Saving Mr. Banks: London Review

According to this based-on-a-true-story account of the making of Mary Poppins, when Walt Disney offered to buy the rights to P.L. Travers’ book, the author insisted on just two things: that she would retain script approval and that there would be no animation. History shows that she didn’t exactly get her way, at least as far as the animation was concerned. But dancing penguins aside, Saving Mr. Banks suggests that Travers put up a good fight, going sturdy-pump-to-brogue with Disney, then one of the most powerful studio heads in the business.

Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith’s ingenious script, which famously featured on Franklin Leonard’s Black List, adroitly builds layers on top of this central conflict, using flashbacks to reveal how bleak events in Pamela Lyndon Travers’ childhood nourished the cheerful story of Mary Poppins, making her so protective of her work. The finished product, directed by John Lee Hancock, is a cunningly effective, if rather on-the-nose study of the transformation of pain into art, marbled with moments of high comedy.

Some contrarians will balk at the highly sympathetic depiction of Walt Disney himself (played by Tom Hanks), hardly a surprise given that the logo of the company he founded opens the credits. However, audiences will swallow this tasty spoonful of sugar without complaint. A most delightful box-office result should be expected when it opens in the U.S. Dec. 13 (two weeks after Britain), a frame well chosen to maximize the family market and position the film in the awards-season calendar.  

STORY: Tom Hanks on Becoming Walt Disney for 'Saving Mr. Banks' 

In a part once mooted for Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson takes charge of the central role of the waspish P.L. Travers with an authority that makes you wonder how anybody else could ever have been considered. Firing off withering, perfectly timed put-downs in a musical Received Pronunciation accent (disguising the character’s Australian origins), with the confident stride of a governess tidying up the nursery, she’s a fearsome figure of feminine steeliness. There’s an echo here of Sandra Bullock’s Tiger Mom in Hancock’s The Blind Side, except that Travers is considerably less maternal, despite being a children’s writer. When a woman with a babe-in-arms on the plane to Los Angeles offers to move her own hand luggage to make room for Travers’ bag, she offers no thanks and only asks if “the child will be a nuisance” on the flight.

Only a glancing allusion in the script betrays that the real Travers did in fact have an adopted child, but then there’s quite a lot else about her, presumably in the interests of making the character more accessible, that scribes Marcel and Smith have declined to incorporate. Apparently, there were also rumored affairs with women and an interest in mysticism and the occult, though there is only a shot here of her reading a book by guru George Gurdjieff to show for it. The end credits thank author Valerie Lawson for inspiration from her respected biography Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers, but a warts-and-all portrait was never going to happen on a film with this big a budget and this much visibility at stake.

That goes double or more for the portrait drawn of Walt Disney. The twinkly-eyed, avuncular figure incarnated by a mustachioed Hanks -- who only for a fleeting moment shows off a glower worthy of a mafia crime boss ordering a hit -- couldn’t be further from the negative depictions of Disney in, say, Richard Schickel’s scathing biography The Disney Version or the recent Philip Glass opera The Perfect American.

Some no doubt will call this a whitewash, but looked at from the viewpoint of the studio and the estate of Walt Disney, Saving Mr. Banks presents a grittier version of Disney than one might have expected 10 or even five years ago. Okay, so there’s no mention here of strike-breaking or informing on suspected Communists to the FBI, but at least it’s conceded that not everyone was enchanted by Walt’s magic kingdom, and that there were murky shadows in his own biography, like an abusive father. Heck, they even show him smoking, and that’s way worse than being an FBI informant these days.

Taken strictly on its own terms, Saving Mr. Banks works exceedingly well as mainstream entertainment. At first a classic fish out of water, with her haughty Old World ways when she lands in laid-back, informal 1961 Hollywood, Mrs. Travers (as she insists on being called) is gradually won over by Walt and staff. Three men in particular are tasked with coaxing her script approval and trust: writer Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), composer Richard Sherman (Jason Schwartzman) and his lyricist brother Robert Sherman (B.J. Novak). The last two really have their work cut out for them given Travers is only mildly less resistant to having songs in the film than she is to animation.

As they slug it out in the rehearsal room over the script (she even quibbles over the wording of the scene headings), golden-hued flashbacks to Travers’ own Australian childhood uncover the scars that her writing of Mary Poppins would try to heal. Like Mr. Banks in the book, Pamela’s father, Travers Goff (Colin Farrell, doing his best work for some time), was a bank manager who had a temper at times, but there the parallels end. An alcoholic whose irresponsibility pulled his family down the social scale, he’s seen as a child-man always eager to participate in their games. Clearly, Mary Poppins the character inherited something from him, as she did from Pamela’s aunt (Rachel Griffiths), who shows up with a carpetbag full of wonders just when the family most needs help. Ultimately, Mary Poppins turns out to be an idealized version of Pamela Travers, nee Helen Goff, herself, and it’s only when Disney figures out how to lift the veil hanging over her own backstory that he can persuade her to let go of her creation.

The scene where Disney plays amateur shrink to secure the signature he needs is the script’s clumsiest, most irritating misstep, despite the laudable efforts of Hanks and Thompson to save it. Profoundly anachronistic with its smattering of psychobabble notions, it represents a shameless bit of self-flattery aimed at the industry and, no doubt, awards bodies with lines like “It's what we storytellers do: We restore order with imagination.” Likewise, more anachronism in the service of sappiness is deployed elsewhere when Travers presents her chauffeur (Paul Giamatti, otherwise endearing) with a list of famous people -- Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, etc. -- with disabilities to provide inspiration for his wheelchair-bound daughter. Oh come on, barely anyone outside Mexico or France and a few art buffs knew who Frida Kahlo was in 1961.

However, these are faults most mainstream viewers probably won’t notice or even mind, especially if they read Saving Mr. Banks as a charming work of fiction, a creation not that much more fantastical than stories about nannies that fly. Folks will swallow anything if it’s done well enough, a point charmingly made near the film's end, when Travers attends the premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. For the most part, the camera holds on Travers' face, bathed in the reflected bluish light from the screen, as she cries at the parts we’ve learned meant the most to her, smiles at the jokes and winces during the dancing penguins.

As well as the outstanding performances by the leads and supporting cast, sturdy craft contributions from all departments add polish, while the use of what looks like the real Disney Burbank facility adds veracity. (The Australian locales, however, are far less convincing-looking.) The picture gets an extra lift from the extensive use of the cracking original songs written by the Sherman Brothers for Mary Poppins, which mesh nicely with Thomas Newman's newly composed score. They're inventively woven into the story and used for dramatic counterpoint, making this on one level a musical in itself, but with borrowed songs. Presumably, the producers of Saving Mr. Banks had no trouble clearing the rights.

