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Africa: Ship Carrying At Least 600 Sinks Off Tanzanian Coast; At Least 40 Dead and Hundreds Missing

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© Marton Dunai/ReutersDeck hands aboard the tourist diving vessel Kisi throw bottles of water to the parched survivors of the Zanzibar ferry sinking.
An overcrowded ship carrying at least 600 people sank in deep sea off mainland Tanzania on Saturday, leaving at least 40 people dead and some 370 more believed missing or dead.

The ferry, M.V. Spice Islanders, was heavily overloaded and some potential passengers had refused to board when it was leaving the mainland port of Dar es Salaam, said survivor Abdullah Saied. It sank in an area with heavy currents in deep sea between mainland Tanzania and Pemba Island at about 1 a.m. Saturday.

About 230 people had been rescued and 40 bodies had been recovered, said Mohamed Aboud, the minister for the vice president's office.

Thousands of residents mobbed the docks of Stone Town on Zanzibar, an island near Pemba, waiting for news. One man was screaming that he had lost 25 members of his family, including his sisters, his wife and grandsons. He was too upset to give his name. Many of the crowd were crying or screaming.

Newspaper

Libyans Find Mass Grave, Signs that Detainees Were Shot at Close Range By Gadhafi Loyalists

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© AP Photo/Francois MoriA Libyan medic checks the remains of one of the 18 bodies of prisoners who suffocated while locked in a shipping container by their captors from Moammar Gadhafi's military in Qhoms, 100 km south east of Tripoli, on their transfer at the morgue of the hospital in Tripoli, Libya, late Thursday Sepot. 8, 2011.
In a grove of pine trees near this mountain village, residents have dug up the remains of 35 bound and blindfolded men who they say were shot at close range by Moammar Gadhafi's military.

Dozens of miles away, a search team has exhumed the bodies of 18 detainees who died on a hot summer day while locked in a shipping container by Gadhafi guards.

As Libyans cope with the aftermath of their six-month civil war, more evidence is emerging that loyalists of the former regime savagely abused and in some cases killed detainees just before fleeing from advancing rebel troops.

There's no proof of systematic killings ordered from above, but Gadhafi's incitement against the rebel fighters he called rats "opened the door for this kind of barbaric conduct," said Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch.

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The Local-Global Flip, or, "The Lanier Effect"

A Conversation with Jaron Lanier

Introduction by John Brockman

We used to think that information is power and that the personal computer enabled lives. But, according to Jaron Lanier, things changed about ten years ago. He cites Apple, Google, and Walmart as some of the reasons.

In a freewheeling hour-long conversation, Lanier touches on, and goes beyond the themes he launched in his influential 2006 Edge essay "Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism." What he terms "The Local-Global Flip" might be better expressed as "The Lanier Effect".


Transcript below:

Bizarro Earth

US: Long-term jobless give mixed reviews to Obama's speech

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© The Associated Press/Julie JacobsonTera Burbank and John Clark had been out of work over two years in February 2011
You've heard what the pundits and expert analysts are saying about President Obama's jobs speech. But what about the real targets of the address: the long-term unemployed?

We asked Yahoo! readers who've recently been out of work for six months or more to tell us whether they heard anything last night that makes them more optimistic, or whether they saw the speech as more of the same. The verdict? We'd call it mixed.

Lisa W. was pleased. "I liked what the president said. It gave me hope," she told us. "Especially the part about the extension of unemployment benefits. Which I hope I don't have to use."

Lisa also gave high marks to the jobs training program that Obama announced. "I would work anywhere for more training," she wrote. "I'm not ashamed. It beats the heck out of sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring."

Another of the president's ideas appealed to James F. "Of particular interest to my situation were tax breaks for companies hiring those unemployed for more than 6 months (I'm getting close to 2 years)," he wrote.

