Anti-Israel remarks test John Kerry's diplomacy in Turkey

Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Turkey to stress points of agreement with the ally. Now, he's putting out fires after the prime minister made comments maligning Israel.

By Howard LaFranchi,?Staff writer / March 1, 2013

Secretary of State John Kerry leans over to clasp Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's hand at the end of a news conference at Ankara Palace in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday. Ankara is the fifth leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip, a nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Secretary of State John Kerry is no stranger to prickly diplomatic situations ? he smoothed ruffled feathers in Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years as President Obama?s troubleshooting envoy to those two problematic partners.

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But his skills got a particularly tricky testing in Turkey Friday, where Secretary Kerry arrived for talks two days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a ?crime against humanity? as grave as anti-Semitism or Islamophopia.

And to think one of Kerry?s purposes in making a stop in Turkey on his first overseas trip as secretary of State was to encourage the NATO ally to repair its frayed relations with Israel.

Instead, Kerry found himself admonishing the Turkish leader for what he said the US considered an ?objectionable? comment. Indeed, the White House on Friday issued a statement rejecting Mr. Erdogan?s equation of Zionism with other crimes against humanity as ?offensive and wrong.?

Speaking Wednesday at a United Nations conference in Vienna meant to encourage dialogue between the West and Islam, Erdogan said, ?It is necessary that we must consider ? just like Zionism, or anti-Semitism, or fascism ? Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.?

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the comments ?hurtful? and ?divisive.?

Turkey and Israel were once good friends, even holding joint military exercises. US leaders cited Turkey as an example of a Muslim country building a mutually advantageous relationship with the Jewish state. But that ended in 2010, when Israel responded to a flotilla of protesters out to break Israel?s blockade of Gaza by opening fire, killing nine Turks.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Nml2VVwZoPM/Anti-Israel-remarks-test-John-Kerry-s-diplomacy-in-Turkey

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Leaving NKorea, Rodman calls Kims 'great leaders'

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, left, speaks to the media at the airport in Pyongyang, before he leaves North Korea Friday, March 1, 2013. Rodman hung out with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later drinking and dining on sushi with him.(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, left, speaks to the media at the airport in Pyongyang, before he leaves North Korea Friday, March 1, 2013. Rodman hung out with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later drinking and dining on sushi with him.(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and U.S. players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series. (AP Photo/VICE Media, Jason Mojica)

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, left, talks with a woman at the Pyongyang Airport before he leaves North Korea Friday, March 1, 2013. Rodman hung out with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later drinking and dining on sushi with him.(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, left, is surrounded by the media at the Pyongyang Airport before he leaves North Korea Friday, March 1, 2013. Rodman hung out with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later drinking and dining on sushi with him.(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman speaks to the media at the Pyongyang Airport before he leaves North Korea Friday, March 1, 2013. Rodman hung out with North Korea's Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later drinking and dining on sushi with him.(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Ending his unexpected round of basketball diplomacy in North Korea on Friday, ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman called leader Kim Jong Un an "awesome guy" and said his father and grandfather were "great leaders."

Rodman, the highest-profile American to meet Kim since he inherited power from father Kim Jong Il in 2011, watched a basketball game with the authoritarian leader Thursday and later drank and dined on sushi with him.

At Pyongyang's Sunan airport on his way to Beijing, Rodman said it was "amazing" that the North Koreans were "so honest." He added that Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, "were great leaders."

"He's proud, his country likes him ? not like him, love him, love him," Rodman said of Kim Jong Un. "Guess what, I love him. The guy's really awesome."

At Beijing's airport, Rodman pushed past waiting journalists without saying anything.

Rodman's visit to North Korea began Monday and took place amid tension between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North.

Rodman traveled to Pyongyang with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy and a production crew to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series.

Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told the former Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls star that he hoped the visit would break the ice between the United States and North Korea, said Shane Smith, founder of the New York-based VICE media company.

Dressed in a blue Mao suit, Kim laughed and slapped his hands on a table during the game at Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium as he sat nearly knee to knee with Rodman. Rodman, the man who once turned up in a wedding dress to promote his autobiography, wore a dark suit and dark sunglasses, but still had on his nose rings and other piercings. A can of Coca-Cola sat on the table before him in photos shared with AP by VICE.

Smith, after speaking to the VICE crew in Pyongyang, said Kim and Rodman "bonded" and chatted in English, though Kim primarily spoke in Korean through a translator.

