Australian minister in Libya to seek lawyer's release

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Obama, world want bold signs from Europe at G-20

CHICAGO (AP) ? With global anxiety rising, President Barack Obama is searching for bolder, swifter signals from Europe that it will contain its financial mess and keep it from torpedoing the U.S. economy and his re-election chances along with it.

Yet as he prepares for summit talks beginning Monday in Mexico with the other world leaders, Obama is down to the power of persuasion and little else.

A looming, perilous Greek election and Europe's internal politics are controlling the debate.

Given the teetering global economy and the breadth of leaders about to gather in the coastal resort of Los Cabos, the Group of 20 summit meeting carries the weight of expectations it is not likely to meet. Most of its members are not part of Europe and they have no power to drive how the continent manages its crisis, although do they come looking for signs of progress and urgency.

That clearly is the case for Obama, locked in a tight election that may be decided singlehandedly by whether U.S. job growth sinks or climbs over the next five months.

While economic challenge will dominate the summit, the agenda runs deeper.

In talks on the sidelines, Obama will confront the bloodshed in Syria and the nuclear threat in Iran. He will meet with Vladimir Putin, who has returned to the presidency of Russia. Their talks will be scrutinized, given tense U.S.-Russian political relations and deep divisions over Syria.

Obama was to head to Mexico on Sunday night after a weekend with his family in their hometown of Chicago. The summit runs Monday and Tuesday.

Europe's entangled financial crisis, from debt woes in Greece to banking trouble in Spain and high unemployment all around, has become the single biggest threat to the U.S. economic recovery. The signs of worry are clear at the White House and in the words of Obama, who can draw a straight line from the fate of Europe's economic strength to his chances of a second term.

Obama is prodding European leaders to give world markets some confidence, and fast.

"Obviously, this matters to us because Europe is our largest economic trading partner," Obama said. "If there's less demand for our products in places like Paris or Madrid, it could mean less business for manufacturers in places like Pittsburgh or Milwaukee. The good news is there is a path out of this challenge. These decisions are fundamentally in the hands of Europe's leaders."

He wants to emerge from Mexico with signs that the European players at the table, led by Germany, are moving on their own agenda. That means pursuing a banking union to match the monetary union linking the eurozone, taking steps to keep borrowing costs down in the weakest nations and injecting life into economies with growth plans involving public money.

Or in short, as Treasury Undersecretary Lael Brainard put it, the focus in Mexico will be "ensuring our European partners are escalating their response" to stabilizing a dicey situation.

"The stakes are high for all of us," she said.

The agenda threatens to be upended by the outcome of Sunday's election in Greece.

In choosing a new government for their debt-drowning nation, Greek voters are deciding whether to stick with the deeply unpopular austerity terms of an international bailout package or reject them. If they do the latter, that could lead Greece to default and get booted out of the eurozone, which could cause panic and destabilize the world's financial system.

Here, too, Obama has tried to hold sway from abroad.

"It is in everybody's interest for Greece to remain in the eurozone while respecting its commitment to reform," he said. "We recognize the sacrifices that the Greek people have made. ... But the Greek people also need to recognize that their hardships will likely be worse if they choose to exit from the eurozone."

Of the G-20 collection of emerging and economic giants, only Germany, Italy and France are in the 17-nation eurozone at the center of the crisis. European leaders point to a different summit of their own, to be held in Brussels at the end of June, as the more appropriate time to watch for action on a crisis response plan.

Given that dynamic, Obama officials have worked to keep expectations in check.

"Los Cabos will not be the final word on the eurozone," said Mike Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

Even beyond Europe, from Asia to the Americas, the economy is softening and fears are soaring.

The G-20 is meant to serve as the premier voice of economic coordination, representing not just traditional powers but emerging economies. Its members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

Obama's advisers do see the G-20 as a chance for the European nations to add some definition to their plans and show how they will put aside sovereign concerns to avoid calamity.

That pressure can help, said Matthew Goodman, who formerly oversaw the G-20 planning for Obama as director of international economics on the National Security Council staff.

"If you have to go into a meeting with peers and explain yourself, it gives the Europeans some ammunition when they have to try to sell these changes domestically," said Goodman, a specialist in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "They can say, 'This is what the world expects.'"