Production: Ruby Films, Essential Media & Entertainment production in association with BBC Films, Hopscotch Features

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Annie Rose Buckley, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Griffiths, Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak

Director: John Lee Hancock

Screenwriters: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith

Producers: Ian Collie, Alison Owen, Philip Steuer

Executive producers: Christine Langan, Troy Lum, Andrew Mason, Paul Trijbits

Director of photography: John Schwartzman

Production designer: Michael Corenblith

Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi

Editor: Mark Livolsi

Music: Thomas Newman

Rated PG-13, 126 minutes

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/oDW6KEWNxbM/649638
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France Summons US Ambassador Over Spying

WASHINGTON (AP) — France joined a growing list of angry allies Monday who are demanding answers from the United States over aggressive surveillance tactics by the National Security Agency, this time, that it swept up — and in some cases recorded — 70.3 million French telephone calls and emails in one 30 day period.

Keeping tabs on allies is classic spy craft but the sweep and scope of the National Security Agency program have irritated Germany, Britain, Brazil, and most recently Mexico and France.

Calling the practice "totally unacceptable,'" an indignant French government demanded an explanation and summoned U.S. Ambassador Charles Rivkin for answers.

Visiting Paris on an unrelated and previously scheduled trip for talks on the Middle East, Secretary of State John Kerry was unapologetic, but told reporters that the U.S. would discuss the matters privately with officials from France and other concerned countries.

"Protecting the security of our citizens in today's world is a very complicated, very challenging task and it is an everyday 24/7/365 task unfortunately because there are lots of people out there seeking to do harm to other people," he said a news conference with Qatar's foreign minister.

"We will have ongoing bilateral consultations, including with our French partners, to address this question of any reports by the U.S. government gathering information from some of the agencies and those consultations are going to continue," Kerry said.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the U.S. already is reviewing its intelligence gathering to strike a "balance between the legitimate security concerns that our citizens have and the privacy concerns that we and our allies have as well about some of these alleged intelligence activities."

"We certainly hope that it doesn't" damage the United States' close working relationship with France, she added.

In his meeting with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius' chief of staff Rivken "expressed his appreciation of the importance of the exchange, and promised to convey the points made back to Washington," a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Paris said.

The level of the meeting, between the U.S. ambassador and an aide to Fabius suggested that while France was talking a tough line in public, it might not be overly outraged by the revelations. Kerry, who landed in Paris early Monday, could have been contacted if relations were in danger.

The report in Le Monde, co-written by Glenn Greenwald, who originally revealed the surveillance program based on leaks from former NSA contractor Snowden, found that when certain numbers were used, the conversations were automatically recorded. The surveillance operation also swept up text messages based on key words, Le Monde reported, based on records from Dec. 10 to Jan 7.

The French government, which wants the surveillance to cease, also renewed demands for talks on protection of personal data.

"This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a meeting in Luxembourg with his European counterparts. Fabius said the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

The most recent documents cited by Le Monde, dated to April 2013, also indicated the NSA's interest in email addresses linked to Wanadoo — once part of France Telecom — and Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American telecom company. One of the documents instructed analysts to draw not only from the electronic surveillance program, but also from another initiative dubbed Upstream, which allowed surveillance on undersea communications cables.

___

Associated Press writer Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=239125804&ft=1&f=
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'Pandora's Promise' director talks about Fukushima

In this Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 photo, British film director Robert Stone speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Stone said he hopes viewers of his new film “Pandora’s Promise” to think twice if abandoning nuclear energy because of Fukushima is a right decision to make. His answer is no and Stone was clear about that when he started making the film before the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 photo, British film director Robert Stone speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Stone said he hopes viewers of his new film “Pandora’s Promise” to think twice if abandoning nuclear energy because of Fukushima is a right decision to make. His answer is no and Stone was clear about that when he started making the film before the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

In this Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 photo, British film director Robert Stone speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Stone said he hopes viewers of his new film “Pandora’s Promise” to think twice if abandoning nuclear energy because of Fukushima is a right decision to make. His answer is no and Stone was clear about that when he started making the film before the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO (AP) — Dressed in white hazmat coveralls and carrying a dosimeter, documentary film director Robert Stone ventured into the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant's exclusion zone a year after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns in three reactors.

As he encountered abandoned homes, shops and toppled cars in the scene in his new film "Pandora's Promise," Stone asked a traveling companion, "So, are you still pro-nuclear?"

Stone, a British filmmaker based in New York, confronts viewers with the thorny question of whether nuclear energy should be abandoned because of the Fukushima disaster. His answer is no, because he believes nuclear energy can help solve climate change.

Stone was clear about that when he started making the film before the March 2011 meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. He raises the question as he interviews respected environmentalists who are pro-nuclear, and visits Chernobyl and Fukushima himself to see the aftermath of their disasters. He also travels to major cities around the world, carrying his dosimeter and comparing radiation figures.

"As somebody who was making a documentary that is advocating for more nuclear power, going to Fukushima was deeply disturbing and very emotional," Stone told The Associated Press in a recent interview during a visit to Japan to promote his film ahead of its Japanese opening in February.

"You read the dosimeter, you take the readings around and it's not what it should be," he said of his Fukushima visit. "What disturbs people there is that they want everything to be as it was, and it's not."

He found himself torn between his rational half which said nuclear energy makes sense, and his emotional half which warned him of radiation and told him he should leave the zone immediately. He compared that reaction to the people he met in Fukushima during his visit, including evacuees who nonchalantly smoked cigarettes outside their temporary homes but refused to let their children play outdoors.

The film incorporates such mixed feelings "because those are my own feelings as well," he said, acknowledging that he used to be anti-nuclear until he decided that the movement against climate change wasn't going anywhere. His 1987 Academy Award-nominated first documentary "Radio Bikini" was an anti-nuclear film.

Stone said many people expected him to abandon his latest film after the Fukushima disaster, but he continued with it "to say what a lot of people believe but they haven't stood up and said." He now thinks that the Fukushima crisis even reinforces his case.

In the 87-minute film, environmental activists, authors and experts including Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens, Michael Shellenberger and Mark Lynas argue that nuclear power can be safer and more pro-environment than fossil fuel. Anti-nuclear activists like physician Helen Caldicott are portrayed as alarmists and given little space.

He urges Japan to use the Fukushima crisis as a chance to refine its technology, science and engineering to build the world's best reactors instead of withdrawing from nuclear power.

Stone said he hopes the film, which was much talked about at the Sundance film festival in June, will be well received and prompt a discussion in Japan.

"I suspect there are a lot of people in Japan who will quietly acknowledge that this is the way to go, but they are just waiting for somebody to stand up and say it. So I think we'll get support," he said.

___

Online:

http://pandoraspromise.com

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-21-Japan-Pandora's%20Promise/id-43ecb53c042f4b028c2a8042a55262f4
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NJ governor ends gay marriage fight as couples wed

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie dropped his legal challenge to same-sex marriages on Monday, removing the possibility that the vows of couples who began getting married hours earlier could be undone by a court.

