South Africa: Nelson Mandela in critical condition

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela's health has deteriorated and he is now in critical condition, the South African government said Sunday.

The office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement that he had visited the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader at a hospital Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that Mandela's condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.

"The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands," Zuma said in the statement, using Mandela's clan name.

Zuma also met Graca Machel, Mandela's wife, at the hospital in Pretoria and discussed the former leader's condition, according to the statement. Zuma was accompanied on the visit by Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the country's ruling party, the African National Congress.

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.

In the statement, Zuma also discussed the government's acknowledgement a day earlier that an ambulance carrying Mandela to the hospital two weeks ago had engine trouble, requiring the former president to be transferred to another ambulance for his journey to the hospital.

"There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care," Zuma said. "The fully equipped military ICU ambulance had a full complement of specialist medical staff including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses. The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest. There is no truth at all in that report."

Zuma appealed to South Africans and the rest of the world to pray for Mandela, his family and the medical team that is attending to him.

On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other leaders of the African National Congress to Mandela's home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage ? the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year ? showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

Mandela was jailed for 27 years under white racist rule and was released in 1990. He then played a leading role in steering the divided country from the apartheid era to democracy, becoming South Africa's first black president in all-race elections in 1994.

As a result of his sacrifice and peacemaking efforts, he is seen by many around the world as a symbol of reconciliation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-nelson-mandela-critical-condition-201653072.html

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Billboard chart won't count Jay Z sales from Samsung album deal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Billboard's weekly music chart will not include the 1 million copies of rapper Jay Z's upcoming album that were sold to electronics maker Samsung as part of a promotion, the U.S. trade magazine said on Friday.

Jay Z, 43, announced last weekend that his album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" could be downloaded for free on July 4 - three days before its public release - to the first 1 million users of Samsung smartphones who had downloaded a special app.

Bulk album sales that are give away for free are not counted in total sales and not eligible to be included on the music charts even if an artist and a record label are paid for them, according to Billboard's rules.

The magazine's editorial director, Bill Werde, said Billboard rejected Jay Z's request that the Samsung promotional sales be counted toward the Billboard 200 chart because "in the context of this promotion, nothing is actually for sale."

"The ever-visionary Jay Z pulled the nifty coup of getting paid as if he had a platinum album before one fan bought a single copy," Werde said.

The magazine in 2011 also instituted a minimum price of $3.49 for an album to be considered for its chart in the first four weeks after release, which came in response to retailers and record labels who were selling albums for less than $1 to inflate sales.

Werde said Jay Z should earn his 13th No. 1 album anyway, as "Magna Carta Holy Grail" is forecast to sell between 400,000 and 450,000 units in its first week.

But Werde said Billboard will discuss tweaking its album-counting policy because of the prevalence of branding deals in the industry and the changing nature of how music is consumed.

"Just because the Billboard 200 has been based purely on sales of an album for the entirety of the life of the chart doesn't mean it must always remain so," Werde said.

The magazine's Hot 100 songs chart has been changed in recent years to include digital downloads and online streaming figures as consumers turn away from traditional terrestrial radio and buying physical copies of songs.

"Magna Carta Holy Grail" will be released by Universal Music Group's Roc-A-Fella Records.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/billboard-chart-wont-count-jay-z-sales-samsung-195129536.html

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Kerry: Political solution urgently needed in Syria

U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Susan Ziadeh, left, walks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, second from left, and Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhroo, Qatari Chief of Protocol, on Kerry's arrival in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Kerry began the overseas trip plunging into two thorny foreign policy problems facing the Obama administration: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Susan Ziadeh, left, walks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, second from left, and Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhroo, Qatari Chief of Protocol, on Kerry's arrival in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Kerry began the overseas trip plunging into two thorny foreign policy problems facing the Obama administration: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, walks through the airport with Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhroo, Qatari Chief of Protocol, left, after being greeted on arrival in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Kerry began an overseas trip plunging into two thorny foreign policy problems facing the Obama administration: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, not pictured, is secured in his vehicle on arrival in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Kerry is expected to attend a meeting of the London 11. The Secretary has begun the overseas trip with two thorny foreign policy problems facing the Obama administration: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

DOHA, Qatar (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Saturday for an urgent political resolution to the war in Syria, saying that unless the bloodshed stops, the region could descend into a chaotic sectarian conflict.

Kerry met in Doha with 10 of his counterparts from Arab and European nations to coordinate aid to the embattled rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad in a two-year civil war that has left 93,000 dead. All the nations in attendance agreed to step up aid to the rebels, Kerry said.