___

Online:

G-20: http://www.g20.org

___

Follow Ben Feller on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BenFellerDC

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Greek wildfire near Athens recedes

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Rodney King, whose beating led to LA riots, dies

FILE - This April 13, 2012 file photo shows Rodney King posing for a portrait in Los Angeles. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)

FILE - This April 13, 2012 file photo shows Rodney King posing for a portrait in Los Angeles. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)

FILE - This March 31, 1991 image made from video shot by George Holliday shows police officers beating a man, later identified as Rodney King. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Courtesy of KTLA Los Angeles, George Holliday)

FILE - This file photo of Rodney King was taken three days after his videotaped beating in Los Angeles on March 6, 1991. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Pool, File)

FILE - This July 20, 1993 file photo shows Rodney King speaking during an appearance on KFI-AM radio's "Bill Handel and Mark Whitlock" show in Los Angeles. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, file)

FILE - This July 16, 1992 file photo shows Rodney King being escorted from jail in Santa Ana, Calif. after he was arrested for investigation of drunken driving. King, whose videotaped beating by police in 1991 led to LA race riots, has died at 47. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, file)

(AP) ? His beating stunned the nation, left Los Angeles smoldering and helped reshape race relations and police tactics. And in a quavering voice on national television, Rodney King pleaded for peace while the city burned.

But peace never quite came for King ? not after the fires died down, after two of the officers who broke his skull multiple times were punished, after Los Angeles and its flawed police department moved forward. His life, which ended Sunday at age 47 after he was pulled from the bottom of his swimming pool, was a continual struggle even as the city he helped change moved on.

The images ? preserved on an infamous grainy video ? of the black driver curled up on the ground while four white officers clubbed him more than 50 times with batons ? became a national symbol of police brutality in 1991. More than a year later, when the officers' acquittals touched off one of the most destructive race riots in history, his scarred face and softspoken question ? "Can we all get along?" ? spurred the nation to confront its difficult racial history.

But while Los Angeles race relations and the city's police department made strides forward, King kept coming before police and courts, struggling with alcohol addiction and arrests, periodically re-appearing publicly for a stint on "Celebrity Rehab" or a celebrity boxing match. He spent the last months of his life promoting a memoir he titled "The Riot Within: From Rebellion to Redemption."

King was declared dead at a hospital after his fianc?e called 911 at 5:25 a.m. to say she found him submerged in the pool at his home in Rialto, about an hour's drive from Los Angeles. Officers found King in the deep end of the pool, pulled him out and tried unsuccessfully to revive him with CPR.

An autopsy was expected to determine the cause of death within two days; police found no alcohol or drug paraphernalia near the pool and said foul play wasn't suspected. King's next-door neighbor, Sandra Gardea, said that around 3 a.m., she heard music and someone "really crying, like really deep emotions. ... Like tired or sad, you know?"

"I then heard someone say, 'OK, Please stop. Go inside the house.' ... We heard quiet for a few minutes Then after that we heard a splash in the back."

King's death was a grim ending to a saga that began 21 years earlier when he fled from police after he was stopped for speeding. The 25-year-old, on parole from a robbery conviction had been drinking, which he later said led him to try to evade police. He was finally stopped by four Los Angeles police officers who struck him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. He was left with 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.

A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of it and turned a copy over to a TV station. It was played over and over for the following year, inflaming racial tensions across the country.

It seemed that the videotape would be the key evidence to a guilty verdict against the officers, whose felony assault trial was moved to the predominantly white suburb of Simi Valley, Calif. Instead, on April 29, 1992, a jury with no black members acquitted three of the officers on state charges in the beating; a mistrial was declared for a fourth.

Violence erupted immediately, starting in Los Angeles. They lasted for three days, killing 55 people, injuring more than 2,000 and setting swaths of Los Angeles aflame, causing $1 billion in damage. Police, seemingly caught off-guard, were quickly outnumbered by rioters and retreated. As the uprising spread to the city's Koreatown area, shop owners armed themselves and engaged in running gun battles with looters.

King ? who said in his memoir that FBI agents had urged him to keep a low profile if the officers were acquitted, expecting violence ? appeared at a news conference on the third day, asking for an end to the uprising. "Can we all get along?" he asked ? a question the city and nation have struggled to answer ever since.

Although the four officers who beat King ? Stacey Koon, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind and Laurence Powell ? were acquitted of state charges, Koon and Powell were convicted of federal civil rights charges and were sentenced to more than two years in prison. King received a $3.8 million civil judgment; one of the jurors in the case, Cynthia Kelley, is his fianc?e.

But he quickly lost the money as he invested in a record label and other failed ventures. He was arrested multiple times for drunken driving ? including last summer in Riverside, Calif.

Despite his troubles, King remained upbeat as he confronted the 20 year anniversary of the LA riots and considered his legacy.

"America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all," he told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this year. "This part of my life is the easy part now."

He had three daughters and was engaged to Kelley.

He returned to the spotlight earlier this year as historians and news outlets explored the impact of the riots on its 20th anniversary, including the reforms made by the Los Angeles Police Department.

