Algeria: 32 militants killed, with 23 hostages

Two British hostages Peter, left, and Alan, right, (no family name available), are seen after being released, in a street of Ain Amenas, near the gas plant where they have been kidnapped by Islamic militants, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Algeria's special forces stormed the natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert in a final assault Saturday, killing 11 militants, but not before they in turn killed seven hostages, the state news agency reported.(AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Two British hostages Peter, left, and Alan, right, (no family name available), are seen after being released, in a street of Ain Amenas, near the gas plant where they have been kidnapped by Islamic militants, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Algeria's special forces stormed the natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert in a final assault Saturday, killing 11 militants, but not before they in turn killed seven hostages, the state news agency reported.(AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

This Nov. 29, 2012 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria, which is jointly operated by BP and Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach. Algerian special forces launched a rescue operation Thursday Jan. 17, 2013 at the plant in the Sahara Desert and freed foreign hostages held by al-Qaida-linked militants. The bloody three-day hostage standoff took a dramatic turn Friday as Algeria's state news service reported that nearly 100 of the 132 foreign workers kidnapped by Islamic militants had been freed. That number of hostages at the remote desert facility was significantly higher than any previous report, but it still left questions about the fate of over 30 other foreign energy workers. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is embraced by Executive Vice President in Statoil, Margrethe Oevrum, Saturday Jan. 19, 2013, after his visit at the drop-in center in Bergen for relatives of the Statoil-employees taken hostage in Algeria. In a bloody finale on Saturday, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert to end a four-day standoff with Islamic extremists that left at least 19 hostages and 29 militants dead. With few details emerging from the remote site, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation. (AP Photo / Anette Karlsen, NTB scanpix) NORWAY OUT

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks to the media during a news conference with the Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond, not pictured, at Lancaster House in London on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Britain's defense minister says it appears the hostage situation in Algeria has come to an end and resulted in further loss of life. Philip Hammond calls the loss of life appalling and unacceptable. He says "it is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility for it." Hammond spoke at the start of a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Two British hostages Peter, left, and Alan, right, (no family name available), are seen after being released, in a street of Ain Amenas, near the gas plant where they have been kidnapped by Islamic militants, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Algeria's special forces stormed the natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert in a final assault Saturday, killing 11 militants, but not before they in turn killed seven hostages, the state news agency reported.(AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.

With few details emerging from the remote site in eastern Algeria, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation, but the number of hostages killed on Saturday ? seven ? was how many the militants had said that morning they still had. The government described the toll as provisional and some foreigners remained unaccounted for.

The siege at Ain Amenas transfixed the world after radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world, then held them hostage surrounded by the Algerian military and its attack helicopters for four tense days that were punctuated with gun battles and dramatic tales of escape.

Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of its history in confronting terrorists, favoring military action over negotiation, which caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens. Algerian military forces twice assaulted the two areas where the hostages were being held with minimal apparent mediation ? first on Thursday, then on Saturday.

"To avoid a bloody turn of events in response to the extreme danger of the situation, the army's special forces launched an intervention with efficiency and professionalism to neutralize the terrorist groups that were first trying to flee with the hostages and then blow up the gas facilities," Algeria's Interior Ministry said in a statement about the standoff.

Immediately after the assault, French President Francois Hollande gave his backing to Algeria's tough tactics, saying they were "the most adapted response to the crisis."

"There could be no negotiations" with terrorists, the French media quoted him as saying in the central French city of Tulle.

Hollande said the hostages were "shamefully murdered" by their captors, and he linked the event to France's military operation against al-Qaida-backed rebels in neighboring Mali. "If there was any need to justify our action against terrorism, we would have here, again, an additional argument," he said.

President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. stood ready to provide whatever assistance was needed in the wake of the attack.

"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa. In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the Government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future," the statement said.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning the militants' terrorist attack and said all perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of such "reprehensible acts" must be brought to justice.

In the final assault, the remaining band of militants killed the hostages before 11 of them were in turn cut down by the special forces, Algeria's state news agency said. The military launched its Saturday assault to prevent a fire started by the extremists from engulfing the complex and blowing it up, the report added.

