Holiday travelers stranded as weather heads east

As tornadoes ripped through the South, more than a foot of snow was dumped over parts of the Midwest, making for a post-Christmas travel nightmare. NBC's Mike Seidel reports.

By Tracy Connor, NBC News

A wicked winter storm was sweeping east across the United States Wednesday, creating a post-holiday travel nightmare with more than a foot of snow in some places and thousands of flights canceled or delayed.

"Blizzard warnings stretch for?730 continuous miles?due to Winter Storm Euclid,"?The Weather Channel?s?Tom Niziol reported.

The white-out came a day after a Christmas storm unleashed heavy snow, deadly winds and even some tornadoes on the nation?s midsection, killing at least three people.

As millions of Americans braced for snow, rain, ice or more twisters, nearly 2,000 flights had been canceled and 10,000 were delayed, many at Dallas/Fort Worth, Philadelphia International, and Cleveland's Hopkins International, according to the travel website FllightStats.com. American Airlines had to cancel 500 flights, while Delta scrapped 200.?

Read more at The Weather Channel

The forecast called for heavy snow from Indiana to New York and by mid-afternoon it was piling up: The National Weather Service reported 14.5 inches in Marion, Ill.; 11.8 inches in Bloomfield, Ind.; 9 inches in Brookville, Ohio; 7 inches in Bardwell, Ky.; and Frostburg, Md. Up to 3 inches of rain had fallen in North and South Carolina.

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The National Weather Service said Wednesday night that spotters had reported up to a foot of snow in some Pennsylvania counties. Forecasters predicted 10 to 12 inches of snow in western and central Massachusetts.?

The system was expected to taper off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast, where little or no accumulation was expected in such cities as Philadelphia, Boston and New York.?

The storm left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters also said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida would see severe thunderstorms.?

After the storm socked little Albion, Ill., with 18 inches of snow, city worker Renee Galen?s SUV got stuck and she got to her office the only way she could.

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, bad weather has forced airlines to cancel or delay flights. NBC's Katy Tur reports.

"One of the city guys came by with a snowplow and I flagged him down and rode to work with him," Galen told NBC News.

"I had to get to work because today was the last day to file for city elections. Believe it or not, I?ve had three people come in to file."

In Indianapolis, seven inches of snow fell in three hours Wednesday morning, bringing post-Christmas shopping to a halt, the Indianapolis Star reported.?

Stephen Canter, 44, ventured out before 8 a.m., and the roads were thick with snow when he headed back 30 minutes later.

"By the time I got home, the street was covered," he told the newspaper. "I don't remember snow like this since Valentine's Day of 2007."

Indiana State Police received 100 calls of crashes or cars sliding off roads before noon and warned motorists that if they got into trouble it could take a while to get them help, NBC affiliate WTHR.com reported.?

Cars and several 18-wheelers were stuck in the ice along 1-70, and the snow fell faster than crews could clear the roads.

"The biggest problem is the blowing. We got some high winds and the roads are really beginning to drift bad," Ron Sharp with Wayne County Emergency Management told the station.

Parts of New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania are also forecast to get hit with more than a foot of snow, and New England could get up to a foot.

The blizzard warning in Ohio prompted United Airlines to cancel at least 60 percent of their flights at?Cleveland?Hopkins Airport beginning at noon on Wednesday, according to?NBC affiliate WKYC.com. About 1,000 people spent the night on cots at Dallas/Fort Worth after their Tuesday night and Wednesday morning flights were scrapped.

Hundreds of flights delayed, canceled as holiday storms travel across country

With Rochester, N.Y., slated to get up to a foot of snow, hordes of worried residents descended on the hardware stores.

?Un-freaking-believable! We?ve sold 225 shovels since 9 o?clock this morning,? said Tom Green, owner of Mayer Paint and Hardware. ?Rock salt ? I couldn?t tell you how many thousands of pounds I?ve sold today. People are very concerned.?

Green noted that snowstorms are hardly rare in Rochester.

?But this is the first big one,? he said. ?And it?s happening at Christmas.?

The weather system, which started over the weekend, wreaked havoc on Christmas. It knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and was blamed for at least five deaths.

In Enola, Ark., two toddlers were killed when a car lost control on an ice-slicked highway and spun into oncoming traffic, state police said.

Wind-toppled trees killed a pickup truck driver near Houston, Texas, and a 53-year-old man in north Louisiana. NBC affiliate KJRH reported?that?a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy highway near Fairview, Okla.

