Syrian rebels: 170 regime tanks mass near major city

EDITOR'S NOTE: Image supplied by the opposition Shaam News Network.

Bodies of people allegedly killed by government forces in Douma, Syria, on Thursday.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

ANTAKYA, Turkey - Syrian helicopter gunships reportedly?bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks moved close to the commercial hub and its largest city Aleppo, rebel fighters said on Friday.?

Meanwhile, anti-regime groups reported what one called a "hideous massacre" in Douma, outside of Damascus, and distributed a video and photograph purportedly showing the aftermath of a killing that left more than 50 dead, including women and children. ?Journalists do not operate freely in Syria so there was no way of confirming the report.?

---

A senior rebel officer said around 170 Syrian tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 19 miles from the Turkish border but were keeping?well clear of new Turkish air?defenses?installed to curb Syrian action near its frontiers.

"They're either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo," General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, a grouping of senior officers who defected from Assad's forces,?told Reuters by telephone from the border.?

Turkey sends military convoys toward Syrian border

Omar Abdallah, an activist in Idlib coordinating with the Free Syrian Army said: "After taking hits in rural Aleppo and Idlib, the army is re-grouping ... There is speculation that these forces intend to ring Aleppo starting July 1."?

Turkish commanders inspected the missile batteries deployed on the border region on Thursday following Syria's shooting down of a Turkish warplane a week ago, which has sharply raised tensions between the two nations.?

Massacre?
Meantime, Syrians in the besieged city of Douma wrapped mangled and bloodied corpses in white burial shrouds early on Friday, according to video posted online.

Contains graphic images: Link to YouTube video, unverified by msnbc.com

"A massacre has been committed in the city of Douma, killing more than 50 in this bloody day, where Assad mafias and death squads launch aggressive attacks, bombardment of the city, and executions," U.S.-based anti-Assad Syrian Expatriates said a statement.?

A bomb targeting Syria's highest court has exploded in Damascus. NBC's Bill Neely reports.

Douma is predominantly Sunni community that has become as a focus of resistance to the Assad government.

The group gave details for the killings of 10 members of the same family, including four chidren, their mothers and grandmother. ?More than 200 were wounded, the group said.?

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 190 people, including 125 civilians, were killed on Thursday throughout the country.

The United States, Britain and France have said that Assad is responsible for the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 10,000 people, and is no longer fit to govern. Russia and China, however, reject what they describe as Western calls for "regime change."?

A strong explosion rocked the Syrian capital near a busy market and the Palace of Justice. Msnbc.com's Richard Lui reports.

Turkish deployments?
The Turkish deployments, a graphic warning to President Bashar al-Assad, coincide with rising violence across Syria and increasingly urgent international efforts to forge a peace deal as the nation slips into full-blown war.?

As the Turkish-Syrian dimension ratcheted up further pressure, peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "optimistic" that crisis talks in Geneva on Saturday would produce an acceptable outcome, which has so far proved elusive.?

Turkey to help 'liberate the Syrians from dictatorship'

Regional analysts said that while neither Turkey nor its NATO allies appeared to have any appetite to enforce a formal no-fly zone over Syrian territory, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had made it clear Assad would be risking what he called the 'wrath' of Turkey if its aircraft strayed close to its borders.?

Recently, there were clashes close to the border between Syrian forces and rebels. Last weekend, Damascus said "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey were killed and there have been reports of Syrian forces shooting into camps for refugees in Turkey.?

Turkey, sheltering some 34,000 Syrian refugees and providing bases for the rebel Free Syria Army (FSA), is in the forefront of the efforts to bring down Assad.?

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his newly appointed cabinet that a real "state of war" exists in the country and directed them to direct all its efforts toward vanquishing the uprising against him. ITV's Bill Neely reports.

Syrian tanks mass?
Rebel sources in Turkey's Hatay region said Assad's helicopters attacked Saraqeb, a strategic town deep in Idlib province, but kept away from the area directly along the Turkish border in the rural regions of Idlib and Aleppo provinces.?

Neither Turkey, which fears a local clash escalating into a regional sectarian conflagration, nor Syria, has any interest in a confrontation on their shared border.?

Ankara, which has the second biggest army in NATO, called an emergency NATO meeting after its warplane was shot down.?

Turkey has in the past talked about creating a humanitarian corridor on Syrian territory if refugee flows became dangerously unmanageable or the scale of killing in Syria became intolerable. But it had always said this would require international endorsement.?

"NATO just doesn't look like it's in the mood," David Hartwell, Middle East analyst, IHS Jane's, said. "What you might get is the Turks forcing a de facto no-fly zone."?

Erdogan announced earlier this week that he had issued new rules of engagement to his border troops and said any Syrian military elements approaching Turkish borders and deemed a threat would be treated as a target. But he failed, perhaps deliberately, to specify how close Syrian forces could come to the border before becoming vulnerable.?

"The Syrians might accept a very narrow zone along the border. Syria will remain very reluctant to get involved in any conflict with Turkey. They would be up against a very serious military foe," Malcolm Chalmers, research director at Britain's Royal United Services Institute, said.?

The world has been accused by Syrian opposition activists of inertia over the bloodshed. Diplomacy has failed to produce agreement between Western powers, backing the opposition, and Russia, which has used its U.N. veto to block Western and Sunni Arab moves to drive Assad from power.?

Reuters and msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12479205-assad-forces-bombard-northern-towns-as-170-tanks-mass-near-major-city-syrian-rebels-say?lite

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U.S. investigating Google unit over patent licensing

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-investigating-google-unit-over-patent-licensing-224142480--sector.html

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It's business vs. wilderness in oyster farm's fight to extend federal lease

?

Not even a small business providing a product or service can be ignored by the radical environmental Left.? It must be stopped.? People should not be allowed to work or earn a profit.

?The federal lease for his operation, which allows Lunny to harvest oysters within the pristine Point Reyes National Seashore, expires Nov. 30. With the backing of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. ? a powerful ally and ardent supporter of his oyster farm ? Lunny is seeking a 10-year extension that would mean survival for Drakes Bay.

The resulting conflict ? between supporters of a thriving, sustainable oyster farm and wilderness advocates trying to protect one of the world?s most spectacular conservation areas ? has divided the Point Reyes community.?

