Elton John Does a Lot of Good – Donated $8.3 million last year

TrendPK.com: The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) today announced over $3.2 million in new grants that will further its mission to assist the most marginalized populations vulnerable to HIV infection. These new awards brought EJAF’s final total grant-making commitments for calendar 2011 to a record $8,316,871, with disbursements totaling $7,006,871 last year.

These grants represent EJAF’s continuing commitment to fund demographics and geographic regions that are seriously impacted by HIV/AIDS and under-served by traditional funders. Grant expenditures totaling $3,221,622 were awarded for 19 new and 29 renewal grants, including:

* health services for Black women, one of the highest HIV-impacted populations in this country;
* innovative programs focused on the health and rights of gay and bisexual men throughout the U.S.;
* programs designed to help people with HIV who are leaving prison to access and stay on treatment and maintain their health as they reintegrate into society;
* small community grants supporting services for gay men throughout Latin America;
* clinical and mental health services for vulnerable populations in the Caribbean; and
* additional funding totaling $1.6 million over two years to support over 50 community organizations providing needle exchange and harm reduction services for injection drug users.

“Through the efforts of hundreds of privately-funded syringe access programs, HIV incidence due to injection drug use in the U.S. has declined from 25% of all infections in 2000 to 9% today,” said Executive Director Scott Campbell. “Scaled-up syringe access programming could bring injection-related HIV infections down to zero. Given Congress’ unfortunate reinstatement of the ban on the use of federal funding for syringe exchange programs, EJAF’s increased investments as one of the top three funders in this field are particularly crucial.”

“For twenty years, EJAF has remained consistent in our mission, even as we’ve increased the scope and reach of our grant-making,” added Chairman David Furnish. “Our most recent grants continue this historic focus, dedicating critical funding to the most urgent and under-resourced aspects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

About EJAF
The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) was established as a nonprofit organization in the United States in 1992 and as a registered charity in the United Kingdom in 1993 by Sir Elton John. Together, both entities have raised more than $225 million for worthy programs in 55 countries around the globe since inception. Today, the Foundation is one of the world’s leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organizations supporting innovative HIV prevention programs, efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, and direct care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS. The U.S. organization’s current grant-making priorities target HIV prevention programs throughout the United States, the Americas, and the Caribbean; HIV prevention and care services for highly marginalized and vulnerable populations; and HIV/AIDS prevention education and the promotion of sexual health for adolescents. For more information, please visit www.ejaf.org.

American Airlines is the official sponsoring airline of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

EJAF December 2011 Grant List

Caribbean
Partners In Health (PIH), Boston, MA, Renewal, $500,000
SeROvie, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, New, $50,000

Latin America
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, New York, NY, Renewal, $250,000
HIV Collaborative Fund at Tides Center, Renewal, $150,000

Southern United States
AIDS Alabama, Birmingham, AL, New, $25,000
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Akron, OH, Renewal, $50,000
BASIC NWFL, Inc., Panama City, FL, New, $34,500
North Carolina AIDS Action Network, Raleigh, NC, New, $50,000
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Houston, TX, New, $25,000
Southwest Louisiana AIDS Council, Lake Charles, LA, Renewal, $40,000

Domestic MSM Initiative
AIDS Care Center for Education & Support Services, Norfolk, VA, Renewal, $75,000
AIDS Resource Center Ohio, Dayton, OH, Renewal, $50,000
AIDS/HIV Services Group, Charlottesville, VA, Renewal, $32,000
Community AIDS Resource, Inc., dba Care Resource, Miami, FL, Renewal, $40,000
Compass, Inc., Lake Worth, FL, New, $35,000
Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Fort Lauderdale, Inc., Wilton Manors, FL, Renewal, $50,000
Harlem United Community AIDS Center, Inc., New York, NY, Renewal, $75,000
Health Outreach Prevention Education (H.O.P.E.), Tulsa, OK, Renewal, $50,000
HEAT Program/Research Foundation of SUNY, Brooklyn, NY, Renewal, $50,000
Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, Inc., Jacksonville, FL, New, $40,000
Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation, Chicago, IL, Renewal, $37,950
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, Renewal, $50,000
NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, Renewal, $50,000
Okaloosa AIDS Support and Informational Services, Inc. (OASIS), Fort Walton Beach, FL, Renewal, $75,000
Out Youth, Austin, TX, Renewal, $25,000
Positive Impact, Inc., Atlanta, GA, Renewal, $40,000
Resource Center of Dallas, Dallas, TX, New, $38,000
Sex Workers Project, New York, NY, New, $50,000
St. Hope Foundation, Inc., Houston, TX, New, $50,000
The Attic Youth Center, Philadelphia, PA, Renewal, $45,000
Trinity Lutheran Church, New York, NY, Renewal, $25,000
Youth Outlook, Naperville, IL, Renewal, $25,000

