictly accurate. These tribes first encountered Spanish explorers seeking gold some 500 years ago. They fled deeper into the jungle to avoid slave traders. Around 1900, the rubber boom brought new slave traders into the rain forest and the tribes fled farther.

They were thought to be extinct, but when a jaguar hunter and his guide disappeared in 1969, the search party ran into a village of people painted with zebralike stripes. None of the native guides could recognize their language, but an expert in the United States identified them as Yuri. Then they disappeared again.

Ironically, for governments to protect the privacy of these native peoples, they must know where they are. Roberto Franco, the Colombian historian who was in the airplane that spotted the Yuri and Pass? settlements, says: ?We must respect their decision not to be our friends ? even to hate us.?

Where Africans make strides

Meanwhile, one continent over, Africa has been shedding its isolation posthaste. The Economist takes a survey of the growing dynamism in the region that still populates the bottom of development rankings.

Life expectancies have increased by 10 percent. Foreign investment has tripled in the past decade. In the next 10 years, consumer spending is expected to triple. Average growth of gross domestic product is running about 6 percent, more African children than ever are in school, cellphones are everywhere, and the countries hit worst with the AIDS crisis have seen infections fall by three-quarters.

The Economist gives the main credit to African people themselves. ?They are embracing modern technology, voting in ever more elections and pressing their leaders to do better. A sense of hope abounds.?

One sign that governance is improving, too: The correspondent visited 23 African countries to research the survey and wasn?t once asked for a bribe ? ?inconceivable only ten years ago.?

?Hey America, how ya doin???

Back in these United States, every year Gallup asks hundreds of thousands of Americans to rate their own well-being from emotional and physical health to their work environment and overall life evaluation. The top-ranked state? Hawaii, for the fourth year in a row. (And Gallup didn?t even ask about the weather. The next two states, after all, are Colorado and Minnesota.) Hawaii residents were most likely to ?experience daily enjoyment and least likely to have daily worry or stress,? says Alyssa Brown in Gallup?s new report. They also most often rated their lives as ?thriving.?

West Virginians were the least ?thriving? in the nation, and ranked lowest in overall well-being. Hawaiians also rated their work environments more highly than did residents of any other state. The lowest? Rhode Island. When it comes to healthy eating, getting exercise, and not smoking, Vermont rules and Kentucky takes the hindmost position. For access to basic services, from affordable food to a safe place to exercise, Massachusetts leads and Mississippi lags.

What the pundits don?t know

If you are tempted to argue with TV political pundits, you?re in good company. Morris Fiorina, a prominent political scientist at Stanford University, says his wife hates political season because of his running argument against what he sees as misinformed cable commentators. In The Forum, a political science quarterly, Professor Fiorina outlines what he, as a political scientist, wishes media talking heads could learn:

?US voters are not becoming more polarized. Congress is. Cable TV and talk radio are. But the moderate middle among voters is not shrinking. ?Most Americans are not ideologues and do not hold extreme views.? Voters have re-sorted themselves: Conservatives have left the Democratic Party for the GOP and liberals have fled the other way. But that?s a shift of parties, not a shift of views.

?The US electorate is closely divided, but there is little evidence that the divide has grown deeper. Fiorina suspects that when the data is available, the 2012 election will prove to have been less intensely divided than the elections in 2008 or 2004.

?The hundreds of millions of dollars spent on political advertising ?probably does not make much difference.? You would never know it from watching TV, but scholars find little evidence of any impact.

?Finally, voters are not stupid. They may be often uninformed and distracted. ?Yet the collective electorate manifests a degree of knowledge and wisdom that gives those of us who have studied that electorate for decades some cause for optimism.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/dt4aqhP0fA8/Good-Reads-Amazon-mysteries-Africans-step-up-state-of-the-states-knowing-voters

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Two teens charged with shooting death of Ga. toddler

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) ? A pair of teenagers was arrested Friday and accused of fatally shooting a 13-month-old baby in the face and wounding his mother during their morning stroll through a leafy, historic neighborhood.

Sherry West had just been to the post office a few blocks from her apartment Thursday morning and was pushing her son, Antonio, in his stroller while they walked past gnarled oak trees and blooming azaleas in the coastal city of Brunswick.

West said a tall, skinny teenager, accompanied by a smaller boy, asked her for money.

"He asked me for money and I said I didn't have it," she told The Associated Press Friday from her apartment, which was scattered with her son's toys and movies.

"When you have a baby, you spend all your money on babies. They're expensive. And he kept asking and I just said 'I don't have it.' And he said, 'Do you want me to kill your baby?' And I said, 'No, don't kill my baby!'"