This could cost 30 jobs.? Not much when you have millions unemployed, still these are human being?they deserve respect and a job.? Obama, at the cost of $1.63 million could get these people jobs in the solar industry?your money in action.? Or let them farm oysters and stay off the public welfare system.? Bet you did not know about this.

?

It?s business vs. wilderness in oyster farm?s fight to extend federal lease

The state?s last remaining oyster cannery has attracted powerful allies ? and scrutiny from environmentalists
By: Jeff Greenwald, Center for Investigative Reporting,? 6/27/12

Oyster farm in limbo

The Drakes Bay Oyster Co. in Inverness would be forced to close if the Obama administration refuses to grant a lease extension.
Credit: Dwayne Newton/ The Bay Citizen

On clear days at low tide from his home above Drakes Estero, Kevin Lunny can make out the wooden racks of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. farm. Lunny, who is also a cattle rancher and contractor, bought the business in 2005 ? despite some daunting conditions.

The original tenants ? Johnson?s Oyster Farm ? had left a legacy of public health violations and plastic debris polluting the bay and shoreline. Along with this vexing environmental cleanup, Lunny inherited another mess.

The federal lease for his operation, which allows Lunny to harvest oysters within the pristine Point Reyes National Seashore, expires Nov. 30. With the backing of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. ? a powerful ally and ardent supporter of his oyster farm ? Lunny is seeking a 10-year extension that would mean survival for Drakes Bay.

The resulting conflict ? between supporters of a thriving, sustainable oyster farm and wilderness advocates trying to protect one of the world?s most spectacular conservation areas ? has divided the Point Reyes community.

The debate has become one of the most bitter local battles since the Point Reyes National Seashore was cobbled together out of government holdings and private ranches 50 years ago.

?Kevin Lunny is the most sensitive ecological farmer in our region,? said Sue Conley, whose Cowgirl Creamery produces artisanal cheeses sold all over the United States. ?He?s a model for the kind of agriculture that environmentalists should embrace. But this is a stronghold of old-time thinking about environmentalism being separate from human activity.?

To environmentalists, the status of Drakes Estero is a matter of science, law and federal policy. Much of the Point Reyes National Seashore already is protected by the Wilderness Act of 1964, which defines a federally protected wilderness as ?retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation.?

Lunny?s farm grows 500,000 pounds of non-native Pacific oysters each year and harvests them using motorboats. Some 30 people work on the site. It?s a rustic-looking operation, surrounded by a shucking room, packing room and large round tanks used to grow oyster larvae.

Visitors are guided past mountains of discarded shells, used to restore habitat and aid in new oyster growth. Using only organic feed ? naturally occurring phytoplankton ? the business is California?s last oyster cannery. About half of the Drakes Bay crop is packed in jars and sold in the retail market; the rest supplies fresh oysters to scores of restaurants statewide. The business brings in just a little less than $2 million a year.

The roots of Lunny?s dilemma go back four decades. In 1972, the National Park Service ? which owns Drakes Estero as part of the Point Reyes National Seashore ?granted the Johnsons a 40-year terminable lease called a ?reservation of use.?

Four years later, with the Point Reyes Wilderness Act [PDF], Congress designated the 2,200-acre inlet a ?potential wilderness.? This means that in November, when the oyster farm?s lease expires, the park service would take over the land. Drakes Estero then would become the only federally protected marine wilderness on America?s Pacific coast.

?Once Congress says you are potential wilderness, you?re on a one-way path,? said Amy Trainer, executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin. ?The Lunnys knew the deal when they moved in seven years ago. I?m not working to shut down the oyster farm. I?m working to honor a congressional wilderness designation.?

Initially, those conditions were acceptable to the Lunnys. In 2006, however, they began working with Feinstein to protect their growing business. In 2009, she attached a rider to an appropriations bill, giving Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar the discretion to extend the Lunnys? lease an additional 10 years. His decision is due by Nov. 30.

The rider has raised the political stakes of the decision and puts substantial pressure on Salazar and the Obama administration. Salazar must decide between a new national wilderness and, in a time of economic uncertainty, a small business that a powerful California senator has fought to defend through legislation, press releases and public statements.

Only three months after President Barack Obama was inaugurated, Feinstein wrote Salazar saying she was ?concerned about the National Park Service?s apparent efforts to shut down a family-owned oyster operation in Drakes Estero by casting it as harmful to the environment. Drakes Estero has been home to a family-owned oystering business since 1934 ? long before the park was established. It employs 30-40 people, and is part of the sustainable agricultural movement in West Marin.?

Few deny that Lunny?s operation has an effect on the character and ecology of Drakes Estero. It now falls on the National Park Service to assess, with a consultant specializing in preparing environmental documents, whether the Drakes Bay oyster farm is harming the estuary?s marine, bird and plant life.

There?s no question that the oyster farm itself is not compatible with wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines the term as ?an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.?

The farm?s footprint is subtle, but it?s not invisible. Noise from the oyster-collecting boats, which make more than 1,000 trips a year, may disturb pupping seals. Some patches of native eelgrass have been covered.

And there is an ongoing problem with ?legacy? debris: 6-inch black plastic spacer tubes, used in the cultivation of oysters, that wash up on Point Reyes? beaches. Clumsy farming methods by the Johnsons let thousands of these tubes escape. Although Lunny is phasing these out in favor of more eco-friendly methods, his oyster farm also uses the spacers when necessary.

?We?re not pretending that there?s no effect,? said Lunny, whose operation attracts some 50,000 visitors a year and produces about 40 percent of the oysters consumed in California. ?Going out on a boat, there will be times when we may flush birds or whatever. There?s no such thing as zero impact.?

So far, the peer-reviewed science examining Drakes Estero has produced little direct evidence that the oyster operation is creating a significant impact on the seal population, eelgrass or tidal waters. A 2009 report from the National Research Council stated the dilemma plainly: ?The adverse or beneficial effects of oyster farming cannot be fully understood given the existing data and analyses.?

The result of this uncertainty is that scientific findings made by one side are swiftly challenged by the other. This has led to dueling environmental impact reports and seemingly endless peer reviews, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Activists assert that the estuary?s designation as a potential wilderness, coupled with the oyster farm?s soon-to-expire lease, indelibly shows what Congress intended when it passed the Point Reyes Wilderness Act.

?National Park wilderness is our nation?s most sacred public trust resource,? Trainer said. ?And here it is under attack. It took a big fight to get this wilderness designation for Drakes Estero. Think of all the times we?ve battled to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; this is the same concept. ?

