Egypt's ancient monuments face modern sprawl

DAHSHOUR, Egypt?? In this more than 4,500-year-old pharaonic necropolis, Egypt's modern rituals of the dead are starting to encroach on its ancient ones. Steamrollers flatten the desert sand, and trucks haul in bricks as villagers build rows of tombs in a new cemetery nearly up to the feet of Egypt's first pyramids and one of its oldest temples.

The illegal expansion of a local cemetery has alarmed antiquities experts, who warn the construction endangers the ancient, largely unexplored complex of Dahshour, where Pharaoh Sneferu experimented with the first true, smooth-sided pyramids that his son Khufu ? better known as Cheops ? later took to new heights at the more famous Giza Plateau nearby.

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The encroachment also reflects the turmoil of today's Egypt, two years after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Police, still in disarray since the revolution, do nothing to enforce regulations. Fired up by the sense of rebellion against authority, Egyptians feel little fear of taking what they want ? sometimes to redress neglect or corruption by authorities, sometimes just for personal gain. Also, as the new Islamist rulers and their opponents struggle over the country's identity, experts fear that Egypt's ancient monuments, which hard-liners see as pagan, could pay the price in neglect.

'Where are the antiquities?'
In the case of Dahshour, villagers say that their cemeteries are full and that authorities don't give permits or land for new ones. So they took matters into their own hands and grabbed what they insist is empty desert to erect family tombs.

"The dearest thing for us is burying our dead," said Mohammed Abdel-Qader, a resident of nearby Manshiet Dahshour. "This land here is wide and flat, it's a valley. Where are the antiquities they talk about? ... We have no antiquities here."

The problem is not just at Dahshour. An explosion of illegal building the past two years is endangering Egypt's ancient treasures around the country, authorities say. Locals living next to some of most beloved pharaonic sites ? including the famed Giza Pyramids outside Cairo ? are seizing land, building homes, laying farmland or selling off parcels, said Mohammed Younes, head of antiquities for Dahshour.

At the same time, looting has become more brazen in many places. Just a few weeks ago, several guards at Dahshour were shot and wounded when they confronted thieves doing an illegal dig during the night, he said.

The cemetery expansion is the most dangerous encroachment yet, because of how close it comes to the Dahshour monuments, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage site list, Younes said. Moreover, Dahshour is largely unexcavated, since the area was a closed military zone until 1996. What remains buried is believed to be a treasure trove shedding light on the largely unknown early dynasties.

"When you build something over archaeological site, you change everything. We can't dig in and know what is inside," Younes told The Associated Press. "This is the only virgin site in all of Egypt."

Sudden start to construction
The area is part of the vast Memphis necropolis where pharaohs built their monumental funeral complexes stretching south from Giza in the desert along the Nile Valley.

The construction started suddenly about two weeks ago, apparently when one villager added a new tomb in the desert on the edge of an existing cemetery, guards and residents said. Word went out, and hundreds of residents from at least four neighboring villages descended on the site to build tombs of their own, up a small desert valley.

Police did nothing to stop them ? nor did the military, still stationed nearby.

The tombs are small complexes on their own, built mainly of cheap white bricks. Each is a walled courtyard with multiple enclosed niches where multiple family members can be buried.

Rows of them now cover several acres inside the UNESCO-defined antiquities zone of Dahshour, coming to within 150 meters (yards) of Sneferu's Valley Temple. The site is the first known such valley temple, which later each pharaoh would build in connection with his pyramid.

Adjacent to the construction is the crumbled 3,800-year-old Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, an area that has faced heavy looting over the past two years. Just beyond towers Sneferu's Bent Pyramid, dating some 700 years earlier, with its distinctive bent sides believed to have been caused when the builders had to correct a too-steep angle of ascent halfway through construction. Farther away is the Red Pyramid, in which Sneferu's builders got the job right, producing the first smooth-sided pyramid, evolving from the stepped structures built by earlier dynasties.

The state minister of antiquities, Mohammed Ibrahim, said in a statement Monday that an order had been issued to remove the construction and the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, had been asked to carry it out. "The financial resources of the ministry are not enough" to protect the sites, it said.

