Which NFL Players Have Enjoyed Best Offseasons so Far?

As bad as things have been going for the New England Patriots, it may turn out to be a good thing for Danny Amendola.?The former St. Louis Rams wide receiver arrived this offseason to fill the shoes of Wes Welker, who departed for Denver.

However, with the continued injury concerns regarding Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez being cut due to his potential involvement in a murder, Amendola appears poised to be an even more vital part of the offense.

Quarterback Tom Brady needs weapons. More than likely, the run game will be a bigger factor than we expected, but ultimately he's going to need to pass. At that point, he's got to have weapons, and Amendola is almost it.

For the Patriots, it hasn't been a great offseason. But for Amendola, the opportunity to prove himself as one of the top receivers in the NFL just fell into his lap.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1695792-which-nfl-players-have-enjoyed-best-offseasons-so-far

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AP PHOTOS: Investigators seek cause of SF crash

As the shock fades from the crash of Asiana Airlines flight 214, investigators are probing what led the Boeing 777 to crash land at San Francisco International Airport. Chinese state media revealed that two 16-year-old Chinese citizens, Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, were killed. The other 305 people on board survived.

Here are photos of the crash and its aftermath:

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Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-investigators-seek-cause-sf-crash-174655408.html

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Shaq: LA spotlight too bright for Dwight Howard

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Shaquille O'Neal says the Los Angeles spotlight was too bright for Dwight Howard.

Speaking at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Shaq hammered his former colleague as if they were battling in the post.

O'Neal opened his mouth agape when asked about Howard, who chose to leave the Lakers for the Houston Rockets late Friday, and joked about cheering on Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick in Saturday's race.

A few seconds later, he threw an elbow Howard's way.

"It was expected," Shaq said. "We've all been in LA, and not a whole lot of people can handle being under the bright lights. Everybody wants to do it, but when you get there, there are certain pressures. I think it was a safe move for him to go to a little town like Houston. That's right, little town. I said it."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-07-06-BKN-O'Neal-Howard-Reaction-/id-13848d6419af4651851af9732d2f7a2f

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Fighting in central Cairo, amid protests

CAIRO (Reuters) - Fighting broke out in central Cairo on Friday evening between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohamed, witnesses said.

A group of Islamist supporters of Mursi gathered outside the national broadcasting headquarters on the banks of the Nile, about a kilometer (half a mile) from Tahrir Square, where Mursi's liberal opponents have set up camp.

Television images showed groups of youths running. Some threw fireworks which landed among groups of rival protesters.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr, Amr Abdallah Dalsh and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-central-cairo-amid-protests-185448472.html

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To feed the future, we must mine the wealth of the world's seed banks today, experts argue

[unable to retrieve full-text content]With fewer than a dozen flowering plants out of 300,000 species accounting for 80 percent of humanity's caloric intake, people need to tap unused plants to feed the world in the near future, claims a plant geneticist.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/u0XZdy2SrgY/130705121051.htm

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Snowden hits hurdles in search for asylum

MOSCOW (AP) ? NSA leaker Edward Snowden's best chance of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on the president of Venezuela, who was in Moscow on Tuesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela told Russian reporters on Tuesday that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take Snowden with him when he left. But Maduro also defended the former National Security Agency systems analyst who released sensitive documents on U.S. intelligence-gathering operations.

"He did not kill anyone and did not plant a bomb," Maduro said ahead of his meeting with Putin, the Interfax news agency reported. "What he did was tell a great truth in an effort to prevent wars. He deserves protection under international and humanitarian law."

During his Kremlin meeting with Putin, Maduro spoke about plans to build on the strong ties with Russia formed under his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, but neither he nor Putin mentioned Snowden in their public statements.

The Kremlin-friendly newspaper Izvestia reported Monday that the two presidents would discuss Snowden, adding to speculation that arrangements would be made for him to travel to Venezuela. Snowden had initially booked flights to Havana, Cuba, and then on to Caracas, Venezuela, before becoming trapped in legal limbo, believed to be in a Moscow airport transit zone.

Another option for Snowden may be Bolivia, whose president also was meeting with Putin during a summit of major gas exporters in the Kremlin. President Evo Morales said in an interview with Russia Today television that Bolivia would be willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden.

Snowden withdrew a bid for asylum in Russia when he learned the terms Moscow had set out, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stopped leaking U.S. secrets.

At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him. Many European countries on the list ? including Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland ? said he would have to make his request on their soil.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, whose consent for asylum would be required, said in a message posted on Twitter that he would not grant the request.

WikiLeaks said requests have also been made to Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland and Nicaragua.