New Jersey became the 14th state to allow gay marriages Monday, three days after the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected Christie's request to delay the start of the nuptials. He has said residents, not a court or legislators, should decide on the issue.

"Although the governor strongly disagrees with the court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law," Christie's spokesman Michael Drewniak said in a statement. "The governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme Court."

The announcement came from a Republican governor who is a possible 2016 presidential candidate and has for years opposed gay marriage while supporting the state's previous civil union law.

It was met with jubilation from gay rights advocates including Steven Goldstein, the founder and former leader of Garden State Equality, who asked "How much happiness can I stand?" Conversely, conservatives like National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown scorned the legalization of gay weddings.

"This is just another example of the courts making law out of thin air," he said. "Obviously, Christie should have continued the lawsuit."

Brown said his group could look into whether it could continue the legal fight that Christie dropped but said he doubts the courts would allow anyone to intervene.

The decision caught some by surprise, but not Larry Lustberg, one of the lawyers on the case on behalf of gay couples and Garden State Equality. "The handwriting was on the wall as clearly as it could possibly be. The governor had always said he would fight this all the way up to the Supreme Court, but he didn't say he was going to fight it in the Supreme Court twice," he said in a conference call. "This was inevitable."

The letter detailing Christie's decision, from the Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman to the Supreme Court, was just two sentences and didn't get into detail.

Goldstein said advocates for same-sex marriage still have work to do. He said lawmakers must adopt a law codifying same-sex marriage to clarify three points that are left unaddressed in court decisions. The court rulings do not say whether civil unions should be converted to marriages, does not say whether religious organizations such as the Knights of Columbus can reject hosting weddings on their property and does not spell out whether legal out-of-state marriages of gay couples are automatically recognized in New Jersey.

Last year, the state Legislature passed a law to allow gay marriage and deal with those issues, but Christie vetoed it.

Advocates have been making a major push to override the veto before a Jan. 14 deadline. Before Christie's announcement Monday, they were expecting a vote by lawmakers sometime after the Nov. 5 election.

But Hayley Gorenberg, a Lambda Legal lawyer who was co-counsel in the court case, said on a conference call Monday that the veto override is not needed. "I think we're done here," she said. She addressed one of the points left unanswered in the court rulings, saying that the First Amendment provides the necessary religious protection for clergy who do not want to preside over ceremonies of same-sex couples.

New Jersey's courts and politicians have been deliberating over whether to allow gay marriage for more than a decade. The answer has changed quickly in the past month.

In September, a state judge ruled that New Jersey must allow the nuptials in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made the federal government recognize same-sex marriage.

The state's top court ruled Friday afternoon that it would not delay Monday's implementation date.

And at 12:01 a.m., couples in a handful of communities wed.

In Newark, Mayor Cory Booker, in one of his last acts before joining the U.S. Senate in coming weeks, led a ceremony for seven gay couples and two heterosexual couples.

"Tonight we have crossed a barrier, and now, while you all have fallen into love, I want to say that the truth is, that the state of New Jersey has risen to love," he said. "This state now is resonant now with the core values of our county, with the idea that there is no second class citizenship in America, that we're all equal under the law."

In Lambertville, Joanne Shcailey and Beth Asaro were wed in a municipal courtroom packed with friends, family and journalists.

"We're floating on air," Asaro, in a salmon pink suit, said afterward. "It's like winning the Super Bowl," said Schailey, who wore a black suit.

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Associated Press writers Samantha Henry in Newark and Katie Zezima in Jersey City contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mulvihill at https://twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

• Politics & Government
• Government
• gay marriage
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-governor-ends-gay-marriage-fight-couples-wed-151402979.html
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Italy contacts Germany amid chaos over Nazi

Rome (AFP) - Italy contacted Germany on Wednesday over what to do with the body of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke who has caused outrage even after his death in Rome at the age of 100 last week.

The furore comes at a particularly sensitive time on the day that Italy commemorates the 70th anniversary of the decimation of Rome's historic Jewish community after a raid by Nazi troops.

"We are in contact with Germany," Rome's prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro told reporters.

German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said there had been "informal contacts" but no "official request from the Italian side" for the body to be sent back to Priebke's native land.

Schaefer said it was up to Priebke's family to decide what to do with the body, which is currently at a military airport near Rome.

Media reports said it would likely be kept there overnight despite earlier statements from officials that a solution would be found Wednesday.

Under Italian law, decisions on what to do with the body have to be taken by direct heirs but the ANSA news agency reported that neither of Priebke's two sons have travelled to Italy or contacted Italian authorities about their wishes.

Clashes erupted in a town near Rome on Tuesday as a Catholic ultra-conservative sect tried to hold a funeral for the unrepentant former SS officer who took part in a 1944 massacre of 335 civilians.

The funeral was cancelled by a police order after some neo-Nazi sympathisers broke into the seminary in Albano Laziale and tried to stage a rally as hundreds of protesters outside shouted "Assassin!"

Police detained two far-right activists, some of whom were seen fighting with bottles and chains against groups of leftist protesters.

The coffin was then driven out in a van in the night as a rock was thrown at the windscreen.

Protesters had earlier kicked and spat on the hearse as it arrived for the start of the funeral.

The Holocaust denier died on Friday and the Vatican issued an unprecedented order forbidding any Catholic church in Rome from holding a funeral.

The possibility of him being buried in a German military cemetery in Italy was mooted but then rejected because Priebke did not die in wartime.

His lawyer, Paolo Giachini, said one possibility would be "cremation with a Catholic rite".

Priebke had been living under house arrest in the Italian capital after being extradited in 1998 from Argentina, where he had fled with a Vatican travel document soon after World War II.

Priebke had wanted to be buried in Argentina next to his wife but the government there earlier said it would not accept the body.

Jewish groups and relatives of the people he executed said he should be cremated and his ashes scattered to erase every trace.

There is concern that a burial could create a pilgrimage point for neo-Nazi sympathisers.

In any case a spokesman for the mayor of Priebke's birthplace of Hennigsdorf, near Berlin, told Germany's Rbb radio the town would refuse the body.

The row coincides with the anniversary of the round-up of the Jews from the Rome Ghetto on October 16, 1943.

More than 1,000 Jews were taken away to concentration camps and only 16 returned.

As Rome held a day of remembrance, mayor Ignazio Marino said the city "could not accept the funeral of a man who actively took part in the massacre of 335 people, shooting them in the back of the neck."

Nazi German occupiers ordered the mass killing in the Ardeatine caves near Rome as retaliation for a partisan attack which had killed 33 German soldiers.

They shot 10 Italians for every dead German, and five more who were brought to the caves by mistake.

There were 75 Jews among the victims.

President Giorgio Napolitano, wearing a white kippah skullcap, attended a synagogue ceremony with Holocaust survivors, as the head of Rome's Jewish community urged Italy not to forget.

