A bill that adds transparency to the state's ratemaking process for homeowners insurance is headed to the House floor after sailing through the House Insurance Committee.
The bill, HB 519, was unanimously approved by a voice vote of committee members after changes were once again made to accommodate issues raised by the Insurance Department and the industry.
"We have addressed several of the concerns," said Rep. Paul Tine, a Democrat from Kitty Hawk and one of the primary sponsors of the bill. "I won't say that everything has been addressed."
The bill requires the N.C. Rate Bureau, which represents insurers on rate issues, to use at least two computer models to calculate potential losses from catastrophes if computer models are used at all. Critics along the coast, where homeowners been hit by much higher rate increases than the rest of the state, have complained about the models used by the industry.
The bill also calls for each industry rate request to include historical data dating back to 1987, broken down by territory, for losses stemming from hurricanes.
An earlier version of the bill called for insurance companies to include in their premium notices to consumers a breakdown of the amount of the premium that stems from insuring against wind and hail damage and how much is related to coverage for fire, theft and other claims.
But the version approved Tuesday calls for the state Insurance Department to post that information for each territory on its website instead.
Facebook careers: Arabic language specialist, DR strategist, marketing communications and more
Facebook added 34 new positions to its?careers page?this week, including a number of openings on the engineering, account management and user operations teams.
The company is looking for a number of administrative assistants in different departments, including one to work directly for COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Facebook is also seeking to hire performance marketing strategists to ?advise some of the industry?s largest performance marketers on how to use the power of social marketing for performance-based objectives.?
New listings added to Facebook?s?careers page:
Accessibility QA Specialist (Menlo Park)
Software Engineer (Toronto ? Vancouver)
Partner Solutions Engineer (Singapore)
Performance and Capacity Engineer (Menlo Park)
Financial Operations (Menlo Park)
Fixed Assets Accountant ? Systems and Controls (Menlo Park)
Administrative Assistant ? Corporate Development (Menlo Park)
Who else is hiring? The?Inside Network Job Board?presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.
Mediabistro Event
Don?t miss your chance to hear insights from key players in the social and mobile app industry at Inside Social Apps, June 6-7 in San Francisco. Exciting new speakers have joined the event roster from Zynga, Glu Mobile, and more. Register today.?
In this Thursday, April 11, 2013, photo, people wait in line before the Dr. King Career Fair at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, N.Y. The government issues the April jobs report on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
In this Thursday, April 11, 2013, photo, people wait in line before the Dr. King Career Fair at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, N.Y. The government issues the April jobs report on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. economy showed last month why it remains the envy of industrialized nations: In the face of tax increases and federal spending cuts, employers added a solid 165,000 jobs in April ? and far more in February and March than anyone thought.
The job growth in April drove down the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent and sent a reassuring sign that the U.S. job market is improving.
In its report Friday, the Labor Department revised up its estimate of job gains in February and March by a combined 114,000. It now says employers added 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March. The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April ? above the 138,000 added in the previous six months.
"This is a good report," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. "There's a lot of strength... It's good for the economy. It's good for people's income."
The stronger job growth suggests that the federal budget cutting "does not mean recession," Silvia said. "It does not mean a dramatic slowdown."
Stock prices soared when trading began on Wall Street at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow was up 155 points in early trading.
The unemployment rate has fallen 0.4 percentage point since the start of the year, though it remains high. The Federal Reserve has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.
The hiring last month was broad-based. The only sectors of the economy that cut jobs were construction and government.
Some higher-paying sectors added workers. Professional and technical services, which includes accounting, engineering and architecture, added 23,000 jobs. Education and health services added 44,000.
But some of the bigger job gains were in lower-paying fields, such as hotels and restaurants, which added 45,000 jobs, and retail, which added 29,000. Temporary help firms gained 31,000 positions.
The job growth is occurring while the U.S. economy is growing modestly but steadily. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, fueled by the strongest consumer spending in two years.