"Through all that he had gone through with his beating and his personal demons he was never one to not call for reconciliation and for people to overcome and forgive," Rev. Al Sharpton said Sunday. "History will record that it was Rodney King's beating and his actions that made America deal with the excessive misconduct of law enforcement."

Attorney Harland Braun, who represented one of the police officers, Briseno, in his federal trial, said King's case never would have gained the prominence it did without the videotape of his beating.

"If there hadn't been a video there would have never been a case," Braun said. "In those days, you might have claimed excessive force but there would have been no way to prove it."

The video also sparked an examination of Los Angeles police tactics under then-Police Chief Daryl Gates.

"The Rodney King beating stands as a landmark in the recent history of law enforcement, comparable to the Scottsboro case in 1931 and the Serpico case in 1967," said a July 1991 report produced by an independent commission led by Warren Christopher, who later became Secretary of State.

The report determined that despite many good officers, there were "a significant number of officers in the LAPD who repetitively use excessive force against the public."

Despite that scrutiny, the department continued to face scandals and critics of its practices until the U.S. government intervened. The department operated under a decade-long consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department' civil rights division to implement reforms on how it uses force and handles complaints; the department also gained more civilian oversight. The decree wasn't formally lifted until 2009.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who knew King for years, said he was more of a victim than a hero, and that his death reminded the nation of how far it still needs to go.

Gardea described King as a quiet neighbor until Sunday morning. Cory Hudson, King's cousin who lives nearby, said King enjoyed swimming and was known to get into the pool at night.

"It's just sad. I feel bad for all the family members," Hudson said. "It's been rough. And he was just getting his life really together."

Braun, the attorney saw King as "a sad figure swept up into something bigger than he was.

"He wasn't a hero or a villain."

___

Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon in Rialto and Linda Deutsch, Chris Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Greek, Spanish savings flee eurozone crisis

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? In Europe's most economically stricken countries, people are taking their money out of their banks as a way to protect their savings from the growing financial storm.

Worried that their savings could be devalued, or that banks are on the verge of collapse and that governments cannot make good on deposit insurance, people in Greece, Spain and beyond are withdrawing euros by the billions ? behavior that is magnifying their countries' financial stresses.

The money is being hoarded at home or deposited in banks in more stable economies.

It's a steady bank "jog" at the moment, not a full-bore run. But it threatens to undermine the finances of those countries' already-stressed lenders. And if it does turn into a full bank run after Greece's crucial election on Sunday, it could hasten financial disaster in Europe and help spread turmoil around the world.

Since the Greek debt crisis broke in late 2009, deposits have fallen by 30 percent cent, as savers have slowly pulled some ?72 billion ($90.24 billion) from local lenders, with total household and corporate deposits standing at ?165.9 billion ($207.94 billion) in April, according to the latest data from the Bank of Greece.

Spanish deposits have fallen about six percent over the past year. They dipped suddenly in April by about ?3.1 billion, or 1.8 percent, to ?1.624 trillion as problems with the country's troubled banks stated to grow to alarming proportions.

This is despite the fact that deposits are guaranteed by the government up to ?100,000 across the eurozone.

Spain's financial turmoil quickly worsened in late May, when the country's second-largest lender announced it needed capital of ?19 billion to stay afloat. Bankia denied reports of a rush by its customers to withdraw, but the bailout scared Spaniards who assumed their money was safe.

Bankia client Rosa Monsivais panicked and decided she had to move her savings from Bankia to one she thought would be safer. She chose a foreign bank with Spanish operations, the Dutch owned ING bank.

It took longer than she thought, leading to anxious days until she knew her money was in her new account.

"It scared me a little. I took all my money out and put it in ING," said Monsivais, a 41-year-old graphic artist who would not say how much money she moved. "But it took a full week to do this kind of transaction. I was reading the newspaper each day and it worried me."

The money across Europe is headed different places.

Some has simply been withdrawn and spent out of urgent need as people lose their jobs due to recessions. Some is winding up in bank accounts or invested in countries that are more stable such as Germany. The rest is being invested in property or bonds being issued by other eurozone countries.

In the U.K., the eurozone crisis was seen as one factor pushing up central London house prices, according to Knight Frank, a real estate agency dealing in high-end property.

"While it looks very much that the surge in Greek buyers has fallen off sharply since the beginning of the year ? those who had the funds to buy have done so ? we are now seeing a noticeable uptick in interest from France, Italy, Spain and even German-based purchasers looking at the prime London market," the company said in its Prime Central London Index report.

Meanwhile, some money appears to be simply hoarded at home, despite the risk of theft. Last month, police in Athens arrested a gang that specialized in breaking into basement storage spaces under apartment blocks, netting a rich haul in stashed cash and valuables.

