Suicide bomber kills 4 near NATO's Afghan HQ

By Reuters

KABUL, Afghanistan --?A suicide bomber detonated explosives near the heavily barricaded NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday, killing four civilians, NATO and local officials said.

The bomber, who was riding an explosives-laden motorcycle, blew himself up near the entrance of Camp Eggers, a NATO spokeswoman said, referring to a sprawling base that is home to 2,500 coalition trainers.


At least four civilians were killed and two more wounded, Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi told Reuters.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/08/13741340-four-die-in-suicide-bomb-attack-on-nato-hq-in-afghan-capital-kabul?lite

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Mickelson surges into share of the lead with Singh

Phil Mickelson acknowledges the crowd with a thumbs-up after he birdied the 18th hole during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Phil Mickelson acknowledges the crowd with a thumbs-up after he birdied the 18th hole during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Vijay Singh of Fiji, watches his tee shot on the seventh hole during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Tiger Woods reacts after making birdie on the sixth hole during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Tiger Woods reacts after making birdie on the sixth hole during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Phil Mickelson, right, listens to Jim Macky during the third round of the BMW Championship PGA golf tournament at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

(AP) ? The best in golf returned to Indiana for the first time in more than 20 years, and based on the All-Star performance that broke out Saturday in the BMW Championship, this show might leave these golf-hungry fans even more mesmerized.

The last big event at Crooked Stick was the 1991 PGA Championship featuring an unknown rookie named John Daly who turned it into a one-man show of power golf.

There are no mystery guests this time.

Not with Phil Mickelson making 10 birdies, including a 6-iron on the par-3 17th that he described as a "salty little cut, back into the wind." He had a 64 and wound up tied for the lead with Vijay Singh, who has taken only 74 putts through three rounds, but had a three-putt on the 18th hole that gave him a 69 and cost him the outright lead.

Mickelson and Singh, both in the World Golf Hall of Fame, were at 16-under 200.

Right behind them were two-time major Rory McIlroy and former world No. 1 Lee Westwood, followed by the likes of Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson. And only three shots behind was Tiger Woods, who keeps getting the most out of a scrappy game and is very much in the mix going into Sunday.

"The cream has risen to the top, hasn't it?" Westwood said.

This follows the Deutsche Bank Championship in which McIlroy held off Louis Oosthuizen, Woods, Mickelson and Johnson. The opening week at The Barclays featured Nick Watney beating Ryder Cup pick Brandt Snedeker, Johnson and Sergio Garcia.

And now this ? perhaps the strongest leaderboard in golf all year going into the final round.

How strong?

The 16 players separated by five shots have won 29 majors and 21 World Golf Championships, and four of them have been No. 1 in the world over the last decade.

"The crowd is pretty rowdy, and it's an incredible leaderboard," Scott said. "It's going to be fun. I'm glad I put myself in that position."

Singh was the dominant figure throughout the day. The 49-year-old Fijian hasn't won on the PGA Tour in four years, and he was desperate to show that he could put four good rounds together and end that drought. He made enough birdies to offset a few silly mistakes ? mostly short putts that he missed ? and he held it together until the end. Singh was in trouble on the par-5 15th until he chipped in for birdie from 50 feet.

He followed that by missing a 4-foot par putt, only to answer with an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th. He was poised to take the outright lead until his approach to the 18th spun down a ridge, and he gunned the 45-foot putt some 5 feet by the cup and missed it coming back.

"I've one more to do," Singh said. "I've got to play a little better than what I did today. I've got to make less mistakes than I did today. I think I can do that."

Mickelson had his best score since he closed with a 64 to win at Pebble Beach in a final-round pairing with Woods. He has gone quiet since the Masters, however, but a change to a claw-style putting grip has coincided with improved play. Lefty felt his game turning around last week on the TPC Boston, where he put together four straight rounds in the 60s, and Saturday only affirmed it.

He finished the front nine with four straight birdies, caught Singh with a 10-foot birdie on the 13th, and then overcame a bogey on the 14th with three birdies in his last four holes. The most impressive was on the 17th, where he hit that soft cut with a 6-iron to a tight pin, gave it a little body English and saw it settle 6 feet away.

"It's taken me a little while to piece it back together, but I could tell last week that my game was back and I was ready to play at the highest level again," Mickelson said. "I came out Thursday and forced it a little too much the front nine. But after that, I've been able to settle down and play some good golf. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's shootout. It should be fun."

The shootout was made possible by drenching rain this week, allowing the players to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairway. Three more inches of rain fell overnight, delaying the third round by an hour to remove water from the bunkers and get the course ready.