But Lunny ? who can see the fingerling outlines of Drakes Estero from the front door of his Historic G Ranch, just off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard ? believes the very notion of calling the area a wilderness is a stretch. Oyster farms, he said, have been a part of the estuary since 1936.

?Drakes Estero is a hand-shaped estuary completely surrounded by ranches,? he said. ?What this will do is cherry-stem a small wilderness into the middle of farmland.?

Another more recent point of contention centers on what actually was meant when Drakes Estero was designated a ?potential wilderness.? Did Congress want the oyster farm to stay or require it to leave? Nearly four decades later, one of the Point Reyes Wilderness Act?s supporters ? former congressman and longtime environmentalist Pete McCloskey ? claims Congress never intended to remove the oyster operation.

?The oyster farm is a valuable resource for education and research as well as food production,? McCloskey wrote in a July 2011 letter to the Point Reyes Light newspaper.

The statement was frustrating for wilderness advocates, who respect McCloskey but hold him to the law he helped pass in 1976.

?If he wants to change his mind on how he wants to interpret this policy, that?s fine,? said Neal Desai, associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association?s Pacific regional office. ?But the law has been clear and in writing for years.?

Trainer agrees. In September, she said, the National Park Service called for comments on its draft environmental impact statement. There were more than 50,000 responses from all over the country. Of these, an estimated 92 percent called for the ?no-action alternative,? which would allow the oyster farm lease to expire.

?The public support for wilderness,? she said, ?is overwhelming.?

The next step is a final environmental impact statement, which is designed to summarize whether the commercial operation is consistent with existing policy, law and science. Salazar will review these findings, along with arguments to the contrary, and decide whether to make the business a part of the estuary?s landscape for at least another decade.

Salazar?s ruling, when it comes, will resonate far beyond the wooden oyster beds of Drakes Bay. Environmentalists contend that if the oyster farm?s lease is extended, park protections everywhere could be affected.

Desai said there are hundreds of similar ?reservation of use? leases throughout the national park system. The environmental importance of Drakes Estero cannot be replicated, he said, while oysters can be grown on other farms, some as close by as Tomales Bay, less than an hour?s drive away.

?Secretary Salazar?s decision will have a major impact, for better or worse,? Desai said. ?He can affirm that our country?s national parks are managed for public benefit, rather than private gain.?

While many well-known environmentalists have expressed strong support for the Drakes Estero wilderness ? including biologist E.O. Wilson and oceanographer Sylvia Earle ? the issue is likely to be decided on strictly legal and scientific grounds.

The final word is due this fall. Until then, no one can predict what Kevin Lunny will see from his porch when December rolls around.

?

Source: http://capoliticalnews.com/2012/06/28/its-business-vs-wilderness-in-oyster-farms-fight-to-extend-federal-lease/

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Jennifer Hudson On Upcoming Wedding, Son Will ?Definitely Be Part Of It?

WENN

By Radar Staff

After briefly calling off her wedding to David Otunga, Jennifer Hudson is getting excited to walk down the aisle ? and so is her little boy!

The American Idol alum reveals that her nearly 3-year-old son, David Daniel Otunga Jr., is thrilled about her upcoming nuptials to his father ? and RadarOnline.com has the details.

PHOTOS: Jennifer Hudson's Tongue Poking Patdown

?My son won?t have it any other way,? Hudson tells Parade magazine about her wedding plans.? ?He?ll definitely be part of it. Maybe he?ll even sing!?

Hudson, who celebrated the release of her exclusive free download 'Lullaby and Goodnight' at the Pampers Lullabies event on Wednesday night in New York City, also revealed that the toddler is already a budding entertainer.

PHOTOS: Cutest Celebrity Kids

"He's growing up with a musical background and music is a huge part of our household. It's a huge way I communicate with him,? she explains. ?He didn't want to go to bed the other day and wanted to sing for me. He tried to grab the mic stand and perform 'Proud Mary'? not that he knew all the words! But he got enough of it and did a good job. He really responds. When I perform, he'll tell me if he thinks I did good."

RadarOnline.com exclusively revealed that Hudson recently had second thoughts about marrying her fianc? of several years, even briefly returning her stunning engagement ring.

PHOTOS: Hot Celeb Moms

?Jennifer started feeling like it just wasn?t right,? a source told Radar.? ?So many bad things have happened since they got engaged in 2008 that have prevented them from finally getting married, and she was worried that she was just trying too hard to make something happen that wasn?t meant to be.?

RELATED STORIES:

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Jennifer Hudson Breaks Down In Tears Over Testimony About Her Brother's Death

Source: http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/06/jennifer-hudson-wedding-plans-david-otunga

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Video: HBT Extra: Are we firmly in the pitchers' era?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/47988557#47988557

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NASA cancels climate study project in Thailand

BANGKOK (AP) ? The United States says it won't be able to carry out a climate study this year because Thailand has postponed granting NASA permission to use a key naval air base.

The American space agency's request to use Thailand's U-Tapao air base has faced opposition from critics who say it could be a cover for military purposes.

The Thai Cabinet decided on Tuesday to have lawmakers debate the issue after Parliament reconvenes Aug. 1, a month after a deadline NASA had set.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler said Thursday that NASA can't wait because the climate study focuses on regional weather patterns that occur only in August and September.

He says it is too early to say whether NASA will revisit the project next year.

Associated Press

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Enliven Your own Job Search Today

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1. Interviewers

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Have you ever watched ?The Apprentice?? Like an beginner the intern may become compensated or delinquent. Supplying to perform a free Internship will offer you the abilities you need to conquer the levels of competition. Along with to know if you?re able to ?wow? the boss an individual may have got a job provide on the stand any time the internship has become concluded.

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i am thinking of selling my home should i use a real estate agent and ...

i am thinking of selling my home should i use a real estate agent and waste 6% comm or should i try to sell it, i spoke to a few other people that have used real estate agents and the sellers just felt that the agents were liars and lied about everything just to get them o sign a contract , is it true that real estate agent are liars and will say anything just to get a list also is this a good time to sell or is it true what ii hear that nobody is buying houses and real estate sales are flat , thank you

There are good realtors and bad ones. Their are realtors precisely because they provide a service and save people money in the long haul. (If they didnt, everyone would sell on their own, and save the commission)
This is how they help you:
1. They bring a network of buyers to the table with MLS. You cant get your house listed in MLS, therefore the thousands of buyers working in Minneapolis with realtors, will never know your house id for sale.
2. They know the market, and know how to price your home. You may underprice your house.
3. They save you time, by prequalifying people that want to see your house. No walkins that have no money, or waorse, have criminal intents.
4. The buyer of a FSBO knows you are not paying a commission, and often feels half that money belongs to him. Your savings just got cut in half.
5. The realtor pays for all the advertising and open houses.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Is House of Lies Real?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Jeffrey Donovan: Engaged to Michelle Woods!

Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan is engaged to Michelle Woods.

The 44-year-old Donovan, who stars as spy Michael Westen on the hit USA Network show, has been seeing Woods, a model, for some time.

The cute duo has stepped out for various red carpet events in recent years, and have competed together in various charity triathlon events.

They're planning a summer wedding! Congrats to the couple!

[Photo: WENN.com]

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HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN ($1,749 direct), geared toward businesses with massive printing needs, has the chops to churn out large numbers of pages at breakneck speed. Its sticker price is high, but its low running costs should make it an attractive investment for busy SMB and enterprise departments looking for a speedy, high-volume black-and-white printer.

The M603DN?s 62 page-per-minute (ppm) rated speed matches that of the HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603N ($1,499 direct, 4 stars) as the fastest of any printers we?ve reviewed. They both lived up to their blistering rated speeds, printing out our test suite in a near-record pace. A 275,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle (with a recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 20,000 pages), as well as substantial standard and optional paper capacity, pegs the M603 series for SMB or enterprise workgroups that print massive amounts of material.

The M603N measures 15.7 by 16.3 by 20 inches (HWD) and weighs 58 pounds. The front panel has a four-line monochrome LCD and some basic control buttons: Home, Help, Stop, and Back, plus a two-way rocker control with center button. To the right is a numeric keypad for entering PIN numbers for password-protected printing; below the panel is a port for a USB thumb drive.

The M603DN has a standard 600-sheet paper capacity, between a 500-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder, and has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper built in. Additional paper-handling options are available to bring the paper capacity to a maximum of 3,600 sheets. Options include a 1,500-sheet input tray ($499 direct), a 500-sheet input tray ($299), a 400-sheet custom media cassette ($229 direct), a 75-sheet envelope feeder ($249), a 500-sheet stacker ($149), a 500-sheet stapler/stacker ($249), and a 500-sheet mailbox ($399).

The M603DN is the middle model of HP?s M603 series. The M603N lacks an automatic duplexer, while the M603xh ($2,399 direct) includes the duplexer while adding an additional 500-sheet paper tray plus an encrypted hard drive.

The M603N provides USB and Ethernet (including Gigabit), with optional WiFi. I tested it over an Ethernet connection with its driver installed on a PC running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed

I timed the M603DN on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at a blistering effective 14.5 pages per minute (ppm), a very good speed for its 62-page per minute rated speed that?s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos. (Our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content.) That?s statistically tied with the M603N?s 14.3 ppm, and slightly faster than the 13.4 ppm that the Editors? Choice HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M601DN ($899 direct, 4 stars)?rated at 45 ppm?turned in. The OKI B730DN ($1,299 direct, 4 stars), rated at 55 pages per minute, tested a bit slower still, at 12 ppm.

Output Quality

The M603DN?s output quality is fine for typical business needs. Its text was slightly below par for a laser, which is still very good, suitable for anything short of demanding desktop publishing applications that require very small fonts. Graphics were of average quality, good enough for internal business use. In a couple of illustrations the printer had trouble in differentiating between similar shades of gray, so I?d want to double-check the graphics before distributing them, say, as part of a report. Photo quality was average, good enough to print out recognizable images from files or Web pages, which is about all you can expect from a mono laser.

Other Issues

The M603DN has a very low cost per page (1.2 cents), the same as the M603N. The OKI B730DN?s cost per page is 1.4 cents, while the M601DN?s running costs are 1.7 cents per page. You pay much more up front for the M603DN, but for offices with the massive printing volumes for which it is intended, the cost savings can mount quickly.

The M603DN is pricey for a mono laser, but it lives up to the adage, ?you get what you pay for.? In its case, that includes sizzling speed, ample standard and optional paper capacity, a prodigious monthly duty cycle, output quality good enough for standard business uses, automatic duplexing, password-protected printing, and a very low cost per page. If you don?t need the duplexer, the M603N will save you $250.

The LED-based OKI B730DN has the same claimed maximum duty cycle as, and even greater standard paper capacity than, the M603DN. Like the M603DN, it offers secure printing and comes with an automatic duplexer. Its speed, although impressive, is lower than the M603DN?s. Its output quality doesn?t quite match that of the M603DN, but it?s still fine for standard business uses. The OKI sells for $500 less than the M603DN, but has slightly higher running costs, based on manufacturers? current costs and yields. (You can save about $20 per 10,000 pages printing with the M603DN.) Although the OKI B730DN is a very worthy printer, I?d give a clear edge to the M603DN.

The Editors? Choice M601DN, geared toward offices with lesser printing demands than the M603 models (its maximum monthly duty cycle is 175,000 pages), is a tad slower than the M603DN, lacks password-protected printing, and has a slightly higher cost per page, but comes in at a much lower sticker price. It?s a better deal for smaller workgroups with heavy though not exceptional printing volume.

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN, which straddles the line between an SMB and an enterprise printer, ?has what it takes to churn out humongous quantities of black-and-white pages, and its low running cost promises cost savings in time if you can get over the rather steep sticker price. It?s the best choice for offices or workgroups with exceptionally large monochrome printing needs looking for a high-end printer, and earns an Editors? Choice in that capacity.

More Laser Printer Reviews:

??? HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603N
??? HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN
??? HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M601DN
??? Canon imageClass LBP6670dn
??? Samsung SCX-5639FR
?? more

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Delicious Detox Diet Recipes for a Cleaner You | How Can You ...

Most Popular Weight Loss Products

Are you craving to eat delicious food? But you are afraid that it will just cause you to have an ugly figure and unhealthy body. You want to start a diet but you know in your heart that diets are consists of unpalatable menus that will just gross out your stomach. For a healthier body, detox diet is suggested. However, people mistaken that detox diet is one of the million diets that are just consists of disgusting and sickening dishes. Worry no more because we have chosen easy to prepare detoxifying recipes for your whole day meal. Mind you, it is not only healthy and refreshing but is guaranteed to be delicious and mouth-watering; leaving you satisfied and healthy.