Thursday's game ended in a 110-110 tie, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans. After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans and told him, "You have a friend for life," VICE spokesman Alex Detrick told AP.

At an "epic feast" later, the leader plied the group with food and drinks and round after round of toasts were made, Duffy said in an email to AP.

Duffy said he invited Kim to visit the United States, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader.

Kim said he hoped sports exchanges would promote "mutual understanding between the people of the two countries," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

North Korea and the U.S. fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The foes never signed a peace treaty, and do not have diplomatic relations.

Rodman's trip is the second attention-grabbing American visit this year to North Korea. Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a four-day trip in January to Pyongyang, but did not meet the North Korean leader.

The Obama administration had frowned on the trip by Schmidt, who was accompanied by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, but has avoided criticizing Rodman's outing, saying it's about sports.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-01-NKorea-Rodman/id-4f8ba80fb6144102a04c0dce34d0a6d8

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Tech firms cash in on Yahoo's telecommute ban

By Martha C. White

Forget the corner office. In 2013, the most coveted workspace is a worker?s own kitchen table or home office.

Nearly a week after a leaked memo?revealed that Yahoo employees with work-from-home arrangements would need to show up in the office every day starting in June, smaller tech companies are attempting to woo disgruntled telecommuters.

Earlier this week, Drew Anderson, CTO of digital media startup Hitlab USA Inc., posted an ad on Craigslist with "Yahoo Telecommuters Welcome" in the title.

Within two days, Anderson received between 100 and 200 replies ? up to 10 times his usual response rate. "A handful" of applicants, he said, were current Yahoo employees.

Anderson said his ad also was yielding a better caliber of job applicants. "The range of experience is wider and just the general response has been very good," he said. "I?m using the event as leverage... It?s a great tool for me."

Shortly after the memo was leaked, some companies took to Twitter to invite Yahoo employees to come work for them.

Marc Garrett, CEO of software developer Intridea, touted his company?s flexible arrangements:

Hey #Yahoos: if you're being forced to quit come work with us @intridea. We all work from home!

So did Sara Rosso, an employee of Automattic, which runs the popular WorldPress content management system:

Disappointed in @marissamayer's ban on working remotely ow.ly/hZOzn Yahoo peeps, come to @Automattic! :)

?You want to be able to give people the freedom to work,? said Silke Fleischer, CEO of mobile app developer ATIV Software, based in Santa Rosa, Calif. Ativ?s 11 employees all work remotely. Daily meetings and even job interviews are all conducted over Skype, she said.

While Yahoo?s telework ban might bring back the water cooler conversations, Fleischer said, ?We?re on Skype all day long... we?re communicating.??

What CEO Marissa Mayer did right, experts say, was realize that Yahoo struggled with productivity and collaboration issues, and take steps to fix them. Her mistake was taking those steps in the wrong direction.

?You could have that situation regardless of whether teleworking was going on,? said Dayna Fellows, president of consulting company WorkLife Performance, Inc. Yahoo?s blanket ban on working from home is ?a little baby-and-bathwater,? she said, ?It?s not going to solve what I think they?re trying to solve.?

On average, office workers spend about 80 percent of their time working on tasks that require concentration and focus, with the remainder collaborative, said Richard Kadzis, spokesman at CoreNet Global, which works with clients on?strategic management of corporate real estate and workplace resources.?Working from home part of the time lets employees be in the most productive environment to do both, he said. "Distractions are minimized," he said.

Aside from increasing productivity, a good telecommuting program also helps businesses cut costs. Companies in which around a quarter of the workforce works remotely save 10 to 15 percent on their real estate overhead, Kadzis said.?

Fleischer said companies like hers could benefit from Yahoo's new policy. "It could actually free up talent from Yahoo. Smaller companies can?t necessarily offer all these other options," she said. "However, they can offer you the freedom."

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After the leak of an internal memo telling Yahoo employees they will no longer be allowed to work from home, CEO Marissa Mayer is receiving intense criticism, particularly from fellow working mothers. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/03/01/17134518-work-from-home-with-us-tech-firms-cash-in-on-yahoos-ban?lite

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On-campus resources help maintain student mental health

Every year, 1,100 college students lose their young lives to suicide, according to activeminds.org. Countless more suffer from depression, anxiety and other various mental afflictions, affecting every area of their lives. As mental health begins to take center stage in the community as a legitimate and significant concern, college campuses have an obligation to protect their students, and Wayne State has not neglected this responsibility.