While he offered no specifics, Kerry said the assistance would help change the balance on the battlefield, where regime forces have scored recent victories. Kerry blamed Assad for the deteriorating situation in Syria, saying that while the international community was attempting to hold a conference to set up a transitional government, Assad invited Iranian and Hezbollah fighters to bolster his troops.

It was Kerry's first meeting with his counterparts about aid to the Syrian rebels since President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would send lethal aid to the opposition despite concern that weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria. That decision was partly based on a U.S. intelligence assessment that Assad had used chemical weapons, but Kerry expressed deeper concern about Iran and Hezbollah fighters.

"That is a very, very dangerous development," Kerry said. "Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran. ... Hezbollah in addition to that is a terrorist organization."

Kerry blamed Hezbollah and Assad with thwarting efforts to diffuse sectarian rebels and to negotiate a settlement.

"We're looking at a very dangerous situation," that had transformed "into a much more volatile, potentially explosive situation that could involve the entire region," Kerry said.

The war already has spilled into neighboring countries and is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines, pitting Sunni against Shiite Muslims and threatening the stability of Syria's neighbors.

Kerry met with his counterparts in the Qatari capital on the first stop of a seven-nation trip through the Mideast and Asia where he is tackling difficult foreign policy issues ? from finding peace between the Israelis and Palestinians to trying to gain traction on U.S. talks with the Taliban to end the Afghanistan war. James Dobbins, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, arrived in Doha on Saturday, but talks with the Taliban have not been scheduled.

Kerry seemed to put the ball in the Taliban's court, saying the Americans and Qataris were all on board to help negotiate a political resolution to the war and it was up to the Taliban to come to the table at a new political office they opened last week in Doha. "We are waiting to find out whether the Taliban will respond, Kerry said.

"We will see if we can get back on track. I don't know whether that's possible or not," Kerry said. "If there is not a decision made by the Taliban to move forward in short order, then we may have to consider whether the office has to be closed."

On Syria, Kerry has been pressing hard on Russia to back an international conference intended to end the bloodshed in Syria and allow a transitional government to move the country beyond civil war.

Russia has been the key ally of Assad's regime throughout the two-year conflict.

Top U.S. diplomats are ready to go to Geneva to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials next week to advance the political process, Kerry said. The date and location of the international conference on Syria haven't been announced, but it's already being dubbed "Geneva 2" because a similar event was held there a year ago.

On Friday, Russia's foreign minister said Washington was sending contradictory signals on Syria that could derail an international conference intended to end that country's civil war, warning that U.S. talk about a possible no-fly zone would only encourage the rebels to keep fighting.

Sergey Lavrov also criticized demands that Assad step down. Russian leaders warn that if Assad steps aside, the resulting power vacuum could be quickly filled by al-Qaida connected rebels, who are well-armed and aggressive.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-22-ML-Kerry/id-43dc6db8a6eb4aa082889beb2ab63918

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Some immigrants excluded from health care overhaul

PHOENIX (AP) -- President Barack Obama has championed two sweeping policy changes that could transform how people live in the United States: affordable health care for all and a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants illegally in the country.

But many immigrants will have to wait more than a decade to qualify for health care benefits under the proposed immigration overhaul being debated by Congress, ensuring a huge swath of people will remain uninsured as the centerpiece of Obama's health care law launches next year.

Lawmakers pushing the immigration bill said adding more recipients to an already costly benefit would make it unaffordable.

Health care analysts and immigration proponents argue that denying coverage will saddle local governments with the burden of uninsured immigrants. They also fear a crisis down the road as immigrants become eligible for coverage, but are older, sicker and require more expensive care. Those placed on provisional status would become the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent, according to a 2012 study by the Urban Institute.

"All health research shows that the older you get, the sicker you become, so these people will be sicker and will be more expensive on the system," said Matthew O'Brien, who runs a health clinic for immigrants in Philadelphia and researches health trends at Temple University.

The Affordable Care Act will make health insurance accessible for millions of uninsured people starting in January through taxpayer-subsidized private policies for middle-class families and expanded access to Medicaid, the program for low-income people funded by federal and state dollars. The proposed immigration overhaul explicitly states immigrants cannot receive Medicaid or buy coverage in new health care exchanges for more than a decade after they qualify for legal status, and only after certain financial and security requirements have been met.

Immigrants with provisional status may obtain insurance through employers once they have legal status to work, but many are unskilled and undereducated, and tend to work low-wage jobs at small businesses that don't have to provide the benefit under the health care law. Immigrants illegally in the country also can access community health centers, but the officials who run those clinics said they are overwhelmed by the demand.