"What the average Greek has in mind is to secure the euros they currently hold," said Theodore Krintas, managing director at Attica Wealth Management. "That has been going on for a long time, and will continue as long as the uncertainty increases concerning Greece's position in the near future in the eurozone and the European Union."

Sunday's vote could determine whether Greece stays in the euro or leaves in chaos. Since 2010, Greece has been dependent on two bailouts totaling ?240 billion in loans to pay its bills. In return, the government had to promise to make deep spending cuts to lower its deficit. That has helped put the country in a deep recession. Leading political figures have called for renegotiating or rejecting the bailout deal, which could lead to a payment cutoff from mistrustful eurozone governments and the IMF.

A bailout cutoff could lead to a complete collapse of government finances and a euro exit meaning the country would have to print its own money to pay bills or recapitalize banks.

A large-scale bank run in Greece could further wreck government finances and push the country closer to leaving the euro. T

So far it's been a trickle rather than a flood in Greece, underlining its slow-motion nature. Many have kept their deposits because they don't believe Greece will leave the euro.

Wealthy Germans also are concerned that inflation will surge if Europe's central bank has to step in and spend huge amounts of money propping up the single currency. So they are putting more money into their own country's high-end real-estate in hope it will keep its value.

Well-heeled Spaniards have been moving money to Switzerland and the U.S. for months amid mounting worries about Spain and the safety of the eurozone, said Bruce Goslin, managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for K2 Intelligence consulting group.

"As we are circulating and talking to people, some things are becoming clear. Everyone says 'There is nothing going on in Spain, the economy is contracting so fast we're going to have to go out of Spain.'" said Goslin.

Spain's banking problems come from the collapse of a real estate boom. Banks that made reckless loans are not being paid back and are seeing the value of the properties they invested in tumbling. This is making the country's banking system increasingly financially insecure ? heightening savers' fears that their money is not safe.

Fernando Encinar, head of research at real estate website Idealista.com, said some wealthy people who didn't have money to buy during the boom are now taking advantage of prices that have fallen 26 percent in four years.

Many Spaniards can't move money abroad because times are so tough, said Vincent Forest at the Economist Intelligence Unit. With unemployment now at nearly 25 percent, Spaniards with jobs and savings are increasingly helping out less fortunate relatives.

"Most Spaniards have huge savings, but they have someone in the family who needs money and isn't earning anything," Forest said.

Many Italians ? some of Europe's most devoted savers ? are also moving money. They are worried their government will be the next victim of the crisis through its heavy debt load, even though Italy's banks, government finances and economy are in better shape than Spain's.

Some 60,000 to 70,000 small investors have bought property abroad, mostly in Germany but also on the Spanish islands, in the last three months, for a total investment of ?400 million on an annual basis, said Paolo Righi, president of the Italian Federation of Real Estate Professionals.

Ruth Stirati, who runs a business helping Italians buy property in Berlin, said she gets about 10 emails a day asking about properties.

"Over the last two or three weeks, there has been a new panic," she said. "They have a thousand fears: That the banks won't have money, that the euro will fail. It is without substance, their doubts. But they worry there will be one strong euro in Germany, and one that is weak.'

Wealthy Germans aren't worried about seeing their money disappear due to collapsing banks, but they are concerned that their savings will be eaten away through inflation. As a result, they are putting money into real estate ? at home.

Even though inflation currently is moderate at 2.2 percent in May, there is concern about the risk of rising prices in Germany's media. There is speculation that inflation could jump if the European Central Bank has to take drastic measures to keep the eurozone from breaking up ? such as printing large amounts of money to buy government bonds and cover bankrupt governments' financing needs.

The current EU treaty bars that. But that hasn't stopped German newspaper headlines warning about possible inflation to come.

According to the Europace real estate financing platform, German home prices rose 5.46 percent in the first quarter over a year ago.

__

Paphitis contributed from Athens, McHugh from Frankfurt, and Barry from Milan. Also contributing were Harold Heckle in Madrid and Robert Barr and Cassandra Vinograd in London.

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UN Monitors find stench of death in Syrian town

The monitors were only just able to get to the town of Haffa after a week of attempts.

By Bassem Mroue and Diaa Hadid,?The Associated Press / June 14, 2012

Protesters outside the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, on June 14.

Majed Jaber/Reuters

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Smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death greeted U.N. observers who entered the nearly deserted Syrian town of Haffa on Thursday, a day after President Bashar Assad's forces overran it as part of a major offensive to recover rebel-controlled territories.

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The monitors had been trying to get into the town for a week after fears were raised that a brutal assault by regime forces was under way. They found the main hospital burned, state buildings and an office of the ruling Baath party in ruins and a corpse lying in the street.