"The Italy which gave birth to Fascism has a duty to nurture memories, for itself and Europe," Riccardo Pacifici told hundreds gathered.

He later unveiled a plaque at Rome's Tiburtina station, where -- six days after the round-up -- 1,024 Jews were put on trains for the camps.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-looks-set-send-nazi-priebkes-body-germany-093257832.html
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Shutdown Nightmare's Over, Is Capitol Hill Still Dreaming?

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Later this hour, our Friday features, the Barbershop guys will be here and we'll meet a mother who says she and her husband did everything their conservative church asked of them, including campaign against same-sex marriage, until they realized their own son is gay. And she'll tell us how she's now trying to reconcile her love of her church with her love of her son. That's Faith Matters and that's coming up.

But first, let's go to politics. The mood in Washington seems to be improving with the government open again, even the weather is better today after days of rain. But the debate over who was at fault, what the impact has been and what the ramifications will be going forward are continuing. So we wanted to get perspective on this from two of our regular analysts. They're both former White House aides, but from different sides of the aisle. Ron Christie was an assistant to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, now president of Christie Strategies, a consulting group. Welcome back, Ron. Thanks for joining us.

RON CHRISTIE: Always a pleasure, Michel.

MARTIN: And Corey Ealons is a former communications advisor to the Obama administration. He's now senior vice president at VOX Global, a communications firm. Corey, back to you. Welcome back to you. Thank you so much for joining us.

COREY EALONS: Always good to be here.

MARTIN: So, Ron, let's start with you because the polls are out and just about all analysts seem to say that this whole episode was a political loss for the Republicans. I mean, even Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute is quoted as saying, the situation was a nightmare for Speaker Boehner. Do you agree? Do the Republicans get the short-end of the stick on this?

CHRISTIE: They get the short-end of the stick in the short-term. I think there's no question that all the media coverage has been negative towards the Republicans, negative towards their emphasis on reducing the amount of spending and really trying to address the entitlement crisis that we face in America today. But I think in the long-term, Americans are going to take a more broader perspective of this and say, what were the Republicans trying to do?

The Republicans were trying to say that we have a new healthcare entitlement that's not working, that has been a disaster in it's rollout. We have not had a budget that has passed the Congress in four years and growing. And we have a dysfunctional government that seems to careen on by crisis, after crisis, after crisis. So in the short term, yes, I think the polls are indicative of a souring mood of the American people. But, again, in that longer perspective I think people are going to say at least the Republicans were trying to stand up and make a cognitive stance and say, Washington is broken and we're trying to fix it.

MARTIN: Corey?

EALONS: I got to say, that's a really interesting perspective because right now Republicans are digging from a tremendous deficit. Three-fourths of the American people basically said they didn't agree with the shutdown strategy that was orchestrated by the Republicans. And at the end of the day, this was a tremendously costly lesson that Speaker Boehner had to take on for 30 to 40 members of the Tea Party in his caucus - $24 Billion in lost GDP for the country, 80,000 people and government workers out of work for three weeks, they're going to get paid on the backend, but in the meantime, real work wasn't getting done on behalf of the American people. And so, going forward, the hope is that as we begin this conference committee - beginning to look at the budget and trying to come to some resolution - that we can put petty partisan politics aside and we can start to get real work done.

MARTIN: Well, OK, let's talk about the Democratic side of it. And I don't want to sort of reduce this to the who won, who lost, you know, argument because that's really trivializing something that's really very profound and serious for just about everybody affected by it. But the fact is there were serious glitches with the healthcare rollout, which it seems to me that the government shutdown actually obscured, because the conversation over the shutdown actually obscured all the flaws with the rollout of the exchange, you know, program. And then there's a question about whether President Obama handled this - and is he in a position to now reboot his own leadership or to take advantage of this and to get some headway in his priorities as a consequence? I just want to play a short clip from his comments to the nation yesterday. Just an excerpt from his remarks that he delivered after the whole thing was over.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And now that the government is reopened and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict. And focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do. And that's grow this economy. Create good jobs. Strengthen the middle class. Educate our kids. Lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul.

MARTIN: So Corey, do you think he set the right tone here?

EALONS: Well, I'll tell you this, I'll take the first part of your notion first, which is, you know, talking about healthcare and the rollout. Let's first be clear, healthcare itself, the more people learn about healthcare, the more they appreciate it. So for people who are taking advantage of being under 26 and still on their parents' insurance, for people who are no longer discriminated against because they have a pre-existing condition or because they're a women, they are seeing the immediate effects of healthcare. Certainly this rollout has been problematic and those things need to be fixed. But let's be clear, the program itself is solid and getting more popular. It's even more popular now in the aftermath of the shutdown than it was prior to the shutdown. And you're right, there was - the challenges with the rollout online was obscured by the shutdown, which is ironic in itself.

As for the president, the tone that he should take as we go into these next few months before the beginning of the next half of this Congress is one where what he does best, which is bipartisan, bringing people together and lifting the country up. That's what people expect from the presidency itself. He has certainly demonstrated the capacity to do that. I think the tone he struck yesterday was borderline, but he made it known what his priorities are going forward. And it's a big agenda - wanting to get immigration done, wanting to get the Farm bill done, in addition to wanting to get the budget done. That's a big chunk to get done in a relatively short period of time. So he's going to have to display some real leadership going forward.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, we're having our regular political conversation with two former White House aides. Democrat Corey Ealons and Republican Ron Christie. So, Ron Christie, asking you if you think the president struck the right tone? Recognizing that you, as a Republican, are not necessarily going to agree with all of the president's priorities, but from the standpoint of his statement that the American people want the government to get back to work and that, you know, responsible people from both parties need to be sure that that happens. Do you think he's setting the right tone for what he says he wants to accomplish going forward?

CHRISTIE: No. But the one thing I did enjoy was listening to the president say pundits on the radio, and I immediately thought of myself and Corey. And I thought, gosh, he must be taking a shot at us.

MARTIN: He wasn't talking about you.

CHRISTIE: He wasn't talking about us.

EALONS: He wasn't talking about me either.

CHRISTIE: But seriously. I think, when the president talked about Democrats and sensible Republicans coming together...

MARTIN: I think he said responsible. Responsible Republicans was the term he used.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, responsible. And, you know, he continues to employ the term extremist. I just wish that this president in his fifth year of his presidency would recognize that he's not the president of the Democratic party. He's the president of the United States, and that there are about half of the citizens of this country who didn't support him and didn't support his policies. And he could have struck a more conciliatory tone yesterday, he didn't.