The question is whether it will be implemented. Younes said the military would have to get involved since police have refused to act. He said past requests for orders to remove illegal construction at archaeological sites had been ignored. "There is no deterrent," he said.

Worries about antiquities
He also worries that the rise of Islamists to power brings a dismissive attitude to pre-Islamic antiquities.

He pointed out that pharaonic treasures ? a key part of the country's identity ? are mentioned in the Islamist-drafted constitution only as "an afterthought," just in terms of maintaining sites. In fact, the constitution doesn't refer directly to pharaonic sites or Egypt's ancient civilization at all, making only a vague reference to "heritage."

Some at the construction site said they were sure Islamist President Mohammed Morsi won't order the removal of the modern cemetery because he was a believer and respects Islam's ways.

Authorities may be wary of forcibly removing the construction and risking a clash with the villagers, who say they won't go unless they are given a new site nearby and compensation for what they have already built.

Ehab Eddin el-Haddad, one resident building a burial plot, said removing the tombs would require "killing these people, and it would mean a return to the old regime ... it would be the return of repression." Nearby, workers slapped together bricks for a new wall, and a heavy machine flattened the earth for construction.

Desperate for space
The villagers come from a string of nearby farming communities crammed amid the palm groves in the narrow, verdant strip of the Nile Valley, where land is limited as Egypt's population of 85 million swells. Residents said they were desperate for new space for burial plots, pointing to old family tombs they said were full. Authorities balked at issuing permits for new tombs or demanded exorbitant fees and bribes, several residents said.

"What can people do with their dead? They can't throw them in the canal," said Ali Orabi, a local farmer. "There is death and there is birth, these things don't stop ... You dignify the dead by burying them."

El-Haddad said nearby land had been set aside to expand the cemetery but after the revolution it was seized by armed local "thugs" who started building houses on it and selling off plots, a common problem with Egypt's new lawlessness.

Like many others, he resented the authorities' concern over antiquities and tourism that the villagers say benefit only rich Egyptians, corrupt officials and foreign archaeologists, with no gains for the poor.

"Where is the gold that came out of this land? All smuggled out," said el-Haddad. "I'm not waiting for some half-naked foreigner to come take out what she finds in the cemeteries. What do I get out of it? ... I want a place to be buried in."

Antiquities theft is believed to be big business in Egypt, fueled by post-revolution chaos, and press reports often accuse local officials of involvement, though few cases have gone to court.

The fear is that looters could also use the construction as cover, even if the villagers are acting out of a legitimate need for land, said Monica Hanna, an independent archaeologist who has worked at Dahshour. Hills nearby are dotted by pits from digs by thieves searching for treasure, mostly from last year.

In the area in general, "there has been more looting than scientific excavation," Hanna said.

Saleh Mohammed Shafei, a 77-year-old villager, acknowledged that "there are people who come and dig at night" ? but said those like him who are building tombs had nothing to do with the thieves.

"Where else would people go" with their dead, he said. "These people are building because they're forced to. These old tombs are filled, some three layers deep."

More about Egyptian antiquities:

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50462608/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Introducing: Susan Matthews

This is a series of Q&As with new, young and up-and-coming science, health and environmental writers and reporters. They ? at least some of them ? have recently hatched in the Incubators (science writing programs at schools of journalism), have even more recently fledged (graduated), and are now making their mark as wonderful new voices explaining science to the public.

Today we introduce you to Susan Matthews (Twitter).

Hello, welcome to The SA Incubator. Let?s start from the beginning: where are you originally from?

Hi, and thanks for having me! I?m originally from the other part of New York ??upstate. I grew up in a tiny town with one traffic light, just south of Albany. Living across from a bird sanctuary definitely infiltrated my child brain?s subconscious thoughts on conservation and respect for nature.

I went to college in another small town in New Hampshire, so moving to the city was a bit of an adjustment. At first I couldn?t get over how many people there were all the time (deer outnumber people where I grew up), but I?ve adjusted.

How did you get into science and how did you get into writing? And how did these two trajectories fuse into becoming a science writer?

