Finding Paul Simon, seeking "Sugar Man" at Sundance (Reuters)

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? Two documentaries that cast eyes back to South African apartheid and speak to music's healing power have shared the spotlight at the Sundance Film Festival this week among a wide selection of movies about songs, singers and musicians.

Nonfiction films "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," in which rapper and actor Ice-T interviews Eminem, Nas, Snoop Dogg and others about the roots of hip hop, and "Shut Up and Play the Hits," about LCD Soundsystem's last concert in New York, have focused on music.

"Filly Brown," about a female hip hop artist, "California Solo" in which Robert Carlyle plays a washed up rock star, and "I Am Not A Hipster," about a tortured singer songwriter, were among fictional films about the lives of musicians.

But it was singer-songwriter Paul Simon who captured the media spotlight with the premiere of documentary "Under African Skies," and another nonfiction film "Searching for Sugar Man" that wowed crowds here. Both of them are linked to South Africa.

"Under African Skies," recounts the making of Simon's groundbreaking 1986 album "Graceland" and shows Simon returning to South Africa where he recorded much of the acclaimed record that sparked controversy for breaking a cultural boycott of that country due to apartheid policies.

The film shows footage of original recording sessions from "Graceland" in South Africa and chronicles Simon's 2011 reunion with the album's musicians for a 25th anniversary concert.

The film makes the case that the album and resulting concert tour were overwhelming forces in bringing together people of various races and that political attacks against Simon by groups including the African National Congress were unwarranted.

"The 'Graceland' phenomenon really came from a musical source and didn't have an overt political point of view," Simon told the Sundance audience about recording in South Africa. "I am actually saying, 'I have no regard for the structures of apartheid, I am here purely on a musical basis.'"

The film cuts back-and-forth between Simon's 2011 reunion trip and the original "Graceland" recording sessions, offering insight into how hit songs like "You can call me Al" were assembled after Simon was inspired by South African music groups including Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

"My first impulse was to go where the music was and the musicians that I wanted to play with, and I didn't know how it was going to come out," Simon, now 70, told the audience.

"What happened with Graceland in becoming a worldwide hit was that the traditional music of South Africa became hip all over the world and South Africa began to take pride in what was a musical form that they considered old hat, really," he said.

"SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN"

In stark contrast to Simon's success as an artist, there is the story of an obscure, 1970s Detroit folk singer known as Rodriguez, who is the focus of "Searching for Sugar Man."

Producers of his only two albums, "Cold Fact" and "Coming From Reality," considered Rodriguez better than Bob Dylan with his poetic lyrics protesting racial and economic inequality. He wrote about a hard life on the streets of Detroit.

His records failed to sell in the United States.

The film about him has won standing ovations from cheering, tearful audiences at Sundance where many have said it was among the best movies they had seen.

"Searching for Sugar Man" begins in South Africa where the folk singer's song, "Sugar Man", was banned on the radio and he became an enigmatic, cult hero in the 1970s to a mostly white, liberal crowd spurred by his anti-establishment message in their questioning of apartheid.

Yet, after his two albums bombed in the U.S., Rodriguez faded into obscurity, never recording again nor knowing about his success in South Africa.

A record retailer in that country, Stephen "Sugar" Segerman termed him, "bigger than Elvis," and set about searching for the Mexican-American singer rumored to have shot himself or set himself afire on stage.

"It's been quite a journey to make this film, it took five years," said director Malik Bendjelloul who painstakingly uses grainy footage, animation and interviews to reconstruct Segerman and music journalist Craig Bartholomew's quest to find out what happened to the singer and his royalties. The film's soundtrack utilizes the folk singer's songs.

"We knew nothing, his name never cropped up anywhere," Segerman said of the search. "There was a mythology around this man for 30 years."

And in a strange twist of Sundance fate, Segerman believes one reason Rodriguez's first album never took off was because it was released near the same time as Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon's seminal smash hit, "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

(Additonal reporting by Zorianna Kit, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/en_nm/us_sundance_paulsimon

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Humans' Taste for Dolphins & Manatees on the Rise (LiveScience.com)

Fillet of dolphin? Polar bear steak? As world population increases, people in coastal poverty-stricken areas are turning to the ocean for their meals, consuming marine mammals such as dolphins and seals, new research suggests.