The global economy, by contrast, is slowing. The European Union warned Friday, for example, that the 17 countries that use the euro currency will shrink by a collective 0.4 percent this year. And unemployment across the eurozone is expected to hit an average of 12.2 percent. In Greece and Spain, it's forecast to reach 27 percent.
Both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi have suggested that governments need to focus on stimulating growth and not just on spending cuts and deficit reduction.
In April, more Americans said they had part-time jobs even though they wanted full-time work. That figure rose 278,000 to 7.9 million, reversing a steep drop the previous month.
Some economists worry that restaurants, retail chains and other companies are hiring more part-time workers in preparation for the implementation of health care reform. Companies with more than 50 full-time employees in 2013 will be required to provide health insurance to their full-time staff next year.
The revisions to the March and February figures were unusually large. Retailers, restaurants and hotels added 48,000 more jobs in February than previously reported. They accounted for three-quarters of that month's revision.
The government revises each month's job totals twice in the following two months. The revisions occur because many companies in the survey submit their responses late.
The average workweek for private-sector employees declined 0.2 hour to 34.4 hours, but average hourly earnings rose 4 cents to $23.87. In the past year, wages have risen faster than inflation.
The number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months dropped 258,000 to 4.4 million. Over the past year, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 687,000.
A fire overnight at the Labor Department's headquarters shut down the building for most employees. Members of the news media were allowed in for the release of the jobs report.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 file photo, nook tablets are on display at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Los Angeles. Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets. The bookstore chain says it will add Google?s Play app store to its Nook HD and HD+ products via a software update on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 file photo, nook tablets are on display at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Los Angeles. Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets. The bookstore chain says it will add Google?s Play app store to its Nook HD and HD+ products via a software update on Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets.
The bookstore chain says it will add Google's Play app store to its 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch HD+ products in the U.S. and U.K. via a software update Friday. The move expands the number of apps available from the roughly 10,000 the Nook already offered in its own store ? such as Angry Birds and Netflix ? to 700,000-plus apps and games offered on Google Play. And it comes after a weak holiday sales season for the Nook, which is struggling to gain market share in the rapidly expanding tablet market.
CEO William Lynch said research and sales during the holidays show that consumer preference is shifting toward all-purpose tablets rather than simple e-readers.
"We saw coming off holiday the market moved to multifunction tablets," he said. "Consumer research showed us the breadth of applications available is really critical."
Lynch said the company had been in discussions with Google "on and off" for the past several years.
"This addresses the one perceived gap that we had with other tablets virtually overnight," he said. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
The update is automatic and will occur over-the-air to all devices connected to Wi-Fi. It will also include other Google Inc. services like the Chrome browser, Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. Google Play Music includes millions of songs as well.
The prices and styles of the Nooks that Barnes & Noble offers are not changing. The 7-inch Nook HD starts at $199 and the 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet starts at $269. Barnes & Noble also sells non-tablet e-book readers, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which will not offer Google Play.
Barnes & Noble Inc., based in New York, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library as more readers shift to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals.
The retailer launched high-definition versions of its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets in September in an effort to better compete against Amazon.com's Kindle Fire as well as other tablets like the iPad, iPad Mini and Google's own Nexus 7.
The company's Nook unit has attracted investors ? Microsoft Corp. owns 16.8 percent, while U.K. publisher and education company Pearson PLC has a 5 percent stake. But aside from investor funding, it has not been profitable. In its most recent quarter, which included the holiday season, Nook revenue fell 26 percent to $316 million. Barnes & Noble recorded $21 million in returns due to weak demand during the holiday season, and $15 million in allowances for promotions.
Meanwhile market share has slid. Barnes & Noble had a 1.9 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the fourth quarter, making it the No. 5 Tablet player behind Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Asus, according to data from IDC. But by the first quarter it had slipped out of the top 5, replaced by Microsoft.
At the same time, competition is proliferating, with the global tablet market growing quickly. It more than doubled to 49.2 million units during the first quarter, according to IDC's estimate.