Christmas Day tornadoes ?- the preliminary count was at least 21, according to the Weather Channel -- battered Southern states.?And Little Rock, Ark., didn?t just have a rare white Christmas ?- it had its snowiest day ever, with nine inches on the ground.

The storms contributed to a 21-vehicle pile-up Tuesday that shut down a major highway in Oklahoma City, as well as tens of thousands of power outages. Emergency service provider MedStar told?NBCDFW.com?it responded to 71?crashes in the Fort Worth area between 5 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Tuesday evening.

As it tracked east, authorities were taking the storm seriously.

In Indianapolis, Mayor Greg Ballard ordered "non-essential" workers to stay home and off roads. Cleveland asked businesses to send workers home by 1:30 p.m., NBC affiliate WKYC.com reported.?Homeowners in coastal Long Island, ravaged by Superstorm Sandy in October, were told to take precautions to prevent flooding with seas expected to peak at 15 feet, NBCNewYork.com reported.

By the time it leaves the New England coast Friday, the storm will have left snow from coast to coast ?- and there could be another wallop coming soon.

Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton said a weather pattern with the potential to become Winter Storm Freyr is poised to enter the West Coast on Wednesday and move through the Rockies on Thursday. It could then head for the lower Mississippi Valley, then the Southeast and hit the Northeast on Sunday.

Read more at weather.com

The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Renee's Genealogy Blog: 2013 Legacy Family Tree Webinar ...

The following is from the Millennia Corporation.

Millennia Corporation is pleased to announce that registration is now open for its 2013 Legacy Family Tree Webinar Series. Choose from more than 40 classes from genealogy's leading educators (over 60 hours of free genealogy education) on topics ranging from genealogy technology to DNA to in-depth research methodologies and evidence analysis.

Sign up for one or for all of them today (so you don't forget later) and you will receive a reminder email both one day and one hour prior to the live event. Register at?www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp.

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If you missed one of our previous webinars, you can purchase its CD for just $9.95 (or less when purchasing more than 5). Choose from 68 different classes - most come with several pages of handouts with clickable links.?Click here to browse the library.

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Guns flood into buyback programs across US

Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

LAPD officer checks an assault weapon received during a gun buyback in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

By Isolde Raftery, NBC News

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings, cities and police departments across the country organized events to buy back guns, hoping, they say, that fewer firearms on the street translates to fewer shooting deaths.

In Los Angeles, a gun buyback scheduled for May was pushed up to Wednesday because, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Marketplace.org, ?People said, ?I don?t want to wait on the Congress. I?m tired of the endless debates about responsible gun control legislation. I want to do my part.??

That buyback in the Van Nuys district brought in 2,037 guns, including 75 assault-style weapons, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

Gun buybacks are proving so popular that U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and Ted Deutch, D-Fla., have asked Congress to set aside $200 million for gun buyback programs, saying that amount could remove ?one million guns from our streets.?

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But critics say buybacks are a fruitless exercise ? more political theater than effective policy.?

?It?s like trying to drain the Pacific with a bucket,? Alex Tabarrock of the conservative Independent Institute told USA Today in 2008. There are an estimated 310 million guns in the U.S.?-- about one for every U.S. resident.

PhotoBlog: Buyback in Los Angeles brings in hundreds of guns

A 2004 report released by the National Academies of Sciences called the premise for gun buyback programs ?flawed.?

?The guns typically surrendered in gun buy-backs are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities,? the report says. ?Old, malfunctioning guns whose resale value is less than the reward offered in buy-back programs or guns owned by individuals who derive little value from the possession of guns (e.g. those who have inherited guns).?

Such criticism hasn't stopped police departments, which have hosted gun buybacks for years, encouraging residents to turn in their firearms ? no questions asked ? for cash or gift cards, usually $50 to $250. Some police departments offer a sliding scale, giving more money for semi-automatic firearms, which were used in the ambush on firefighters in Webster, N.Y., last week, the Newtown shootings two weeks ago, at the Sikh temple attack in Oak Creek, Wis., in August and in the theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., in July.

Among those turning in their guns in events this month were parents and grandparents who told reporters they worried about having weapons around.

A grandmother in Brooklyn attended a gun buyback the day after the Connecticut school shooting on Dec. 14?and told gothamist.com that fatal shooting of 20 children -- most of them 6 years old -- moved her to hand in her gun.