One of the teens fired four shots, grazing West's ear and striking her in the leg, before he walked around to the stroller and shot the baby in the face.

Seventeen-year-old De'Marquis Elkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, along with a 14-year-old who was not identified because he is a juvenile, Police Chief Tobe Green said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the boys had attorneys.

Police announced the arrest Friday afternoon after combing school records and canvassing neighborhoods searching for the pair. The chief said the motive of the "horrendous act" was still under investigation and the weapon had not been found.

"I feel glad that justice will be served," West said. "It's not something I'm going to live with very well. I'm just glad they caught him."

West said detectives showed her mugshots of about 24 young men. She pointed to one, saying he looked like the gunman.

"After I picked him, they said they had him in custody," West said. "It looked just like him. So I think we got our man."

West said she thought the other suspect looked much younger: "That little boy did not look 14."

The slaying happened around the corner from West's apartment in the city's Old Town historic district. It's a street lined with grand Victorian homes from the late 1800s. Most have been neatly restored by their owners. Others, with faded and flaking paint, have been divided into rental units like the apartment West shared with her son. The slain boy's father, Luis Santiago, lives in a house across the street.

A neighbor dropped off a fruit basket and then a hot pot of coffee Friday as a friend from the post office dropped by to comfort West.

Santiago came and went. At one point he scooped up an armload of his son's stuffed animals, saying he wanted to take them home with him. He talked about Antonio's first birthday on Feb. 5 and how they had tried different party hats on the boy.

"He's all right," Santiago told the boy's mother, trying to smile. "He's potty training upstairs in heaven."

West said her son was walking well on his own and eight of his teeth had come in. But she also mourned the milestones that will never come, like Antonio's first day at school.

"I'm always going to wonder what his first word would be," West said.

Beverly Anderson, whose husband owns the property where West has lived for several years, said she was stunned by the violence in what's generally known as a safe neighborhood where children walk to school and families are frequently outdoors.

Jonathan Mayes and his wife were out walking their dogs Friday, right past the crime scene, and said they've never felt nervous about being out after dark.

"What is so mind-numbing about this is we don't have this kind of stuff happen here," Mayes said. "You expect that kind of crap in Atlanta."

It's not the mother's first loss of a child to violence. West said her 18-year-old son, Shaun Glassey, was killed in New Jersey in 2008. She still has a newspaper clipping from the time.

Glassey was killed with a steak knife in March 2008 during an attack involving several other teens on a dark street corner in Gloucester County, N.J., according to news reports from the time.

"He and some other boys were going to ambush a kid," Bernie Weisenfeld, a spokesman for the Gloucester County prosecutor's office, told the AP Friday.

Glassey was armed with a knife, but the 17-year-old target of the attack was able to get the knife away from him "and Glassey ended up on the wrong end of the knife," Weisenfeld recalled.

Prosecutors decided the 17-year-old would not be charged because they determined that he acted in self-defense.

___

Associated Press Writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and news researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-2-teens-ga-baby-killing-204023308.html

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Kathy Calvin: How Clean Cookstoves Create Healthier Families

This post is part of the Global Mom Relay. Every time you share this blog, $5 will go to women and girls around the world. Scroll to the bottom to find out more.

For mothers around the world, preparing the family meal is a daily ritual and an act of love. But it's also a grave risk for approximately three billion people who cook with open fires and inefficient stoves that burn solid fuels such as wood, animal and agricultural waste, and coal. It shouldn't have to be this way, but there are real risks. These include:

• Health risks: Women often spend hours cooking over open fires and inefficient stoves, which emit harmful household smoke that can cause pneumonia, respiratory issues, cancer, and other health challenges. In fact, a recent study estimates that household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels kills four million people annually.
• Burn risks: As mothers know, children enjoy running around at home, but there is a very real risk of burn accidents when rudimentary stoves or open fires are in use.
• Safety risks: Women and children, usually daughters, often have to walk long distances in the early morning when it's dark outside to get the fuel they need to cook -- putting their safety on the line and making it harder for girls to go to school.

If we want to improve the health of mothers and their children, we have to tackle the cookstoves challenge. The United Nations Foundation and more than 650 public and private partners have joined together as part of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which aims to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions that help keep families safe and healthy.

I wanted to learn more so I talked recently to an expert (and mother): Radha Muthiah, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Below are excerpts from our interview:

Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Radha Muthiah (L) chats with salt worker Bhavana Ben (R) who uses a clean cookstove in her hut in the salt pans in the Little Rann of Kutch in Surendranagar district in Indian State Of Gujarat

Kathy Calvin: What have you learned from mothers you've met around the world and in the U.S.?