A total of 685 Algerian and 107 foreigner workers were freed over the course of the four-day standoff, the ministry statement said, adding that the group of militants that attacked the remote Saharan natural gas complex consisted of 32 men of various nationalities, including three Algerians and explosives experts.

The military also said it confiscated heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, missiles and grenades attached to suicide belts.

Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil company running the Ain Amenas site along with BP and Norway's Statoil, said the entire refinery had been mined with explosives, and that the process of clearing it out is now under way.

Algeria has fought its own Islamist rebellion since the 1990s, elements of which later declared allegiance to al-Qaida and then set up new groups in the poorly patrolled wastes of the Sahara along the borders of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya, where they flourished.

The standoff has put the spotlight on these al-Qaida-linked groups that roam these remote areas, threatening vital infrastructure and energy interests. The militants initially said their operation was intended to stop a French attack on Islamist militants in neighboring Mali ? though they later said it was two months in the planning, long before the French intervention.

The militants, who came from a Mali-based al-Qaida splinter group run by an Algerian, attacked the plant Wednesday morning. Armed with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers in four-wheel drive vehicles, they fell on a pair of buses taking foreign workers to the airport. The buses' military escort drove off the attackers in a blaze of gunfire that sent bullets zinging over the heads of crouching workers. A Briton and an Algerian ? probably a security guard ? were killed.

The militants then turned to the vast gas complex, divided between the workers' living quarters and the refinery itself, and seized hostages, the Algerian government said. The gas flowing to the site was cut off.

Saturday's government statement said the militants came across the border from "neighboring countries," while the militants said they came from Niger, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the south.

On Thursday, Algerian helicopters kicked off the military's first assault on the complex by opening fire on a convoy carrying both kidnappers and their hostages to stop them from escaping, resulting in many deaths, according to witnesses.

The accounts of hostages who escaped the standoff showed they faced dangers from both the kidnappers and the military.

Ruben Andrada, 49, a Filipino civil engineer who works as one of the project management staff for the Japanese company JGC Corp., described how he and his colleagues were used as human shields by the kidnappers, which did little to deter the Algerian military.

On Thursday, about 35 hostages guarded by 15 militants were loaded into seven SUVs in a convoy to move them from the housing complex to the refinery, Andrada said. The militants placed "an explosive cord" around their necks and were told it would detonate if they tried to run away, he said.

"When we left the compound, there was shooting all around," Andrada said, as Algerian helicopters attacked with guns and missiles. "I closed my eyes. We were going around in the desert. To me, I left it all to fate."

Andrada's vehicle overturned allowing him and a few others to escape. He sustained cuts and bruises and was grazed by a bullet on his right elbow. He later saw the blasted remains of other vehicles, and the severed leg of one of the gunmen.

The site of the gas plant spreads out over several hectares (acres) and includes a housing complex and the processing site, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) apart, making it especially complicated for the Algerians to secure the site and likely contributed to the lengthy standoff.

"It's a big and complex site. It's a huge place with a lot of people there and a lot of hiding places for hostages and terrorists," said Col. Richard Kemp, a retired commander of British forces who had dealt with hostage rescues in Iraq and Afghanistan. "These are experienced terrorists holding the hostages."

While the Algerian government has only admitted to 23 hostages dead so far, the militants claimed through the Mauritanian news website ANI that the helicopter attack alone killed 35 hostages.

One American, a Texan ? Frederick Buttaccio from the Houston suburb of Katy ? is among the dead.

President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. stood ready to provide whatever assistance was needed in the wake of the attack.

"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa. In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the Government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future," the statement said.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday that a Frenchman killed, Yann Desjeux, was a former member of the French special forces and part of the security team. The remaining three French nationals who were at the plant are now free, the Foreign Ministry said.

The British government said Saturday it is trying to determine the fate of six people from Britain who are either dead or unaccounted for.

Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said, "There is no justification for taking innocent life in this way. Our determination is stronger than ever to work with allies right around the world to root out and defeat this terrorist scourge and those who encourage it."

The Norwegian government said there were five Norwegians unaccounted for.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Saturday one Romanian hostage was killed in the course of the siege, while the Malaysian government said two of its citizens were still missing.