But the fact of the matter is the healthcare rollout has been a disaster. And I say that, not as a Republican, but perhaps as a lawyer who looks more at the facts and tries to see whether or not what was promised and what was delivered has actually occurred. In the state of Delaware, you have one person who has enrolled in the Obamacare. The state of Wisconsin, zero. The state of Alaska, zero. They spent between 400 and 634 million dollars to devise a website for the exchanges that not only doesn't work, but even folks from the private sector who recognize how these things are supposed to be implemented have said they didn't beta test this. They didn't design it properly. And the greatest, I think, peril that is going to come from this is that the traffic on the website for healthcare.gov has gone down dramatically. If they can't get their act together and get this thing to work properly in the short term, how can it be that the government can penalize you for not having healthcare if that government can't even provide a portal for you to sign-up to be able to obtain healthcare?

MARTIN: OK. So in a time that we have left, I mean, there are obviously a number of things that we could talk about, including the possibility of another government shutdown in the weeks ahead, and the whole question of the debt ceiling being raised and if we're heading for another crisis in that regard. But I'd rather talk about tone, which is one of the things that we've been talking a lot about here. And, Ron, I'll start with you on this. Both of you are veterans of politics and of government and of serving at these high levels, and things can get pretty heated. But I wanted to ask you, is the tone that's being set here - Ron, I'll start with you - is this fixable? And, if so, what has to happen so that people feel that we do have a functional government? Is this a structural problem that's just going to have to wait until the next election or is there something that can happen in the near term or in the months ahead that would give people confidence that their government's is actually functioning, that their political leaders are functioning and working together?

CHRISTIE: Well, you know, I think Corey and I are both old-school. And old-school is in the sense that you have to learn to respect people as individuals rather than I win and you lose. And I think that the tone in Washington right now is I have to win and you have to lose, rather than what's in the best interest of the country. And, oh, by the way, the person I'm negotiating with is not just a Democrat, but is also my friend and is also an individual. And I think the only way to step back from the brink of where we are right now is that people need to recognize that they are elected to a very responsible position to reflect the will of the nation and their constituents, and to take to the personal nature out of it and do what's best for the country. And yes, I think we can walk back from this.

MARTIN: And just very briefly, we talked about the president's comments yesterday. I think it's only fair to play the comments from Representative - from Senator Ted Cruz. He was speaking with Jon Karl of ABC News, talking about how he will continue his fight to stop the Affordable Care Act even if it means another government shutdown.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS REPORT, "ABC NEWS")

SENATOR TED CRUZ: I would do anything and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare. And in particular, look, the test that matters Jon is are we doing anything for all the people that are getting hurt from Obamacare? Washington focuses on the politics all day long. That's what this town does.

MARTIN: OK. It goes on. Corey, final thought from you?

EALONS: Well, I'll tell you this. I think we do have an opportunity to improve the tone in Washington right now because this was one of those times in our city where we just haven't had an opportunity to exorcise a lot of demons and to get a lot of things out. And I think that's what John Boehner was attempting to do, if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, with the 30 to 40 members of the Tea Party Caucus that are basically new to the process and didn't know that this was an unwinnable fight that they were waging. Now that that's done, and now that the president has this victory and the Democrats in particular, John Boehner has had his victories in the past because we're now operating at budget levels with the CR - with the continuing resolution - that are closer to their numbers than Democratic numbers. Now that we've had some wins on both sides, hopefully we can see the value of coming together, having a valuable conversation that is to the benefit of the American people.

MARTIN: Corey Ealons is a senior vice president for VOX Global. He's a former director of media for the Obama administration. Ron Christie is a Republican strategist. He's a former assistant to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, now president of Christie Strategies. Corey was here with me in Washington, D.C. Ron was in New York. Thank you both so much for joining us.

CHRISTIE: Good Friday to you both.

EALONS: Take care now.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=236998856&ft=1&f=46
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BBC America Greenlights New Original Series 'Intruders'

BBC America has greenlit a new original series called Intruders. The thriller is about a secret society devoted to pursuing immortality by seeking refuge in the bodies of others.

The series is being written and executive produced by X-Files alum Glen Morgan and is based on a novel of the same name by Michael Marshall Smith. Intruders is being executive produced by Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner for BBC Worldwide Productions.

STORY: BBC America on the Rise With 'Orphan Black,' Standout Dramas

“Intruders features an imaginative premise that fits perfectly with BBC America’s signature block of complex and otherworldly dramas led by Doctor Who and Orphan Black," BBC America general manager Perry Simon said in a statement. "Glen Morgan has delivered a brilliant script, and we’re thrilled to be working with Glen, Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner and our colleagues at BBC Worldwide Productions on this provocative new series.”

Morgan added, "I am excited to be working with Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner who have been so groundbreaking in this genre across both sides of the Atlantic, and I am delighted BBC America has greenlit Intruders to series."

The show, produced by BBC Worldwide Productions, is set to begin production in early spring 2014 and will be distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/live_feed/~3/Z0SY-EdrUfw/story01.htm
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Apple recalls certain MacBook Air flash storage drives

The company is offering replacements for 64- and 128-gigabyte storage drives in units sold between June 2012 and June 2013.

Apple announced in a blog post Thursday that it's recalling 64- and 128-gigabyte flash storage drives that were used in the previous generations of the MacBook Air sold between June 2012 and June 2013.

The blog post, first spotted by Cult of Mac, says users with affected drives can either make an appointment with an Apple Genius at an Apple retail store to get the drive replaced, or go to any one of the company's authorized service providers.

Apple also warns these users not to download any new operating systems, and urges people to back up their data before having the drive replaced. Customers who have paid for repairs or replacements on their own may also be entitled to a refund.

This isn't the first recall that's been made for a MacBook-related component or accessory. In June, Best Buy recalled MacBook Pro replacement batteries after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission received 13 reports of battery fires. In 2011, Apple recalled MacBook MagSafe power adapters that were prone to splitting.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57608233-37/apple-recalls-certain-macbook-air-flash-storage-drives/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
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As ties warm, U.S. restarts security assistance to Pakistan (reuters)

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With Addiction, Breaking A Habit Means Resisting A Reflex

Addiction can come in a lot of forms, but the characteristics are the same.

aurumarcus/Getty Images

The pull of addiction can come from many directions: from food to alcohol to the Internet. So what connects those dependencies?

Weekend Edition is delving into the topic of addiction, speaking to people with dependencies on alcohol, technology and food.

"Addiction is a memory, it's a reflex. It's training your brain in something which is harmful to yourself," says Dr. Charles P. O'Brien, co-founder of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania.

Brain imaging shows that associations with the addiction — pictures, odors or people — make the brain light up, even a month after a person has quit. "It's a reflex. They don't have to think about it," O'Brien tells Weekend Edition host Rachel Martin.

There have been many advances in treatment, he says, including medication that can minimize the euphoria an alcoholic feels when drinking. But O'Brien says combining various treatments is the best approach.

Interview Highlights

On whether Alcoholics Anonymous is effective

I tell all my students that they should learn about the AA groups in their area ... and they should be proud of it, because it's an American invention that doesn't make any money for anyone — it's free. It's not violent, and it only helps people.