"A strong stench of dead bodies was in the air," said Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the U.N. observers. She said there was still fighting in some pockets of the mountainous town in the seaside province of Latakia.

RECOMMENDED: A day in the life of a UN observer in Syria

The number of casualties was unclear, Ghosheh said, and it appeared likely that, as in the past, bodies had been removed or buried before the U.N. mission got in.

The siege of Haffa, a Sunni-populated village, had become a focus of international concern because of fears the uprising against Assad is evolving into a sectarian civil war pitting his minority Alawite sect against the majority Sunnis and other groups. Recent mass killings in other Sunni-populated areas have fed those concerns.

The fighting, now mostly quelled in Haffa, was mirrored in other parts of Syria, where more than 40 civilians and opposition fighters were killed Thursday, according to activists, alongside more than a half-dozen Syrian forces.

From the day's early hours, Syrian troops bombarded rebel-held areas with tanks, mortars and helicopters in the central town of Rastan, the Damascus suburb of Douma, the central city of Homs and the northern towns of Anadan and Hreitan, near the Turkish border, the activists said.

They said the fighting included clashes in the town of Hamuriya, near Damascus, that killed at least nine men who were allegedly butchered with knives. A video circulated by activists showed a pile of lifeless men, including one who was clearly slashed through the neck.

"Slaughter, slaughter!" a person could be heard screaming in the background. Another video showed a man lying in a garden, his arm blown off. There was no way to independently confirm the content of the videos because reporters are not allowed to work freely in Syria.

For more than a week, Syrian troops have been sweeping through villages and towns in Syria's northern, central, southern and seaside provinces, attacking rebel-held areas and opposition strongholds in what appears to be the largest offensive since an internationally-brokered cease-fire went into effect two months ago. The regime and the opposition have both largely ignored the April 12 truce.

The U.N. observers' description of the smoldering ruins they found in Haffa suggested Syrian forces were using intense force to quell rebels. But it also indicated the rebels were determined to smash all symbols of the hated Assad regime, including state institutions.

"Most government institutions, including the post office, were set on fire from inside," Ghosheh said in a statement. "Archives were burnt, stores were looted and set on fire."

She said homes were broken into, while the ruling Baath party headquarters was shelled, "and appeared to be the scene of heavy fighting." The observers also found remnants of heavy weapons scattered through the town; it was not clear who they belonged to. "The town appeared deserted," she said.

On Tuesday, the unarmed U.N. monitors were blocked from entering Haffa by a crowd of angry civilians, apparently residents of nearby Alawite villages, who hurled rocks and sticks at the mission's vehicles. But the Syrian government urged the observers to return after it announced Wednesday that pro-Assad forces had "cleansed" Haffa of "armed terrorist groups" ? the regime's term for rebel fighters.

The U.N. observers' visit to Haffa came hours after a suicide bomber detonated a van packed with explosives in a Damascus suburb, wounding 14 people and damaging one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, according to witnesses and Syria's state-run news agency.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomber intended to target the golden-domed Sayyida Zainab complex or a police station 15 yards (meters) away. Believed to house the remains of the granddaughter of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the shrine attracts tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from around the world.

U.N. observers have reported a steep rise in violence and a dangerous shift in tactics by both sides in Syria in recent weeks. Car bombings and suicide bombings have become increasingly common as the 15-month uprising against Assad becomes militarized. Most have targeted security buildings and police buses, symbols of Assad's regime.

Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it appeared the Syrian regime was trying to implement a kind of scorched earth policy in the central city of Homs, which government forces have been heavily shelling for the past week. He said the use of tanks and attack helicopters to smash residential buildings and city infrastructure indicated they wanted to destroy areas, not just chase out rebels.

In Rastan, a rebel-held town that was heavily bombed Thursday, two rights groups said the dead included Maj. Ahmad Bahbouh, an army defector who headed the town's opposition military council. Activists said helicopters pounded the town, which has been held by rebels for months.

They said troops also heavily bombed the Damascus suburb of Douma killing at least five people. Abdul-Rahman said Syrian forces seized control of the northern town of Hreitan, where they conducted house-to-house raids and set homes of anti-government activists on fire.

An amateur video from the nearby town of Anadan, showed two babies receiving treatment in a makeshift hospital. One baby, screaming in pain, had part of his left foot blown off and severe head injuries. A third baby was dead and covered with a blanket. Activists said the children were the victims of government shelling. There was no way to verify the claim.

Activists say some 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's accusation that Russia has "dramatically" escalated the crisis by sending attack helicopters to Syria lost some steam Thursday when the State Department acknowledged the helicopters were actually refurbished ones already owned by the Assad regime.