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US: Cherokees Expel Descendants of Slaves from Tribe

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© The Associated PressIn late March, freedmen rallied supporters at the state capitol in Oklahoma City.
One of the nation's largest American Indian tribes has sent letters to about 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by its members, revoking their citizenship and cutting their medical care, food stipends, low-income homeowners' assistance and other services.

The Cherokee Nation acted this week after its Supreme Court upheld the results of a 2007 special vote to amend the Cherokee constitution and remove the slaves' descendants and other non-Indians from tribal rolls. The 300,000-member tribe is the biggest in Oklahoma, although many of its members live elsewhere.

Olive Anderson, 70, of Kansas City, Mo., called the letter she received "a slap in the face."

"It tears me up to think they can attack my ancestors," Anderson said.

The tribe never owned black slaves, but some individual members did. They were freed after the Civil War, in which the tribe allied with the Confederacy. An 1866 treaty between the tribe and the federal government gave the freedmen and their descendants "all the rights of native Cherokees."

But more than 76 percent of Cherokee voters approved the amendment stripping the descendants of their citizenship. Tribal leaders who backed the amendment, including then-Principal Chief Chad Smith, said the vote was about the fundamental right of every government to determine its citizens, not about racial exclusion.

Attention

US: Dallas, Texas mother 'glued two-year-old daughter's hands to wall and beat her into a coma'

A two-year-old girl is fighting for her life after her mother allegedly glued her hands to the wall and beat her into a coma because she was struggling with potty training.

Elizabeth Escalona, 22, faces child abuse charges after she allegedly dragged her daughter through the house in Dallas and tortured her, leaving her with countless injuries and possible brain damage.

The toddler, Joselyn Cedillo, is on life support in hospital. According to police records, glue and paint were stuck to her palms, with skin torn away in places.

Info

After Death: 8 Burial Alternatives That Are Going Mainstream

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© Stephanie Pappas, LiveScienceA cemetery in Red Lodge, Montana.

The ancient world is full of examples of burial customs that seem strange now, from Egyptian mummification to bodies dumped in bogs to departed Vikings launched out on ships-turned-crematoriums. But space constraints and environmental concerns are pushing modern man to explore new options for dealing with the dead.

The most recent of these to land on American shores is a process that uses heat, pressure and chemicals to liquefy a body in just a few hours, leaving behind sterile remains that can be poured into the wastewater system.

But unusual customs, from launching cremated remains into space to old-fashioned burials in hand-dug graves, are a growing trend. Here are some of the newest choices (not all eco-friendly) for the end of life.

Compass

US: Longshoremen Storm Washington State Port, Damage Railroad

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© AP Photo/Don RyanPolice and union workers clash during a tense moment as union workers block a grain train in Longview, Wash., Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011.
Longview, Washington - Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of other union laborers.

Thursday's violence was first reported by Kelso radio station KLOG.

Book

Police: US Woman's Home Had 2,000 Stolen Library Books 'Everywhere'

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© Unknown
Oceanside, California: Police say a Southland woman suspected of stealing thousands of public library books and DVDs was likely going to hold a book sale of her own.

KNX 1070′s Tom Reopelle reports the investigation began when staff at a Carlsbad library noticed a significant loss of books between March and July coupled with suspicious activity by a frequent patron.

Authorities searched the Vista home of Maria Natar, 44, and found an estimated 2,000 books from Carlsbad and San Diego County libraries - most of which were about cooking, crafts, and animals.

"They were just everywhere, on shelves, in bins, stacks on the floor, just pretty much everywhere," said police spokeswoman Jodee Sasway.

The arrest came after Natar made a recent stop at the library to pick up some books.

"When she exited the library, the sensors went off, alerting the library people that not all the books were checked out," said Sasway.

Laptop

Court bans man called Peter from calling himself Peter

Because he is accused of being Anonymous

A man called Peter has been banned from using the name "Peter" on the internet as a bail condition after being charged today with unauthorised use of a computer.

Peter David Gibson, 22, from Hartlepool, was among three men and one unnamed 17-year-old charged at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court this morning for offences in connection with the LulzSec and Anonymous hacks.