China punishes Tibetans in self-immolation cases

BEIJING (AP) ? Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.

The convictions Thursday, reported by the official Xinhua News agency, also appear aimed at shoring up Beijing's claims that such protests against Chinese rule are instigated by outsiders with ulterior motives, rather than being homegrown demonstrations.

About 100 Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people have set themselves on fire since 2009, usually after calling for religious freedom and the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A court in Aba prefecture in the southwestern province of Sichuan sentenced Lorang Konchok, 40, to death with a two-year reprieve and gave his nephew Lorang Tsering, 31, a 10-year prison sentence for their roles in encouraging eight people to self-immolate last year, three of whom died from their burns, Xinhua said.

Both were charged with murder.

Suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison. Calls to the court rang unanswered Thursday.

In a separate report, Xinhua said a county court in Gannan prefecture in Gansu province sentenced six ethnic Tibetans to between three and 12 years in prison for their roles in the self-immolation of a local resident in October.

Four of them were convicted of murder after they obstructed police efforts to retrieve the body of a self-immolator, who was still alive when police put out flames but died without receiving timely medical treatment, Xinhua said. The other two were found guilty of public disturbance for causing chaos at the scene, Xinhua said.

Authorities initially responded to the self-immolations by flooding Tibetan areas with security forces to seal them off and prevent information from getting out. With those efforts doing little to stop or slow the protests, Beijing now appears to be seeking to weaken sympathy for them by portraying them as misguided and criminal.

At a regular daily briefing Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Lorangs "pushed innocent people onto the road of self-immolations and the road of no return" to further what the government says is the Dalai Lama's goal to split Tibet from China.

"We hope through the sentencing of these cases, the international community will be able to clearly see the evil and malicious methods used by the Dalai clique in the self-immolations and condemn their crimes," Hong said.

The self-claimed Tibetan government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India, has repeatedly appealed to Tibetans not to self-immolate, but it also says the message of the protesters cannot be ignored. It has criticized Beijing for imposing more draconian measures instead of addressing the grievances of Tibetans.

China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.

Xinhua said Lorang Konchok met with one self-immolator the day before he set himself on fire. It said he recorded the man's personal information, took his photos and promised to spread word of his self-immolation overseas while conveying his last words to his family.

Xinhua said five other people goaded by the pair to self-immolate did not do so, either because they changed their minds or because police intervened.

Earlier this month, Xinhua reported that police in Qinghai province arrested a Tibetan monk who attempted to self-immolate last November and another Tibetan man who allegedly encouraged him. The men were arrested on charges of jeopardizing public safety and murder.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-punishes-tibetans-self-immolation-cases-023814872.html

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Video: Clinton says final goodbye as secretary of state

>> state department workers you see there. being joined by ambassador nicholas burns , former u.s. undersecretary of state and andrea mitchell host of " andrea mitchell reports" and correspondent. andrea 's joining us by phone. andrea , you conducted that interview with secretary clinton and heard he say to advocate for the agency from the outside. what do you believe her life will be like in the immediate future? what does hillary clinton do? you can hear the applause there behind. i'm not sure we're able to talk with andrea . i'll bring in ambassador burns. ambassador burns, let me ask you from a different perspective the question that i'd posed to andrea . you see the impact that hillary clinton has had on the state department workers but she mentioned even today you have an attack on a u.s. embassy in turkey. putting it all in perspective, what she sees as the accomplishments of the state department and the struggles still ahead. what kind of an impact did she have in the time there?

>> first of all, she was speaking from the state department in washington. she is beloved and the u.s. foreign service . she has the loyalty of that building. she has stood up for the diplomats time and time again and made a case in the farewell speech that diplomacy should be front and center so i think she leaves that legacy. in addition, she's done two things that were very different for a secretary of state. she has put development in to the picture as a major priority. what we do to assist poorer countries of the world and stood up for women. some people have diminished that but for the united states secretary of state to say that promoting the role of women worldwide to be leaders globally, that's a revolutionary thing and i think that's going to have a lasting impact and finally i would say she has redefined american power in asia with the opening to burma, myanmar and stood up in the difficult conversations with the chinese, stood up in support of the peaceful resolutions in the south china sea and secretary clinton is a memorable, outstanding secretary of state and many people's minds. i think she deserves enormous credit for what she's done.

>> andrea , are you there?

>> hello?

>> are you there? this is katherine, her producer.

>> how are you?

>> great, katherine. we're waiting to get andrea on the phone. we're on air. let me go back to the ambassador here. we can, of course, talk about the accomplishments, ambassador burns, of hillary clinton in this respect. but you and i both know that many people are looking at this image and they're visualizing a couple of years from now and these are not state department workers clamoring for a hand shake. they're people who are supporting her run for presidency. what do you believe at least is looking that far ahead? you are an insider. you know a lot about the clinton family. both the former president and the secretary of state.