Injection Drug Users
Syringe Access Fund, Renewal, $620,000 over 2 years

Incarcerated Populations
ACLU Foundation, New York, NY, Renewal, $150,000
Bailey House, New York, NY, Renewal, $35,000
Correctional Association of NY, New York, NY, New, $50,000
Fan Free Clinic, Richmond, VA, New, $50,000
Health and Home Support Services, Inc., Newport News, VA, New, $50,000
Health People, Inc., New York, NY, New, $50,000
NCCI/The Center for HIV Law and Policy, New York, NY, Renewal, $50,000
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY, Renewal, $25,000
STAND, Inc., Decatur, GA, New, $40,000

African Americans
The Brooklyn Hospital Center: PATH Center, Brooklyn, NY, New, $25,000

Youth and Sexual Health
ACLU, New York, NY, Renewal, $50,000
HIV/AIDS Empowerment Resource Center for Young Women, Inc., Atlanta, GA, New, $34,172
NCCI/The Center for HIV Law and Policy, New York, NY, Renewal, $50,000
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Inc., Orlando, FL, New, $25,000
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA, New, $45,000

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Rich-poor gap proved key issue at Davos

 

Europe s crippling debt crisis dominated the world s foremost gathering of business and political leaders, but for the first time the growing inequality between the planet s haves and have-nots became an issue, thanks largely to the Arab Spring uprisings, the Occupy movement and other protests around the globe.

 

The mood at the end of the five-day meeting in Davos was somber, and more than 2,500 VIPs headed home Sunday concerned about what lies ahead in 2012. Plenty of champagne flowed in this alpine ski resort but the atmosphere was flat and the bubbling enthusiasm of some past World Economic Forums was noticeably absent.

 

Despite some guarded optimism about Europe s latest attempts to stem the eurozone crisis, fears remain that turmoil could return and spill over to the rest of the world. And there were no answers to the widening inequality gap, but a mounting realization that economic growth must include the poor, that job creation is critical, and that affordable food, housing, health care and education need to part of any solution.

 

Just before the forum began, the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global growth in 2012 to 3.3 percent from the 4 percent pace it projected in September. Many other economic forecasters also predict a slowing economy, including New York University s Nouriel Roubini, who is widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash of 2008 and who said he might be “even slightly more bearish” on the new IMF forecast.

 

Asia is expected to remain the engine for global growth though at a slower rate, with China leading the way at more than 8 percent, followed by India and Indonesia. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that the eurozone crisis is not the region s problem alone.

 

“It s a crisis that could have collateral effects, spillover effects, around the world,” she said. “What I have seen, and what the IMF has seen in numbers and forecasts, is that no country is immune and everybody has an interest in making sure that this crisis is resolved adequately.”

 

The IMF is the world s traditional lender-of-last-resort and Lagarde is trying to increase its resources by $500 billion so it can help if more lending is needed in Europe or elsewhere. European countries have said they re prepared to give the IMF $150 billion, but that means the rest of the world will have to come up with $350 billion.

 

At a closing panel Sunday, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, said a readjustment in Europe is essential “because, if you want to really simplify it, we ve lived above our means, and we ve done that for too long, and the moment of truth has arrived.”

 

Vikram Pandit, CEO of the global bank Citigroup Inc., said the euro crisis “is costing us about 1 percent in GDP around the world. You do the math. You do the math and say:  How many jobs is that? How many people are not working because of that? What can we do to go after the biggest question we ve got for this decade which is jobs? ”

 

The world needs 400 million new jobs between now and the end of the decade, not counting the 200 million needed just to get back to full employment, so “that should be our number one priority,” he said.