Since 1990, at least 87 species of marine mammals ? including dolphins, porpoises and manatees ? have been served up in 114 countries. They are the victims of hunting and even commercial fishing operations, where they are sometimes caught accidentally, the researchers said.

The fishing of larger marine mammals, like humpback whales, is strictly regulated and monitored; but the extent to which these smaller warm-blooded marine species, including dolphins and seals, are caught, killed and eaten has been largely unstudied and unmonitored.

"International regulatory bodies exist to gauge the status of whale populations and regulate the hunting of these giants," study researcher Martin Robards, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. "These species, however, represent only a fraction of the world's diversity of marine mammals, many of which are being accidentally netted, trapped, and ? in some instances ? directly hunted without any means of tracking as to whether these off-takes are sustainable."

Porpoise and narwhal on the menu

To get a clearer picture of the problem, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Okapi Wildlife Associates examined records on small fisheries focused on small whales (like pilot whales), dolphins and porpoises from 1975 and records of global marine mammal catches between 1966 and 1975.

From there, the researchers consulted about 900 other sources, including reports and discussions with numerous researchers and environmental managers; the exhaustive investigation took three years to complete.

They found that since 1990, people in at least 114 countries have consumed one or more of at least 87 marine mammal species.The list includes species people might not know by name or sight, such as the pygmy beaked whale, South Asian river dolphin, narwhal, Chilean dolphin, long-finned pilot whale and Burmeister's porpoise. The list also includes well-known species, such as bottlenose dolphins, seals, sea lions (including the California sea lion), polar bears and three species of manatees. [Gallery: Polar Bears Swimming in the Arctic]

Some of these species, like the manatee's close relative the dugong, are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, making them targets of human consumption.

Wild eats

Since the 1970s, humans' taste for these warm-blooded aquatic animals has apparently been on the rise, the researchers found, especially incoastal areas and estuaries (where rivers meet oceans). This could be due, in part, to changes in fishing techniques in those areas, where these marine mammals are caught as "bycatch" in nets meant for other fish.

In areas such as the Congo, Gabon and Madagascar, these marine mammals serve as supplementary sources of dietary protein, similar to the animals in the forests that are taken by hunters and locals as bushmeat. As the world's population continues to increase, so does its food needs. The Wildlife Conservation Society is working with fishermen in these areas to reduce the need to catch wild marine mammals, and instead hunt sustainable fish.

The researchers say that increased awareness of the problem and increased monitoring are needed to prevent the destruction of marine life.

"There is a need for improved monitoring of species such as Atlantic and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins," Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program, said in a statement. "In more remote areas and a number of countries, a greater immediate need is to understand the motivations behind the consumption of marine mammals and use these insights to develop solutions to protect these iconic species."

The study was published Jan. 24 in the journal Biological Conservation.

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @microbelover. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120125/sc_livescience/humanstastefordolphinsmanateesontherise

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Severe Brain Injury When Young May Have Long-Term Effects (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Although many people believe young children are extremely resilient after they are seriously hurt, the opposite may be true with traumatic brain injuries.

Two Australian studies looked at the impact of traumatic brain injury in children as young as 2 years, and found that these injuries affected cognitive function, IQ and even behavior for some time. However, the researchers also found that recovery from traumatic brain injury can continue for years after the initial injury. And, a child's home environment can positively influence recovery if the child lives in a stable, caring home.

"Many people think that the soft skull of a baby may give them some advantage because if they fall they are not likely to sustain a skull fracture. Also, because a baby's brain is growing so quickly, it seems like the brain may be able to fix an injury. In reality, the soft skull and growing brain of a baby put them at a greater risk of future problems," said the lead author of one of the studies, Louise Crowe, a postdoctoral research officer at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne.

"Children with significant head injuries do recover, but they are generally slower to learn concepts, and some high-level skills are often too difficult for them," she added.

Results from both studies were released online Jan. 23 and are scheduled to appear in the February issue of Pediatrics.