Here are some chosen recipes for you to start with. First is the invigorating organic fresh fruit salad. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so start your cleansing day with the freshest oomph. It is very easy to prepare. Fruits with lower pesticide content are preferred. Choose your fruits, it doesn?t matter how many kinds as long as you choose the juicy and fibrous ones. Slice it and toss it fresh. Add a low-fat cream and voila! It?s a sun shiny day breakfast. We have also the energy packed homemade energy bars. If you are always on the go, you need a ready to eat snack that can replenish your used energy but does not give you excess fat. One best ingredient you may use in making an energy bar is the sugary dates. Dates are sweet naturally; you can remove the seed and add an almond or any type of nut that you like best. Put it in a container and carry it wherever you go. You can also try making refreshing vegetable and fruit smoothies. Are you always craving with something sweet to drink, yet definitely less in carbohydrates? Smoothies are perfect. You can choose from wide array of fruit flavors as well as some vegetables too. It is very easy to pick a fruit or vegetable or a combination of both. Slice it, and then put it in a blender. Blend it until it is smooth, you may not add sugar because fruits have natural sugars in them. You can also make the crispy and crunchy green salad. Just pick a combination of green vegetables best eaten raw. Wash them. Make a bed of lettuce, slice some vegetables and fruits top it with a green peas dressing then eat it with much gusto.

Being in a detox diet does not mean sacrificing your palate. It?s up to you to recreate the delicious delicacies to become healthier but still retaining its sumptuous taste.

www.fitlife.tv http Ginger Juicing Recipes Ginger like garlic is used to treat many conditions. Ginger is used to promote the release of intestinal gas, due to it?s carminative compound. Ginger helps with seasickness, dizziness, cold sweating, inhibitor of inflammatory compounds, antioxidant properties, nausea and vomiting that is usually associated with pregnancy and much more. Select fresh ginger that looks fresh. Store ginger in the refrigerator. Pineapple Delight Juice Recipe Juice: thumb size slice of ginger, handful of parsley, 1/4 pineapple (remove skin) Ginger Paradise Juice Recipe Juice: thumb size slice of ginger, 1 apple, 4 carrots Full Immunity Juice: 2 cloves of garlic, thumb size slice of ginger, handful parsley, 3 carrots, 1 apple juicing kale Kale Juicing Recipes Kale is rich in vitamins and minerals like calcium, potassium, iron and have anticancer properties. This makes it perfect for juicing. Kale is also rich in fiber and detoxifies your entire system. You should select kale that is fresh, dark green and tender. Full of Calcium Juice Recipe Juice: 3 kale leaves, 2 collard leaves, handful of cilantro, 3 carrots, 1 apple, 1 red bell pepper Green Drink Recipe Juice: handful of spinach, handful of parsley, 2 apples, 2 kale leaves Juicing Lettuce The darker the lettuce the higher concentration of nutrients. Romaine lettuce has more nutrient content than looseleaf, butterhead and iceberg. Select lettuce that is fresh and crisp. Onion Juicing Recipes Onions ?

Related Food That Gives You Energy Articles

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Thumbnails On Firefox?s New Tab Page Could Expose Your Private Data, Fix Coming Soon

Mozilla's Firefox 13 launched earlier this month and the latest version of the popular browser introduced a number of new features, including support for Google's SPDY protocol and a new homescreen and easy access to your most often used sites through the improved new tab page. That convenient new speed dial-like new tab page presents a bit of a security risk, however. As the Register reports, the thumbnails that accompany these links on the improved new tab page have the potential to leak personal information. The browser, it turns out, regularly takes screenshots of your browsing sessions to create these thumbnails (even while you are browsing a secure site)?and, in the process, could potentially expose your private data like banking information or email subjects to anybody else who uses your computer.

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Wisconsin politics creep into Washington | Bob Roegner

By BOB ROEGNER
Federal Way Mirror Inside Politics
June 21, 2012 ? Updated 5:33 PM?

The attempted recall of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker turned neighbor against neighbor, split many households and became one of the most brutal political battles in the country.

The controversy stemmed from Walker?s goal of eliminating collective bargaining for public employees unions due to budget shortfalls.

At its heart, the real issue in Wisconsin wasn?t the budget. It was about raw political power and who will have it.

Could it happen in Washington state? And what does it say about the polarization of our country and the future?

Walker won the test of political strength with a comfortable margin for several reasons. There is a growing concern among many voters that public employees are too well paid and their retirement systems too expensive. Evidence similar votes in San Diego and San Jose, Calif., to curtail public pension systems.

The representations of benefits received by public employees may not be wholly accurate depending on which unions, teachers, police, fire, social workers, clerks or others are calculated ? but the perception is there, and it is growing.

Walker also benefited by raising significantly more money than the unions ? $45 million vs. $17 million ? for the campaign. But the main reason he won was a smart political move he made at the beginning. Walker claimed the state needed to eliminate collective bargaining due to a budget shortage. He did not include police or fire in the legislation. This removed the two most politically influential unions from the fight. Since they also tend to have among the most beneficial pensions, it also suggests that Governor Walker?s budget concerns may have been secondary to weakening the other unions that, not surprisingly, tend to favor Democrats.

The telling point was Walker?s effort to eliminate the unions? ability to collect dues from the members. Part of the unions? dues can be used to donate to candidates for office, usually Democrats. He was trying to cut off the funding source for the opposition.

Had Walker included uniformed personnel in his proposal to the Wisconsin Legislature, it likely wouldn?t have passed. Even if it had, it is likely the public vote would have been significantly different if police and fire had joined the recall effort, and Walker was smart enough to know that.

Politically speaking, Wisconsin, San Diego and San Jose have served as a testing grounds for political techniques aimed at tilting the level of the playing field nationally between labor and management. Weakening public sector unions will eventually weaken private sector unions, and unions have historically been a key Democratic constituency representing the working class.

Management is typically more well paid and, along with wealthy conservative donors, tend to support Republicans.

The disappearing middle class has been more Democratic, but out of concern for their own diminishing paycheck, appears receptive to the anti-public employee message. So do some private sector unions for similar reasons.

Whichever side of the argument you are on, objectively watch the spin and techniques used to persuade you. When Democrats wanted to tax the richest one percent in the country at a higher level, Republicans accused the Democrats of ?class warfare.?