"We can't help everybody," said Bethy Mathis, executive director of Wesley Community Center in Phoenix. The clinic serves 7,000 patients a year who seek everything from vaccinations and relief from minor medical problems to care for long-term health conditions such as diabetes.

Debate over whether immigrants illegally in the country should be eligible for federal benefits nearly sank Obama's health care reform before it was passed by Congress in 2010. For lawmakers pushing immigration reform, there was no question that immigrants would continue to be excluded.

"That's one of the privileges of citizenship," said Republican Sen. John McCain, one of the so-called Gang of Eight pushing the immigration bill, during a conference call with reporters. "That's just what it is. I don't know why we would want to provide Obamacare to someone who is not a citizen of this country."

The issue has received more attention in recent weeks. Some House Republicans have threatened to kill the immigration bill unless immigrants are required to pay for all their health care costs even after they receive green cards or become citizens. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, meanwhile, said she wants the government to distribute at least $250 million to state and local governments because they are the ones who will feel the financial pain of immigrants being left out of the health care law.

Pregnant women, children, seniors and the disabled are eligible for emergency Medicaid services regardless of their immigration status.

The politics behind the bill offer little solace to immigrant families struggling with growing medical bills.

Isabel Castillo came to the U.S. illegally with her parents when she was a child. She's now 28 and has not gone for an annual physical exam since 2007. Every pain triggers debate over whether it's worth a medical visit or not.

"You are like, 'God, should I go, should I wait? The bill is going to be so high,'" Castillo said. "You just wait until you can't tolerate the pain anymore and then you go to the emergency room."

Immigrants who are U.S. citizens are also affected by the limits on health care access if they provide for family members here illegally.

High school student Jacqueline Garcia of Phoenix works two jobs to support her 13-year-old brother and 52-year-old grandmother, who has severe diabetes. The woman's mobility is limited, her vision and memory are fading and she sometimes suffers from seizures. The children were born in the United States and are being raised by the grandmother, who does not have lawful status and as a result does not qualify for Medicaid.

"Every time she gets sick, I have to take her to the doctor. It's really expensive," Garcia said. "What if my grandmother doesn't make it for the 10 years? I mean, I am always going to be struggling. That's too long."

Opponents said they understand the concerns of immigrants not getting health care, but it becomes an issue of the added expense.

"We aren't saying people shouldn't get health care. The question is who is going to pay for it?" said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that opposes the immigration overhaul. "They would all be on Medicaid or heavily subsidized in some other way."

Critics of the decision said immigrants are eager to pay for affordable health care insurance and already support federal benefits by paying sales and income taxes. They note that adults unable to overcome health emergencies are less likely to contribute to the workforce and society.

"The risk of them being uninsured if they are in the country illegally is the same risk of anyone else in the country not being insured," said Stephen Zuckerman, a health economist for the Urban Institute. "It's always more expensive to treat people at a more advanced stage of disease."

In North Carolina, Jessica Sanchez-Rodriguez said she has undergone a series of surgeries and medicines to treat her spina bifida, a developmental congenital disorder, and an ailment that leads to brain swelling. Her parents brought her illegally from Mexico when she was 11 months old. As a minor, she received subsidized medical care, but she was cut off when she turned 18 in February.

Her family is trying to raise money for a $55,000 surgery to connect a catheter to her bladder.

"It's terrible," Sanchez-Rodriguez said. "I have to go to school with these pains."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigrants-excluded-health-care-overhaul-135245847.html

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A Hologram-Projecting R2-D2 Birthday Cake Makes Us Insanely Jealous

We've seen a lot of awesome cake designs over the years, but this is the first time we've been genuinely envious over what a six-year-old was served at his birthday party. After all, who wouldn't want an R2-D2 birthday cake that actually projects holograms like the one Marc Freilich made for his son Alexander?

Besides layers and layers of chocolate cake, R2-D2's outer fondant layer also hides a pico projector that connects to an external laptop playing Princess Leia's famous message, with a birthday greeting for Alexander tacked onto the end. As birthday cakes go it's about as awesome as they can get, unless someone found a way to blast a Rice Krispies treat edible lightsaber out of its dome. [WedgeStrap via Hackaday]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-hologram-projecting-r2-d2-birthday-cake-makes-us-insa-516812815

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Source: http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/38244200/device/rss/rss.xml

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ZekeFilm | Film Review: SCATTER MY ASHES AT BERGDORF'S

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As a feature length promotion for a massive big-money entity that in no way needs a feature length promotion, Scatter my Ashes at Bergdorf?s takes a cushy seat alongside of the new Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson Google-centric comedy, The Internship. Besides the obvious differences in genre and subject matter, both are about cozying up with the establishment in order to get. Were it not for Sophia Coppola?s The Bling Ring (a well-timed cinematic breath of fresh air if there ever was one) coming along and essentially yelling at this film, I?d be left in an end-of-week movie going funk, questioning how so much of cinema has and is becoming blatant advertising. If you don?t mind this sort of thing, then you?re either already a fan, or you?re inert.