The attack by the Masked Brigade, founded by Algerian militant Moktar Belmoktar, had been in the works for two months, a member of the brigade told the ANI news outlet. He said militants targeted Algeria because they expected the country to support the international effort to root out extremists in neighboring Mali and it was carried out by a special commando unit, "Those Who Signed in Blood," tasked with attacking nations supporting intervention in Mali.

The kidnappers focused on the foreign workers, largely leaving alone the hundreds of Algerian workers who were briefly held hostage before being released or escaping.

Several of them arrived haggard-looking on a late-night flight into Algiers on Friday and described how the militants stormed the living quarters and immediately separated out the foreigners.

Mohamed, a 37-year-old nurse who like the others wouldn't allow his last name to be used for fear of trouble for himself or his family, said at least five people were shot to death, their bodies still in front of the infirmary when he left Thursday night.

Chabane, an Algerian who worked in food services, said he bolted out the window and was hiding when he heard the militants speaking among themselves with Libyan, Egyptian and Tunisian accents. At one point, he said, they caught a Briton.

"They threatened him until he called out in English to his friends, telling them, 'Come out, come out. They're not going to kill you. They're looking for the Americans,'" Chabane said.

"A few minutes later, they blew him away."

_____

Paul Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Aomar Ouali in Algiers; Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines; Elaine Ganley in Paris; Sylvia Hui in London; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen; and Peter Spielmann at the U.N. contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-19-Algeria-Kidnapping/id-28c7b128446648f1b5b9791dcae032ca

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Allen Frances: Terrible News: DSM-5 Refuses to Reduce Overdiagnosis of 'Somatic Symptom Disorder'

Many of you will have read a previous blog prepared by Suzy Chapman and me that contained alarming information about the new DSM-5 diagnosis "somatic symptom disorder" (SSD).

DSM-5 defines SSD so over-inclusively that it will mislabel one in six people with cancer and heart disease, one in four with irritable bowel syndrom and fibromyalgia, and one in 14 who are not even medically ill.

I hoped to be able to influence the DSM-5 work group to correct this in two ways: 1) by suggesting improvements in the wording of the SSD criteria set that would reduce mislabeling, and 2) by letting them know how much opposition they would face from concerned professionals and an outraged public if DSM-5 failed to slam on the brakes while there was still time.

And many of you tried to help by making clear just how important this issue is in people's lives. The blog post got many tens of thousands of views, was reposted on 70 additional sites, was widely tweeted and posted on Facebook, and elicited more than 400 extremely well-informed and often passionate comments, unanimously in strong opposition.

We have failed, and DSM-5 has failed us. For reasons that I can't begin to fathom, DSM-5 has decided to proceed on its mindless and irresponsible course. The sad result will be the mislabeling of potentially millions of people with a fake mental disorder that is unsupported by science and flies in the face of common sense.

I suggested simple wording changes in the DSM-5 definition of SSD that would have tightened it significantly and reduced confusion at the difficult boundary between medical and mental illness. Na?vely I thought that my suggestions were so obviously necessary that DSM-5 would find them easy to accept and impossible to refuse.

The new criteria set would have made it much clearer that the person's concern about physical symptoms had to be "excessive, maladaptive, pervasive, persistent, intrusive, extremely anxiety-provoking, disproportionate and consuming enough time to cause significant disruption and impairment in daily life."

And I also suggested adding these new items to the criteria set to reduce the most common sources of inappropriate overdiagnosis of SSD:

• "If a diagnosed medical condition is present, the thoughts, feelings and behaviors must be grossly in excess of what would be expected given the nature of the medical condition."
• "If no medical diagnosis has yet been made, a thorough medical work-up should be performed and be repeated again at suitable intervals to uncover possible medical conditions that may declare themselves with the passage of time."
• "The concern about physical symptoms should not be not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g., anxiety, depressive or psychotic disorder)."

Many of you would argue that I didn't go nearly far enough, that there should be no "somatic symptom disorder" at all in DSM-5 because there is no substantial body of evidence to support either its reliability or its validity. People who are concerned about medical problems would either not be diagnosed with any mental disorder or, when necessary, would get a much more benign and nonspecific diagnosis of "adjustment disorder."