WSU?s Counseling and Psychological Services offers everything from workshops to individual counseling, and works to ensure students have the resources they need to maintain their psychiatric well being. CAPS provides professionally trained counselors, a welcoming environment and numerous consultation services ? but perhaps most significantly, their services are free and confidential for all currently enrolled WSU students.

?Everything here is considered a medical record, so it?s locked tight the way that medical records are,? said Lynn Hill, Interim Director of CAPS. ?It?s completely confidential and separate from any educational record ? so if somebody wrote to the school and said ?We need all of your records,? these would not be included in those. It?s very different from FERPA, which is the law that covers educational records; this is HIPAA, which is the law that covers medical records. That?s something that people are always glad to hear ? that what goes on here is confidential ? and of course, they?re happy to hear that it?s free.?

CAPS offers workshops several times a week focusing on various subjects, including anger management, depression, anxiety and self-esteem improvement. Students are welcome to anonymously visit these one-time sessions to gather information about various topics. In addition, CAPS offers individual, couples and group counseling, as well as crisis intervention services and outreach educational presentations.

?We do a lot of outreach; that?s one of the big things we do, outreach presentations,? Hill said. ?So sometimes a sorority or fraternity might call us or one of the departments might call us and say, ?Will you come and talk to our class or to our department about?? and then they?ll ask about a topic. An example might be that we?ve partnered with the Academic Success Center to give presentations on test anxiety,? Hill said.

A popular service currently offered by CAPS, ?Let?s Talk,? invites students to simply drop in to a location at a certain time for one-time anonymous consultations with a trained counselor. From the Honors College to the Law School, the locations are within minutes from a student?s daily walks, and offer an anonymous listening ear to stressed-out individuals simply wishing for someone to talk to.

?The brief history is that Cornell University came up with the idea Let?s Talk. It provides free consultations to students in an anonymous way. When you come to CAPS, you give your name, and you have an evaluation and you see a counselor. If you go to Let?s Talk you do not necessarily have to give your name. You can drop in and say ?I broke up with my boyfriend, this is what?s happening, do you have any suggestions?? And the counselor might discuss something with you and then may or may not suggest that you come to CAPS,? Hill said.

If a student does wish to speak with a counselor on a weekly basis, they would be required to visit CAPS and complete an assessment and evaluation to assign them to one of CAPS?s many counselors. A counselor is generally assigned unless the student requires services that CAPS does not provide; referrals would be given in the cases of need for daily counseling and around-the-clock crisis intervention. However, it is significant to understand that mental health issues affect every student, Hill said.

?As far as what major somebody has, or family they come from, or what background they come from, I don?t think that that matters,? Hill said. ?One of the key things is mechanisms for self-care and coping with stress, and we do a lot with helping people figure that out ? how to take care of themselves and how to manage stress, so we have a lot of workshops that address those things
and sometimes the counselors address those things too. What we?ve found is that people who do counseling tend to stay in school if they were thinking of dropping out of school,? Hill said.

Hill also emphasized the enormous amount of misinformation and mis-education present in the community concerning mental health, and advocates for the increase of education both in the community and on college campuses. The administration at WSU, however, truly recognizes the significance of mental health, leading to the staff and building expansion of CAPS in the past several years.

In CAPS? early years, counselors were forced to refer students elsewhere simply due to lack of resources. Since its expansion, CAPS now services over 200 students per week, excluding workshops. This impressive number represents the growth in respect for mental health in the general public.

?The administration in the past two years has really put a much higher value on this department, because they recognize if students come here, they are more likely to be successful students,? Hill said. ?So it?s a well-used service, and there?s a very high demand for counseling services on this campus. It?s actually something that?s extremely popular.?

Centers like CAPS are proving day after day that the future of mental health awareness is not bleak. Students should not be forced to hide and suffer from mental disorders, and WSU recognizes this absurdity. Mental health is not a topic that can be ?swept under the rug? in the community, and services on college campuses like CAPS are working to ensure that mental health remains a primary concern of the public.

Source: http://thesouthend.wayne.edu/article/2013/03/on-campus-resources-help-maintain-student-mental-health

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Why Is My Toddler On a Hunger Strike? | Lexington Family

My daughter has become quite the little activist. But I wonder what CeCe is protesting, because she is clearly on a hunger strike for some reason.

In addition to being like Gandhi, my toddler is also like a camel.

One day she fills her belly up to the brim, and then for the next two to three days she can subsist on next to nothing.