BOSTON (AP) ? The New Hampshire-based family of a journalist missing for five months now believe "with a very high degree of confidence" that he is being held in a Syrian prison.
James Foley was last seen on Nov. 22 in northwest Syria, where he was contributing videos to Agence France-Press for the media company GlobalPost. His family in Rochester, N.H., says he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen.
GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni said Friday that an exhaustive investigation has determined that Foley was likely abducted by a pro-Syrian government military group. Investigators believe he is being held with one or more Western journalists in a detention facility near Damascus.
Foley's family and the company have appealed to the Syrian government to release him.
The family spoke at World Press Freedom Day in Boston.
UnitedHealth Group grants more than $1 million for the heart of New Ulm projectPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steve Goodyear sgoodyear@mhif.org 612-863-1658 Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
Support will enable new weight management and nutrition initiatives in New Ulm
MINNEAPOLIS, MNMay 2, 2013UnitedHealth Group and the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, in conjunction with Allina Health and the community of New Ulm, Minn., recently announced two grants from the company totaling more than $1 million. The grants will fund weight management and nutrition initiatives for Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project (HONU), a research and demonstration project with a goal of reducing heart attacks in New Ulm, Minn.
This innovative initiative has a proven track record. New Ulm Medical Center Electronic Health Record (EHR) two-year data comparing risk factor results for 40-79 year-olds show clear progress in meeting project goals. EHR data trends show improvements that exceed national averages, including:
a decrease in the percent of residents with hypertension from 20.6 percent to 17.9 percent;
a decrease in the percent of residents with high cholesterol from 10.8 percent to 8.6 percent;
a decrease in the percent of residents with high triglycerides from 33.9 percent to 31.9 percent.
"The community of New Ulm has been making significant strides in a variety of risk factor areas, including managing weight, improving their food choices and getting more active, so we're very pleased that these grants will enable us to continue supporting residents in their efforts to live a heart-healthy lifestyle," said Jackie Boucher, vice president of education for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. "We are especially encouraged by the trend for weight stabilization at a population level, as it goes against the standard trend of people gaining weight as they age."
"We are excited by the results of The Heart of New Ulm and support it and other projects like the Million Hearts Initiative because we recognize their importance to improving the health of the nation," Kate Rubin, vice president of social responsibility for UnitedHealth Group. "We remain committed to continuously innovating in the fight against cardiovascular disease, and initiatives like these provide exciting opportunities to partner with public and private stakeholders and achieve even greater success. The possibilities are truly amazing."
Weight management and nutrition have been identified as two key areas for improvement among adult residents in the New Ulm community. In 2009 and 2011, HONU conducted free heart health screenings. According to 2009 data, 73 percent were overweight (35 percent) or obese (38 percent). In 2009, only 16 percent ate five or more servings of fruits/vegetables daily; in 2011 this had increased to 25 percent. In 2009, 66 percent were getting the recommended 150 weekly minutes of physical activity; in 2011 this increased to 74 percent.
To address weight management, an $836,000 grant is being used to expand a Community Health Challenge program in New Ulm. "LOSE IT to WIN IT: Weigh In, New Ulm" will launch in June 2013 and is designed to give everyone the opportunity to be rewarded for making healthful lifestyle choices. The challenge aims to encourage the entire community to come together to support each other in making healthier choices for eating, physical activity and more. Through a secondary grant of $164,000, HONU is conducting an extensive health communications campaign and a social media campaign in New Ulm to promote initiatives that help improve the nutrition environment.
###
About The Heart of New Ulm Project
The Heart of New Ulm Project is designed to reduce the number of heart attacks that occur in the New Ulm area over the next 10 years. This means helping residents improve their health risks, such as physical activity, nutrition, obesity, or tobacco use, among others. The project will involves worksite, healthcare and community interventions and environmental changes. The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is working in close partnership with Allina Health and the community to support this community-led project. More information is available on at http://www.heartsbeatback.org.