And unfortunately, A.A. groups contain well-intentioned people, but they don't have the kind of information and training that they need to be good therapists. And I always refer all of my patients to an A.A. group as an adjunct — but it is not treatment.

On treating underlying problems

We also have evidence from randomized trials showing that patient-treatment matching is in general the best way to go. So that means essentially, you evaluate the patient, you find out about their problems — whether they're marriage problems, depression problems or whatever — and then you focus on that in addition to the drinking. So patients are different, even though at its core, addiction is similar.

The unanswered questions about addiction

One of the most vexing problems for me is to see all the progress that's been made and to see how little this has permeated the medical profession and the specialists that run the treatment programs.

You know, there's a lot of rigidity in these therapists, and I think that something good is happening today since the people who framed the Affordable Care Act decided that all people with substance abuse disorders should be treated ... and I hope that doctors will begin to learn about the benefits of these new medications.

Does someone with a history of alcoholism have to give up drinking?

I think that, in general, the safest thing is to be totally abstinent. Now, what we've learned, based on scientific articles, is that going from being a very heavy drinker to just a moderate drinker is better for your health and for your behavior and so forth, but it's also risky.

So that those very heavy drinkers who don't become abstinent but rather just reduce the level of drinking, they're at a higher risk for slipping all the way back to the worst kind of drinking. So I tell my patients that the best thing is to totally stop.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/20/238297311/with-addiction-breaking-a-habit-means-resisting-a-reflex?ft=1&f=1001
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Kutcher, Cryer are highest-paid TV actors

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
TODAY

6 hours ago

Peter Kramer / AP

Jon Cryer, Ashton Kutcher and Angus T. Jones from "Two and a Half Men" all made Forbes' latest highest-paid actors' list.

There's money in laughter, at least for "Two and a Half Men" stars Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer, who topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid actors on television, released Tuesday.

Forbes estimates that Kutcher made $24 million between June 2012 and June 2013. He joined the show as tech billionaire Walden Schmidt in 2011, after Charlie Sheen's much-publicized departure.

Kutcher also starred as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the recent movie "Jobs," which made only $16 million. "Kutcher can absorb the blow," said Forbes. "He’ll earn even more as his episodes of 'Two and a Half Men' go into syndication, and there’s no reason for CBS to cancel the cash cow anytime soon."

Kutcher's co-star Cryer, who's been on the show since it began in 2003, was second on the list, with an earnings estimate of $16 million. Young co-star Angus T. Jones, just 19, was seventh on the list with $11 million in earnings. Jones left the show at the end of the 2012 season after making some controversial comments about "Men," including calling it "filth."

Ray Romano took third place behind Kutcher and Cryer, and is credited with $16 million. Mark Harmon of "NCIS" and Neil Patrick Harris of "How I Met Your Mother" tied for fourth at $15 million, followed by Patrick Dempsey of "Grey's Anatomy" at $13 million.

Forbes' numbers don't include just TV paychecks, but all "entertainment-related endeavors," the magazine notes.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/ashton-kutcher-jon-cryer-are-highest-paid-tv-actors-8C11401316
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SNC-Lavalin stock falls 5% on earnings downgrade

Engineering giant SNC-Lavalin has lowered its earnings forecast for fiscal 2013, citing restructuring of its European operations and some money-losing legacy projects.

Montreal-based SNC said it now expects consolidated net income in fiscal 2013 to be in the range of $10 million to $50 million or five to 35 cents a share. That falls well below its previous guidance of $220 million to $235 million, or $1.45 to $1.55 per share.

SNC-Lavalin stock fell more than five per cent, or $2.24, at $41.89 in early trading Wednesday.

The company's management said its long-term prospects remain positive and it expects to move beyond its unfavourable projects in 2014.

"Certain legacy fixed-price contracts entered into by the company between 2010 and 2012 and the ongoing softness in the mining sector unfortunately continue to stress our performance in 2013," president and CEO Robert Card said Tuesday night.

"Going forward, we will remain focused on winning and delivering high-margin projects and implementing measures to restore our SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses) to historical levels, or better, with the aim of better positioning SNC-Lavalin for growth."

For the second quarter of 2013, SNC-Lavalin reported a net loss attributable to SNC-Lavalin shareholders of $37.7 million.

In the third quarter, SNC cited hospital and road projects and fixed-price contracts in North Africa as problem areas, but was not specific.

However, Maxim Sytchev of Dundee Capital Markets said McGill University Health Centre was likely the money-losing hospital project. It was delayed by the Quebec construction strike earlier this year.

Sytchev said SNC has a much stronger management team with Card as CEO and Alain-Pierre Raynaud as CFO and expressed confidence the company would turn a corner in 2014.

Former CEO Pierre Duhaime resigned in March 2012 after a probe revealed that he signed off on payments to undisclosed agents, breaching the company's code of ethics.

In an effort to clear its reputation after a series of scandals, the company adopted a new ethics and compliance framework in September.

SNC-Lavalin is on course to reduce its investments in infrastructure assets and announced the possible disposal of a minority interest in AltaLink, which owns more than half of Alberta's electricity grid. Despite the poor performance of the mining sector, the company said it is targeting growth in the resources sector, including oil and gas, mining and metallurgy, and environment and water.  It has taken a $75-million writedown on a reorganization of its European operations.

Sara O'Brien of RBC Capital Markets expressed concern that the continuing write-offs could be troubling to credit rating agencies and lenders.

SNC-Lavalin will report third-quarter results on Nov. 1.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snc-lavalin-stock-falls-5-earnings-downgrade-160658750--finance.html
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Scroogled my ass

According to Alex Kantrowitz at AdAge, Microsoft's Google-bashing Scroogled ads work. As much as I detest Google's (possibly actionable) insistence on scanning every inbound and outbound Gmail message for ad-triggering keywords, Microsoft has just as many skeletons -- albeit in different closets -- and the Microsoft transgressions are getting worse, not better.

Attack ads like the Scroogled campaign belong in dirty political mudfests at the lowest end of the gene pool, not in the computer industry where the average level of intelligence arguably approaches room temperature. American politics has degraded to the point where attack ads are indistinguishable from news broadcasts. Let's hope the computer industry doesn't fall into the same tar pit, ushered by Steve Ballmer's hand-picked Executive VP of Sewage, Mark Penn.

So far, Google has refrained from slinging mud back at the 'Softies, but I wonder how much longer its reserve will hold.

Here's how AdAge characterizes the effectiveness of the Google-bashing, Microsoft-sponsored scroogled.com website:

Once viewers do hit Scroogled.com, data collected for Microsoft by Answers Research show a 45 percent favorability gap in favor of Google contracting to just 5 percent. Data collected by Answers up until this summer also show the likelihood of someone recommending Google to a friend drop by 10 percent, as opposed to a 7 percent increase for Bing, after watching the ad.

