NYC heir, 89, denied new trial in mom's theft case

NEW YORK (AP) ? An 89-year-old heir convicted of helping himself to his mother's fortune was told Thursday to be prepared to start his prison term a day later after years of appeals, and the former lawyer convicted of aiding him was led away in handcuffs.

A judge turned down a request for a new trial for Anthony Marshall, who's the son of the late philanthropist Brooke Astor, and for co-defendant Francis Morrissey Jr. But Marshall had asked an appeals court to let him stay free on bail longer while it considered his argument that his health is so poor that it would be unjust to jail him.

His lawyer, Kenneth Warner, said Thursday evening that the appeals court had denied the request; information wasn't immediately available from the closed court.

In a case that's had lots of legal maneuvering, it wasn't immediately clear whether Marshall might have further avenues to forestall prison. But for now, Marshall is due in court Friday afternoon and could well be on the verge of starting the one- to three-year prison sentence imposed on him and Morrissey in December 2009. It came after a trial that examined the finances and final years of the woman seen as the epitome of New York society.

Astor ? whose third husband was a descendant of one of the one of the United States' first multimillionaires, John Jacob Astor ? was renowned for her gifts to a roster of New York institutions. She was 105 when she died in 2007; she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said Marshall, her only child, exploited her mental decline to use her money to give himself gifts and to mastermind changes to her will. His lawyers said that he had legal authority for the gifts and that Astor deliberately altered her will.

Marshall was excused from court Thursday, but some jurors were on hand as a downcast Morrissey, 72, heard that he would have to start serving his term. Morrissey was convicted of forging Astor's signature on a change to her will. His defense argued that if the signature was phony, he knew nothing of it.

Some jurors marveled after court at the time the appeals have taken.

"I thought I was done with this four years ago," juror Larry Kaagan said.

Morrissey's lawyers indicated they would continue an appeal that hinges on juror Judi DeMarco's statements that she was intimidated into a conviction by another juror's curses and hostile gestures. The other members of the panel deny it.

"It was a silly episode. ... She was never threatened," juror Olga Zugor said Thursday. No phone number for DeMarco could immediately be found.

An appeals court said DeMarco's assertions didn't warrant overturning a verdict she stood behind in court. But defense lawyers want the issue revisited because DeMarco recently swore to her account, which she'd previously told to a defense investigator.

"It's a question of the integrity of the justice system," said one of Morrissey's lawyers, Barry Bohrer.

The trial judge, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley, was unmoved Thursday.

Having prosecuted mob boss John Gotti in the 1980s, "I know something of fear and intimidation," Bartley said. "And it simply does not exist in this case."

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-heir-89-denied-trial-moms-theft-case-181050250.html

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UN says number refugees, displaced at 18-year high

GENEVA (AP) ? The U.N. refugee agency says more than 45.2 million people were forced to flee homes last year, an 18-year high mainly due to wars in Syria, Afghanistan and other countries.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says globally as of the end of 2012 there were 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people who fled homes but stayed within their nation's borders.

UNCHR reported Wednesday the Syrian civil war was a major factor in the 6 percent increase over 42.5 million people displaced in 2011.

It says 55 percent of the refugees today come from five war-affected countries ? Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.

The numbers are the highest since 1994, when people fled genocide in Rwanda and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-says-number-refugees-displaced-18-high-061723266.html

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Drought curbs spread of feral hogs in Southeastern New Mexico

ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY JUNE 16 AND THEREAFTER - This undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services shows a group of trapped feral pigs. South Dakota wildlife officials want to send wild pigs crying all the way home. The state does not currently have an established population of feral pigs, but that appears to be changing.(AP Photo/Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services)

New Mexico is leading the nation in the coordinated effort to eliminate non-native and highly invasive feral hogs, a panel of experts said Monday. A panel discussion on how to enhance collaboration to eliminate feral hogs in the state was held Monday in Albuquerque during the New Mexico Cattle Growers conference.

Woods Houghton, Eddy County Extension Service agriculture agent, said the hogs are a "problem, but not a huge problem" in Eddy County and he attributes that to the drought.

"Compared to everyone else that I have spoken with, the drought has certainly helped," Houghton said. "They are staying close to the Delaware River and Black River (south of Carlsbad) where there is much more food and water. The drought, for now, has stopped their migration into different areas of Eddy County and causing more damage on farms and ranches."

To date, feral hogs have been reported in 22 of 33 New Mexico counties and continue to spread rapidly. Eddy County is among the 22 counties with a large feral hog population.

Houghton said reports are coming in that feral hogs are now being seen in higher altitudes in the Sacramento Mountains, which he said has not been heard of before.

In January, the USDA gave New Mexico a $1 million grant to support the collaborative effort to remove feral hogs, along with state and private funding and in-kind donations, which may also be a contributing factor in keeping Eddy County's feral hog population somewhat under

control. "Right now, we have four government trappers working in this area through a cooperative federal and state program," Houghton said.