The claim had complicated the Obama administration's larger goals for Syria and U.S.-Russia relations before a key meeting of the nations' two leaders.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland insisted, however, that the nuance meant little, even as she refused to explain why the department didn't divulge the information earlier.

"Whether they are new or they are refurbished, the concern remains that they will be used for the exact same purpose that the current helicopters in Syria are being used, and that is to kill civilians," Nuland told reporters in Washington.

"When you look at the Soviet- and Russian-made helicopters that are in use in Syria today, every helicopter that is flying and working is attacking a new civilian location," she said. "So the concern is when you add three more freshly refurbished helicopters to the fight, that is three more that can be used to kill civilians."

RECOMMENDED: A day in the life of a UN observer in Syria

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USC Men's Golf, Tennis Teams Earn Highest GPAs

Gamecock student athletes finished this academic year with their highest GPA in the athletic department's history.?

For the fall semester they earned a 3.202, and in the spring they earned 3.196, according to a press release from the athletic department.?

The men's golf and men's tennis teams completed the spring semester with the two highest GPAs in the department.

Of USC's 17 athletic teams, 14 achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher in the spring semester.

Two teams achieved their highest marks on record. The football team earned a 2.781, and men?s track and field earned a 3.269.?

The men's basketball team had the lowest GPA at 2.643. The women's basketball and the football teams also came in below 3.0.?

A total of 67 student athletes earned a 4.0 GPA and a spot on the President's List. Another 159 were named to the Dean's List.?

More than half of the student athletes made it on the Athletics Director?s Honor Roll by earning a 3.0 GPA.

?Our academic performance continues to impress,? said Athletics Director Eric Hyman. "The most impressive thing I hear is that teams are not satisfied with what has been accomplished. They want to reach even higher.?

Here are the sport-by-sport GPAs for the spring semester:

Sport? GPA?
Baseball? 3.052?
Men's basketball? 2.643
Women's basketball? 2.968
Equestrian 3.420
Football 2.781
Men?s Golf? 3.526
Women's Golf 3.492
Men's soccer 3.434
Women's soccer 3.450
Softball 3.288
Men's swimming and diving? 3.200
Women's swimming and diving? 3.446
Men's tennis 3.501
Women's tennis 3.478
Men's track and field 3.269
Women's track and field, and cross country? 3.323
Volleyball 3.493

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Dramatic testimony in Sandusky child sex abuse trial

BELLEFONTE, Pa. ? The slightly built 18-year-old, looking nervous and ashamed, leaned into the witness stand microphone.

He was a trailer-park kid, the son of a mom who worked in a bar and a dad who was never around, just the kind of project Jerry Sandusky's Second Mile charity was supposed to help. A patch covering his right eye due to a medical procedure made him seem broken and even more vulnerable

Jerry Sandusky's defense team faces a tough weekend of preparation for its case. (Reuters) And here he was, through a low, occasionally cracking voice, telling a crowded Centre County Courtroom how when he was a young teen he'd stay in Sandusky's basement on weekends. That's when the former Penn State defensive coordinator would routinely come down at night and force him to perform oral sex.

"What was I going to do?" the witness, known in court documents as Victim No. 9, said. "Look at him, he's a big guy, bigger than me. Way bigger than me."

The boy only kept returning to Sandusky's home because his mother, thinking he needed a male role model, insisted he do so. Soon the sessions occasionally included sodomy, and he couldn't stop those attacks, either.

"I just went with it," he said. "There was no fighting against it. ? Sometimes [I'd] scream. Sometimes tell him to get off of me. But other than that, he was there, you were in a basement, no one can hear you down there."

"Did you ever bleed?" Sandusky's defense attorney, Joe Amendola asked later on cross-examination.

"Yes," the witness said, in a chilling tone so matter-of-fact it was heartbreaking. "I just dealt with it. I have a different way of coping with things."

[Related: Janitor's graphic testimony, Bob Costas' interview benefit Sandusky prosecution]

Less than a half hour later court was adjourned until Monday morning. The prosecution, while not officially resting its case, is expected to turn the floor over to the defense then.

Just not before prosecutors presented one last dose of graphic, bloodcurdling testimony, one more horrible tale to rattle around in the jurors' minds during a long weekend.

"Between now and then we have three days of temptation," Judge John Cleland warned the jury, citing the need to avoid not just media coverage but any discussion of the case. "It's better to say absolutely nothing."

It's possible to not speak. It's another thing to not think.

In four days the state has hit 12 jurors and four alternates with an avalanche of stories, evidence and descriptions they probably could never have imagined.