"The Scroogled campaign is having a huge impact as consumers learn the stark difference between what Google says and what Google does," wrote a Microsoft spokesman in an email. Scroogled is now on its sixth wave of ads, which have been supported collectively with $10 million dollars in spending, according to a person familiar with the campaign. They also persist despite the recent revelations about the NSA's widespread surveillance activities, something Microsoft has been tied to.

Microsoft hasn't bothered to take on Yahoo Mail -- perhaps "Yahoogled" doesn't have the same advertising ring -- but Yahoo's just as up front about its snooping as Google. From the Yahoo Mail Additional Terms of Service posting:

Yahoo's automated systems scan and analyze all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account ... to, without limitation, provide personally relevant product features and content, to match and serve targeted advertising and for spam and malware detection and abuse protection. By scanning and analyzing such communications content, Yahoo collects and stores the data. Unless expressly stated otherwise, you will not be allowed to opt out of this feature. If you consent to this ATOS and communicate with non-Yahoo users using the services, you are responsible for notifying those users about this feature.

Here's the disconnect: Just yesterday, David Pann, general manager of the Microsoft Advertising Search Group, blogged about continued progress for the Yahoo Bing network:

... changes we are making in Bing Ads and on the Yahoo Bing Network are aimed at putting our customers first ... and doing all we can to give them a competitive edge ... advertiser spend on the Yahoo Bing Network continues to grow compared to Google -- it's up 39 percent year over year while Google's share of spend is up 18 percent. A lot of that is driven by non-brand click growth, which is up 45 percent on Bing Ads due to investments in our marketplace algorithms. In addition, CPCs fell 2 percent overall as Bing Ads continues to drive improvements that benefit our advertisers. The report says "advertiser ROI has improved on Bing Ads even as the platform has been able to deliver big traffic increases with better ad-matching technology."

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/scroogled-my-ass-228862?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
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Booker, Lonegan focus on turning out backers

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

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Turk, Lebanese hostages free after Syrian war deal

One of the nine released Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by a rebel faction in northern Syria in May 2012, reacts upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

One of the nine released Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by a rebel faction in northern Syria in May 2012, reacts upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan exits a Qatari plane after he visited Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca, two Turkish Airlines pilots kidnapped by armed assailants in Beirut in August, after they arrived at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. The pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war. (AP Photo)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, family members and officials surround a Qatari plane to welcome Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca, two Turkish Airlines pilots kidnapped by armed assailants in Beirut in August, upon their arrival at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. The pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war. (AP Photo)

One of nine released Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by a rebel faction in northern Syria in May 2012, left, hugs his relative upon arriving at Rafik Hariri international airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war .(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Murat Akpinar, one of two Turkish Airlines pilots kidnapped by armed assailants in Beirut in August, is surrounded by family members as he gestures after arriving at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. Akpinar and his colleague Murat Agca who were held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.(AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP) — Nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria and two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon returned home Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.

Thousands of well-wishers greeted the Shiite pilgrims in Beirut, with one man being carried out of the airport on the shoulders of a crowd. Meanwhile, a plane carrying the two freed Turkish Airlines pilots landed in Istanbul, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials greeted them.

Their planes departed just minutes apart, crisscrossing in the skies as part of the carefully-calibrated plan. The hostage release ends an ordeal that began a year and a half ago when Syrian rebels kidnapped the pilgrims, triggering tit-for-tat kidnappings that included the two Turkish pilots.

The deal, negotiated by Qatar and Palestinian officials, also was meant to include freeing dozens of women held in Syrian government jails to satisfy the rebels who abducted the pilgrims. However, it wasn't immediately clear Saturday night whether any of the women had been freed. The Syrian government and its official SANA news agency did not mention any such release.

The nine Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped in May 2012 while on their way from Iran to Lebanon via Turkey and Syria. Turkish Airlines pilots Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca had been held since their kidnapping in August in Beirut.

Their abductions show how the chaos from the Syrian civil war, now in its third year, has spilled across the greater Middle East. The men also described facing similar despair and hardships while in captivity.

"For the first 15 days, we were kept in a room and didn't see the light of day," Akpinar said in a hastily organized news conference after landing in Istanbul. He said he and his colleague were guarded by dozens of gunmen. "It was impossible for us to escape," he said.

In Beirut's international airport, hundreds of relatives shouted and screamed as the pilgrims filed in. Most of the freed men wore tidy plaid shirts, their faces visibly tired.

"My son, my son!" one woman sobbed.

Dozens of green-clad Lebanese soldiers tried to keep order as crowds heaved forward.

One pilgrim accused his kidnappers of not offering the hostages medical care.

"We wished that any of them had any kind of values," said the pilgrim, who did not give his name in the chaos. "We were with people who couldn't tell a female camel from a male camel," he said, referring to an Arabic proverb to describe an ignorant person.

Other pilgrims said they were kept in dark, humid rooms for most of their confinement. They could hear heavy fighting nearby.

Lebanese government officials and clerics greeted the men, kissing their cheeks one by one. A top Lebanese official who coordinated the pilgrims' release entered the airport to the backdrop of whooping cheers and loud music.

"It was difficult, without a doubt," said Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon's general security apparatus. "I didn't want anything from this deal, except to see this sight," he said, gesturing at the waiting crowds.

The Lebanese pilgrims gained their freedom first, crossing into Turkey late Friday. The Turkish pilots were released Saturday.

The pilgrims were held by Syrian rebels who initially demanded that the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah end its involvement in the Syria's civil war. They later softened their demands, instead asking for the release of imprisoned women held by security forces loyal to Assad.

Assad has drawn support from Syria's ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and members of his Alawite sect. The rebels are dominated by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority. Hezbollah has played a critical role in recent battlefield victories for forces loyal to Assad. Hard-line Sunni fighters have backed the rebels.

The Syrian civil war, which has killed at least 100,000 people, has sent millions of refugees pouring into neighboring nations. It also has divided the Middle East. The conservative Sunni monarchy Saudi Arabia supports rebels. Syria's neighbors, majority-Sunni Jordan and Turkey, also have supported some rebel groups. Shiite-majority Iran supports Syria.

Lebanon is divided into a patchwork of sects, including Sunnis, Shiites and Christians. Lebanese Sunnis mostly support their Syrian brethren; Lebanese Shiites have staked their future with the Syrian regime.

The kidnapping of the Shiite Lebanese pilgrims unleashed a wave of kidnappings by Shiite clansmen inside Lebanon, including the two Turkish pilots. The gunmen hoped to pressure Turkey to help release the pilgrims.

Lebanese, Turkish and Syrian officials declined to immediately offer more details of the multilateral exchange. But the deal appeared to be mostly mediated by the resource-rich Gulf state of Qatar, which has supported Syrian rebels in their battle against Assad. The Turkish hostages arrived home on a Qatar Executive private jet, though Qatari officials did not speak there or in Lebanon.