About the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is dedicated to creating a world without heart disease through groundbreaking clinical research and innovative education programs. MHIF's mission is to promote and improve cardiovascular health, quality of life and longevity for all.
Scientific Innovation and Research Publishing more than 120 peer-reviewed studies each year, MHIF is a recognized research leader in the broadest range of cardiovascular medicine. Each year, cardiologists and hospitals around the world adopt MHIF protocols to save lives and improve patient care.
Education and Outreach Research shows that modifying specific health behaviors can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease. Through community programs, screenings and presentations, MHIF educates people of all walks of life about heart health. The goal of the Foundation's community outreach is to increase personal awareness of risk factors and provide the tools necessary to help people pursue heart- healthy lifestyles.
More information can be found at http://www.mplsheart.org
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making health care work better. With headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. Through its businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 80 million people worldwide. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com.
Contacts:
Steve Goodyear
Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
612-863-1658
sgoodyear@mhif.org
Lauren Mihajlov
UnitedHealth Group
952-936-3068
lauren_mihajlov@uhg.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
UnitedHealth Group grants more than $1 million for the heart of New Ulm projectPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steve Goodyear sgoodyear@mhif.org 612-863-1658 Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
Support will enable new weight management and nutrition initiatives in New Ulm
MINNEAPOLIS, MNMay 2, 2013UnitedHealth Group and the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, in conjunction with Allina Health and the community of New Ulm, Minn., recently announced two grants from the company totaling more than $1 million. The grants will fund weight management and nutrition initiatives for Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project (HONU), a research and demonstration project with a goal of reducing heart attacks in New Ulm, Minn.
This innovative initiative has a proven track record. New Ulm Medical Center Electronic Health Record (EHR) two-year data comparing risk factor results for 40-79 year-olds show clear progress in meeting project goals. EHR data trends show improvements that exceed national averages, including:
a decrease in the percent of residents with hypertension from 20.6 percent to 17.9 percent;
a decrease in the percent of residents with high cholesterol from 10.8 percent to 8.6 percent;
a decrease in the percent of residents with high triglycerides from 33.9 percent to 31.9 percent.
"The community of New Ulm has been making significant strides in a variety of risk factor areas, including managing weight, improving their food choices and getting more active, so we're very pleased that these grants will enable us to continue supporting residents in their efforts to live a heart-healthy lifestyle," said Jackie Boucher, vice president of education for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. "We are especially encouraged by the trend for weight stabilization at a population level, as it goes against the standard trend of people gaining weight as they age."
"We are excited by the results of The Heart of New Ulm and support it and other projects like the Million Hearts Initiative because we recognize their importance to improving the health of the nation," Kate Rubin, vice president of social responsibility for UnitedHealth Group. "We remain committed to continuously innovating in the fight against cardiovascular disease, and initiatives like these provide exciting opportunities to partner with public and private stakeholders and achieve even greater success. The possibilities are truly amazing."
Weight management and nutrition have been identified as two key areas for improvement among adult residents in the New Ulm community. In 2009 and 2011, HONU conducted free heart health screenings. According to 2009 data, 73 percent were overweight (35 percent) or obese (38 percent). In 2009, only 16 percent ate five or more servings of fruits/vegetables daily; in 2011 this had increased to 25 percent. In 2009, 66 percent were getting the recommended 150 weekly minutes of physical activity; in 2011 this increased to 74 percent.
To address weight management, an $836,000 grant is being used to expand a Community Health Challenge program in New Ulm. "LOSE IT to WIN IT: Weigh In, New Ulm" will launch in June 2013 and is designed to give everyone the opportunity to be rewarded for making healthful lifestyle choices. The challenge aims to encourage the entire community to come together to support each other in making healthier choices for eating, physical activity and more. Through a secondary grant of $164,000, HONU is conducting an extensive health communications campaign and a social media campaign in New Ulm to promote initiatives that help improve the nutrition environment.