Then, the best in the world tore it up.

Woods began flexing his left leg during the front nine after an awkward stance on the fourth hole, his feet planted in the grass with his golf ball well below in the sand. He winced occasionally and was tumbling down the leaderboard until he chipped in from 25 feet on the ninth hole.

Thus began four birdies in a five-hole stretch that kept him in the game. He had a 71, losing two shots on the lead, though it could have been worse.

"I'm within reach," Woods said. "I have to probably shoot 63 or 64 tomorrow to have a chance."

But at least he has one, along with a dozen others.

McIlroy didn't play particularly well, either, especially on the easy par-5 ninth when he pitched over the green, chipped to 6 feet and missed to make a bogey. He played the front nine in even par and fell three shots out of the lead until he rallied on the back nine.

"I'm delighted just to be one back going into tomorrow because the display of golf I put on out there from tee to green was not very good," McIlroy said. "I hung in there and made some putts on the back nine and was able to get myself back in the tournament."

If the opening two playoff events were any indication, the only predictable about Sunday might be a forecast of pleasant conditions.

The winners have come from two and three shots behind at Bethpage and Boston, including McIlroy rallying from a three-shot deficit last week. That should help ease the sting of a sloppy day that he turned into a decent score. At stake for Boy Wonder in the final round is a chance to win for the fourth time this year, and become the first player to win back-to-back on the PGA Tour since Woods in 2009.

Then again, it seems everyone has something at stake tomorrow, and everyone has a chance.

"It's the playoffs," Johnson said. "Guys come to play golf. In the big tournaments, it seems like all year the top guys are up there every time."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-08-BMW%20Championship/id-6437be30d948416db6227c6f1eade802

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Health-care system wastes $750B a year through waste, fraud

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year ? roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar ? through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.

"Health care in America presents a fundamental paradox," said the report from an 18-member panel of prominent experts, including doctors, business people, and public officials. "The past 50 years have seen an explosion in biomedical knowledge, dramatic innovation in therapies and surgical procedures, and management of conditions that previously were fatal ...

"Yet, American health care is falling short on basic dimensions of quality, outcomes, costs and equity," the report concluded.

If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take days, the report said. If home building were like health care, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would work from different blueprints and hardly talk to each other. If shopping were like health care, prices would not be posted and could vary widely within the same store, depending on who was paying.

If airline travel were like health care, individual pilots would be free to design their own preflight safety checks ? or not perform one at all.

How much is $750 billion? The one-year estimate of health care waste is equal to more than ten years of Medicare cuts in Obama's health care law. It's more than the Pentagon budget. It's more than enough to care for the uninsured.

Getting health care costs better controlled is one of the keys to reducing the deficit, the biggest domestic challenge facing the next president. The report did not lay out a policy prescription for Medicare and Medicaid but suggested there's plenty of room for lawmakers to find a path.

Both Obama and Romney agree there has to be a limit to Medicare spending, but they differ on how to get that done. Obama would rely on a powerful board to cut payments to service providers, while gradually changing how hospitals and doctors are paid to reward results instead of volume. Romney would limit the amount of money future retirees can get from the government for medical insurance, relying on the private market to find an efficient solution. Each accuses of the other of jeopardizing the well-being of seniors.

But panel members urged a frank discussion with the public about the value Americans are getting for their health care dollars. As a model, they cited "Choosing Wisely," a campaign launched earlier this year by nine medical societies to challenge the widespread perception that more care is better.

"Rationing to me is when we are denying medical care that is helpful to patients, on the basis of costs," said cardiologist Dr. Rita Redberg, a medical school professor at the University of California, San Francisco. "We have a lot of medical care that is not helpful to patients, and some of it is harmful. The problem is when you talk about getting rid of any type of health care, someone yells, 'Rationing.' "

More than 18 months in the making, the report identified six major areas of waste: unnecessary services ($210 billion annually); inefficient delivery of care ($130 billion); excess administrative costs ($190 billion); inflated prices ($105 billion); prevention failures ($55 billion), and fraud ($75 billion). Adjusting for some overlap among the categories, the panel settled on an estimate of $750 billion.

Examples of wasteful care include most repeat colonoscopies within 10 years of a first such test, early imaging for most back pain, and brain scans for patients who fainted but didn't have seizures.

The report makes ten recommendations, including payment reforms to reward quality results instead of reimbursing for each procedure, improving coordination among different kinds of service providers, leveraging technology to reinforce sound clinical decisions and educating patients to become more savvy consumers.