TSA confiscates record number of guns at US airports in 2012

?It should inspire everyone,? she said. ?We?ve got to protect our children. I couldn?t wait for today to come so I could get rid of it. The shooting yesterday was an eye-opener. It was bone-chilling.?

In Camden County, N.J., police heard from residents who wanted to turn in their weapons in light of the Newtown shootings. The buyback there retrieved more than 1,100 weapons, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

That buyback was so successful that officials handed out all of the $110,000 in forfeited money that the Attorney General's Office had provided. They gave $39,000 in IOUs that they will honor with future forfeited money. Nearly all of the guns were operable, according to the Inquirer.

In Ithaca, N.Y., the Police Department announced plans for a gun buyback to ?remove unwanted guns from our community before they fall into the hands of those that may do harm.?

In southern Florida, an Uzi submachine gun ?like the one used by Scarface? was turned in to a buyback sponsored last weekend by the Opa-locka Police Department, the Miami Herald reported.

Two Uzi-style guns turned up at a buyback Friday in San Diego that was sponsored by African-American ministers. That buyback retrieved 360 weapons before 10 a.m., according to The Atlantic.

Bill Stowers, 59, told the Los Angeles Times he attended the San Diego gun buyback because he worried that his 12-gauge shotgun might fall into the wrong hands given the break-ins in his neighborhood.?

"I don't need this shotgun sitting around," Stowers said. He received a $50 gift card.

Reps. Connolly and Deutch, who proposed that $200 million be set aside for gun buybacks, say the gun buybacks would be a start, not a cure-all, to gun violence. In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, they wrote:

The murder of 20 youngsters and six educators in their classrooms has galvanized the public?s desire for immediate action, and partnering with the States on a nationwide gun buyback program is a modest, common-sense start.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/27/16178236-guns-flood-into-police-buyback-programs-though-critics-have-doubts-about-the-idea?lite

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LG's 2013 Speaker Lineup Sounds Pretty Sweet No Matter How You Listen

Not everybody has the available floor space or audiophilic conviction for 9.1 surround sound—sometimes just a sound bar or even headphones may suffice. With the wall of sound-producing devices that LG just unveiled, finding a system to match your situation should be a cinch—even if it is 9.1 surround. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fHIj02-QH40/lgs-newly+announced-2013-speaker-lineup-sounds-pretty-sweet-no-matter-how-you-listen

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Oppo Ulike 2 goes on sale in China with 5MP front-facing camera and free toothpicks

Last month, tucked in alongside news of the 1080p Find5, we got word of another, less macho Oppo phone coming to China -- the Ulike 2. This Ice Cream Sandwich-based handset went on sale today for the equivalent of $370, and you don't have to be in love with its ladyphone ways to acknowledge that it at least tries something different. Its front-facing camera rocks a full 5-megapixel resolution, putting the HTC One X+'s vanity cam to shame, while a countdown timer and a bunch of beautification filters (including face slimming and skin whitening) try to make all that extra detail work in your favor. The other specs are mediocre at best, including the 960 x 540, 4.5-inch LCD and 16GB of non-expandable storage, but Oppo is hardly alone in its views on what women want.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Engadget Chinese

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/24/oppo-ulike-2-on-sale-in-china/

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Mobile health in 2013: from the gym to the doctor's office ? Tech ...

Mobile health is on the upswing but, to date, consumers have mostly gravitated to apps for fitness tracking and general wellness. In 2013, however, the field could make its biggest strides yet in the actual delivery of healthcare services.

Thanks to a boom in digital health, the smartphone has assumed the role of everything from an ever-present?fitness coach to?FDA-approved heart monitor.?And, as consumers move to mobile platforms, surveys show that more people are not only turning to their mobile devices for health information, they?re quickly imbuing the new technology with a great deal of trust (maybe too much trust given the poor quality of many apps currently available).? A study earlier this month from Royal Philips Electronics found that nearly a third of Americans said they use interactive health applications or symptom checker websites instead of going to the doctor.

But as some point out, the adoption of mobile health apps has been uneven, with most consumers gravitating to those for exercise, diet and weight and doctors indicating interest in, but not necessarily widespread adoption of, mobile apps. Given the fact that general fitness and wellness apps can appeal to a broader audience of healthy consumers and don?t require buy-in from doctors, insurance companies or other institutional players, it makes sense that mobile health, to date, has moved faster for fitness applications than clinical ones.

In 2013, however, mobile health could make its biggest strides yet in the actual delivery of healthcare services ? ?from disease management to remote health monitoring and more.