India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said Delhi has carefully examined the asylum request and decided to turn it down. And Brazil's Foreign Ministry spokesman Tovar da Silva Nunes said the government "does not plan to respond" to the asylum request.

WikiLeaks also posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website late Monday, in which he slams President Barack Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."

"Although I am convicted of nothing, (the United States) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

The Russian government says that Snowden, who has been on the run since releasing the sensitive NSA documents, has remained in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.

WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the request for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday, according to the group that has adopted Snowden and his cause.

Ecuador, where he had initially hoped to get asylum, has been giving mixed signals about offering him shelter.

Britain's Press Association news agency said it had obtained a letter from Snowden to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa thanking him for considering his asylum request.

"There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world," PA quoted the letter as saying. The agency said it had obtained the Spanish-language letter from sources in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

Correa, however, appeared cool to Snowden in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.

Asked whether he would like to meet Snowden, Correa was quoted as saying: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr. Snowden spied for some time."

He was quoted as saying that Ecuador would not consider an asylum request until Snowden was on its territory and his government would not help him travel to Ecuador.

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Associated Press writers Lynn Berry in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, George Jahn in Vienna, Matti Huutanen in Helsinki, Finland, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, Angela Charlton in Paris, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Spain, and AP researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-hits-hurdles-search-asylum-094437208.html

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Gitmo detainees on hunger strike sue over forced feeding

A watch tower is seen in Camp X-Ray at the U.S. Naval Station on June 27, 2013, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Joe Raedle/Getty??

Four inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba are suing the federal government over the camp's force-feeding procedures, arguing they are inhumane and violate the inmates' freedom of religion.

The inmates?two of whom are currently on a monthslong hunger strike and are being force-fed?are suing in federal court in Washington, D.C., for an injunction that would stop the U.S. military from feeding inmates against their will.

Previous court rulings have held that U.S. prisoners may be force-fed to prevent them from effectively taking their own lives by starvation. But lawyers for the detainees argue that because they have not been charged with a crime, there is no "legitimate penological interest" in force-feeding them to prolong their indefinite detention. The United Nations and the World Medical Association, however, have said force-feeding is inhumane and that prisoners who are mentally fit should be allowed to refuse food. More than 40 prisoners are being force-fed now, with 106 total on hunger strike. President Barack Obama suggested in a national security speech last month that the forced feeding was unjust and that he would renew efforts to close Guantanamo.

Interestingly, the detainees' lawyers are also asking the court to reconsider whether certain religious protections extend to foreign nationals held outside the United States, given the expanded definition of personhood put forward in the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC. The detainees argue that they should be allowed to fast for the holy month of Ramadan, which begins July 8. The prisoners say the forced feeding will violate their ability to observe fasting for Ramadan under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Previous court rulings have suggested the act's protections do not extend to "nonresident aliens," but the detainees' attorneys argue that the courts should reconsider that precedent under the Citizens United decision, which dealt with freedom of speech and political contributions.

It's unclear whether the district court will buy the lawyers' argument that it should take the case, because the government has argued in the past that civilian judges have no jurisdiction over the prison. The court has given the government two days to respond to the filing.

Ahmed Belbacha, a 43-year-old Algerian inmate who was suspected of belonging to an al-Qaida unit in Pakistan, is one of the four who is suing. "I accept [the risk of starvation] because hunger striking is the sole peaceful means that I have to protest my indefinite detention," he says, according to the U.K. human rights group Reprieve and the California-based lawyer Jon Eisenberg, who filed the court papers on their behalf. ?I realize the consequences of ending the force feeding regime. Understanding this, I ask the Court to stop the prison authorities from force feeding and forcibly medicating me."

Belbacha notes that he has been held without charge since 2002, and was cleared for release in 2007 and again in 2009.

Another detainee, Abu Wa?el (Jihad) Dhiab from Syria, described in the filing the force-feeding procedure. ?Straps and shackles are put in place and only the chains on the hands are released," Dhiab said. "Then all the straps are tightened forcefully so that I cannot move or breathe. In addition to this, there are six riot force members: one holding the head and putting his fingers on the throat and neck from below the chin with severe pressure, the second and third hold the hands, the fourth and fifth hold the legs, and then the nurse inserts the tube. If you are in pain it is natural for your head to move, so they shout 'don't resist.'"

Congress has passed legislation to prevent civilian or military trials at Guantanamo. Even though 86 of the remaining 166 detainees at Gitmo have been cleared for release, many of their home countries will not accept them. All four inmates who are suing the government have been cleared for release from the camp.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/hunger-striking-gitmo-detainees-sue-over-force-feeding-170219155.html

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