I am sympathetic to this view, but I realized that it would have no traction with the work group, so I chose instead to lobby for what seemed to be clearly essential and relatively easy changes that would solve most, if not all, of the problem.

My goal was to make it almost impossible for DSM-5 to say "no" to what are obviously needed improvements. My suggestions were no more than standard stuff, just the typical exclusionary wording that has always been used in DSM criteria sets to encourage careful differential diagnosis and to reduce inaccurate overdiagnosis. Making the changes so easy was intended to be the carrot.

And I also brandished a stick. My letter cautioned DSM-5 that it was invading dangerous territory. Here was my warning to the DSM-5 work group:

• "Clearly you have paid close attention only to the need to reduce false negatives but have not protected sufficiently against the serious problem of creating false positives. You are not alone in this blind spot; in my experience, inattention to false positive risk is an endemic problem for all experts in any field. But your prior oversight needs urgent correction before you go to press with a criteria set that is so unbalanced that it will cause grave harms."
• "When psychiatric problems are misdiagnosed in the medically ill, the patients are stigmatized as 'crocks,' and the possible underlying medical causes of their problems are much more likely to be missed."
• "Continuing with your current loose wording will be bad for the patients who are mislabeled and will also be extremely harmful to DSM-5, to APA and to your own professional reputations."

I also raised the point that this could lead to a boycott of DSM-5. Pretty strong stuff, I thought. But it was totally ineffective. DSM-5 remained blind to dangers and deaf to entreaties. Its startling failure to correct this obvious and harmful mistake is breathtakingly wrongheaded and exceeds even my most pessimistic expectations about DSM-5's lack of competence and credibility.

Suzy Chapman is not surprised. For three years she has been engaged in a determined effort to educate professionals and the public about the problems in DSM-5 and has been doing her best to help correct them. Her website provides the most complete documentation of everything related to DSM-5 and ICD-11.

Ms Chapman writes:

Unfortunately, the DSM 5 invitation for comments from the field turned out to be no more than an empty public relations show. For the second stakeholder review of DSM 5 draft criteria, the SSD disorder section attracted more submissions than almost any other section. Yet still the Work Group barreled blindly on with suggestions that were roundly opposed as hurtful to the medically ill -- shrugging off criticism from professionals and remaining completely unreceptive to advocacy organization and patient concern.

For its third draft, rather than revise in favor of less inclusive criteria, the Work Group's response was to lower the threshold even further -- reducing the requirement for "at least two from the B type criteria" to just one -- placing even more medical patients at risk of attracting an inappropriate mental health diagnosis.

Many years ago, the late Thomas Szasz said: "In the days of the Malleus, if the physician could find no evidence of natural illness, he was expected to find evidence of witchcraft: today, if he cannot diagnose organic illness, he is expected to diagnose mental illness." DSM 5's loosely defined Somatic Symptom Disorder is Szasz worst fear come true.

Thank you, Ms Chapman. I think Szasz' general critique of psychiatry was far too broad, but he certainly did hit the nail right on the head when it comes to DSM-5 and its cavalier treatment of the medically ill. The DSM-5 debacle is a sad moment in the history of psychiatry. Patients deserve better, and so does the profession of psychiatry.

The American Psychiatric Association has proven itself incompetent to produce a safe and scientifically sound diagnostic system. Psychiatric diagnosis has become too important in people's lives to be left in the hands of one small and insulated professional organization. It is time for a change. Toni Bernhard has interesting thoughts on this.

My heart goes out to all those who will be mislabeled with this misbegotten diagnosis. And I regret and apologize for my failure to be more effective.

Allen Frances is a professor emeritus at Duke University and was the chairman of the DSM-IV task force.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-frances/terrible-news-dsm-5-refus_b_2473321.html

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Vision Of Career & Technical Education - Phd Dissertation Writing ...

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Source: http://botadorilao.blogspot.com/2013/01/vision-of-career-technical-education.html

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Design Some Awesome Business Cards This Weekend

Whether business cards are irrelevant or not, they're definitely a cool way to express yourself and easily provide your information. If you're looking to make some cool cards, set aside a few hours this weekend and use these resources to help.