###
About The Heart of New Ulm Project
The Heart of New Ulm Project is designed to reduce the number of heart attacks that occur in the New Ulm area over the next 10 years. This means helping residents improve their health risks, such as physical activity, nutrition, obesity, or tobacco use, among others. The project will involves worksite, healthcare and community interventions and environmental changes. The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is working in close partnership with Allina Health and the community to support this community-led project. More information is available on at http://www.heartsbeatback.org.
About the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is dedicated to creating a world without heart disease through groundbreaking clinical research and innovative education programs. MHIF's mission is to promote and improve cardiovascular health, quality of life and longevity for all.
Scientific Innovation and Research Publishing more than 120 peer-reviewed studies each year, MHIF is a recognized research leader in the broadest range of cardiovascular medicine. Each year, cardiologists and hospitals around the world adopt MHIF protocols to save lives and improve patient care.
Education and Outreach Research shows that modifying specific health behaviors can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease. Through community programs, screenings and presentations, MHIF educates people of all walks of life about heart health. The goal of the Foundation's community outreach is to increase personal awareness of risk factors and provide the tools necessary to help people pursue heart- healthy lifestyles.
More information can be found at http://www.mplsheart.org
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making health care work better. With headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. Through its businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 80 million people worldwide. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com.
Contacts:
Steve Goodyear
Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
612-863-1658
sgoodyear@mhif.org
Lauren Mihajlov
UnitedHealth Group
952-936-3068
lauren_mihajlov@uhg.com
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A Korean American detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday ? a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide.
Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
With already abysmal U.S.-North Korean ties worsening since a long-range rocket-launch more than a year ago, Pyongyang is fishing for another such meeting, said Ahn Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies think tank in South Korea.
"North Korea is using Bae as bait to make such a visit happen. An American bigwig visiting Pyongyang would also burnish Kim Jong Un's leadership profile," Ahn said. Kim took power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December 2011.
The authoritarian country has faced increasing criticism over its nuclear weapons ambitions. Disarmament talks including the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington.
Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage ? annual U.S.-South Korean military drills ? ended Tuesday.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it was working with the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to confirm the report of Bae's sentencing. The United States lacks formal diplomatic ties with North Korea and relies on Sweden for diplomatic matters involving U.S. citizens there. The Swedish ambassador in Pyongyang, Karl-Olof Andersson, referred queries to the State Department.
"While Washington will do everything possible to spare an innocent American from years of hard labor, U.S. officials are aware that in all likelihood the North Korean regime wants a meeting to demonstrate that the United States in effect confers legitimacy on the North's nuclear-weapon-state status," Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, said in an email.
Cronin called Bae's conviction "a hasty gambit to force a direct dialogue with the United States."
Bae's trial on charges of "committing hostile acts" against North Korea took place in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. The announcement came just days after KCNA said Saturday that authorities would soon indict and try him. KCNA has referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name.
Bae, from Lynnwood, Washington, was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.
Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.
There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.
They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.
In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.
Korean American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, traveled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.
Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.
U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.
The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.
Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.
___
Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee in Seoul and Lou Kesten in Washington contributed to this report.
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi officials say a car bomb in a Shiite suburb of Baghdad has killed four people and wounded 12 others.
Two police officers say the parked car bomb went off early Wednesday morning in Hussainya and killed four civilians. They added that 12 others, including four policemen who were in a nearby checkpoint, were wounded.
The Shiite-dominated district is located some 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of the center of the capital.
A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Violence in Iraq has spiked since April 23, when security forces tried to make arrests at a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the northern city of Hawija.
NEW YORK (AP) -- John Daniszewski, a top editor and vice president at The Associated Press with decades-long experience covering international news, has been named to the Pulitzer Prize Board, which awards the most prestigious prizes in journalism.
Columbia University, which oversees the prizes, made the announcement Wednesday.
"I am delighted and honored to join the board and look forward to the opportunity to participate in the review of so much tremendous work in journalism and the fine arts," Daniszewski said.