More clinical adoption on the horizon

?I think next year is the year we start to see much more clinical adoption,? said Chris Wasden, managing director in the PwC Healthcare Strategy and Innovation Practice.??I think you?re going to see in this next year a lot of announcements that are just more meaningful than the [those] we?ve seen.?

At next month?s Consumer Electronics Show, 25 percent more digital health and fitness gadgets are expected to be on display, with a solid showing from companies behind apps powering medical history management and telemedicine.? But the products themselves are just the beginning ? in the last year, the regulatory and institutional landscapes have adjusted in favor of mobile health.

While the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is still expected to provide further clarity on the kinds of health apps it will regulate, it?s already approved a range of apps (at least 75 according to an analysis by MobiHealthNews). Developers still want more information on the scope of health apps the FDA plans to oversee, as well as details on the approval process and its timeframe, but Wasden said its track record on approved apps thus far removes some apprehension as it shows that there?s a somewhat standardized and reliable process. The FDA?s decision earlier this month to approve remote monitoring in a clinical trial was another major milestone and paves the way for increased mobile health adoption in the medical community.

Aside from that, the continued support of the Affordable Care Act and other health IT-related legislation passed under President Obama could give hospitals and doctors new incentives for mobile health apps related to issues like accountability and electronic health records.

Insurance companies go mobile

Insurance companies are also stepping up their games, with mobile platforms that combine their own mobile apps with third-party, consumer-facing apps. For example, earlier this month, Aetna?s CEO said his company?s health data syncing platform CarePass would go mobile in March, 2013 to connect its own full-service symptom checking app iTriage with fitness apps like Fitbit and MapMyFitness.

As app options proliferate, healthcare providers and patients need a way to distinguish the good from the bad ? especially given reports that many apps overstate their effectiveness or are just thinly based on science. But companies like Happtique are emerging to provide healthcare providers with private app marketplaces that curate and certify top-quality health and fitness apps. Those kinds of platforms could further drive up the role of mobile apps in the medical arena.

An additional obstacle for health app developers, some say, has been the mismatch between the values of the medical community and those of launching a startup. Healthcare providers want documented proven outcomes and startup founders want to iterate fast and get early validation for their ideas. But the rise of health startup incubators, like Rock Health, Startup Health and Blueprint Health is helping to bridge those cultural divides and encourage innovation that satisfies both groups.

There are other challenges to broader adoption of mobile health technologies: patients often download apps only to later ignore them and doctors want more training around liability concerns, workflow changes and how to handle new data. Beyond that, some argue that the people who cost the health system the most are least likely to use new technology.?Still, even though a mass shift to mobile health won?t happen overnight, 2012 set the stage for a new wave of mobile adoption by the medical community. Let?s see how much progress it can make in 2013.

Source: http://gigaom.com/2012/12/24/mobile-health-in-2013-from-the-gym-to-the-doctors-office/

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The Fourth International Conference on Communications Security ...

?The Fourth International Conference on Communications Security & Information Assurance (CSIA)
May 24~26, 2013. Delhi, India
?http://coneco2009.com/csia2013/index.html

Call for Paper
The Conference focuses on all technical and practical aspects of Communications Security & Information Assurance (CSIA)for wired and wireless networks. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to focus on understanding Modern security threats and countermeasures, and establishing new collaborations in these areas.
Authors are solicited to contribute to the workshop by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the areas of Communication Security & Information assurance
? Access control, Anonymity, Audit and audit reduction & Authentication and authorization
? Applied cryptography, Cryptanalysis, Digital Signatures
? Biometric security
? Boundary control devices
? Certification and accreditation
? Cross-layer design for security
? Data and system integrity, Database security
? Defensive information warfare
? Denial of service protection, Intrusion Detection, Anti-malware
? Distributed systems security
? Electronic commerce
? E-mail security, Spam, Phishing, E-mail fraud, Virus, worms, Trojon Protection
? Grid security
? Information hiding and watermarking & Information survivability
? Insider threat protection, Integrity
? Intellectual property protection
? Internet/Intranet Security
? Key management and key recovery
? Language-based security
? Mobile and wireless security
? Mobile, Ad Hoc and Sensor Network Security
? Monitoring and surveillance
? Multimedia security ,Operating system security, Peer-to-peer security
? Performance Evaluations of Protocols & Security Application
? Privacy and data protection
? Product evaluation criteria and compliance
? Risk evaluation and security certification
? Risk/vulnerability assessment
? Security & Network Management
? Security and Assurance in Operational, Technological, commercial Area
? Security Engineering and Its Application
? Security Models & protocols
? Security threats like DDoS, MiM, Session Hijacking, Replay attack etc & countermeasures
? Trusted computing
? Ubiquitous Computing Security
? Virtualization security, VoIP security, Web 2.0 security

Paper Submission
Authors are invited to submit papers for the conference Submission system ( Easy chair ) by 25 December, 2012. Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this conference. The proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer (Confirmed).
Selected papers from CSIA ? 2013, after further revisions, will be published in the special issues of the following international journals.