Sandusky, 68, is facing 52 counts of molesting 10 children over 15 years, using his influence as a Penn State assistant football coach and the local Second Mile charity to prey on disadvantaged youth. He maintains his innocence.

As court was adjourned, Amendola stood, sorted a few papers by tapping them on the defense table and let out a small sigh as he handed the documents to a legal assistant who placed them in one of six boxes of files.

So began the most difficult and pressure-packed weekend of preparation of Amendola's career. The 63-year-old is known for his courtroom flair, sense of humor and unconventional style.

He'll need every last bit of it to keep Sandusky out of prison for the rest of his life.

Legal experts and courtroom observers agree that Sandusky was beaten to a pulp by the prosecution witnesses this week and there was little Amendola or co-defense counsel Karl Rominger could do to stop it.

While some maneuvers can be questioned, the two are dealing with what lawyers jokingly call, "bad facts." Namely, their client had a propensity to, at the very least, shower alone and cuddle shirtless on waterbeds with young boys.

[Related: Sandusky juror profiles: All Caucasians, most have ties to Penn State]

They can't even cross-examine one of the prime witnesses, a former Penn State janitor who now has dementia but alleged a particular graphic 2000 assault in a locker room shower. Judge Cleland allowed hearsay evidence to be admitted, a brutal hurdle for an already challenged defense.

Defense attorney Joe Amendola did not appear to make a big impression on jurors during the prosecution's case.?? Only once during the onslaught was Amendola able to hint at an ability to argue that an alleged assault didn't happen. That's when Victim No. 10 claimed he was abused while riding with Sandusky in a silver convertible. Amendola harped on the car during cross examination. Sandusky sources say Jerry has never owned such a car and no one has ever seen him driving one.

Other than that, Amendola has been forced to seemingly concede that Sandusky was present when the alleged acts occurred. The line drawn in the argumentative sand occasionally was about whether there was actual penetration or just naked rubbing of private parts. It's not a promising place for a defense to operate.

Amendola and Rominger have been stuck focusing on inconsistencies among various alleged victim testimonies, the fact some alleged victims have continued their relationships with Sandusky into adulthood and arguing that some could be making accusations for monetary gain.

Some of the counterarguments have worked better than others. Some of the victims are clearly shakier than others.

It's unlikely any of Amendola's small victories have been enough to convince the jury to ignore the totality of profound and disturbing testimony. But, of course, all it would take for a hung jury is for one juror to have reasonable doubt about his guilt.

Toward the end of Monday's session, deputy attorney general Joe McGettigen paced in front of the jury box and asked jurors to remember something they'd heard as they broke for the day:

"The showers, the showers, the showers."

By Thursday, he could have added "the basement, the basement, the basement" and "the hotels, the hotels, the hotels" and who knows how many other locations. Then he could have shifted to at least a dozen gasp-inducing phrases and moments from the rest of the week.

"Tickle monster" ? "soap battles" ? "it's your turn" ? "creepy love letters" ? "he blew on my stomach" ? "severe sexual position" ? "the B-J Story" ? not to mention the waterbed, the terrified janitor, the frustrated local cop, the victim who said that even despite Sandusky's abuse "I loved him" for years afterward, and a Second Mile child participant chart with stars next to many of the alleged victims in this case.

That's not the kind of stuff you just forget once you walk out of the jury box for the weekend.

[Related: Neighbors of jurors in Sandusky trial don't support him, want justice]

The prosecution's weakness may have been that it presented too much, too quickly. It has nearly completed its case days earlier than even the judge expected.

The rapid-fire nature of the presentation may have numbed the jury to some of the testimony. As emotional and powerful as Victim No. 9's story was, the jury did not seem to listen with the same rapt attention it did listening to similar witness testimony earlier in the week. If it's possible to become a bit numb to such graphic tales, then Courtroom No. 1 this week is the place it would occur.

Amendola must come out of the gate strong with his defense of Sandusky, delivering something that changes the momentum of the case by jolting the jury into believing there is another side to the story.

The jurors likely will be rested and eager to hear Sandusky's defense, but not if it appears as meandering and pointless as many of the cross-examinations.

Amendona needs to bring facts that dispute the acts ever occurred, witnesses that can deconstruct not just the accusers, but whether what they allege was even possible. Simply finding character witnesses, Second Mile kids who had positive experiences or family members who didn't notice anything untoward, isn't going to cut it after the state's epic run this week.

With so much smoke, if not raging fire, Amendola will have to find a way to convince any juror with a hint of doubt not to put Sandusky away just to be safe.

The defense may be desperate enough to call Sandusky himself, even after his disastrous interview with NBC's Bob Costas last November. Amendola alluded to him taking the stand during opening arguments.