>> oh, i think it's impossible to answer that question. only secretary clinton knows, obviously, what she intends to do in the future. observing both president clinton and secretary clinton , she is a unique person in our society. having been first lady, having been a senator of one of the most important states, a presidential candidate and now a really unique secretary of state. there's no one like her in hour society. i think she can do whatever she wants to do in the future. i hope for one she'll stay in public life because i think she's such a great leader.

>> some of the last images of hillary clinton , the testimony at the hearing regarding benghazi and her being applauded by many the way she handled the tough questions, her directness that was equal to the directness of some of the senators including rand paul saying he would have fired her and intriguing i think in her exit, so-called exit interviews. many people asked about mistakes in the past, some presidents others have not. she instantly went to benghazi as a mistake. as something that went wrong under her leadership of the state department . will that linger if you will on her legacy as there are still questions that have not been answered?

>> well, it will certainly be part of her record and it has to be. she has stood up and taken full responsibility many times including in those very dramatic hearings on capitol hill of last week. obviously, that was a black day for the foreign service to lose four fine public servants . and so, the state department needs to internalize the lessons of benghazi and move forward but not think that defining the entire record, four years, a million miles traveled. improvement of the america's reputation in the world. she and president obama have accomplished that. and i think the reinforcement of the american strategic position in east asia , i think this is a very fine record for her to be proud of for many years to come.

>> ambassador nick burns , thank you so much for your time. greatly appreciate you joining us to see that historic moment and watch hillary clinton 's last day at the state department .

>> thank you.

>> obviously so many thousands of workers who love her dearly.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/50669962/

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Ancient petroglyphs stolen from California site recovered

Four ancient petroglyphs that were stolen from a historic site in Northern California last year have been recovered, but no suspects have been identified in the brazen theft, federal authorities said on Thursday.

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The petroglyphs, which were carved into volcanic rock more than 3,500 years ago, were discovered missing in October from the site in the Volcanic Tablelands, east of Yosemite, near California's border with Nevada.

They are said to represent a pristine example of Great Basin rock art that portrayed the daily hunter-gatherer activities that took place in the area at the time.

"Recovery of the petroglyphs was a priority from day one. I am pleased that they were returned," Bernadette Lovato, manager for the bureau's field office in Bishop, California, said in a statement.

"Now we need the public's help to identify the vandals responsible for damaging the site," Lovato said.

A Bureau of Land Management spokesman declined to release further details about the recovery of the petroglyphs, citing an ongoing investigation. The bureau said the suspects may have experience with masonry cutting and access to such tools.

The Volcanic Tablelands are described by the Bureau of Land Management as a vast volcanic landscape formed more than 700,000 years ago by materials spewing from the Long Valley caldera.

The high-desert site and its volcanic rock outcroppings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and used by local Paiute Indians for ceremonies.

The Bureau of Land Management has offered a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for the theft. First-time violators of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act can be imprisoned up to one year and fined $20,000, according to the bureau.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Stacey Joyce)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Click For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50664307/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Movie Review: ?Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters? ? Double, Double ...

1 popcorn

By Michael S. Goldberger,?film critic

Fuddy-duddies like me who see movies like ?Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters? never cease to be amazed that there is actually a market for such claptrap. Featuring a lot of misplaced creativity, only a few good ideas and some effective but rather standard special effects, director Tommy Wirkola?s horrified fairy tale emits only a lackluster boo.

At the very least, it gives the critic a chance to show how fair he can be. I?m on the clock anyway. Maybe a mulling of this variation on the old folktale will spawn a thought or two about contemporary culture, or not. So come now to an unspecified forest at some random, fabled time. Bear in mind, though, this isn?t your Grandma?s ?Hansel & Gretel.?

In the so called original version recorded for posterity by the Brothers Grimm, Fairy Tale Land isn?t immune from recession. Poor Pop the woodcutter, pressured by mean step mom, and not having the benefit of Newt Gingrich?s enlightening philosophy about the benefit of orphanages, abandons Hansel and Gretel to fend alone in the woods.

In this newest take, it?s not so much about the Benjamins as it is a concern for some convoluted, mystical curse concerning white witches and the siblings? Mom that convinces Dad to chance repercussions from DYFS. But the kids do OK. After a harrying experience with an enslaving witch, they manage to burn her to death in her own stove.

But then they take it a step further. Doubtless influenced by an entrepreneurial spirit that accompanies the sounding of the death knell on feudalism, the now grownup duo figure they can make a pretty pfennig from their newfound talent. So they set up shop: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Newspaper articles regaling their exploits flash across the screen.