When the Republicans attacked benefits for public sector unions that generally represent working people, ?class warfare? got lost in the debate over how your tax dollar is spent.

So far, Republicans are winning the message battle.

The successes of money and message in Wisconsin has emboldened political leaders elsewhere.

Could it happen here? Yes, although both candidates for governor, Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna, have downplayed any comparisons to Wisconsin in their campaigns. Labor is still pretty strong in Washington and we are still a blue state. Both Inslee and McKenna have been endorsed by some public employee unions, although the alignment with Inslee seems closer. And the latest forecast shows the state revenue on track.

Nevertheless, the Wisconsin debate has already started here. Public unions have gone through pay cuts, layoffs and during the last session, a battle over pension issues.

Whether it is Inslee or McKenna who wins the governor?s seat, they will be a ?rookie.? And initially, the real power may come from whichever party controls the state Legislature. Democrats believe that after three years of significant cuts, it may be time to resist a further decline in state services. Republicans will want to continue the cuts to undermine public unions and could find McKenna more receptive.

The real battle may be in the future. The Republicans? long-term strategy is to take public unions out of the political battle by reducing their numbers and the dues they pay that typically support Democratic candidates.

To see what may happen here, watch how the battles in Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Mexico play out. If Republican governors in those states are able to weaken collective bargaining for public unions, Washington will move up on their list of targets.

Due to a difference in governmental structure, a recall isn?t likely here. The budget debate will set the framework, but the underlying issue will be political power.

Brutal as it may be, Wisconsin could not only happen here, it may be just around the corner.

?

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Predicting treatment response in central nervous system diseases: Simple way of avoiding dangerous side effects?

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2012) ? The commonly-used epilepsy drug, valproic acid (VPA), can have a highly beneficial effect on some babies born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the number one genetic killer during early infancy. But in about two-thirds of such cases it is either damaging or simply has no effect. Now, for the first time, researchers have found a way to identify which patients are likely to respond well to VPA prior to starting treatment. Their results have major implications, not just for SMA patients, but for other conditions treated with the drug such as migraine and epilepsy, and may even provide the conditions for turning VPA non-responders into responders, the researchers say.

Dr. Lutz Garbes, from the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics on June 24 that he and his colleagues had analysed blood RNA samples from a small group of SMA patients who had been treated with VPA. They found, as expected, that only about one third of patients responded well. In an attempt to discover whether blood sampling was the most appropriate test method to use, they also looked at VPA response in another tissue -- fibroblasts (a type of skin cell). They found that the response in blood and in skin was the same in 60% of cases.

The researchers then generated pluripotent stem cells from fibroblasts of both a VPA responder and a non-responder, and differentiated them into GABAergic neurons (neurons that produce the amino acid GABA, the chief neurotransmitter in the mammalian nervous system). These neurons, when treated with VPA, exhibited a similar response to that previously found in blood and fibroblasts.

"This indicates for the first time that response to VPA is the same among blood and skin and suggests that monitoring blood for VPA therapy is indeed feasible in central nervous system diseases," says Dr. Garbes. "But, even more importantly, by using the SMA patients' fibroblasts we were able to identify a decisive factor in the suppression of the positive response to VPA treatment. Utilising transcriptome-wide microarray profiling*, we found that high levels of the fatty acid transporter protein CD36 are associated with the lack of positive response to treatment.

"The implications of this discovery are far-reaching. First, we have been able to prove that monitoring blood is a reliable method for doctors to determine response to VPA treatment in many central nervous system diseases, since our findings are not specific to SMA. Second, the identification of CD36 as the crucial factor in suppressing response to treatment provides a simple way of appraising whether a patient will respond to therapy before treatment starts. And third, in the long run we may find a way to target CD36 in order to be able to change a non-VPA responder into a responder."

Knowing that CD36 is a crucial factor here means that the current, potentially dangerous, 'trial and error' approach to VPA treatment is now obsolete, the researchers say. Screening of patients for CD36 prior to treatment would mean that only those who would respond positively to VPA would be given it. This is important because, in some cases, VPA can cause life-threatening side-effects such as impairment of liver, blood cell and pancreatic function, especially in those just starting the treatment. "But we still do not understand how CD36 suppresses response to VPA, only that it does so," says Dr. Garbes. "A greater understanding of its effects could also lead to the detection of even better targets to overcome the problem. "

In the case of SMA, VPA works by inhibiting enzymes called histone deacetylase (HDACs) which are involved in regulating the packaging of DNA. HDACs lead to a denser DNA packaging whereby protein production from genes is reduced. Other enzymes called histone acetyltransferases (HATs) lead to a more relaxed DNA structure, producing more protein. By inhibiting HDACs with VPA, the DNA packaging balance shifts towards the more relaxed structure and thus genes get activated and proteins produced. In SMA, the crucial gene is SMN2, a copy gene of the disease-determining gene SMN1. In healthy individuals, SMN1 is the major source of SMN protein, but SMN2 cannot fully compensate for the loss of SMN1 in SMA patients. By increasing SMN2 activity, it will produce more SMN protein and ameliorate the condition.

"Avoiding needless VPA treatment of non-responders would have a major effect on healthcare costs and improve quality of life for patients," Dr. Garbes will say. "Half of the babies born with SMA will die within two years, but the other half can live to twenty or even longer, so this is an important finding for them. Our findings may also help identify patients who are candidates for VPA treatment in many other diseases of the central nervous system, some of them very common.

"In the EU, approximately 550 SMA babies are born each year, and there are about 311,000 new cases of epilepsy per year. It is estimated that, in Europe, migraine affects up to 28% of people at some time in their lives. We are happy that we may have been able to contribute to the development of personalised medicine for so many people," he will conclude.

*A transcriptome-wide microarray profile provides a way of identifying all the genes that are differentially expressed in distinct cell populations or subtypes, allowing the effects of treatment to be monitored.

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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Africa laments loss of 80% of Lake Chad water reservoir

Ahmad Salkida - Africa Renewal Saturday 23rd June, 2012

As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in northeastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.

The air is dusty, the wind is fierce and unrelenting, the plants are wilting and the earth is turning into sand dunes. The lives of herders, fisherfolks and farmers are teetering on the edge as the lake dries up before their eyes.