Maybe that's the only way to possibly save a conviction, the accused trying to explain the seemingly unexplainable.

As Amendola strolled out of the Centre County Courthouse on a brilliant, sunny afternoon in this picturesque town, all that was certain is that he has three days to think up something.

And it better be good. Real good.

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Humongous asteroid to hurtle past Earth Thursday

Some?1,650 feet wide,?asteroid 2012 LZ1 is expected to pass within 14 lunar distances of our planet, close enough to be caught on camera.?

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / June 14, 2012

A look at where near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1 will appear in the sky on Thursday evening.

Slooh Space Camera

Enlarge

An asteroid the size of a city block is set to fly by Earth Thursday (June 14), and you may be able to watch it happen live.

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The?near-Earth asteroid?2012 LZ1, which astronomers think is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, will come within 14 lunar distances of Earth Thursday evening. While there's no danger of an impact on this pass, the huge space rock may come close enough to be caught on camera.

That's what the team running the Slooh Space Camera thinks, anyway. The online skywatching service will train a telescope on the Canary Islands on 2012 LZ1 and stream the footage live, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT Thursday (0000 GMT Friday) ? the time of closest approach.

You can watch the?asteroid?flyby on Slooh's website, found here:?http://events.slooh.com/

2012 LZ1 just popped onto astronomers' radar this week. It was discovered on the night of June 10-11 by Rob McNaught and his colleagues, who were peering through the Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

Researchers estimate that the space rock is between 1,000 and 2,300 feet wide (300-700 m). On Thursday evening, it will come within about 3.35 million miles (5.4 million kilometers) of our planet, or roughly 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

Because of its size and proximity to Earth, 2012 LZ1 qualifies as a potentially hazardous asteroid. Near-Earth asteroids generally have to be at least 500 feet (150 m) wide and come within 4.65 million miles (7.5 million km) of our planet to be classified as potentially hazardous.

2012 LZ1 is roughly the same size as?asteroid 2005 YU55, which made a much-anticipated flyby of Earth last November. But 2005 YU55 gave our planet a much closer shave, coming within 202,000 miles (325,000 km) of us on the evening of Nov. 8. A space rock as big as 2005 YU55 hadn't come so close to Earth since 1976, researchers said.

Astronomers have identified nearly 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, but they think many more are out there, waiting to be discovered.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?and?Google+.

Copyright 2012?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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New action for ancient heart drug

Friday, June 15, 2012

An ancient heart drug that's inspired the work of herbalists and poets for centuries may treat a condition that plagues millions of overstressed and overweight Americans today.

Since the 13th century, the herb Foxglove has been used to cleanse wounds and its dried leaves were brewed by Native Americans to treat leg swelling caused by heart problems.

In an article published online today in Molecular Pharmacology, researchers at the University of Michigan Health System reveal that digoxin, the active ingredient in digitalis, or Foxglove, can enhance the body's own protective mechanism against high blood pressure and heart failure.

High blood pressure can be prevented by reducing salt intake, being active and keeping a healthy weight, but about 1 in 3 Americans has high blood pressure, also called hypertension, which can damage the body in many ways.

Most current treatments prevent excess hormone and stress signals that can lead to high blood pressure and heart failure.

But recent studies have found that the body has the ability to keep excess stimulation in check through production of a family of inhibitors called RGS proteins.

Researchers looked for ways to "re-purpose" old drugs to tap into this protective mechanism which is lost among some individuals with high blood pressure and heart failure.

"We tested several thousand known drugs and bioactive molecules for a potential role in enhancing RGS2 and/or RGS4 expression and function and have identified a novel mechanism for digoxin," says lead study author Benita Sjogren, Ph.D., a research fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan.

Case histories collected by Dr. William Withering in 1775 determined that Foxglove contained the active ingredient, digoxin, now an important drug for treating patients with congestive heart failure.

This new action of digoxin was found by treating engineered human kidney cells with thousands of known drugs in a high-throughput screen at the U-M Center for Chemical Genomics. Digoxin was then shown to have similar actions in isolated mouse blood vessel cells.

"In addition to test tube studies, low dose digoxin, the active ingredient of digitalis, was able to increase RGS2 levels in the heart and kidney," says senior study author and pharmacologist Rick Neubig, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, associate professor of internal medicine, and co-director of the Center for Chemical Genomics at the University of Michigan.

"This new action of digoxin could help explain the fact that low doses seem to improve the survival of heart failure patients. It also suggests new uses for low dose digoxin or other drugs that can activate this protective mechanism," he says.

Neubig's lab at the U-M focuses on the large family of RGS proteins and the role they play in the function of the brain, heart, immunity and cancer and how they can be exploited in therapeutics.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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