I got into writing first. I recently cleaned out my closet at home and found stacks upon stacks of journals with stories (mostly murder mysteries, strangely? I had a thing for Agatha Christie). In high school, I departed from fiction, launching a school newspaper in my high school. I cut and glued the first stories into the first layouts. Passing those papers out to my classmates was so exciting.

When I started visiting college campuses, whether the school had a daily paper became a big factor for me. I ended up at Dartmouth, where I started working for the daily paper there, The Dartmouth, and eventually became Editor in Chief. I got great advice from alums of the paper now in journalism ? Dartmouth didn?t have a journalism program, so they encouraged me to major in a subject that I would eventually want to write about. That?s how I ended up studying environmental studies. I traveled to southern Africa on a term abroad to study sustainable development and environmental, and I also worked in a biogeochemistry lab on an experiment on climate change in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

I decided I wanted to learn how to write well about science. I believe some of the world?s biggest problems have to do with science ? development, energy, climate change, obesity. But this also means that these problems can be solved via science. Being able to write about these issues in an engaging manner is critical for bringing information and fact to the forefront of discussion. I like to think that better coverage will result in better solutions.

Why did you decide to attend a specialized science/health/environmental writing program instead of a generalized journalism or writing program, or just starting a blog and hoping to break into the science writing business?

I mentioned that being editor of my college paper gave me great contacts in the journalism world. One of those former editors was Dan Fagin, who invited me to coffee because he was up in Hanover during the winter of my junior year. Once I started telling him about my time in Africa and my interest in science writing, he wasted no time encouraging me to consider grad school, particularly the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program he runs at NYU ? nicknamed SHERP.

Because I had spent so much time traveling and in labs, I hadn?t had much real world experience when I graduated from college. SHERP was a great balance between classes and internships, so it allowed me to seamlessly weave together my two passions and become much more experienced in just 16 months.

Apart from writing, do you also do other aspects of science communication?

I?ve learned the basics of video, and hope to incorporate it more into my work going forward. My real other skill is graphics, particularly those that are data-driven. When a graphic succeeds at conveying information, words become superfluous.

What professional experience you have had so far?publications, internships, jobs? Feel free to include a bunch of links here! What is your current job?

I jumped at the chance to go to SHERP because I knew it would offer me great internship opportunities, and it did. I interned at OnEarth last spring, getting a full look at how a magazine runs. From there, I went to Tech Media Network, where I wrote several stories a day for MyHealthNewsDaily. This past fall, I was interning with Nature Medicine, where I got in-depth experience covering the biomedical world. Now, I?m a fellow at Popular Science, doing short stories for the front and back of the book, and trying my hand at gadgets and tech. While I came into SHERP with an environment focus, my internships have helped me branch out, particularly into covering health. Now that I?m done with school I?m also freelancing a bit. You can check out my work on my website.

How do you see the current and future science media ecosystem, how it differs from the past, and what role will new, young science communicators like yourself play in building it and making it the best it can be?

One of the reasons I struggled with whether or not to go to j-school was because I believe that journalism is something that you learn by doing. Well, right now, the whole world of journalism is changing so much that everyone ??young and old ??needs to be learning by experimenting.

Luckily, I was able to incorporate some of this experimenting into my coursework at NYU, first taking a class with Jay Rosen on how to break free of horse race political coverage, and then studying how giving everyone access to the publish button (aka the Internet) is changing the media landscape with Clay Shirky. I?m really lucky to have had the chance to experiment in a setting that was part academic and part real life (we partnered with the Guardian in Jay?s class, for example).

I think that right now, we?re seeing an explosion of journalism, even though all of it may not be profitable and all of it may not be written by journalists, per se. But if anything, more interest in journalism is a good thing, even though we still have to figure out how to make a living off this and make sure the audience isn?t overwhelmed with information.

This is particularly important for my generation, which will face the consequences of climate change and may be the first generation to have a shorter lifespan than our parents. Any science communicator ? no matter the age ? can help make the science journalism world (and in consequence, the general world) better by offering clear explanation and insightful analysis in an engaging format, not just a barrage of 700-word articles. Graphics, short stories, video, interactive media, longform and crowd-sourced journalism should all play a role.