Vegetation and water, the traditional staples of livelihood for the Lake Chad community dwellers, are vanishing. Vultures feast on dead cows as drought and desertification take their toll. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called the situation an "ecological catastrophe," predicting that the lake could disappear this century.

According to FAO Director of Land and Water Parviz Koohafkan, the Lake Chad basin is one of the most important agriculture heritage sites in the world, providing a lifeline to nearly 30 million people in four countries Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Lake Chad is located in the far west of Chad and the northeast of Nigeria. Parts of the lake also extend to Niger and Cameroon. It is fed mainly by the Chari River through the Lagone tributary, which used to provide 90 per cent of its water. It was once Africa's largest water reservoir in the Sahel region, covering an area of about 26,000 square kilometres, about the size of the US state of Maryland and bigger than Israel or Kuwait.

By 2001 the lake covered less than one-fifth of that area. "It may even be worse now," says Abbas Mohammed, a climatologist at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), a regional body that regulates the use of the basin's water and other natural resources, maintain that inefficient damming and irrigation methods by the countries bordering the lake are partly responsible for its shrinkage.

As parts of the lake dry up, most farmers and cattle herders have moved towards greener areas, where they compete for land resources with host communities. Others have gone to Kano, Abuja, Lagos and other big cities for menial jobs or to roam the streets as beggars.

Those who remain in Lake Chad shoreline communities such as Doran Baga are haunted by the speed with which the lake is vanishing. The Doran Baga settlement, which used to be by the lakeside, is now 20 kilometers from its edge.

Alhaji Baba Garba, a 78-year-old fisherman who has spent his life on the banks of the lake, says that much of the village used to be alongside it. Pointing at one of his children in his mid-30s, Garba adds, "even before that boy, Suleiman, was born." Another villager, Salisu Zuru, laments the death of livestock.

The once busy Baga market in Maiduguri, where truckloads of fish from the lake used to be processed and then transported daily to other parts of the country, is now quiet. The villagers must now travel by canoe and on foot for days from Doran Baga to Dabban Masara, then to Darak in search of food. Darak is an affluent fishing community to the east of Cameroon's border with Nigeria.

The impact of the drying lake is causing tensions among communities around Lake Chad. There are repeated conflicts among nationals of different countries over control of the remaining water. Cameroonians and Nigerians in Darak village, for example, constantly fight over the water. Nigerians claim to be the first settlers in the village, while Cameroonians invoke nationalistic sentiments, since the village is within Cameroonian territory. Fishermen also want farmers and herdsmen to cease diverting lake water to their farmlands and livestock.

The LCBC established by the leaders of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger in 1964 and later joined by the Central Africa Republic in 1994 and its partners continue to make efforts to save the lake or at least mitigate the impact of its shrinkage on people's lives. In his book An Inconvenient Truth, former US Vice-President Al Gore shows several images of the lake shrinking from 25,000 square kilometres in 1963 to just 1,500 square km in 2001. However, a 2007 satellite image shows improvements from previous years.

Recent drought may again have worsened the situation, says Professor Mohammed of the University of Maiduguri. He urges the LCBC and its partners to tackle the impact of climate change, as well as to control damming and irrigation by the LCBC countries.

The commission's member countries have plans to replenish the lake by building a dam and 60 miles of canals to pump water uphill from the Congo River to the Chari River and then on to Lake Chad. The replenishment project "will be the first of its kind in Africa," says Martin Gbafolo, the LCBC's director of water resources and environment. The commission has raised more than $5 million for a feasibility study. Although the total cost of the project will not be known until the study is completed, experts like Professor Mohammed expect it will take a huge injection of funds to save the lake.

Already the World Bank is providing $10.6 million for a project to reverse land and water degradation in parts of the lake. In addition, the LCBC is educating livestock herders on gaining access to grazing and watering areas. Water users are taught efficient water-utilization methods and fishermen more appropriate techniques for catching fish.

Of the 30 million people who depend on it, there is uncertainty as to how much longer the lake will remain and when they will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

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Israel strikes back at Gaza rocket fire (Efinditnow)

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Samsung files patents for robot that mimics human walking and breathing, ratchets up the creepy factor

As much as Samsung is big on robots, it hasn't gone all-out on the idea until a just-published quartet of patent applications. The filings have a robot more directly mimicking a human walk and adjusting the scale to get the appropriate speed without the unnatural, perpetually bent gait of certain peers. To safely get from point A to point B, any path is chopped up into a series of walking motions, and the robot constantly checks against its center of gravity to stay upright as it walks uphill or down. All very clever, but we'd say Samsung is almost too fond of the uncanny valley: one patent has rotating joints coordinate to simulate the chest heaves of human breathing. We don't know if the company will ever put the patents to use; these could be just feverish dreams of one-upping Honda's ASIMO at its own game. But if it does, we could be looking at Samsung-made androids designed like humans rather than for them.

Samsung files patents for robot that mimics human walking and breathing, ratchets up the creepy factor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FreedomHouseDC: Third Journalist this Year Disappears in #Mexico http://t.co/D4PmL5gY

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Shah Communications Implements TransNexus ... - VoIP News

TransNexus, a provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) management solutions including a robust VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) switch, has revealed that Shah Communications, a provider of Web hosting solutions, has selected the TransNexus ROBSS in order to implement a fast wholesale class 4 routing and reporting platform.

The solution has enabled Shah Communications to save large amount of time and money, as then as away to address the problems with quality of service. Since TransNexus ROBSS sends real-time alerts, Shah Communications know what is happening with providers.

Kamal Shah, CEO of Shah Communications, said in a statement, "I can see all my stats right on the fly. When a customer calls with an issue, we already know and are working on it. We never had this kind of insight with our previous switches. To boot, the TransNexus solution is reasonably priced."

In related news, just last week TMCnet reported that Voiceserve Inc., an Internet telephony and software provider, introduced its latest VoIP switch at the GSMA Asia exhibition in Shanghai, China and CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore that were held this month.

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Spurs' Tony Parker sues NYC club over eye injury

FILE - In this June 6, 2012 file photo, San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker (9), of France, takes the ball downcourt past Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant during the first half of Game 6 in the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, in Oklahoma City. San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker is suing a New York City club and its operators for $20 million over a scratched retina he says he suffered during a fight involving singer Chris Brown and members of hip-hop star Drake's entourage. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - In this June 6, 2012 file photo, San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker (9), of France, takes the ball downcourt past Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant during the first half of Game 6 in the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, in Oklahoma City. San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker is suing a New York City club and its operators for $20 million over a scratched retina he says he suffered during a fight involving singer Chris Brown and members of hip-hop star Drake's entourage. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker is suing a New York City club and its operators for $20 million over a scratched retina he says he suffered during a fight involving singer Chris Brown and members of hip-hop star Drake's entourage.

The suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday. It says the W.i.P club in SoHo and its operators were negligent in security and supervision, which allowed the fight to take place.

Chris Brown, his girlfriend and his bodyguard were among eight injured during the fight inside the club last week. Police say members of Drake's entourage stopped Brown as he was leaving. The fight escalated and bottles were thrown.

There was no answer at phone numbers listed as affiliated with those named in the lawsuit.

Associated Press

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Video shows Zimmerman's account of fatal fight

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman speaks to investigators, (not shown) at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman speaks to investigators, (not shown) at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman speaks to investigators, (not shown) at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman speaks to an unidentifed investigator at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman speaks to an unidentifed investigator at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

In this Feb. 27, 2012 image taken from a Sanford Police video posted on a website called gzlegalcase.com by George Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman, with a butterfly bandage on the back of his head, speaks to investigators, (not shown) at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. (AP Photo/Sanford Police video via Zimmerman Defense Team)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? George Zimmerman appears believable when he re-enacts for police what he says led to the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, but some of his statements are questionable, lawyers who reviewed the footage Thursday said.

Even a detective who interrogates the neighborhood watch leader in an audio recording points out inconsistencies in his story, particularly Zimmerman's claim that Martin confronted him, punched him and slammed his head onto the ground when the teenager had no prior history of violence.

Detective Chris Sereno asks Zimmerman whether he was profiling Martin because he was black, a claim Martin's parents have made.

"You know you are going to come under a lot of scrutiny for this," Sereno said. "Had this person been white, would you have felt the same way?"

"Yes," said Zimmerman, who father is white and his mother Hispanic.

The video and audio tapes released by Zimmerman's attorney give Zimmerman's most detailed account yet of what led to the Feb. 26 shooting. They were released almost a week before Zimmerman's second bond hearing on a second-degree murder charge, and on the heels of unflattering telephone calls capturing Zimmerman and his wife talking in code about using money collected for a defense fund to pay credit cards.

Zimmerman claims he shot the unarmed 17-year-old Martin teen in self-defense, under Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Martin's parents have said Zimmerman was the aggressor. They said Martin was walking back from a convenience store through the gated community in Sanford when Zimmerman spotted Martin and started following him.

In the video (http://apne.ws/KWquJX ), Zimmerman said he grabbed his gun from a holster on his waist before Martin could get it, and shot Martin once in the chest as they fought on the ground outside townhomes in a gated community. After firing, Zimmerman said he thought he missed.

"He sat up and said, 'You got me. You got me, or something like that,'" Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said Martin had been on top of him, slamming his head against the ground and smothering his mouth and nose with his hand and arm. The tape shows two butterfly bandages on the back of Zimmerman's head and another on his nose. There are red marks on the front of his head.

"It felt like my head was going to explode," he said.

Criminal defense lawyers who reviewed the video for The Associated Press and have no connection to the case said there were some parts that didn't add up.

"He came across as being straight-forward," attorney David Hill said. "I didn't see him being too slick on the details."

Hill said the video didn't show him to be the zealous "cop-wannabe" that Martin's parents have portrayed.

Zimmerman claims Martin confronted him after the neighborhood watch leader had given up searching for him and was walking back to his truck. But there doesn't appear to be a place to hide in the area where Zimmerman says Martin suddenly appeared, Hill pointed out.

Zimmerman's injuries also don't appear to be consistent with the severity of the attack he described, Hill said.

Attorney Blaine McChesney said he found parts of Zimmerman's re-enactment difficult to envision, such as his account of how he was able to reach for his gun with Martin on top of him. Zimmerman said he got on top of Martin after the shooting to restrain him.

"I also find it strange that Zimmerman would have attempted to use both his arms to hold Martin facedown, re-holstering his firearm, given those circumstances," McChesney said. "Once out from under Martin's alleged attack, it would have been more logical to hold Martin at gunpoint from a few feet away until police arrived."

In one of the audio recordings, Sereno tells Zimmerman three days after the shooting that Martin was a "good kid, mild-mannered kid."

Sereno tells Zimmerman that Martin, an athlete with an interest in aeronautics, was "a kid with a future, a kid with folks that care." The detective said Martin only had a bag of Skittles and an iced tea on him when he died.

"Not a goon," Sereno said.

He asked Zimmerman to explain why he doesn't have bruises on his body or broken ribs. The two dozen punches Zimmerman claims he took are "not quite consistent with your injuries," Sereno said.

Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Martin's parents, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday. But appearing on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," Crump said Zimmerman's credibility is the issue.

"Everybody's going to have to look at this for what it is," Crump said. "You've got objective evidence, and then you've got George Zimmerman's versions. You put them up against one another and we know that written statement that he did that night doesn't match up to that 911 tape.

"And there are other inconsistencies, and when we see the lie, we've got to call it out and say, there's his credibility again, and that's the important thing."

Zimmerman called police after spotting Martin walking around the neighborhood and the dispatcher told him not to follow the teen. For reasons that are still unclear, Zimmerman kept up his pursuit, even getting out of his truck. He lost sight of Martin and was walking back to his truck when Martin confronted him, Zimmerman said.

"Do you have a problem?" Zimmerman said, quoting Martin.

If Zimmerman's account his accurate, he has a viable "stand your ground" defense, McChesney said.

Zimmerman's attorney has the option of asking for a "stand your ground" hearing in which he will present Zimmerman's account to a judge and ask that the charge be dismissed without going to trial.

Zimmerman's second bond hearing will be June 29. His $150,000 bond was revoked earlier this month after prosecutors said Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, misled the court about how much money they had available for bail. Shellie Zimmerman was charged last week with making a false statement.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara said his client will be shown to have told the truth about the incident, even though the statement regarding the Zimmermans' finances was shown to be false.

"The attacks on Mr. Zimmerman's credibilities are going to pale in comparison to the undeniable, objective evidence," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro, Kelli Kennedy, Laura Wides in Miami, Greg Schreier and Bernard McGhee in Atlanta and Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee contributed to this report.

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Associated Press

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