Daniszewski was named in 2009 as AP's vice president and senior managing editor for international news, overseeing more than 500 editors and reporters around the world. He has spent more than 30 years in journalism, and has covered news in more than 70 countries.
Daniszewski, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, joined the AP in 1979 and went overseas to Poland in 1987. In 1993, he was named as bureau chief in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He left the AP in 1996 for the Los Angeles Times, serving as bureau chief in Cairo, Moscow and London, and remaining in Baghdad during the Iraq war to cover the U.S. invasion. He returned to AP as international editor in 2006 and was named a managing editor in 2007.
In his current role, Daniszewski has played a major part in the AP's opening of a bureau in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2012, the first full-time bureau from a Western news organization.
The Pulitzer board is made up of 19 members, two of whom are non-voting. Members serve up to nine years, in three-year terms.
Daniszewski replaces Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who will become a non-voting member of the board when he takes over as the dean of Columbia's journalism school.
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll served on the board from 2003 to 2012.
The Pulitzers are given out annually for journalism as well as the arts. This year's winners were announced in April. The prizes will be awarded May 30.
Courtesy of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Mohamedou Ould Slahi began to tell his story in 2005. Over the course of several months, the Guant?namo prisoner handwrote his memoir, recounting what he calls his ?endless world tour? of detention and interrogation. He wrote in English, a language he mastered in prison. His handwriting is relaxed but neat, his narrative, even riddled with redactions, vivid and captivating. In telling his story he tried, as he wrote, ?to be as fair as possible to the U.S. government, to my brothers, and to myself.? He finished his 466-page draft in early 2006. For the next six years, the U.S. government held the manuscript as a classified secret.
When his pro bono attorneys were allowed to hand me a disk labeled ?Unclassified Version? last year, Slahi had been a Guant?namo detainee for more than a decade. I sat down to start reading his manuscript nearly 10 years to the day from the book?s opening scene:
?[Redacted] July 2002, 22:00. The American team takes over. The music was off. The conversations of the guards faded away. The truck emptied.?
We?re in the middle of the action. Slahi?s life in captivity had begun eight months earlier, on Nov. 20, 2001, when Slahi, then 30, was summoned by Mauritanian police for questioning. He had just returned home from work; he was in the shower when police arrived. He dressed, grabbed his car keys?he went voluntarily, driving himself to the police station?and told his mother not to worry, he would be home soon.
Slahi wasn?t alarmed because he had been questioned many times: a r?sum? that read like success for the eighth child of Saharan camel herders was also full of red flags for intelligence services. At 18, he won a scholarship to study engineering in Germany. He interrupted his studies in 1990 to travel to Afghanistan to join the U.S.-supported fight against the communist government in Kabul, training in an al-Qaida?affiliated camp and formally joining the organization. He saw action a year later, in one of the last battles before the Soviet-backed government fell. He returned to his studies in Germany in March 1992, four years before Osama Bin Laden declared war on the United States, but a cousin stayed in Afghanistan, becoming one of Bin Laden?s spiritual leaders. Slahi lived in Canada for a few months in late 1999 and early 2000, leading prayers at the same Montreal mosque Ahmed Ressam had attended; Ressam, who left Montreal shortly before Slahi arrived, was picked up entering Washington state two weeks before New Year?s Eve with a trunkload of explosives and a plan to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.
When Slahi drove to his local police station, he expected more questions about Ressam. He had already been cleared of involvement in the foiled LAX plot twice, first by Canadian intelligence and then by his own government when he returned home in 2000. But things were different after the Sept. 11 attacks; this time, the Mauritanians handed him over to the U.S. government, who put him on a rendition flight to Jordan. When after eight months the Jordanians also concluded that Slahi had nothing to do with the millennium plot, the United Stated retrieved Slahi and, as he describes in his manuscript?s first scene, sent him to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Two weeks later he was sent to Guant?namo. Not long after his detention there, another suspicious association surfaced: In Germany, in 1999, Slahi had met Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who now stands accused of facilitating the 9/11 hijackings, and two men the U.S. government alleges were among the hijackers, and housed the men for a night; under torture in a CIA black site, Bin al-Shibh claimed Slahi had directed the men to Afghanistan for training.