State Land Commissioner Ray Powell said during a recent stop in Carlsbad that he commissioned a study on the feral hog problem in 2011 to determine the distribution of feral hogs on state trust lands. He said the hogs were becoming a threat to domestic livestock, native wildlife and human health, as well as posing an economic threat.

"Feral hogs are capable of carrying more than 35 infectious diseases," said Powell, who is a veterinarian, botanist and plant ecologist. "We need to deal with this problem now, and this collaborative effort moves us closer to our goal of eliminating them in a humane manner."

Powell said his agency is an active member of the New Mexico Feral Swine Eradication team and has been aggressively working to eliminate the invasive and destructive species.

Experts estimate that feral hogs can cause more than $1 billion in damage annually in the United States.

Feral hogs were originally brought into New Mexico for commercial hunting and quickly escaped. They carry infectious diseases that can be transmitted to agricultural animals, wildlife and humans. They are known to be extremely destructive to agriculture lands and native habitat.

Source: http://www.currentargus.com/ci_23483408/drought-curbs-spread-feral-hogs-southeastern-new-mexico?source=rss_viewed

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TCL launches 5-inch 1080p Idol X (S950) smartphone with 6.99mm thickness, ultra-thin bezel

In a world obsessed with body image, we knew it wouldn't be long before our smartphones would start embarking on fad diets. The latest to show off its lack of curves is TCL's China-centric Idol X (S950), which can squeeze into a 6.99mm-thin pair of jeans. Just like the Alcatel version we saw at MWC, this handset comes with a 1080p display, which is bordered by an equally svelte 1.7mm bezel. Internals-wise, Android 4.2 is running on a quad-core, 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T chip, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. On the imagine front, the phone has a hefty 13.1-megapixel primary camera and a two-megapixel front-facing lens. Despite those heavyweight specs, the unit is marked up for a reasonably cheap 1,699 yuan -- $280 to you and me.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

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Stranded teens rescued by helicopter from atop cliff

Rick Perry, the Texas governor and 2012 "oops" presidential candidate, is spending the beginning of this week in Connecticut. Perry, as the governor of Texas, has little on-its-face reason to be in Connecticut. Except, of course, for one: Texas's unemployment rate, which at 6.4 percent in April is significantly lower than the national average, is still not quite ideal. Perry wants to bring jobs to his state. And, as he sees it, some of those jobs could come from Connecticut.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/stranded-teens-rescued-via-helicopter-atop-cliff-175146116.html

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In Nelson Mandela's village of Qunu, prayers and well-wishes

The South African government says the former president is in 'serious but stable condition.'

By Brian Hayward,?Contributor / June 9, 2013

Former South African president Nelson Mandela in a file photo from July 2012. He has been hospitalized.

AP/File

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Even as residents of Qunu in the rural Eastern Cape offered up prayers?for the health of former South African president Nelson Mandela on?Sunday, many have come to realize that they may never again see their?village?s ?father? walking its dusty dirt roads, greeting and joking?with fellow residents.

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As news of Mr. Mandela?s third?serious hospitalization in six months reached his home town of Qunu in?the rural Eastern Cape, residents of the village held their breath.
?
In?Sunday?services throughout the village, church-goers ushered up?prayers for the elderly global icon?s health after he was admitted?to hospital in the early hours of?Saturday?in what the South African?Presidency described as ?a serious condition.??

Despite a subsequent news alert that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate?was in ?serious but stable condition? and breathing on his own, the?townsfolk remained concerned for the man they have come to regard as?their father and overwhelmingly expressed the feeling that they are not ready to face his passing.

?I am not ready?to say goodbye. We as a community are not ready. Maybe God will make a?plan and we will still be able to see him here in the village again," says Qunu resident Boniwe?Matikinca.

The Qunu Mthini Society women?s prayer group often prays for the?former statesman when they meet at a local hall each?Thursday, and they?would do so again, says resident Nomaova Habe.

?We are worried, because there is so much Madiba [as Mandela is affectionately known among Qunu residents] has done for us as?his community. He used to throw Christmas parties and give presents to?the children, and he even gave local children new school uniforms at?one stage,? says Ms. Habe.
?
The last time Mandela was back in his home village, where he grew up?and where his family homestead is based, was in early December.?Since then, he has been confined to life behind the high walls of his?home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Houghton ? a far cry from?his understated homestead in Qunu where he would spend much of his?time outside its gates conversing with the villagers, according to?longtime Qunu residents.?

Despite Qunu residents? wish to see their beloved ?father? once again,?the reality is looking increasingly unlikely.

?His family don?t want him to stay here. They would rather he be up?in Johannesburg where there are good hospitals. The thing is, he loved?to be here at home,? says Gloria Habe, formerly Gloria Mandela and the granddaughter of Mandela?s half-brother, Solomon.