The report's main message for government is to accelerate payment reforms, said panel chair Dr. Mark Smith, president of the California HealthCare Foundation, a research group. For employers, it's to move beyond cost shifts to workers and start demanding accountability from hospitals and major medical groups. For doctors, it means getting beyond the bubble of solo practice and collaborating with peers and other clinicians.

"It's a huge hill to climb, and we're not going to get out of this overnight," said Smith. "The good news is that the very common notion that quality will suffer if less money is spent is simply not true. That should reassure people that the conversation about controlling costs is not necessarily about reducing quality."

The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is an independent organization that advises the government.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-us-health-care-system-wastes-750b-140106406.html

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El Paso Catholic church bulletin urges Obama defeat

A local Catholic church appears to have violated IRS rules -- and Catholic doctrine -- by endorsing a presidential candidate in a church bulletin.

St. Raphael Catholic Church on the city's East Side might have violated an Internal Revenue Service rule that prohibits tax-exempt churches from taking sides when it comes to candidates seeking political office in its Aug. 5 bulletin.

"I am asking all of you to go to the polls and be united in replacing our present president with a president that will respect the Catholic Church in this country," the end of the entry in the bulletin says. "Please pass this on to all of your Catholic friends."

The IRS won't comment on individual complaints, but its publication, "Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations," says, "Churches and religious organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

The item in St. Raphael's bulletin clearly violates those rules, said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based group that argues that separation of church and state protects religion as well as government.

Lynn said the item encouraging parishioners to vote against President Barack Obama was an official communication of the church.

"What's more official than the church

bulletin?" he asked.

Monsignor Francis J. Smith, pastor of St. Raphael Catholic Church, couldn't be reached for this story.

But the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, which oversees St. Raphael, acknowledged in an email that the entry in the bulletin was inappropriate.

"Churches and other nonprofits are strictly prohibited from engaging in political campaigning/endorsement of a particular candidate," said Deacon Carlos Rubio, vice chancellor of the diocese. "The Diocese of El Paso is aware of this requirement from the IRS and mindful that it does not violate such norms."

The passage in the bulletin lists the number of employees of Catholic schools and hospitals in the United States, and it appears to be in response to Obama's mandate that health plans offered by those employers cover birth-control medication for women who want it. Catholic doctrine opposes artificial means of birth control.

The language that appeared in the bulletin also appeared -- verbatim -- in a July 10 post titled "Social Importance of the Catholic Church" on "Defenders of the Catholic Faith" -- a blog hosted by writer and lecturer Steve Ray. Political entries on the blog oppose Obama and what it says are his policies.

Contacted by email, Ray seemed unconcerned that the bulletin did not credit him for the passage, which he said he didn't remember writing.

"I am for the church and Catholics speaking their mind," he wrote. "We've been quiet too long."

Church rules say differently.

The primary U.S. church document on the Catholic Church's role in politics is called "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It says the role of bishops, priests and deacons is to teach fundamental moral principals that provide the framework for decisions such as how to vote.

"In fulfilling these responsibilities, the Church's leaders are to avoid endorsing or opposing candidates or telling people how to vote," the document says.

It also quotes Pope Benedict XVI: "The Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest. ? The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice."

Rubio, the deacon of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, referred to the bishops' instructions in describing the steps the diocese is taking in response to the entry in the St. Raphael bulletin.

"The office of the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of El Paso has asked the pastor of St. Raphael Parish to re-address the article that appeared on August 5, 2012, in the parish bulletin in a manner that is consistent with the Guidelines of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on 'Faithful Citizenship' and requirements of the IRS," he said.

St. Raphael's bulletin was one reaction to Obama's mandate over contraception coverage. It also aroused the anger of many Catholics -- including some bishops.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate the Diocese of Peoria, Ill. Its bishop, Daniel R. Jenky, delivered a homily comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin over the birth-control issue and then urged his listeners to go vote their consciences.

Last year, the organization complained to the IRS that El Paso's Word of Life Church was improperly involving itself in electoral politics by using its Tom Brown Ministries website to encourage voters to recall Mayor John Cook and city Reps. Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd.

Lynn, the executive director of Americans United, said IRS sanctions that are milder than revoking tax exemptions are often secret, so it can be impossible to know when -- or whether -- the agency takes action.

Even though the church cannot take sides, Rubio reminded El Paso Catholics to vote this presidential election season.

"The Diocese of El Paso cannot endorse any candidate for public office but reminds the Catholic faithful to exercise their civic duty to vote responsibly," he said. "It also reminds pastors and those who write in parish bulletins to respect copyright/published material guidelines for giving credit to original authors."

Marty Schladen may be reached at mschladen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.