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline : December 25, 2012
Authors Notification : January 30, 2013
Camera-Ready Paper Due : February 05, 2013

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Source: http://cfptech.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/the-fourth-international-conference-on-communications-security-information-assurance-csia-2013/

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'VH1 Divas': Our Diva-Licious Wish List For Tonight!

From Miley to Demi and everything in between, MTV News lists our top five for tonight's show, airing at 9 p.m. ET on VH1.
By Jocelyn Vena

Kelly Clarkson
Photo: Michael Tran/Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699002/vh1-divas-wish-list-miley-cyrus-demi-lovato-kelly-clarkson.jhtml

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Tedesco Home Improvement and Remodeling Brigantine NJ serving ...

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Tedesco Home Improvvement and Remodeling Brigantine NJ serving Atlantic County. We specialize in kitchen and bath remodels, room additions, tile work and handyman jobs in Atlantic City.With over 30 years in the industry, an exceptional eye for detail, insistence on the highest-quality materials, and constant communication with our clients, we at Michael Tedesco Building & Renovations, LLC have built a reputation as the area?s premier home improvement and renovation specialists.

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Russia opposition leaders held as protesters defy police

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained four opposition leaders and broke up a crowd of about 2,000 people who went ahead with a banned rally on Saturday to demand an end to Vladimir Putin's 13-year rule.

The opposition chose a symbolic location, in front of the Soviet KGB security police's former headquarters, for the rally marking a year of protests against Putin, and said the police intervention showed the limits on dissent under the president.

Police were out in force and helicopters buzzed overhead as protesters, wrapped in scarves and fur hats because of the extreme cold, chanted "Free political prisoners", "Down with the police state" and "Russia without Putin" on the vast Lubyanka Square in central Moscow.

One unfurled a banner saying "crooks and thieves" - the popular name used to describe the Russian leadership.

But the police eventually lost patience with the rally, which had been banned by Moscow city authorities, and strode across the square in helmets and flak jackets after about two hours, hauling protesters away one by one and locking elbows to push others away until no one was left.

About 40 people were detained, a police spokesman said, and there were minor scuffles.

Leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny were detained at the start of the rally and two fellow protest leaders, Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak, were detained on their way to the protest.

"I don't know how many people are here but I am proud of each and every one of those who came here. The main thing is that people are here, that they are expressing their view and showing that they exist," Navalny said before he was detained.

"Obviously the authorities don't like attempts to carry out such protest actions and the development of the protest movement in general. They don't like anything that threatens them."

A YEAR OF PROTESTS

Protests began a year ago after Putin's United Russia party won a parliamentary election marred by allegations of vote-rigging, but quickly developed into the biggest movement against the former KGB spy since he first came to power in 2000.

At their peak last winter the biggest rallies attracted up to 100,000 people, witnesses said. But attendance has dwindled since Putin began a six-year third term as president in May and started what the opposition says is a clampdown on dissent.

"Not a single one of our demands has been met and the political repressions continue," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the main protest leaders and a former member of parliament.

Despite the ban on the rally, protesters came out in temperatures of minus 15 Celsius (plus 5 Fahrenheit) to show their concern that Putin's return to the Kremlin is leading Russia into economic and political stagnation.

"I'm scared of arrest but I'm more scared that my children will want to live in another country," said Alexander Ivanov, 39, a businessman dressed in a thick jacket. "I'm afraid it's already too late. Putin and this country are incompatible - he's running it into the ground."

One protester, a translator who gave her name only as Anna, brought her prayer book with her.

"I'm praying for Russia. God made us free. No one can take that away from us, or punish, detain or torture us for our political views," she said.

ATTENDANCE FALLS AT PROTESTS

The 12 months of protests have accelerated the birth of a civil society two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union but the opposition - a disparate group of leftists, liberals, nationalists and ecologists - broadly acknowledges it must now hope for political evolution rather than revolution.