====================

Previously in this series:

Kristina Ashley Bjoran
Emily Eggleston
Erin Podolak
Rachel Nuwer
Hannah Krakauer
Rose Eveleth
Nadia Drake
Kelly Izlar
Jack Scanlan
Francie Diep
Maggie Pingolt
Jessica Gross
Abby McBride
Natalie Wolchover
Jordan Gaines
Audrey Quinn
Douglas Main
Smitha Mundasad
Mary Beth Griggs
Shara Yurkiewicz
Casey Rentz
Akshat Rathi
Kathleen Raven
Penny Sarchet
Amy Shira Teitel
Victoria Charlton
Noby Leong and Tristan O?Brien
Taylor Kubota
Benjamin Plackett
Laura Geggel
Daisy Yuhas
Miriam Kramer
Ashley Taylor
Kate Yandell
Justine Hausheer
Aatish Bhatia
Ashley Tucker
Jessica Men
Kelly Oakes
Lauren Fuge
Catherine Owsik
Marissa Fessenden
Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato
Kelly Poe
Kate Shaw
Meghan Rosen
Jon Tennant
Ashley Braun
Suzi Gage
Michael Grisafe
Jonathan Chang
Alison Schumacher
Alyssa Botelho
Hillary Craddock

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e2eb6f1e21d36160ad7a01d1c4667c99

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MOVIE REVIEW: 'Gangster Squad' - Lake Forest, CA Patch

Are you ready to be completely underwhelmed?

Gangster Squad is based on the sorta true events of a secret Los Angeles Police Department unit assigned by Chief William H. Parker (played by Nick Nolte) to take down Los Angeles-based racketeer Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), whose illicit dealings and infiltration into the justice system made him seemingly untouchable.

And that?s the last time I?ll use THAT word because The Untouchables is a far better gangster movie.

That being said, I, myself, prefer film noir, a la L.A. Confidential, for my period gangster movies. But I?ll have to take Gangster Squad at face value, because that?s all it?s asking of me. And at face value, it?s stylized and quick-paced, a step up from a music video but nothing like the genre demands.

Sean Penn?s performance, however, is worth the admission price, because he is always riveting. Say what you will about the guy?s politics, he is one of Hollywood?s best actors, and here he is sharp and convincingly terrifying, the kind of character you could see prompting a lie-and-deny police hit squad.

Ryan Gossling is also good, though his voice grated more than usual. We were all looking forward to watching him recreate the great chemistry he had with Emma Stone?in Crazy, Stupid Love.

Alas, it never happened. Emma Stone is so miscast here. As adorable as she is, she doesn?t scream late ?40s bombshell. She?s best when she plays the quick-witted smarty pants, like in Easy A. Here, she?s just arm dressing, which any voluptuous starlet could have provided.

It?s a pretty well known axiom even outside Hollywood that January movies aren?t the greatest. They?re designed to give us some respite from the heady Oscar contenders thrown at us just before December's end. Still, I had hopes that Gangster Squad would be the exception to the rule. It wasn?t.

Most of the other characters are throwaways, even leading man Josh Brolin, who plays Sgt. John O'Mara. Other than references to soldiers unable to stop being soldiers when they returned from World War II, the audience doesn?t know what motivates them. At 113 minutes, a character study this is not. You don?t hear this complaint often, but? the movie was too short.

My daughter read the book, so I?d have someone on whom to bounce questions about historical accuracy afterward. Turns out, even I could see the movie couldn?t possibly be true to history. A multiracial police squad in 1949? Do we have to put 20-oh-oh values on our period pieces, ones that claim they're based on true events? Seems silly to me.

No. 2 also informed me that the squad was much bigger than six members, and it took more than a decade to bring Mickey Cohen down. In the movie, he's charged with murder. In real life, he got pinched for tax evasion ... twice. And the timing's all wrong. The movie takes place over a few months at best, based on a pregnancy in the film.