Source: http://www.au.org/media/in-the-news/el-paso-catholic-church-bulletin-urges-obama-defeat

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What you can do to protect your business and employees from ...

By Cole Epley

Almost 2 million Americans report they have been victims of violence in the workplace each year, according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

In the wake of recent acts of workplace violence on the national level, Betsy Weintraub, an associate attorney with the Memphis office of labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP, lent her unique perspective as a former Assistant District Attorney to the following Q&A session. Her answers have been edited for clarity and space considerations.

Read through to find out how you can address workplace violence at your place of work ? and possibly even prevent it from occurring in the first place.

Q: From the Empire State Building shooting two weeks ago to the incident at The ServiceMaster Co. corporate headquarters in April, area employers may now be increasingly inclined to be more proactive in addressing safety issues in the workplace ? what should they be considering? Where can they turn?

A: It is certainly understandable that employers would have trouble maintaining a completely risk-free workplace. Some potentially violent issues in the workplace are reasonably foreseeable, however, which is why OSHA has issued specific guidelines for prevention of workplace violence in certain high-risk areas, such as late-night retail establishments, for health care and social workers and for taxi drivers.

?(But) if an employer does not already have policies and procedures in place to address workplace violence, they should consult with an employment attorney about what kinds of policies they should implement. Employers can also visit the OSHA website, where they can find a number of general recommendations for employers in all industries.

Q: What are some pitfalls employers can avoid in trying to address these issues for their employees? What difficulties might they face?

A: The important thing for employers to keep in mind is that they need to protect their employees, not just their property. If a jeweler brings in a security consultant, for instance, to get advice on how to secure his jewelry store for insurance purposes, the employer should also get advice on how to protect his or her employees in the event of a robbery or other hazardous situation.

Personal types of workplace violence are probably the most difficult hazards for employers to address. Considering the extremely high rate of domestic violence, an employer would probably be safe to assume that at least one of the employees has been a victim or perpetrator of domestic violence at some point. Employers can address personal threats to employees by maintaining an open environment where an employee feels comfortable reporting a personal threat to management or human resources.

Employers should also use extreme caution in listing names or photos of their employees on company websites. If an employer wants to list individual names, the employer should give all the employees the option to request that their names not be included on the website ? At the District Attorney?s Office, I saw firsthand how abusive partners and stalkers frequently use the Internet to find their victims.

Q: How important is it for not only employers but for employees, as well, to be aware of their legal rights in the workplace? What protections are they afforded by law on the federal and state levels?

A: Federal law grants employees the right to a safe workplace. Section 5(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970 (OSH Act) requires each employer to comply with its occupational health and safety standards and to ?furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.?

Employees have the right to work in a place that does not pose a risk of serious harm or death. If an employee feels that his or her safety is at risk, the employee can request an OSHA inspection at the work site or request information about the hazards and standards that apply in his or her work environment. The OSH Act also protects employees from retaliation and discrimination at work for asserting these rights ? employers can face serious consequences from fines to criminal prosecution if they are not aware of, or choose to ignore, their legal responsibilities concerning workplace violence.

Source: Memphis Business Journal



What Every Target of Workplace Bullying Needs to Know
Are You A Target of Workplace Bullying?

Download: What Every Target of Workplace Bullying Needs to Know.
Learn how To avoid the traps, stop bullies in their tracks and get your life back!

More Information: OvercomeBullying.org

Source: http://workplaceviolencenews.com/2012/09/06/what-you-can-do-to-protect-your-business-and-employees-from-workplace-violence/

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President Obama to stump in West Palm Beach

Barack Obams

Barack Obams (September 6, 2012)

3:48 a.m. EDT, September 6, 2012

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit West Palm Beach for a free, grass roots campaign appearance on Sunday, according to campaign organizers.

It will be held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center at 650 W. Okeechobee Blvd.

The public is invited to attend but tickets are required.

One ticket per person will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tickets are available at several Organizing for America locations, including: 3008 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach; 3520 Broadway in Riviera Beach; 3200 S. Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach; 12785 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 8C in Wellington; 6020 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton.

Tickets become available beginning on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-obama-visits-west-palm-beach-20120905,0,4702568.story?track=rss

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Two questions on renting/buying in Japan

My wife really wants to buy an apartment or house in the suburbs of Tokyo, which I have some strong misgivings about.

One of her reasons is that apparently it is very difficult to rent places once you reach retirement age - estate agents are too worried about potential problems such as senility, unexpected deaths, low income of the tenants etc., to rent to elderly people. My view is that if you have the money, then estate agents want it and you can find somewhere to live. If things in Japan were really that strict, surely there would be a really large number of homeless people.
What is the situation in Japan?