Design a Good Card

A well-designed business card doesn't take much. Ideally you want one that's clean and simple with enough white space, good font choices, and something specific to you. If you're not a designer, that's okay. We have a typeface and layout guide for non-designers to help you out. If you just can't get the design right, you can always consider using a service like Fiverr which has plenty of people offering to design your cards for $5. It might be harder to get something unique when it's not coming from you, but if your design skills are awful and you don't have the time to learn some new ones it'll be $5 well-spent.

Get Your Cards Printed

Even if you design a good card, it won't look so great if you don't take it to a good printer. Personally, I like Moo and so do you. They're great because you can get a shorter run (50 and up, so you're not stuck with hundreds of cards you don't need) and the quality is superb. Moo also offers a lot of free, really nice pre-made designs if you're just not happy with the one you came up with. Of course, you'll pay more per card with Moo so you might want to check out other options if you need a lot and want them for less. I've always gotten great results with 48 Hour Print, a place not on the list. Their digital printing leaves a lot to be desired, but if you order 500 cards their offset printing is very nice. They're also very quick and offer nice features like rounded corners for free. Regardless of what you pick, consider requesting samples first so you know what to expect. It sucks to order a bunch of cards with high hopes and end up with a big box of disappointments instead.

Set Up an Online Page to Pair with Your Cards

Although we're fond of Flavors.me or rolling your own personal landing page, About.me offers free printed business cards (you just pay shipping) that match and link to your page via QR code. Of course, there are many other options as well. The important thing is to have some kind of online presence along with your card. Not only does it help your search rankings, but it gives people a place to go when they want to find out more about the person behind the business card. If you want more resources to help you establish an online web presence to pair with your card, check out this guide.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/q1TqXKu9PGg/design-some-awesome-business-cards-this-weekend

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Algeria army takes hard line in militant battle

AIN AMENAS, Algeria (AP) ? The militants had filled five jeeps with hostages and begun to move when Algerian government attack helicopters opened up on them, leaving four in smoking ruins. The fifth vehicle crashed, allowing an Irish hostage inside to clamber out to safety with an explosive belt still strapped around his neck.

Three days into the crisis at a natural gas plant deep in the Sahara, it remained unclear how many had perished in the faceoff between Africa's most uncompromising militant group and the region's most ruthless military.

By Friday, around 100 of the 135 foreign workers on the site had been freed and 18 of an estimated 30 kidnappers had been slain, according to the Algerian government, still leaving a major hostage situation centered on the plant's main refinery.

The government said 12 workers, both foreign and Algerian, were confirmed dead. But the extremists have put the number at 35. And the government attack Thursday on the convoy ? as pieced together from official, witness and news media accounts ? suggested the death toll could go higher.

In Washington, U.S. officials said one American ? a Texan ? was known to have died.

Meanwhile, the al-Qaida-linked Masked Brigade behind the operation offered to trade two American hostages for two terrorists behind bars in the U.S., including the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing ? a deal the U.S. rejected out of hand.

"The United States does not negotiate with terrorists," declared State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The remote Ain Amenas plant, jointly run by BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's state-owned oil company, is deep in the featureless desert. The Algerian government has released few details about the continuing siege.

By Friday, however, the outlines of the takeover by Islamic militants were coming into focus. The attack had been in the works for two months, a member of the Masked Brigade told an online Mauritanian news outlet that often carries al-Qaida-related announcements. The band of attackers included militants from Algeria, Mali, Egypt, Niger, Mauritania and Canada, he said.

He said militants targeted Algeria because they expected the country to support the international effort to root out extremists in neighboring Mali.

Instead of passing through Algeria's relatively well-patrolled deserts, the attackers came in from southern Libya, where there is little central government and smugglers have long reigned supreme, according to Algeria's Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila.

He said the attackers consisted of about 30 men armed with rocket launchers and machine guns and under the direct supervision of the Masked Brigade's founder himself, Moktar Belmoktar, a hardened, one-eyed Algerian militant who has battled the Algerian government for years and went on to build a Saharan smuggling and kidnapping empire linked to al-Qaida.

Early Wednesday morning, they crept across the border, 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the natural gas plant, and fell on a pair of buses taking foreign workers to the airport. The buses' military escort drove off the attackers in a blaze of gunfire that sent bullets zinging over the heads of the crouching workers. A Briton and an Algerian, probably a security guard, were killed.