We catch up with them shortly after they land a big commission in Augsburg, Bavaria, apparently a haven for witches. But this is going to be a tough assignment for the brother-sister bounty hunters, not just because of the severity of the diabolical incursion that?s being blamed for seven children gone missing. Nope, just like on your job, it?s politics.

But unlike your boss, the power hungry sheriff (Peter Stormare) doesn?t want anyone else getting the credit for finding the waifs. Never mind that his minions are idiots. Good thing Mayor Engleman (Rainer Bock) still has some say. ?Tis he who commissions the title characters, portrayed by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, respectively.

Arriving with a dramatic flourish in the opening scene, their first piece of business is in the town square when they rescue pretty red-haired Mina (Ingrid Bols? Berdal), accused of witchery, from a mob of burghers being incited by the Machiavellian cop. Suffice it to note, the thankful maiden is more than a bit smitten by the male half of her saviors.

Now, this is the point in the review where it?s perfectly OK to stop reading, even if you?re a really good friend of mine. I won?t be upset. Who could blame you? I feel silly enough writing it. But someone?s gotta do it. And, unfortunately, I drew the shortest straw down at the Film Critics? Local #1085 Meeting Hall. Ah, I?ve reviewed worse.

Actually, if one subscribes to my big sister Ann?s mantra about making lemonade out of lemons, there is a bit of a lesson here beyond the obvious, ?What Not to Do When Making a Movie.? Truth is, production standards are rather decent. Which only indicates that technological advances have facilitated a new blight on the cinema landscape.

You see, dear loyal reader who refused to abandon me in the reviewing wilds like Hansel and Gretel, when you make available these high tech methods to the increasing spate of film school grads, you increase the potential for commercial schlock. It used to be you had to evince at least some creative eccentricity to be the junk movie purveyor.

While director Wirkola, working from a script he penned with Dante Harper, gives us a slight hint of the satiric edge he is trying to walk, only the technical method and little of the artistic madness is exhibited. Hence, his picture lacks identity, failing to truly frighten us and rarely tickling the funny bone. Mostly, you don?t know what he?s trying to do.

Oh, I almost forgot: For folks willing to pay a few dollars extra to have things pop out at them, there is a 3-D version of ?Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.? The f/x are OK. But then that?s from someone who, as a kid, didn?t care for his Jack-in-the-box. That said, if you?re? in the Cineplex trying to decide what to see, don?t follow those breadcrumbs.
?Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,? rated R, is a Paramount Pictures release directed by Tommy Wirkola and stars Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Ingrid Bols? Berdal. Running time: 88 minutes

Source: http://njtoday.net/2013/01/31/movie-review-hansel-gretel-witch-hunters-double-double-toil-and-rubble/

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Harvard drama troupe honors Marion Cotillard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR') has taken home the pudding pot after being honored as woman of the year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

Cotillard smiled, waved and caught a teddy bear from the crowd during a parade through Cambridge's Harvard Square on Thursday.

The procession was followed by a roast of the 37-year-old French actress at Hasty Pudding headquarters, during which Cotillard sang a song from "La Vie En Rose." Cotillard won a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of famed French singer Edith Piaf in that 2007 film.

Cotillard has appeared more recently in "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Rises."

Claire Danes was the woman of the year in 2012.

The awards are presented annually to performers who have made a lasting and impressive contribution to entertainment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harvard-drama-troupe-honors-marion-cotillard-014530525.html

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Key lesson from Columbia disaster: Never give up

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A NASA top official wrestled with what he thought was a hypothetical question: What should you tell the astronauts of a doomed space shuttle Columbia?

When the NASA official raised the question in 2003 just days before the accident that claimed seven astronauts' lives, managers thought ? wrongly ? that Columbia's heat shield was fine. It wasn't. Columbia, NASA's oldest shuttle, broke apart over Texas 10 years ago Friday upon returning to Earth after a 16-day mission.

But the story of that question ? retold a decade later ? illustrates a key lesson from the tragedy, says Wayne Hale, a flight director who later ran the shuttle program for NASA.

That lesson: Never give up. No matter how hopeless.

And to illustrate the lesson, Hale in his blog tells for the first time the story of his late boss who seemingly suggested doing just that. The boss, mission operations chief Jon Harpold, asked the now-retired Hale a what-if question after a meeting that determined ? wrongly ? that Columbia was safe to land despite some damage after takeoff.

"You know there is nothing we can do about damage to the (thermal protection system)," Hale quotes Harpold a decade later. "If it has been damaged, it's probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don't you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done until the air ran out."

When Harpold raised the question with Hale in 2003, managers had already concluded that Columbia's heat shield was fine. They told astronauts they weren't worried about damage from foam insulation coming off the massive shuttle fuel tank during launch, hitting a wing that allowed superheated gases in when the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere. No one was aware of the seriousness of the damage at the time.