The hostage deal is one of the more ambitious negotiated settlements to come out of Syria's civil war, where the warring sides remain largely opposed to any bartered peace. But it suggested that the parties — and their regional backers — were more prepared to deal with each other than at any other previous time in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Syrian civil war went on. Rebels assaulted a checkpoint in a pro-government suburb of Damascus on Saturday, setting off a suicide car bomb that killed 16 soldiers, activists said.

Rebels led by the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front set off the bomb while assaulting a checkpoint near the town of Mleiha. The town lies beside the suburb of Jaramana, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It reported heavy fighting after the blast.

The state news agency SANA said the suicide blast wounded 15 people, most of them seriously.

___

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Jon Gambrell in Cairo contributed to this report.

.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-19-Syria/id-8491011f009f4d7697f580f4d783f7d5
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TiVo Premiere update coming with improved Netflix app, HD wishlists (updated)

TiVo's Premiere Fall Updates are about to roll out, and according to Zatz Not Funny, it'll bring some joy to streaming video users. The biggest change for most Premiere 4 or XL4/Elite owners will be an updated Netflix app that should be less painful to use, along with HD wishlists, a dynamic tuner ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/T9hEfwGhaYY/
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Gabfest Extra: Day 15, Veering Around Madly

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011, AT 3:07 PM
Obama Gets Firsthand Look at a Tornado Damage

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/gabfest/2013/10/gabfest_extra_government_shutdown_day_15.html
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Parks open, workers back in office after shutdown

People form a tour group at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. Barriers went down at federal memorials, National Park Service sites, as well as the Smithsonian Institution's network of popular museums and thousands of furloughed federal workers returned to work across the country Thursday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

People form a tour group at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. Barriers went down at federal memorials, National Park Service sites, as well as the Smithsonian Institution's network of popular museums and thousands of furloughed federal workers returned to work across the country Thursday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

With the Washington Monument in the distance, Park Service police officers stand on duty at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. Barriers went down at National Park Service sites and thousands of furloughed federal workers began returning to work throughout the country Thursday after 16 days off the job because of the partial government shutdown.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Kaity Briscoe shares a laugh with U.S. Park Service Ranger V. Cutright as her husband Jordan Rousseau, center, looks on while waiting for the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest ship in the United States Navy, to open in Boston, Thursday morning, Oct. 17, 2013. Federal memorials and National Park Service sites opened, and thousands of furloughed federal workers returned to work across the country Thursday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown.(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Richard Doerner, Museum Specialist for the U.S. Senate Commission on Art, listens to the Ohio Clock as he restarts it outside the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 in Washington. The clock stopped during the 16 day government shutdown because the workers that care for the clock were furloughed. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

National Park Service employees remove barricades from the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. Barriers went down at National Park Service sites and thousands of furloughed federal workers began returning to work throughout the country Thursday after 16 days off the job because of the partial government shutdown.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barriers came down at federal memorials and National Park Service sites and thousands of furloughed federal workers — relieved but wary — returned to work across the country Thursday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown.

Among the sites reopening were Yosemite National Park in California, the Smithsonian Institution's network of popular museums, and the World War II memorial in Washington, which had been the scene of protests over the shutdown.

"Just to be able to get back to serving the public is so important," said Greg Bettwy, preparing to return to work with the Smithsonian's human resource department.

For other returning workers, shutdown-related frustration turned to elation at being back on the job. Some confronted backlogs of email and paperwork; others voiced concern that a gridlocked Congress might trigger another shutdown in January.

"The phrase everyone is talking about is 'kicking the can down the road,'" said Richard Marcus of Silver Spring, Md., who has worked at the National Archives and Records Administration for 29 years. "We'd hate to have to live through this all over again."

The federal workers who were furloughed or worked without pay during the shutdown will get back pay in their next paychecks, which for most employees come Oct. 29.

At the Labor Department, Secretary Thomas Perez greeted workers with an email telling them he understood how much the furlough disrupted their lives.

"Unfortunately, as President Obama correctly noted, you are occasionally called on to perform your remarkably important work in a climate that too often treats federal employees and contractors as a punching bag," Perez said.

The Defense Department called back about 7,000 furloughed civilians. In an open letter to the workforce, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the department still faces budget uncertainty as Congress struggles to pass a 2014 spending bill and deal with automatic budget cuts.

The National Institutes of Health also will see lingering after-effects — NIH warned university scientists not to expect a quick resumption of research dollars.

"As the shutdown drags on, the challenge of re-establishing normal operations quickly is growing," NIH Deputy Director Dr. Sally Rockey emailed researchers.

Workers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services restarted the computerized worker verification system, e-Verify. The system used by business owners to verify the legal status of workers was the only USCIS program affected by the shutdown.

In Washington, the Capitol's visitor center planned to resume tours Thursday, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was reopening, and the Smithsonian — overseer of many of Washington's major museums — proclaimed on Twitter, "We're back from the (hashtag)shutdown!"

The National Zoo was set to reopen Friday, though the popular panda cam went live Thursday morning — giving fans a view of a cub wriggling about as her mother, Mei Xiang, tucked her paws under her chin and watched.

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., email servers were slowly grinding back into gear.

Fire protection engineer Dan Madrzykowski had been in the office for about half an hour, and about 800 emails had popped into his inbox, but that covered only back to Oct. 13. Still, Madrzykowski said he was pleased to be back at work. "Nothing good was coming from keeping the government closed," he said.

Patrice Roberts, who works for the Department of Homeland Security, said she wasn't prepared for the emotional lows of the past 16 days.

"It's just frustrating having that kind of control over your life and just having it taken away from me," said Roberts, who is expecting another shutdown in January. "I'll be better prepared next time."

In Atlanta, tears welled in Denise Traicoff's eyes as she talked about the work she missed doing for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Traicoff works with officials in other countries to improve disease investigation and health programs, and has been focusing on polio. The shutdown meant such communications were stopped and colleagues in other countries abandoned.

"I'm mostly really frustrated," she said, walking into the CDC Thursday morning.

In Pottsville, Pa., several people waited outside the Social Security office ahead of its 9 a.m. opening. James Ulrich, an unemployed 19-year-old needed a replacement for his lost Social Security card to apply for jobs. He was told a replacement card would take another two weeks to arrive.

"I don't have a really good outlook on the government," Ulrich said.

In Cincinnati, Renee Yankey, a federal alcohol and tobacco tax specialist, was sleep-deprived after staying up late to watch news of the shutdown-ending deal, but otherwise glad to be back at work with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

"I can tell that the alcohol industry missed us," said Yankey, a federal employee for 25 years. "The first thing I hear is 'I'm so glad I got a person on the phone!'"

____

Crary reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat in Reston, Va.; Ben Nuckols in Springfield, Va.; Dan Sewell in Cincinnati, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, and Michael Rubinkam in Pottsville, Pa., contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-17-US-Shutdown-Government-Reopens/id-2fd3463eefc7429591d76f3d0a8a4545
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