 

To keep the spotlight on jobs and poverty at the forum, the Occupy movement that began on Wall Street and spread to dozens of cities around the world set up a protest camp in igloos in Davos. They demonstrated in front of City Hall.

 

In a separate protest, three Ukrainian women were arrested when they stripped off their tops despite temperatures around freezing and tried to climb a fence surrounding the invitation-only gathering holding banners saying: “Poor, because of you” and “Gangsters party in Davos.”

 

Citi s Pandit said to create the conditions for growth, economic uncertainty must end and that means quickly resolving the eurozone crisis, ending regulatory uncertainty, and getting the public and private sector together to build infrastructure that can create jobs.

 

Unilever s Polman said it s unacceptable that more than 1 billion people are hungry every day while another billion are obese.

 

“How do we pull up the people that are excluded from the work force, at the bottom of the pyramid?” he asked. “That we haven t quite figured out yet.”

 

Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook, said the Internet sector has been creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and to keep up innovations in technology “great scientists” need to be educated all over the world, investment in infrastructure is critical, and regulations must not stifle growth or access.

 

Nobel economics laureate Peter Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an Associated Press interview that in the U.S. there is “an unemployment crisis,” especially among young people who aren t accumulating experience. He said the government should fix the Social Security system, fix aging infrastructure, spend on research, and start fixing the education system.

 

When the forum opened, its normally upbeat founder Klaus Schwab said he remained a deep believer in free markets but that capitalism is out of whack and needs to be fixed “to serve society.” He welcomed critics  ideas of how to fix it including from the Occupy protesters, though they walked out of a side event where a representative had been invited to talk.

 

This year for the first time, the forum invited about 60 “Global Shapers” young leaders under 30  to the forum to try to address issues confronting the generation that will be running the world in decades to come.

 

Among the younger generation also at Davos were Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the former U.S. president and present secretary of state, who moderated a panel on philanthropy and philanthropist Howard Buffett, son of Warren Buffett, whose foundation focuses on promoting agriculture and fighting hunger, especially in Africa.

 

The possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons was among top concerns at Davos this year. There were also several follow-up panels on the Arab Spring and a session moderated by Schwab with Israeli President Shimon Peres and

 

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which demonstrated the deep divisions over getting peace negotiations back on track.

 

But although the conflict in Syria where the U.N. estimates a crackdown on anti-government protesters has killed some 5,400 people over the past year came up in the Arab Spring panels, it wasn t a hot issue.

 

Julia Marton-Lefevre, director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said that this year for the first time at Davos “the environment is not treated so much as separate topic, which I think is a good thing.”

 

“We are moving towards a more integrated approach to the world s challenges,” she said. “Environment is not a side issue, it s really a part of everything. For me, of course, nature is a life support system and finally it is being recognized as being a part of the solution.”
 

Super Bowl Bound Tom Brady Is Helping Search For a Kidney Match For His Mentor Through MatchingDonors.com

TrendPK.com: Super Bowl bound Tom Brady owes a lot of his success to Tom Martinez, the 68-year-old Quarterback coach from California who has mentored No. 12 since he was a boy. So its no surprise that for the past few months the star pupil has been trying to help his teacher, whos in failing health and needs a kidney transplant by asking people through the Internet including his Facebook page to go to MatchingDonors.com to be tested to see if they are a potential compatible kidney donor to Tom Martinez. “Toms a great guy and has given us great visibility,” says Paul Dooley, CEO of MatchingDonors.com, which is trying to find a kidney for Martinez. See Brady’s banner that he is putting out on the internet. So far many potential donors stepped forward but none was a match for Martinez. “Its ok If theyre not a match for Tom, they might be a match for someone else,” said Dooley. Brady and Martinez invited the Dooley family to spend last Labor Day with them while Martinez tutored Brady during a private practice at Gillette Stadium. Ever since, the coach has not been well enough to travel, so currently Brady goes to Martinez to be tutored.

Nineteen people die every day in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant, most waiting 7 to 9 years. The team at MatchingDonors.com is working hard to make sure that doesnt happen by finding altruistic living organ donors for people needing kidney transplants. The average patient gets their transplant through MatchingDonors.com, within six months of signing up on the website.