What followed was one of the most stubborn, deliberate, and cruel Guant?namo interrogations on record. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally signed Slahi?s interrogation plan. Like Mohamed al-Qahtani, the Pentagon?s other ?Special Project,? Slahi would be subjected to months of 20-hour-a-day interrogations that combined sleep deprivation, severe temperature and diet manipulation, and total isolation with relentless physical and psychological humiliations. He was told his mother had been detained and would soon be at the mercy of the all-male population at Guant?namo. He was threatened with death and subjected to a violent mock rendition. Declassified files, including the Defense Department?s Schmidt-Furlow Report, the Justice Department?s investigation of FBI involvement in Guant?namo interrogations, and the Senate Armed Services Committee?s report on the treatment of detainees, document the Pentagon?s plan and its meticulous and malicious implementation.
That all this abuse was fruitless is clear from the 2010 decision of U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson granting Slahi?s habeas corpus petition and ordering his release. Once there had been talk of trying Slahi as a key 9/11 recruiter, a capital crime, but no criminal charges were ever prepared against him. The man first assigned to prosecute him, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, withdrew from the case when he discovered Slahi had been tortured. When Couch?s boss, former Guant?namo chief prosecutor Col. Morris Davis, met with the CIA, the FBI, and military intelligence in 2007 to review Slahi?s case, the agencies conceded they could not link him to any acts of terrorism. During Slahi?s habeas corpus proceedings, the government still alleged he played a role in recruiting the 9/11 hijackers, though by then it was acknowledging, as Robertson notes in a footnote to his opinion, ?that Slahi probably did not even know about the 9/11 attacks.? The only evidence the government offered to support allegations of Slahi?s involvement in terrorist plots came, Robertson found, from statements he made in the course of his brutal interrogation.
Slahi testified by closed video link to Washington during the habeas corpus proceedings. What he said remains classified. Until now, one of the few documents we had of Slahi describing his ordeal, in his own words, is the declassified transcript of his November 2005 Administrative Review Board hearing. The document is remarkable for the characteristic clarity and sly humor of Slahi?s voice; a masked interrogator, he tells the board, ?had gloves, OJ Simpson gloves on his hands.? It is also exceptionally earnest. Early in his statement, he tells the board, ?Please, I want you guys to understand my story okay, because it really doesn?t matter if they release me or not, I just want my story understood.?
At the time, Slahi was already working on his memoir. When his pro bono attorneys met him for the first time in April 2005, he greeted them with 100 handwritten pages. With their encouragement, he delivered additional installments over the next year, complaining at one point in a letter, ?You ask me to write you everything I told my interrogators. Are you out of your mind! How can I render uninterrupted interrogation that has been lasting the last 7 years? That?s like asking Charlie Sheen how many women he dated.? And yet Slahi?s writing is much more than a litany of abuses. It is driven by something much deeper: not just the desire to ?be fair,? as he puts it, but to understand his guards, his interrogators, and his fellow detainees as protagonists in their own right, and to show that even the most dehumanizing situations are composed of individual, and at times harrowingly intimate, human exchanges. The result is an account that is both damning and redeeming.
This week, Slate is publishing a three-part series of excerpts from Slahi?s declassified manuscript. Had Slahi been released following his habeas corpus victory in 2010, we may well have heard him tell many of these stories. But the Obama administration appealed Judge Robertson?s decision, and later this year Slahi?s attorneys will once again be arguing his habeas petition in a Washington, D.C. federal court. Slahi will again testify by video link from Guant?namo, and his testimony will likely once again be classified. Here, at least, is some of what he might say.
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Public release date: 2-May-2013
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Mohamedou Ould Slahi at Guant?namo