The other question is on apartments. I pointed out to her that if we bought an apartment at the age of 40, then by the time we were 70, the apartment would be knocked down and we would be in the above situation. She said that when the apartment was knocked down, because the owner would own part of the land, they'd get some money back. Is this true?

Source: http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?121516-Two-questions-on-renting-buying-in-Japan&goto=newpost

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Jackson estate, businessman settle copyright case

FILE - In a March 5, 2009 file photo US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In a March 5, 2009 file photo US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 file photo, Michael Jackson follows his mother, Katherine Jackson, as they arrive for court on the opening day of his child molestation trial at Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif. A trial scheduled to begin Tuesday September 6, 2012 will determine how much a businessman working with Katherine Jackson will have to pay her son?s estate for infringing some of its copyrights. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

(AP) ? Michael Jackson's estate and a businessman working with the singer's mother settled a copyright infringement lawsuit for $2.5 million on Tuesday, shortly before a trial in the case was scheduled to begin.

The settlement also restricts Howard Mann and his companies from using Jackson's likeness without permission in the future. It ends a year and a half of legal fighting over Mann's use of Jackson's name and likeness on a website used to promote unreleased songs, photographs and a book written by Katherine Jackson filled with recollections of her superstar son.

Mann is the CEO of Vintage Pop Media, which operated the website www.michaeljacksonsecretvault.com until it was ordered shut down last month by a federal judge who ruled the site violated copyrights controlled by the singer's estate.

Under the terms of the settlement, announced in court by estate attorney Zia Modabber, Vintage Pop Media Group is responsible for $2 million of the judgment, while the entity Vintage Associates LLC is responsible for the remainder. Vintage Associates is the custodian of the items that were at issue in the case.

Mann's attorney, Lee Durst, declined comment after the hearing. "The estate is delighted this matter is behind us," estate attorney Howard Weitzman said.

Among the items that had been improperly used were images from Jackson's posthumous film "This Is It" and a silhouette of the singer dancing in "Smooth Criminal." The settlement also blocks the usage of materials from "Thriller" that had appeared on Mann's website.

A jury trial on how much Mann owes the estate had been scheduled to begin Tuesday, with an expert estimating a license for the works is worth between $5 million and $12 million.

Mann's attorneys rejected a settlement offer last week of $2 million. They sought to introduce evidence that they were given bad legal advice about having to license the works and have considered calling Katherine Jackson as a witness. The Jackson family matriarch is one of the beneficiaries of the singer's estate, along with his three children.

U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson has noted that Mann doesn't appear to have the resources to pay a large judgment. The defendants' ability to pay was not discussed in court on Tuesday.

__

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-04-Jackson-Estate/id-8e44f44a2da24b469ab6fef8aedc551a

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JXD S602 Android 4.0 PSP Clone Gaming Console Unveiled For $66

If you like the style of Sony?s PSP handheld gaming console, but would prefer something that runs Google?s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system.

A new upgraded from the older JXD S601 in the form of the JXD S602, is now available to purchase for just $66, with 4GB of onboard storage included. Watch the video after the jump to see the JXD S602?in action.

JXD S602 Android 4.0

The JXD S602 Android gaming console is powered by a ARM: GP33003, ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor. Which is supported by 512MB DDR3 memory and fitted with a 4.3 inch 2 points resistive touch screen.

Software preloaded on the JXD S602 include emulators for the PS1, N64, SFC, GBA, MD, FC to name just a few. For more information jump over to the Willgoo website for fully specifications and to purchase for $66.

Source: Liliputing?:?Obscure Handhelds

Source: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/jxd-s602-android-4-0-psp-clone-gaming-console-unveiled-for-66-video-04-09-2012/

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Police: Buffalo man tried to eat bogus $50 bills

(AP) ? Authorities say a 35-year-old man tried to swallow several counterfeit $50 bills after he was caught trying to use the bogus money at a western New York amusement park.

The Genesee (JEN'-uh-see) County Sheriff's Office says deputies were called to Darien Lake Theme Park and Resort on Sunday night after Larry Jones, of Buffalo, bought french fries with a $50 bill.

Deputies say a park employee determined the bill was counterfeit and called security. While being taken away, deputies say Jones stuffed five counterfeit bills into his mouth and tried to eat them.

Security officers retrieved the bills before Jones swallowed them.

Jones was charged with possessing a forged instrument and tampering with evidence and sent to the county jail with no bail. It couldn't be determined if he had a lawyer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-09-04-Eating%20Counterfeit%20Money/id-15b4479be49f41d59fe134ac40eff11d

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