Also, says my personal expert, Mickey Cohen in real life was nothing like Sean Penn?s version. He was rolly-polly, an inept boxer in his day who was not nearly as personally intimidating, a lot more like a nemesis Sean Penn takes out than the one he plays.

But none of this would have made a compelling movie.?

Not that this was one.

Source: http://lakeforest-ca.patch.com/articles/movie-review-gangster-squad-0b7a59c2

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Specialized Spirita RBX | SPARK Bike Run Sports - Bicycles ...

The term ?spin shoe? to some is a shoe designed specifically for spin class.? In reality any cycling shoe capable of accepting an SPD style Shimano cleat can be used for spin class.? There actually aren?t too many cycling shoes out there designed specifically for spin class use, just some work better for it than others.? We have another page devoted entirely to Spin Shoe Education HERE.

The Specialized Spirita RBX is an updated version of their already most popular Spirita Sport Touring shoe which we primarily sold for spin class use.? It?s been updated with more mesh for ventilation, a softer sock liner, a much more comfortable velcro retention system, and even better color options.? Previously only available in all black, this new model is available in Black with grey and pink (shown above), or in White with teal shown below.

So if not just for spin, what else is this shoe good for?? Well, for many cyclists their events are recreation charity rides and Gran Fondos.? These events typically include long rest stops where riders dismount their bikes and walk around to use the bathroom and have a snack.? While we rarely recommend the use of mountain bike pedals for road cycling, these events are typically more enjoyable using these kinds of shoes and mountain bike pedals.? We also will sometimes sell this combination to a customer who desires to use the same shoe for spin class as they do for road cycling.

The new Specialized Spirita RBX is already available at Spark Bike Run Sports and is not sold online.? In fact, no Specialized products are sold online because the folks at SBC believe that the best way for anyone to experience their products is to go to a local dealer and be fit properly.

This comfortable and ventilated shoe blends performance features with the added off-bike stability of our SlipNot? touring sole.

• Women?s specific contoured fit
• Stiff, injection-molded internal plate for on-the-bike pedaling efficiency, with SlipNot? rubber sole for off-the-bike stability: 6.0 stiffness index
• Performance-enhancing Body Geometry features in the outsole and footbed
• 2-bolt SPD-style cleat pattern.
• Approximate weight: 310g (1/2 pair #39)

Source: http://sparkbrs.com/archives/5697

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Bitter cold grips West; citrus and lettuce damaged

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) ? As an unusual cold spell gripped parts of the West for a fifth day, some California citrus growers reported damage to crops and an agriculture official said national prices on lettuce have started to rise because of lost produce in Arizona.

The extreme chill in the West comes as the eastern U.S., from Atlanta to New York City, is seeing spring-like weather.

In California's San Joaquin Valley, where farmers are fighting to protect about $1.5 billion worth of citrus fruit on their trees, Sunday temperatures dropped to 25 degrees in some areas and stayed low longer than previous nights.

Prolonged temperatures in the mid-20s or below cause damage to citrus crops.

"It was our coldest night to date," said Paul Story of Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, an association of the state's 3,900 citrus growers. "I think mandarin growers are going to see a range of significant damage, enough that they will have to separate their crops."

Mandarins are more susceptible to cold than other citrus and start to freeze at about 32 degrees, Story said. Because many mandarin trees were planted in recent years as the fruit's popularity soared, they are grown in colder areas outside the traditional citrus belt.

Other citrus crops saw little or minimal damage, Story said. This year's high sugar content in oranges helped protect them, he said, because sugar inhibits freezing.

Growers deployed wind machines to keep the warm air closer to the ground and irrigation to raise the temperature in the groves. Rows farthest away from the protection could be damaged, Story said. And farmers who do not have wind machines could lose crops.

Lindsey-based Robert LoBue ? who grows 1,000 acres of citrus, including mandarins ? said wind machines were critical in his groves, but saving the crop doesn't come cheap. LoBue runs one wind machine for every 10 acres and has to employ a crew to operate them.

"We're very diligent, we run the wind and water all night," LoBue said, "but we're spending thousands of dollars to protect these crops."