I don?t understand how she can function on such a system, but she does.

CeCe will often refuse the dinners I make for her and request simply a piece of bread instead.

She will happily munch on that slice and then go to bed content.

It?s not like I?m offering the child escargot. I make chicken nuggets. I thought I was playing to her tastes.

I find myself walking that line between ?Should I give her junk so at least she eats?? or ?She?ll eat when she is hungry. Let her starve herself.?

Neither option screams ?super nutritious? to me.

Every book, website or blog post gives different advice.

Some people advise to strap them in the high chair until they eat every bite.

Others say to let them graze, it?s better for their metabolism.

So what will get my daughter to eat? A strict schedule and rules about food intake minimums?

Or the freedom to eat as she pleases with hopes that she will make healthy choices?

The answer is: I have no earthly clue.

At this moment my 2-year-old is on her third bowl of Cheerios for the day.

That makes me excited enough to attempt a backflip.

But I know throughout the week I will make offerings of sandwiches, pasta, fruit, popsicles or the last Bagel Bites in the freezer.

Anything if it will get her to eat.

Watch Baby Bump Editor Katie Saltz on ABC36 News@Noon on the first Thursday of each month. She shares her favorite products and resources for parents and babies, and always has giveaway prizes for viewers!

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Source: http://www.lexingtonfamily.com/2013/02/why-is-my-toddler-on-a-hunger-strike/

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Ouya $99 game console ships to Kickstarter backers on March 28th ...

Ouya raised more than $8 million last year for an Android-based video game console that would sell for $99. Now the company is getting ready to ship the first units to backers of the wildly successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

The first Ouya game consoles will ship on March 28th, 2013.

Folks who didn?t make a pledge last year can also pre-order from the Ouya shop?or other stores including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target. Customers who pre-order now should get their devices in June.

The Ouya game console is a small box designed to hang out near your TV. It has a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of built-in storage. The device also comes with a wireless remote control that looks a lot like a gamepad you?d get with an Xbox or Playstation console.

While the Ouya runs Google Android, Ouya has developed a custom user interface for use with television screens. Ouya also maintains its own app store. That makes sense, because while it would be nice to have access to the full range of apps available in the Google Play Store, many of those apps aren?t optimized for use with game controllers and television screens. Everything in the Ouya store will be.

In addition to gaming duties, the Ouya console will also be able to turn your TV into a media center with XBMC software as well as support for streaming audio and video from VeVo, TuneIn Radio, and other apps.

Sure, you could also just buy an Android phone or tablet with HDMI output and Bluetooth support for game controllers. But the Ouya?s selling points include a low price and a design meant for TV gaming.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or "like" us on Facebook. Thanks for visiting!

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• Game formatDownloadable
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• Released04/01/2013

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Source: http://liliputing.com/2013/02/ouya-99-game-console-ships-to-kickstarter-backers-on-march-28th.html

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Obama nears deadline on gay marriage decision

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The next phase of President Barack Obama's evolving position on gay marriage may come Thursday, the deadline for his administration to weigh in on a landmark Supreme Court case that could determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.

Gay rights supporters are pressing the administration to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to overturn California's gay marriage ban. Obama is not required to file a brief, though he raised expectations in his second inaugural address when he declared that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law."

An administration brief would not be legally binding. But it could offer the clearest insight into Obama's views on gay marriage, which he supports but has said should be governed by the states.

Ahead of Thursday's deadline, dozens of prominent Republicans signed a friend of the court brief asking the justices to declare California's Proposition 8 ballot measure unconstitutional. Among them are former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 in response to a state Supreme Court decision that had allowed gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocates are anticipating the administration filing a broad brief, one that would ask the justices to not only strike down the California measure, but also rule that the Constitution forbids any state from banning same-sex unions. But the administration could also file a narrower brief applying only to California.

Even the latter brief would appear to mark a shift away from the president's contention that states have the right to determine whether to allow same-sex marriages.

While an administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the high court, the government's opinion does carry weight with the justices.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli would formally file a brief, though he has been consulting with White House officials. And it's almost certain that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, made the administration's final decision.

In his inaugural address, the president said the nation's journey "is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."

"For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said.

Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case on March 26. One day later, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. In a brief filed last week, the government said Section 3 of DOMA "violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection" because it denies legally married same-sex couples many federal benefits that are available only to legally married heterosexual couples.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-28-US-Obama-Gay-Marriage/id-6678c2081c864f2ab4bb158523d4f55e

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