Mandela has become increasingly frail in recent years. He was last?seen in public during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Fifa Soccer?World Cup, and even then he did not give a public speech.?Recent television footage, featuring President?Jacob Zuma smiling as he sat next to a frail-looking, unsmiling?Mandela, sparked a public outcry and claims that?the anti-apartheid icon was being used as political currency despite?his poor health.

A military plan is in place for?protocol following Mandela?s death, ?including specifics about his?body lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria before being?flown to the Eastern Cape and buried at his Qunu home.

The youth in Qunu have grown up proud of the fact that the global icon?resides just a stone's throw away. Despite many dwelling in mud huts ??some without access to electricity or running water ? the topic of?Mandela sees their faces light up as many recall meeting the former South African dissident-turned-president.

?I am so grateful to have been born in this famous village,? says student Lungile Xozwa. "He has done a great job in this?village and the world."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/pbAl1NtrdnQ/In-Nelson-Mandela-s-village-of-Qunu-prayers-and-well-wishes

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Once dying, Birmingham is suddenly hot

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) ? It feels like Birmingham finally is emerging from the shadows cast by the ugly racial violence of 1963.

Long haunted by black-and-white newsreel footage of the fire hoses and police dogs city leaders turned on blacks demonstrating for civil rights, the city has a new vibe that's generating buzz all its own 50 years later.

Birmingham's culinary scene is a jewel, with nationally known chefs and restaurants, and decades of white flight are giving way to people moving into flats and condominiums with bare brick walls in once-vacant downtown buildings. The tables are full at trendy bars and bistros nestled in old brick mercantile buildings.

The city's minor league baseball team relocated this season from the suburbs and is drawing big crowds to a new downtown stadium that opens to Birmingham's skyline. It's across the street from an urban park built on what was an unsightly lot strewn with weeds and gravel along railroad lines.

Combine all that with a thriving nightclub scene, new craft breweries and an entertainment district that has started opening, and suddenly Birmingham is becoming a hot spot for residents and visitors alike.

"If Birmingham is trying to come back they've succeeded," said visitor Ron Lee, loading his car after staying at the city's new Westin hotel during a vacation trip with his wife.

Lee, who lives in Washington, D.C., was impressed by the city's parks and trees. The welcoming attitude from residents and slower pace are what really stood out, though.

"It's very Southern. Everyone is very friendly," he said. "It's more progressive than I expected."

Birmingham wasn't very attractive for visitors ? or many residents, for that matter ? for decades.

Once tagged with the ugly nickname "Bombingham" for the racist bombings of the 1950s and '60s, when racial segregation was the law, Birmingham was a city on the edge for years. The city put its ugliest face forward that spring of 1963, when young marchers advocating for civil rights were met with dogs, fire hoses and jail. A Ku Klux Klan bombing that September killed four black girls at church.

The city's skies were stained a hazy red by the smoke from steel mills, and thousands of white residents fled for the suburbs out of fear of the same things that plague other urban areas: crime, declining industry, crumbling schools and dwindling opportunities.

Birmingham seemed like it was on a long march toward death. After peaking at 340,887 in the 1960 Census, the city's population has fallen steadily to the current level, 212,237. Vacant homes are scattered throughout most every neighborhood.

While people didn't stop leaving, the city began changing in the 1970 and '80s as medicine and finance replaced steel as Birmingham's primary industries. The skies brightened ? literally ? as the mills closed, but few outside of civic boosters seemed to care.

That has changed in recent months as the city's revival began to gain steam and people began noticing.

National Geographic Traveler recently mentioned the city's renaissance, and Forbes cited it as an up-and-coming city for young professionals. NBC's Today Show featured Birmingham as an attractive travel destination because of its history and affordability, and Zagat has highlighted a restaurant scene that includes chef Frank Stitt's flagship Highlands Bar and Grill.

USA Today tapped Birmingham's Sidewalk Film Festival as one of the nation's top movie events, and the cultural website Flavorwire listed the majestic Alabama Theatre, built in 1927, as one of the 10 most beautiful theaters in America.

Much of the recent attention was linked to commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the '63 civil rights demonstrations, but other things are happening to create buzz. People like Ron Lee have come to town and enjoyed what they found, including the revamped Vulcan Park that overlooks downtown from atop Red Mountain.

Even the city's minor-league baseball team ? which dates back to 1885 ? has returned to town after making nothing more than occasional visits since the late 1980s.

After 25 years in a concrete-and-steel park in the city's southern suburbs, the Birmingham Barons this spring moved back downtown into a new, $65 million stadium that offers views of the city's financial and medical centers. Critics said people wouldn't visit an urban park for fear of crime and blight, but they were wrong.