And farmers are on the hook for a fifth cold night: a freeze warning remains in effect until 10 a.m. Tuesday for central California.

In Southern California, where strong winds helped keep some crops out of danger by keeping the cold from settling, farmers said any damage would negatively impact workers and consumers.

"We have between 170 to 200 employees and if we can't pick we have to lay off our picking crews," said John Gless, a third-generation Riverside-based grower. And if there's less fruit to pick, he said prices will go up.

Temperatures in downtown Los Angeles fell to 34 degrees, breaking the previous record of 36 degrees set on Jan. 14, 2007.

In Angeles National Forest, where overnight temperatures have been dropping into the 20s, Arcadia hiker Danny Kim, 28, was found Sunday night after surviving 26 hours in the frigid West Fork wilderness. Kim was airlifted to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia.

In Beverly Hills, fans brought heavy coats and scarves as they waited along the red carpet hoping to catch glimpses of stars arriving for the Golden Globes ceremony Sunday evening. Some of the actors shivered but weren't complaining.

"I'd rather be nippy than boiling hot," said actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who arrived in a strapless dress. "No, I'm not wearing any leggings or long underwear."

In San Diego, zookeepers offered extra heat and shelter for some animals.

To the east, the freezing temperatures already have done enough damage to southwestern Arizona lettuce crops that prices are increasing, said Kurt Nolte, a Yuma, Ariz.-based agricultural agent for the University of Arizona.

The area provides much of the nation's leafy greens during the winter, and farmers are reporting damage to many romaine and iceberg lettuce crops. The cold is freezing the heads of the lettuce and affecting the quality and yield, Nolte said.

The price for a carton of lettuce in Yuma two weeks ago was $7 to $8. As of Monday, it cost around $20 per carton, he said.

"That's a result of cold weather in the Yuma area for the last six weeks," Nolte said.

Overnight temperatures this week have dipped into the 20s around Yuma, and Nolte said lettuce farmers can't protect their crops.

"With lettuce, you don't have the luxury of wind machines to stir up the atmosphere," he noted. "You have to live with what Mother Nature brings. Very little can be done other than maybe running some water to protect what's going to be harvested the next day."

Nolte said Yuma farmers haven't seen much damage so far with other crops such as spinach, cauliflower and broccoli.

Metropolitan Phoenix marked one of its coolest stretches since 1988 and Sunday morning's low of 7 degrees in Douglas, Ariz., broke a record for January in the Mexican border town.

In Nevada, the temperature in Ely plummeted to 24 below zero early Monday and wind chills were expected to drop to near 40 below into Tuesday.

And in northern New Mexico, parts of Interstate 25 and some other highways were snow packed and icy Monday, and officials warned travelers that additional light snow could lead to hazardous driving conditions when coupled with the freezing temperatures.

-------------

Associated Press writer Walter Berry contributed to this report from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Jeff Wilson and Raquel Dillon contributed from Los Angeles.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bitter-cold-grips-west-citrus-lettuce-damaged-222047236.html

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Pakistan Shi'ites to bury bomb victims after meeting PM

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslims agreed on Monday to begin burying nearly 100 of their people killed three days ago in one of Pakistan's deadliest sectarian attacks after the prime minister said he would comply with their demands to sack the local government.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf met leaders of the Shi'ite Hazara community in a mosque near the site of Thursday's twin bombings in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, and told them he would dismiss the province's chief minister and cabinet.

He voiced deep sorrow over the killings, which led members of the Hazara community to hold a sit-in next to the 96 unburied bodies of the victims and sparked protests across Pakistan.

Ashraf said he would impose "governor rule", which allows him to replace local authorities, some of whom the Hazara accuse of fomenting violence against them.

"When you will awake in the morning, Governor Rule would have been imposed in Balochistan province," he said in a statement.

In response, the Shi'ites will call off their three-day-long protest sit-in and begin burials on Monday, said Qayyum Changazi, chairman of the Yakjehti Council, a national umbrella organization of Shi'ite groups.