Over the past seven years MatchingDonors.com, has made historic strides in saving the lives of people needing organ transplants, and increasing living organ donation in the United States. For the work we do at MatchingDonors.com, we have won many awards and commendations from Congress and The President of The United States, but we do not currently receive any funds from the government. MatchingDonors.com, accomplishments include:

1. MatchingDonors.com, is now the largest living donor database in the United States, with over 10,130 potential donors registered on the website.

2. MatchingDonors.com, is also now the largest living donor paired exchange database in the United States, with over 2,302 potential paired exchange donors registered on the website.

3. MatchingDonors.com, now has over 500 patients with active profiles.

4. MatchingDonors.com, has an extremely high success rate – most patient members that have been on the site for at least 30 days have been offered an organ by a potential donor.

5. At least 40 of our patient members have upcoming surgery dates with their donors found on MatchingDonors.com.

6. MatchingDonors.com, can get over 1.5 million visits in a month.

7. New patients and potential donors sign up almost daily.

8. MatchingDonors.com, is recommended and used by many doctors across the United States, including some of the most prestigious transplant surgeons and centers.

Also, on October 24, 2011 the MatchingDonors.com, team was honored as one of the only two nonprofits of choice by the Hollywood Awards® at the 15th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala in Beverly Hills. MatchingDonors.com was chosen out of 1.5 million other nonprofits in the United States for this prestigious honor.

As of January 25, 2012, there are 112,754 patients waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. Yet, from January to October 2011, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, www.UNOS.org a non-profit organization contracted with the US Department of Health, there were only 23,749 organ transplants performed in the United States.

Currently, patients waiting for an organ donation are placed on the UNOS national waiting list through the United Network for Organ Sharing. A computer system matches patients to donor organs according to objective criteria such as blood and tissue type, immune status, medical urgency and time spent on the waiting list. This ranking system determines which patients are offered available organs. This process is extremely important in anyones organ search, but now MatchingDonors.com offers a way to enhance the search with a more active approach.

MatchingDonors.com, main objective is to search the world to find potential live donors for people in need of organ transplants. Patient members of MatchingDonors.com, provide a personal biography as well as pictures of their choice to display on the website, which will create an interest in them and their life story. When patients in need of an organ transplant place themselves into MatchingDonors.com, database, their information will be promoted on the website. MatchingDonors.com, advertises and promotes its Web site in many different ways through extensive public relations networking to increase potential donors viewing the site.

The personal connection MatchingDonors.com, provides is key to finding a potential live donor. According to the National Kidney Foundation, “Nearly one out of four (23.4%) of 1000 people queried told pollsters that they would be “likely” to consider donating a kidney or a portion of their liver or lung to help save the life of someone they did not know.” Many people feel more comfortable considering offering a live donation to someone they may have a connection to or a common bond.

When patients provide their biography and open up personally, the potential for live donors to respond is increased. To help educate people about the option of live organ donation, MatchingDonors.com, Web site provides extensive information regarding the safety and types of donations available.

MatchingDonors.com, Medical Director, Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, is available for interviews for print, radio and television before and after the surgery. Please contact Doctor Lowney at 781-821-2204 to set up interviews. An NBC TODAY SHOW piece, an ABC News NightLine Story, and New England Journal of Medicine Articles, and hundreds of more news articles and videos about MatchingDonors.com, can be found at www.MatchingDonors.com.

MatchingDonors.com,m is not an organ donor waiting list, and is not associated with any organ donor organization. It is a nonprofit venue where patients and potential donors can communicate and hopefully expedite a live donor agreeing to give a much-needed organ. MatchingDonors.com, gives patients and potential donors the important communication tools to correspond with each other, but once the contact between the parties has been made, the road to transplant surgery is their own.

Based in Canton, Massachusetts, MatchingDonors.com, is a nonprofit corporation with people based throughout the United States. Anyone interested in donating money to support MatchingDonors.com services can do so by calling MatchingDonors.com, at 781-821-2204.

More information about the company is available at its corporate web site, MatchingDonors.com,

Photos by PRPhotos

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Extremists cannot escape US reach: Obama

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama brandished Tuesday the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Moamer Kadhafi as an election year show of foreign policy force aimed at disarming his Republican foes.
  