Frustrated, the militants turned to the vast gas complex, divided between the workers' living quarters and the refinery itself, and seized hostages, the Algerian government said.

The takeover soon turned into a standoff as military units from a nearby base surrounded the complex.

Algerians interviewed by French radio described militants knocking down doors in the living quarters, saying they were looking for foreigners. The foreign workers, including Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians and Japanese, were separated from the Algerians and kept under close guard, wrapped with explosive belts. The Algerians for the most part were allowed to wander freely around the complex, and some were released, according to the state news agency.

Alexandre Berceaux, a Frenchman who was later rescued by Algerian soldiers, described two harrowing days of confusion hiding in his room as Algerian colleagues supplied him with food.

"I stayed hidden in my room for almost 40 hours," he told Europe 1 radio, saying he hid under the bed and didn't even realize when his ordeal was over.

The militants declared that the takeover was prompted by France's attacks on al-Qaida-linked rebels in Mali, and they demanded that the intervention end or the hostages would pay for it.

That night, Kabila, Algeria's top security official, announced that in accordance to Algeria's longstanding policy, "we reject all negotiations with the group." Despite regular elections, Algeria is run by a coterie of generals and ruling party leaders who got the country through a bloody, decade-long Islamist rebellion with brutal tactics that earned them the nickname "the eradicators."

On Thursday afternoon, Algerian military forces saw a five- jeep convoy moving from one part of the complex to another. Fearing the kidnappers were trying to make a break for it, they sent attack helicopters into action.

Irish electrician Stephen McFaul was in that convoy and made it out alive as the world exploded around him.

"Four of the jeeps were taken out and everybody in them was killed," McFaul's brother, Brian, told the Irish Times. "The jeep my brother was in crashed and my brother made break for it," with a belt of explosives strapped around his neck.

The kidnappers called the Mauritanian news service ANI to say that 35 hostages and 15 of their fighters had been killed in the bloodbath ? a figure that was impossible to confirm. The kidnappers told ANI that they were just trying to consolidate hostages into a single location when the Algerians attacked.

By Thursday night, the state news agency announced that the assault was over and that special forces had secured the plant, but the next day it would emerge that they had taken only the living quarters. The hostages and their kidnappers remained ensconced in the refinery.

An international outcry mounted over the Algerians' handling of the crisis. Experts noted that this is how they have always dealt with terrorists.

"It's the Russian training for dealing with terrorism," said Matieu Guidere, a longtime expert on al-Qaida and Algeria. "The message is: We will terrorize the terrorists. ... This is clear. The life of hostages is nothing in the balance."

The Algerian government insisted it had to intervene to prevent a catastrophe.

In Washington, the Obama administration said it was trying to secure the release of Americans held by the militants. It would not say how many there were.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended Algeria.

"Let's not forget: This is an act of terror," she said. "The perpetrators are the terrorists. They are the ones who have assaulted this facility, have taken hostage Algerians and others from around the world as they were going about their daily business."

____

Schemm reported from Rabat. Associated Press writers Sarah DiLorenzo and Elaine Ganley in Paris and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin, Ireland, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-army-takes-hard-line-militant-battle-233713380.html

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NBA to Seattle: Why no deal yet for the Kings?

by CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News

Bio | Email | Follow: @ChrisDaniels5

KING5.com

Posted on January 17, 2013 at 5:37 PM

Updated today at 6:04 PM

SEATTLE ?- It's been more than a week. Still no deal.

Chris Hansen, the man leading the charge to bring professional basketball back to Seattle, has not finalized a deal to buy the Sacramento Kings.

It appears no announcement is imminent, despite multiple reports that Hansen was close to acquiring the team, which would play in a new, $490 million arena complex to be built in Seattle's stadium district. The lack of new information about where negotiations stand has frustrated fans in Sacramento and Seattle alike.

But the situation may be clearer than it appears. Indications are that both sides are in an ?exclusive negotiating agreement,? which is a common practice in large transactions.