This was a what-if type question that conveyed a fatalistic attitude about the heat shield system being unfixable, which was "a wrong-headed cultural norm that we had all bought into," Hale said in a Thursday telephone interview.

"There was never any debate about what to tell the crew," he said.

In fact, NASA officials were overconfident in the heat shield on Columbia. A day after launch, NASA saw video of the foam from the shuttle's fuel tank hit the shuttle wing, something that had happened before. NASA officials studied the damage and determined it wasn't a problem.

NASA managers even sent the crew a 15-second video clip of the foam strike and "made it very clear to them no, no concerns," according to the independent board that later investigated the accident. Eight times, NASA had the opportunity to get a closer look at the damage? using military satellites ? and NASA mistakenly ignored those chances to see how bad the problem was, the accident board concluded.

And had NASA realized the severity of the problem, the space agency would not have just let the astronauts die without a fight or a word, despite Harpold's hypothetical question, Hale said.

"We would have pulled out all the stops. There would have been no stone left unturned. We would have had the entire nation working on it," Hale said. Ultimately, Hale said he thinks whatever NASA would have tried in 2003 with limited time and knowledge probably would have failed.

And the astronauts would have been told about the problem and their fate had engineers really known what was happening, Hale said.

When NASA started flying shuttles again, Hale told the new team of mission managers: "We are never ever going to say that there is nothing we can do."

NASA developed an in-flight heat shield repair kit.

The space shuttles were retired in 2011. Harpold died in 2004.

Hale said he is now writing about the issue because he wanted future space officials not to make the mistakes he and his colleagues did. The loss of the Columbia astronauts ? people he knew ? still weighs on Hale.

"You never get over it. It's always present with you," Hale said. "These are people I knew well. Several of them, I worked closely with. I was responsible for their safety. It's never going to go away."

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/space-shuttle-doomed-tell-crew-144338380.html

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Friend: Slain Chicago teen said, 'I think I got shot,' then fell

By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

Friends who witnessed the random gunning down of a 15-year-old Chicago girl less than a week after she performed at President Obama?s inauguration continue to grapple with the senseless loss of the prep school honors student.

?She was honestly like the happiest person I know and I don't know, like, how to cope with this because it shouldn't have been her,? an emotional Klyn Jones said of her friend, Hadiya Pendleton. ?It shouldn't have been anyone but especially not her.?

Story: Chicago shooting victim Hadiya Pendleton starred in anti-gang video

Pendleton was killed Tuesday afternoon in a quiet south-side neighborhood less than a mile from Obama?s Chicago home. She was huddling with Jones and other friends under a canopy to escape the rain when an unidentified gunman came at them, opened fire, and then escaped the scene in a car.

?We were all running because we heard the gunshots and then she stopped and she was like, ?I think I got shot.? And I was like, ?Hadiya, please stop joking,?? Jones said. ?She was like 'No seriously, Klyn, I think I got shot' and she just fell. And then time just like started moving in slow motion.?

Story: After Hadiya's death, Chicago to put 200 more cops on the street

Police say Pendleton, who died shortly later at a hospital, was shot in the back. A teenage boy remains in serious condition. An $11,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the girl's killer.

Pendleton, a sophomore at a selective Chicago prep school, had been in Washington a week earlier to perform in a marching band competition that was part of the inaugural festivities.

?It just hurts,? said her father, Nate Pendleton. ?To know another good one is gone.?

Friends posted pictures of Pendleton and paid tribute to her on a Facebook memorial page created Wednesday that had accumulated more than 15,000 ?likes? in less than 24 hours. One photo posted to the page featured Pendleton?s younger brother being consoled as tears run down his face.?

?VERY HEARTBREAKING! Please keep the family in your prayers tonight," the caption read.

Community members called for a stop to the violence.

"The tears in this family, the pain etched in their face, it's unacceptable to everybody in Chicago,"?said Rev.?Michael Pfleger of Chicago?s St. Sabina Church. ?This is Sandy Hook. This is Connecticut. This is Newtown right here. And we have to be just as outraged."

Police, who believe Pendleton may have been shot with a revolver, say no arrests have been made in the case.

Outrage over Pendleton?s death grew as lawmakers in Washington debate gun control and Chicago struggles to suppress the a rising homicide count and growing gun violence, including six people shot Wednesday night, according to the Chicago Tribune.?

More:?Teen slain after performing at inaugural: 'Happiest day of her life and then she's gone'?

Source: http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2013/01/31/16790358-friend-slain-chicago-teen-said-i-think-i-got-shot-then-she-just-fell?lite

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