Trumpeting his commander-in-chief credentials in an annual State of the Union address, Obama made it clear that the traditional avenue of attack — Democratic presidents are weak on defense — would not hold in 2012.
  
“For the first time, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time, in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country,” the president said in a speech effectively launching his reelection campaign.
  
“Most of Al-Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home,” he said.

“Ending the Iraq war has allowed us to strike decisive blows against our enemies. From Pakistan to Yemen, Al-Qaeda operatives who remain are scrambling, knowing that they can’t escape the reach of the United States of America,” he said.
  
Addressing rows of military men in uniform, including his joint chiefs of staff, Obama praised their achievements as “a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces.”
  
In a highly symbolic call for unity in a polarized America, Obama said a flag bearing the names of the Navy SEAL team that eliminated bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda mastermind, was one of his “proudest possessions.”
  
“Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room…. All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics.”
  
But beyond the jingoistic military message was a clear challenge to Republican rivals not to come after him on foreign policy, a marker in the sand less than 10 months before the November 6 presidential election.
  
Despite several clear foreign policy successes over the last three years, Republican presidential hopefuls have nonetheless sought to stereotype the Democratic incumbent as weak, continuing a tradition dating back to the Carter administration and the Iran hostage crisis.
  
After winning in South Carolina and surging to the front in the Republican nomination battle, Newt Gingrich issued the ultimate insult: “President Obama is a president so weak that he makes Jimmy Carter look strong.”
  
Gingrich’s main rival for the nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has repeatedly accused Obama of failing on the greatest threat America faces: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
  
The president, in concert with the European Union, has stepped up sanctions on Iran’s oil and banking sector to try to force it to stop uranium enrichment, which the West fears masks a drive to produce an atomic bomb.
  
In his State of the Union address, Obama insisted that a peaceful resolution was still possible in the high-stakes international showdown with Tehran but vowed he would “take no options off the table.”
  
“The regime is more isolated than ever before; its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions, and as long as they shirk their responsibilities, this pressure will not relent,” he said.
  
In an address focused heavily on domestic economic concerns, Obama also found time to hail the demise of Libya’s Kadhafi and warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad that his regime’s days were numbered.
 
“A year ago, Kadhafi was one of the world’s longest-serving dictators — a murderer with American blood on his hands. Today, he is gone,” the president said.
  
“And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed, and that human dignity cannot be denied.”
  
While noting it was unclear how events in the Middle East and North Africa would unfold, Obama said he would continue to “stand against violence and intimidation” and support the Arab Spring’s democratic ideals.
  
“How this incredible transformation will end remains uncertain. But we have a huge stake in the outcome,” he said.
  
“We will support policies that lead to strong and stable democracies and open markets, because tyranny is no match for liberty.” AGENCIES

Obama’s Uncle arrested

Look who’s back! President Barack Obama‘s long-lost uncle Onyango Obama (A.K.A. ”Uncle Omar“) has been arrested for drinking and driving just outside of Boston and has also been detained as an illegal immigrant.

The elder Obama, 67, was arrested outside the Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham, Massachusetts at 7:10 p.m. EDT on August 24, 2011. According to police, he almost crashed his Mitsubishi SUV into a police car, then insisted the officer should have yielded to him.

Uncle Omar reportedly blew a 0.14 on his breathalyzer test, which is above the state limit of 0.08.

Obama was charged with DUI and driving to endanger, as well as failing to use a turn signal. He was then detained as an illegal immigrant due to the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an outstanding warrant for him because he was previously ordered deported to Kenya.

In his 1995 memoir, “Dreams of My Father”, President Obama refers to “Uncle Omar” as “the uncle who had left for America 25 years ago and had never come back”.

Obama pleaded not guilty at his remand hearing, but was held in custody due to the immigration warrant.
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US congressmen seeks explanation from Facebook

WASHINGTON: Two members of the US Congress have asked Facebook to explain how applications transmitted information about users to advertising and Web tracking companies in violation of the social network’s rules.

Representative Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas, and Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to reply to 18 questions about what they called a “privacy breach.”

Facebook on Monday acknowledged that some popular third-party applications had passed on user identification (UID) information but played down the privacy implications.

“Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy,” Facebook engineer Mike Vernal said in a blog post.