The Barons already have had three sellouts at the 8,500-seat Regions Field ? the most since NBA star Michael Jordan played with the Barons in suburban Hoover in 1994 ? and the average attendance so far is 5,528 fans a game compared to 3,004 all last year.

New housing developments are planned near the stadium, plus shopping. Team spokesman Nick Dobreff said the club is happy to be part of the new Birmingham.

"Things are moving in the right direction, and we hope to be a catalyst for more growth," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/once-dying-birmingham-suddenly-hot-140432238.html

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2 Koreas talk in border village after tensions

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Government delegates from North and South Korea began preparatory talks Sunday at a "truce village" on their heavily armed border aimed at setting ground-rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.

The meeting at Panmunjom, where the truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed, is the first of its kind on the Korean Peninsula in more than two years. Success will be judged on whether the delegates can pave the way for a summit between the ministers of each country's department for cross-border affairs, which South Korea has proposed for Wednesday in Seoul. Such ministerial talks haven't happened since 2007.

The intense media interest in what's essentially a meeting of bureaucrats to iron out technical details is an indication of how bad ties between the Koreas have been.

Any dialogue is an improvement on the belligerence that has marked the relationship over recent years, which have seen North Korean nuclear tests and long-range rocket launches, attacks in 2010 blamed on the North that killed 50 South Koreans, and a steady stream in recent months of invective and threats from Pyongyang and counter-vows from Seoul.

"Today's working-level talks will be a chance to take care of administrative and technical issues in order to successfully host the ministers' talks," one of the South Korean delegates, Unification Policy Officer Chun Hae-sung, said in Seoul before the group's departure for Panmunjom.

The southern delegation will keep in mind, he said, "that the development of South and North Korean relations starts from little things and gradual trust-building."

Analysts express wariness about North Korea's intentions, with some seeing the interest in dialogue as part of a pattern where Pyongyang follows aggressive rhetoric and provocations with diplomatic efforts to trade an easing of tension for outside concessions.

March and April saw North Korean threats of nuclear war, Pyongyang's claim that the Korean War armistice was void, the closing of a jointly run factory park and a North Korean vow to ramp up production of nuclear bomb fuel.

If the Koreas can arrive at an agreement for ministerial talks, that meeting will likely focus on reopening the factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong that was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, and on other scrapped rapprochement projects and reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

Pyongyang pulled its 53,000 workers from the Kaesong factories in April, and Seoul withdrew its last personnel in May.

Success will also mark a victory for South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who took office in February and has maintained through the heightened tensions a policy that combines vows of strong counter-action to any North Korea provocation with efforts to build trust and re-establish dialogue.

It wasn't immediately clear how long Sunday's meetings would last; reporters weren't being allowed access to the venue.

The Koreas have been communicating on a recently restored Red Cross line that Pyongyang shut down during earlier tensions this spring. The site of Sunday's meeting holds added significance because the armistice ending the Korean War was signed there 60 years ago next month. The Panmunjom truce, however, has never been replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically at war.

Representatives of the rival Koreas met on the peninsula in February 2011 and their nuclear envoys met in Beijing later that year, but government officials from both sides have not met since.

The meeting follows a summit by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California. White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said Obama and Xi found "quite a bit of alignment" on North Korea and agreed that Pyongyang has to abandon its nuclear weapons aspirations.

China provides a lifeline for a North Korea struggling with energy and other economic needs, and views stability in Pyongyang as crucial for its own economy and border security. But after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, China tightened its cross-border trade inspections and banned its state banks from dealing with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un late last month sent to China his special envoy, who reportedly told Xi that Pyongyang was willing to return to dialogue. President Park will travel to Beijing to meet Xi later this month.

The talks between the Koreas on Sunday could represent a change in North Korea's approach, analysts said, or could simply be an effort to ease international demands that it end its development of nuclear weapons, a topic crucial to Washington but initially not a part of the envisioned inter-Korean meetings.

Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, has committed a drumbeat of acts that Washington, Seoul and others deem provocative since Kim Jong Un took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

___

AP writer Sam Kim contributed to this report from Seoul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-koreas-talk-border-village-tensions-013613035.html

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LG shows off a production model 55-inch curved OLED TV, starts shipping soon

LG announced in April that it's bringing a 55-inch curved OLED HDTV to market, and it appears that time is almost here. According to the machine translated press release, shipments of the 15 million won ($13,500) display will start in a few days. Plant staff are pictured around one of the first mass produced 55EA9800 TVs, which weigh just 17kg and have a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) frame. We first got our eyes on the screens at CES, with their unusual shape that LG says helps keep all parts of the screen an equal distance from the viewer -- check out a few more pics in the gallery below.

Gallery: LG's curved EA9800 OLED display eyes-on

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Source: Korea Newswire

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/08/lg-curved-oled-tv-55ea9800/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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