The sheer amount of gushing and reverence put forth during the many interviews with big name designers (including Vera Wang, Isaac Mizrahi, and many more) buyers, loopy personal shoppers, and celebrities are softly exhausting in this rambling ode to opulence. One gets the impression filmmaker Matthew Miele didn?t necessarily set out to create a testament to the joys of the Mecca of high dollar spending, as he definitely nabbed a lot of choice interviews, and is heard asking some questions that are more interesting than the dodgy answers he gets. (?How much does that cost?? is a particular shocker to some Bergdorf?s higher-ups.) During one interview, an insider comes out of the gate defensively, then amusingly finds he must switch gears. Paraphrasing: ?People say that only rich people can afford to shop here?! And, I guess that?s true. But all the people living in those Park Avenue penthouses need to be accommodated, too??

Mizrahi Loves Bergdorfs!

Perhaps obviously, this isn?t my scene. For long stretches, I felt simply trapped in this screening, stuck listening to members of the bourgeois tout their bourgeois enabler. But here?s the real kicker ? despite the glaring uncomfort of it all, I can?t honestly say I?m sorry to have attended. For better or for worse, amid all of its rambling mix-and-match content, Scatter my Ashes still manages to provide some sort of grounded look into this world of high end handbags, fabulous pumps and unaffordable hats.

And like it or not, it does us well to remember that film (which is perpetually at the apex of popular culture) and fashion are irrevocably linked, and almost always have been. This type of fashion has affected not just the more obvious entries, such as Antonioni?s Blow-Up (then spoofed so hilariously in Austin Powers) and Breakfast at Tiffany?s, but even more ?street level? films such as Raging Bull, and well, well beyond. Understanding this symbiotic relationship between these two major cultural elements can?t be a bad thing. The documentary reminds us that the enigma of Bergdorf Goodman?s runs through virtually all of cinema, Barbara Streisand being the ever the singing figurehead of it all. (On a related note, there?s even a jarring story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono purchasing an unprecedented number of fur coats in a single transaction.)

Okay, maybe this store is weirder than I realize?

And so, while Bergdorf?s is a sometimes cracked window looking in on how the better half lives, it?s also a window to it?s own world famous windows. In one of the film?s more fascinating through-lines, Miele charts the process of planning, creating, and eventually unveiling the store?s meticulously created displays for the holiday shopping season. Revealed behind the five panes of glass are long toiled-over dazzling handcrafted undersea visions: An odd array of beaded glass shards, antique musical instruments, taxidermy, and mannequins that might be called children?s book steampunk. Or not. For many, this is as close as they?re ever likely to get to the Bergdorf experience. And that?s okay ? these displays are elaborate, eccentric, impersonal, and completely for the masses. So much detail and care (all shown) goes into them. In a sense, it?s like a brick & mortar equivalent of a Transfromers movie: High-end vacuousness on display for the hoi polloi. Make no mistake, they are enjoyed, if only fleetingly.

The title Scatter my Ashes at Bergdorf?s derives from either a cartoon in the New Yorker, or the crazed pronouncement of a delirious foreign shopper, or both. In any case, it?s one of the single worst movie titles of all time, rendered all the more curious considering the escapist nature of shopping. Reminding viewers of their own pending mortality upfront seems more than a little odd for a documentary about the very pinnacle of shopping. But yes, we all must perish someday, and I must admit that ones incinerated remnants could do a lot worse than to be cast about permanently damaging all manner of couture fashion items and accessories.

There?s a ton of rose-colored adoration going on here ? in fact, that?s all that?s going here. So perhaps it?s not altogether fair to expect such a puff piece to comment of such harsh issues that squarely align with the subject matter. I?m talking about the assumption of a consumer culture and the horridly outsourced realities of the U.S. garment industry. If Bergdorf Goodman?s is a cornerstone of the increasingly nebulous notion of The American Dream, what does that mean for us? Such questions are blissfully ignored, in favor of yet more gushing. One strongly suspects that Bergdorf Goodman has bought and paid for all of this ? but hey, they can afford it.

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Source: http://www.zekefilm.org/2013/06/06/film-review-scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs/

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