?It?s pretty common to do that, because you don?t want things to drag out, and go on and on,? said Joe Phillips, the Dean of Seattle University?s Albers Business School.? ?You don?t want to be (negotiating) in public, in the news media, no offense intended.?

Phillips said such an agreement ?means a deal is closer to being done, more viable. It?s more likely to get done. It?s not necessarily a final step, and doesn?t mean a deal will 100 percent get done.?

Both sides are likely under a non-disclosure agreement, which prevent the dealmakers from shedding light on the status of the negotiations.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, appearing in London prior to a league game on Thursday, also claimed the deal was not done.

?The one thing we do know is that no purchase and sale agreement has been submitted to us, and we assume if one were going to be executed, the next thing they would do is submit it to us,? Stern said, as he also suggested Sacramento would get a shot to match any deal.

?There's been lots of speculation. The mayor of Sacramento has asked me, 'Well, if it comes to pass because we've been reading it in the newspapers' -- and he knows that anything he reads in the newspapers is likely to be accurate -- 'could I come in and address the Board of Governors or the relocation committee?' And I said, 'Always. The communities have supported us and many that haven't, but Sacramento has been particularly supportive, are always welcome to present.'?

Stern also admitted he?s had several conversations with Hansen and Seattle leaders.

?The mayor of Seattle came in some time ago and told us that he was in favor of having a team, and we always entertain mayors, even for cities that don't have teams. (Hansen) ... has been in to have talks with us. So we've been ... more or less in a series of communications, but right now we don't know anything in terms of actionable plans.?

The NBA?s relocation filing deadline is March 1, and any deal would likely need to wrapped up well before then.

Source: http://www.king5.com/home/NBA-to-Seattle-Why-no-deal-yet-for-the-Kings-187385961.html

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Bernal hits Sundance to share tragic border story

Actor Gael Garcia Bernal, left, and director Marc Silver are interviewed at the premiere of "Who Is Dayani Cristal?" during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP)

Actor Gael Garcia Bernal, left, and director Marc Silver are interviewed at the premiere of "Who Is Dayani Cristal?" during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP)

Actor Gael Garcia Bernal is interviewed at the premiere of "Who Is Dayani Cristal?" during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP)

This undated publicity photo released by the Sundance Institute shows a scene from the film, "Who is Dayani Cristal," included in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. (AP Photo/Sundance Institute, Marc Silver)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? Gael Garcia Bernal has journeyed north to the Sundance Film Festival to share the tragic story of another traveler.

The Mexican actor is a producer on the immigration documentary "Who Is Dayani Cristal?", in which Bernal also appears on-screen to dramatize the path that the film's subject took to the United States.

Bernal and director Marc Silver sought to unravel the mystery of a body found rotting in the Arizona desert in August 2010. The man bore the tattoo "Dayani Cristal" across his chest.

The films blends interviews and conventional documentary segments with Bernal's travels through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to reveal the circumstances that led the man on a 2,000-mile trek that ended in the desert. And it provides a tearful answer for its title when it reveals the identity of Dayani Cristal.

Bernal and Silver said the intent was to put a human face on one of the anonymous hundreds who have died in the Arizona desert seeking better lives in the United States.

Americans often think the trail of illegal immigration begins in Mexico just south of the border, but the film recounts a perilous journey on rafts, along remote trails and on the top of trains. Migrants can fall asleep and tumble off train cars to their deaths. Gangs might rob, abduct or kill them. And they face the constant chance of being caught and sent back home ? where, as one migrant along the way tells Bernal, they simply start all over again.

"We hear about this or we see it from a distance, but it's very rare you get to see it from firsthand experience," Bernal told the film's audience after a Friday screening, the day after it premiered as part of the 11-day festival's opening-night lineup.

The film reveals the story of a man with a wife and three young children, a hard worker who toiled in corn and bean fields but had made repeated trips across the border to find better work to support his family.

The documentary also captures a cruel irony: once it's been identified, the body is sent by plane back home at the Honduran government's expense, a trip of a few hours compared to the 58-day trek it took to reach Arizona.

"Who Is Dayani Cristal?" is one of 16 entries in the 11-day festival's world documentary competition.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-18-Film-Sundance-Dayani%20Cristal/id-6f648044b9ed48498119e04fb7788714

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