The protesters told Ashraf that hundreds of Shi'ites from the Hazara ethnic group had been killed in Quetta in recent years and that members of the provincial government had sponsored some of the violence.

Ashraf said he and President Asif Ali Zardari "express our deep sorrow and grief over the killing of innocent people of Hazara Shi'ite community who were killed in bomb blasts."

Protests against the Thursday attacks on Shi'ites had spread across Pakistan over the weekend. The attacks, claimed by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, killed at least 96 people.

Sectarian killings have been rising in Pakistan even as deaths from other militant violence have dropped.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, is a Sunni militant group that wants to expel the Shi'ites, who make up about a fifth of the 180 million population. Human Rights Watch says more than 400 Shi'ites were killed in sectarian attacks last year.

Thousands of protesters chanted religious slogans during Ashraf's visit, many holding placards or pictures of their loved ones. Sunday night was the third day of protest alongside the unburied bodies.

"We want assurances that the killers will be arrested so our younger children will not die also," said Sakina Bibi, 56, sitting by the coffins of two of her sons.

"They were my everything," she said, weeping. "Sitting here will not bring them back but it is our right to protest."

Islamic tradition demands that the dead be buried as soon as possible. Leaving the bodies of loved ones above ground for so long is such a potent expression of grief and pain that many people in other cities held protests and vigils in solidarity.

Protests spread on Sunday. In the commercial capital Karachi, home to 18 million people, protesters blocked railway lines and the road connecting the airport to the city, while hundreds gathered outside the president's private house.

"If we remain silent now, the whole Shi'ite community will be wiped out in Pakistan and the security agencies won't say anything," said Ali Muhammad, 55.

"We will choke the roads of the entire country if the demands of the Hazara community are not met."

PROTESTS IN LAHORE, PESHAWAR

In the eastern city of Lahore, thousands of people gathered outside the governor's mansion, vowing to stay there in solidarity with the Quetta protesters.

In Peshawar, around 600 people settled down for the night outside the governor's house in protest. Small protests broke out in 11 other cities across the country, including Islamabad.

Two national government ministers and three other senior officials also wrote to the president and prime minister recommending that Balochistan's chief minister, Aslam Raisani, be fired.

Human Rights Minister Mustafa Khokhar said the head of the police and paramilitary Frontier Corps, which has primary responsibility for security in the province, should also be replaced.

"The government has miserably failed to protect the rights of its citizens," he said.

Raisani has been on a private trip to Dubai and has not made any public comments since the attack.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Roger Atwood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shiite-protests-spread-across-pakistan-killings-180226665.html

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VMware vs Microsoft Hyper-V: Is Red Hat In the Game?

Amid the virtualization war between VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), The VAR Guy continues to wonder: Can Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, based on the KVM open source platform, battle its way into a leadership position? The question is especially timely as Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) partners gather in San Diego for a major conference.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst in June 2010 predicted VMware would suffer Sun Microsystems? fate. Much in the way that Linux leapfrogged Sun Solaris, open source virtualization would eventually leapfrog VMware, Whitehurst insisted.

Fast forward to the present and that prediction has yet to play out. VMware revenues continue to grow, and the company is firmly entrenched in corporate IT departments. Microsoft, meanwhile, has made some progress with Hyper-V. The Windows Server 2012 launch with an improved Hyper-V hypervisor has received upbeat feedback from channel partners and early customers, The VAR Guy has heard.

Red Hat, meanwhile, also has momentum but it?s difficult to pinpoint how much progress Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) has made in the market. At the partner conference, Red Hat is expected to spend considerable time explaining its open hybrid cloud strategy. Of course, RHEV is a core component of that effort. But Red Hat must also push its storage, middleware, IaaS and PaaS agenda.

Can channel partners digest all of that information? Hmmm?

Red Hat North America Channel Chief Roger Egan sure sounds upbeat about the overall partner strategy. And the latest RHEV 3 release has positive buzz in the market.

But overall, The VAR Guy thinks Red Hat can do far more to get the RHEV message out ? especially as the VMware, Hyper-V and Citrix Systems Xen businesses continue to generate significant growth.

Source: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=179091

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