The protests failed to prevent Putin, now 60, winning a presidential election in March after four years as prime minister. He has a grip on state media, retains support in the industrial and provincial heartlands that have long been his power base and could rule until 2024 if re-elected in 2018.

"Fewer and fewer people are going to the protests. It's fading because I don't see any leaders for me here," said Yelena, 45, an engineer who was afraid to give her last name.

But she added: "I am here out of solidarity with the people. We came because we are unhappy with the way things are going."

Some protesters have been put off by what opposition leaders say is a clampdown on dissent and freedom of expression since Putin returned to the Kremlin.

Putin denies there has been a crackdown but new laws since May broaden the definition of treason, increase punishment for protesters who step out of line, and tighten control over the Internet and on lobby groups that receive foreign funding.

Several opposition leaders, including Navalny, face criminal charges that they say are politically motivated and intended to intimidate them into giving up their opposition activities.

Federal investigators announced a new criminal investigation against Navalny on Friday, accusing him and his brother of theft in a move which his supporters said was intended to intimidate the opposition on the eve of the protest.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove, Maria Tsvetkova and Steve Gutterman, Writing by Timothy Heritage)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-police-detain-opposition-leaders-rally-113146413.html

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School shooter was 'very nervous around people'

Investigators and former classmates of Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza say he was bright, but extremely shy and remote. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

By NBC News staff and wire services

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: A picture of Adam Lanza slowly emerged Saturday, as acquaintances said his behavior included pressing up against walls to avoid others and clutching his briefcase. Investigators, meanwhile, said they hoped that "very good evidence" found at his home would shed light on what pushed him to kill 26 children and teachers as well as his mother.

Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said Saturday that investigators had found "very good evidence ... that our investigators will be able to use in painting the complete picture, the 'how' and, more importantly, the 'why this occurred.'"

But he would not elaborate and the mystery deepened as education officials in Newtown, Conn., said they had found no link between Lanza's mother and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there.

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Investigators said they believe Lanza, 20, attended Sandy Hook Elementary many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there on Friday.

Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at the home they shared, then drove to the school in her car, forced his way inside and opened fire in two classrooms, authorities said. Within minutes, he killed 20 children, six adults and himself.

Authorities said Lanza had no criminal history; it was not clear whether he had a job.?

His father, who learned about the shooting from a reporter at the Stamford Advocate, said in a statement that he was in a "state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can." Lanza said he has cooperated with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

Meanwhile, acquaintances described the former honor student as smart but odd and remote.

"We would hang out, and he was a good kid," Joshua Milas told The Associated Press. He said he had not seen Lanza in a few years. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know. He was probably a genius."

"(His mother) pushed him really hard to be smarter and work harder in school," Tim Arnone told Reuters. He first met Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"He was very different and very shy and didn't make an effort to interact with anybody" in his 10th-grade English class at Newtown High School, Olivia DeVivo told the AP. DeVivo, now a student at the University of Connecticut, said Lanza always came to school toting a briefcase and wearing his shirt buttoned all the way up.

"Now looking back, it's kind of like 'OK, he had all these signs,' but you can't say every shy person would do something like this," she said.

Richard Novia ? who until 2008 was the school district's head of security and adviser to the school's technology club, of which Lanza was a member ? described Lanza to the AP as "a loner."

"You had yourself a very scared young boy, who was very nervous around people," he added.

Novia said Lanza had extreme difficulties relating to fellow students and teachers, as well as a strange bodily condition: "If that boy would've burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically."

Lanza would also go through crises that would require his mother to come to school to deal with them. Such episodes might involve "total withdrawal from whatever he was supposed to be doing, be it a class, be it sitting and reading a book," Novia told the AP.

When people approached Lanza in the hallways, he would press himself against the wall or walk in a different direction, clutching his black briefcase "like an 8-year-old who refuses to give up his teddy bear," said Novia, who now lives in Tennessee.

Even so, Novia said his primary concern about Lanza was that he might become a target for teasing or abuse by his fellow students, not that he might become a threat himself.

"Somewhere along in the last four years there were significant changes that led to what has happened Friday morning," Novia said. "I could never have foreseen him doing that."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Authorities say the man behind one of the worst mass shootings in US history was a 20-year-old whose mother worked at the school and whose brother has told them he had a history of mental problems. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/15/15933406-connecticut-school-shooter-was-very-nervous-around-people?lite

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