Radha Muthiah: It may be a mother in the U.S., Kenya, Ghana, or India, but fundamentally we have the same goals: to raise our kids and to help them do well and make the right choices for themselves in this world.

I've seen a kindred spirit and connection where mothers understand how challenging it can be, even though the challenging circumstances are different from region to region, and I think mothers are very interested in helping one another out if they can.

What motivates you personally to tackle the challenge of inefficient cookstoves day after day?

Personally, there are two reasons. One is that I'm Indian, originally from Malaysia, and whenever we would go to India to visit my grandmother, her biggest interest was in cooking our favorite foods for us.

She would use kerosene and charcoal, and she would be in her kitchen filled with smoke for hours on end. And I thought, I've come here to spend time with her, but she's in the kitchen and it's full of smoke and I don't want to go in there. I distinctly remember the smell of the air and the smoke growing up. Now as an adult, having the ability and the opportunity and the privilege to be able to address this is amazing.

The other motivation for me is as a mother. I think I can safely speak for mothers around the world on this issue because when you have a child, you hope to protect, nurture, and educate that child.

I put myself in the position of one of these mothers who uses an open fire or traditional stove -- she is cooking her food thinking that she is nurturing her child, but in that process, the smoke that is emitted actually can be incredibly toxic and harmful. She is putting herself at risk as she goes out to collect that wood, and if anything were to happen to her, then we've got children who are being raised without a mother. So those are some of the reasons that I think motivate all of us in this field and me personally to continue to try and make a difference.

Kathy Calvin, CEO, UN Foundation, speaks at the reception for Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Credit: Keith Bedford/Insider Images for United Nations Foundation

The challenges you work on are big, but so are the opportunities. What gives you hope in your work?

There is so much hope. I have worked in the private sector and in development for 18 years or so, and the amazing thing is that there is real interest among a variety of different actors to address this issue now. Whether you're speaking with designers, small artisanal producers, large corporations, investors, or governments, they all see a role that they can play.

The Alliance is similar to conductors of an orchestra. There are various different players, and they are very interested in working together because they know that they each bring one piece of the puzzle, but that all of the puzzle pieces have to come together.

So what gives me hope is that we've got a strong commitment toward addressing this issue from a variety of quarters -- from people interested in the environment, forest preservation and protection, improving public health and the health of women and children, and women's empowerment.

Clean cooking solutions are one intervention that has so many different benefits, so that gives me hope that regardless of what your interests may be, clean cookstoves can be a mechanism to help achieve those goals. This is not a new issue, but we're now addressing it in a concerted, cohesive manner, and we can see the picture at the end of the day. That's why I'm optimistic about our efforts really being able to bear fruit and pay off.

Each time you share this Global Mom Relay piece on Facebook, Twitter, or Email, or donate $5 or more through clicking on the above graphic, a $5 donation (up to $62,500 per week or $125,000 every two weeks) will be donated by Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Girl Up. Join us by sharing it forward and unlock the potential for women and children around the globe. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org/globalmomrelay. The United Nations Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, BabyCenter, The Huffington Post, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Global Mom Relay, a first-of-its-kind virtual relay with a goal of improving the lives of women and children around the globe.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-calvin/clean-cookstoves_b_2928693.html

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Where Are the Black Appointees?

The numbers are stark: of President Obama?s nine new Cabinet appointments, three are women and one is Hispanic.

This has prompted African-Americans, who voted for Obama in record numbers, to question whether they are getting their fair share of representation.

READ MORE That Elephant Won?t Hunt

Ohio Democrat Marcia Fudge, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, sent Obama a letter last week saying that his appointments ?have hardly been reflective of this country?s diversity.? She noted numerous phone calls from constituents to the offices of the CBC?s 42 members ?questioning why none of the new appointees will be able to speak to the unique needs of African Americans.?

It?s totally understandable that the CBC wants to see more African-Americans with a seat at the table, and it?s the group?s job to keep the heat on the president. But not all CBC members share the criticism voiced by their chair.

READ MORE Congress Passes Bill to Avert Shutdown

Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) points out the obvious?that the president himself is black and that Eric Holder as attorney general is still in the Cabinet and responsive to the black community. ?Much more important than the personalities are the policy priorities,? Fattah told The Daily Beast, adding that he is confident that when the Cabinet selection process is complete, it will reflect the country.

A few months ago, it was women complaining that the president wasn?t keeping his promise of diversity, and women weren?t being named to top positions commensurate with their clout at the ballot box. That has since worked out to everybody?s satisfaction, and after Fudge?s letter was made public, White House officials, led by Valerie Jarrett, assured her that nominees who would please her are being vetted. When press secretary Jay Carney was asked at his Monday briefing about the lack of black appointees, he replied cryptically, saying the process is not yet complete and that ?posts that will be empty have not all been filled.?