“Our policy is very clear about protecting user

Obama lends weight to Massachusetts Dems

US President Barack Obama traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, giving his support to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick and also raising money for the party’s campaign arm.
Obama spoke before a crowd of thousands at a Boston rally in support of Patrick, who is being challenged by Republican Charles Baker and independent Timothy Cahill. Polls show Patrick does not have a commanding lead over his challengers.
In two weeks, you can set the direction of this state and this country for the next two years, Obama said, asking supporters to turn out and vote.Obama also said the Democrats were not going to let party labels get in the way of progress, while accusing Republican leaders in Washington of doing just the opposite by opposing the Democrats every step of the way, wishing to ride people’s anger and frustration all the way to the ballot box.This election is a choice. And the stakes could not be higher, Obama said.He later appeared in an event for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee alongside Senator John Kerry. The event was expected to raise some 900,000 dollars.
With the mid-term elections a little over two weeks away, the Democratic Party has been on the defensive lately, having been outspent by the Republicans amid voter apathy. The sluggish economic situation and high unemployment add more insults to the party’s woes.To reverse the tide, Obama has been busy stumping for Democrats recently. He attended several campaign events outside of Washington D.C., and will go to the West Coast to support Democrats.

Aafias sentence details made public

A detailed verdict, comprising 111 pages, on Dr Aafia Siddiquis sentencing by a US court has been released on Sunday, Dunya News reported.
Experts said the detailed judgment has reviewed, from all aspects, the courts proceedings, leading to sentencing Dr Aafia Siddiqui 86 years in imprisonment.
Last February a jury found Dr Siddiqui guilty of seven charges, including two counts of attempted murder. The jury found there wasnt premeditation in the attempted murder charges. After the judge announced the sentence, Dr Siddiqui turned to the audience and urged the public to forgive the persons involved in the case and not to take any revenge action. Prosecutors had alleged that Dr Siddiqui, unbeknownst to some Americans who travelled to Ghazni, was behind a curtain in the second-floor room where they gathered. She burst from behind the curtain, grabbed an American soldiers rifle and started firing. She was shot in the abdomen by a soldier who returned fire with his sidearm, the prosecutors said.
Dr Siddiqui, who received her graduation degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University in biology and neuroscience while living in the US between 1991 and June 2002, denied grabbing the weapon or having any familiarity with firearms.During the trial, she testified that she was simply trying to escape the room and was shot by someone who had seen her. She claimed she was concerned at the time about being transferred to a secret prison.

Pune Festival 2010

Pune Festival is back with a bang. Was organized this year’s arrays of cultural programs to celebrate Ganesh. Will begin the preamble to September 12, with the Marathi play Swabhavala Aushadh Nahi. September 13: – Hasyotsav Ekpatricha ‘Wa Wah Sunbai! Plays. Put Sangeet Sandhya ‘, a program based on Hindi and Marathi songs, side by side by Vice President singer journalist Mohammed Ayyaz, is also scheduled for today.

September 14: a music program, called Gitanjali ‘based bhavgeet. Played by the artists in the first three in the College of Purushottam Karandak Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Pune and the Law Faculty of Els is also part of the schedule.

September 15: – Jhim Puri Jhim play written and directed by Pawar Santosh 0.18 September: – The first issue of lavani mahotsav end Karaycha Nye ‘will be presented by Khutegaonkar Maya and Trupti, 19 September: – Anjali Patel dance Kathak and Canada-based implementation of this day , followed by Rajas Sukumar, and dance drama based on abhangs’ of the saints such as Ramdas, Saint Tukaram, Eknath, Kanhopatra, Namdeo Maharaj and Dyaneshwar St.

Earl weakens to tropical storm as it moves toward Canada

SOUTH YARMOUTH, Massachusetts: Storm Earl barreled toward Canada past the northeastern US state of Massachusetts early Saturday after it weakened further and was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm.

But it still lashed the US East Coast with heavy rains and strong winds.

Residents in North Carolina were mopping up after a storm surge sent waves crashing ashore, flooding roads on the low-lying barrier islands as the high winds caused sporadic power outages.

New England and the outlying tourist hotspot of Cape Cod was close to Earl’s path, although it was not expected to receive a direct hit.

“At this time we have no official reports of fatalities related to the storm track nor do we have any report of damage,” Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters.

Despite the downgrade of the storm,

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