READ MORE The Wild Wild West Bank

At least four Cabinet-level posts are awaiting nominees: Commerce, EPA, U.S. trade representative, and the Small Business Administration. ?If it turns out he has made an insufficient number of black appointments, he will deserve to get some hassle,? says David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which focuses on issues of concern to the black community. ?At this time, I give him the benefit of the doubt.?

At Monday?s announcement at the White House of Thomas Perez to head the Labor Department, a number of African-American leaders were among the invited guests, and Bositis cites their presence as evidence that Obama is not aloof to the community. Ben Jealous, who heads the NAACP, is a regular visitor at the White House, along with MSNBC?s Al Sharpton, who is there so often that Bositis quips they must have a room for him.

READ MORE O?Reilly Defends Obama Against Bachmann

If Democrats held a majority in the House, then the CBC?s relationship with the White House would be different. They?d be chairing committees, and they?d have more access because they would have power. ?They?re in a really unpleasant situation in terms of clout?they have virtually none,? says Bositis. ?[Obama] meets with black leaders all the time, not occasionally, but they?re not necessarily members of the black caucus.?

It?s probably not a coincidence that Fudge?s letter arrived at the White House soon after Obama met with the Hispanic caucus to discuss immigration reform.

READ MORE Why Paul Ryan?s Star Dimmed

?A lot of this could be bruised egos,? says Kimberly Adams, an associate professor of political science at East Stroudsburg University. She points to a website noting it is 675 days and counting since Obama met with the black caucus. ?They?re saying, ?We?re still relevant,?? says Adams, who is writing a book on the utility and evolving role of the black caucus.

In her research, she says, she finds that the CBC?s priorities of focusing on unemployment, education, poverty, and health care have not changed since the group was founded with just nine members in 1969. ?Whether he meets with them or not, he?s well aware of their concerns,? says Adams, adding that black unemployment, 13.8 percent compared to 7.7 percent overall, is ?worthy of conversation.? That is a conversation that more black Cabinet members might bring out of the shadows and into the forefront of the country?s priorities.

Related from The Daily Beast

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/where-black-appointees-044210329--politics.html

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Pepsi Rolls Out New 20-Ounce Bottle

NEW YORK -- Pepsi is rolling out a new shape for its 20-ounce bottle for the first time in about 17 years.

The new bottle has a contoured bottom half that appears easier to grip, and the wraparound label is shorter so that more of the drink is exposed. The change follows a number of splashy moves in the past year by PepsiCo to improve results for its namesake soda, including a multiyear deal to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show and a wide-ranging deal with pop star Beyonce.

PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y., has been working to revitalize the brand after losing market share to Coca-Cola Co. in recent years.

Andrea Foote, a PepsiCo spokeswoman, said the new 20-ounce bottle is part of the company's ongoing update of marketing and packaging materials for the cola. The single-serve bottles, which are widely sold in coolers at drugstores and other retailers, will begin rolling out in April. The new shape will also be used for the 16-ounce bottles, which aren't as common, as well as Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Pepsi Next.

Foote said it will take a year or two before the new bottles entirely replace the current bottles, which she says were introduced in 1996.

"The engineers have to go to all the plants and convert the lines," Foote said. The new bottles will first appear in the New York area, then roll out to Chicago, parts of California and Florida.

Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, says its current 20-ounce contour bottle made its U.S. debut in 1993. Small changes were made over the years, such as making the surface easier to grip and shortening the neck of the bottle.

Despite PepsiCo's stepped up efforts, its beverage volume in North America declined by 4 percent last year. That included a 4 percent declined in carbonated soft drinks and a 3 percent decline in non-carbonated drinks, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

PepsiCo makes a wide range of products, including Frito-Lay chips, Gatorade, Quaker Oats and Tropicana. But it has long been defined by its namesake soda and its rivalry with Coca-Cola.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/pepsi-new-bottle-20-ounce_n_2927549.html

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ComScore: Russia Widens Online Lead In Europe With 61.3M Users; EU5 Smartphone Penetration Now 57%, Samsung, Android Leading

The analysts at comScore have today published their latest research detailing how Europe is progressing in areas like smartphone penetration, broadband and consumer digital services like video consumption -- part of comScore's ongoing Digital Future In Focus series of annual reports covering different geographical markets. In all, the online audience across the region, covering 18 continues, to creep up and at the end of 2012 was 408.3 million users, with Russia the biggest market at 61.3 million; and mobile users in the "EU5" -- the top-five markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK -- are now up to 241 million, with 57% of them using smartphones.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/L-CVgi58mng/

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