By age 16, at least one in 30 children will experience a traumatic brain injury, according to background information in one of the studies. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur after a blow or bump to the head, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Young children -- those under 4 years old -- are particularly at risk of experiencing a traumatic brain injury, according to the CDC. Such injuries can occur from a fall, a car accident, deliberate child abuse, sports or being hit with a moving object. Fortunately, most of these injuries aren't fatal, but about one-third of children who survive a TBI will have lasting damage, report the researchers.

Very few studies, however, have followed youngsters from the time of their injury through adolescence, to assess the full effect of the brain injury.

The first study looked at 40 children between the ages of 2 and 7 who had experienced a traumatic brain injury. They were compared to 16 healthy children. The children were examined 12 months, 30 months and 10 years after the injury, according to the study.

Not surprisingly, they found that children with the most severe injuries had the worst cognitive outcomes.

But, the news wasn't all bad. Initially, while the brain was recovering from the injury, the children didn't make significant developmental gains for about three years. However, after that period, and at least up until 10 years after the injury, the children began to make some age-appropriate developmental gains.

That means that even many years after an injury, interventions and therapies for these children may be effective, said the study's lead author, Vicki Anderson, a professor in critical care and neuroscience research at the Murdoch Institute.

"Although this does not suggest that children catch up to peers, it does imply that the gap does not widen during this period," she said.

This study also found that the home environment and relationships could make a difference in a child's recovery. More stable homes with less family conflict appeared to contribute to a child's recovery.

"It's difficult to predict outcome," said Anderson. "A quality home environment and access to appropriate rehabilitation is critical to maximize outcomes. Or, the young brain is plastic, and so the better the environment, the better the outcome."

The second study, led by Crowe, followed a group of 53 children who had sustained a traumatic brain injury before they were 3 years old, and 27 non-injured children. They followed up with these children when they were between 4 and 6 years old. The average time since the injury occurred was 40 months.

Children who had moderate-to-severe TBIs scored lower on IQ tests by about seven to 10 points, according to the study. Mild traumatic brain injuries didn't seem to significantly affect IQ. However, mild and moderate-to-severe TBIs were associated with an increased risk of behavior problems.

And, as with Anderson's study, this study also found that a child's environment has an effect on cognitive function and behavior after a brain injury.

"Children from cohesive family environments and children whose parents had lower levels of stress showed better recovery," Crowe said. "Why this is so is unclear, but it may be due to a parent spending more time with their children, and children also growing up in a less stressful environment."

One expert noted that the findings make an important point.

"We still don't understand all of the factors that affect outcomes. But, these studies do give us important data. We don't necessarily want to close the door on treating these children too soon. There may still be room for improvement over time, but there are persistent deficits," said Dr. Mandeep Tamber, an assistant professor of pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, Crowe advised parents to be vigilant with young children. She said traumatic brain injuries can result from seemingly minor accidents, such as a baby rolling off of a bed or couch.

More information

Learn more about traumatic brain injuries from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120123/hl_hsn/severebraininjurywhenyoungmayhavelongtermeffects

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Super Bowl first: Social media command center

By Athima Chansanchai

It'll probably take the rest of winter for Niners and Ravens fans to get over what happened yesterday that knocked their respective teams out of Super Bowl XLVI (that would be 46 for all of you who don't read Roman numerals). But for Patriots and Giants fans, the fun is just beginning. Through a newly installed social media command center, visitors to the big game in Indianapolis will be able to ask questions and receive answers leading up to the Feb. 5 showdown.

For the next two weeks until?the NFL's most important game, an Indianpolis-based?team (no, not the Colts) is operating out of a 2,800-square-foot space to read and respond to fans who are one of 100,000 to 150,000 lucky souls who will be in Indianapolis for the game, posting about the Super Bowl and their beloved teams. This social media super team will provide directions, to-do around town suggestions and other important information (such as what to do in case of an emergency at the stadium).

Indianapolis digital marketing firm Raidious is in charge of the operation, with CEO Taulbee Jackson at the helm. Jackson sits on the Super Bowl host committee and was asked to help with social media strategy. I reached to Jackson by phone this morning and he shared more details on this Superbowl first.

"It's the first time any facility like this has been built to manage social media for such a large event," Jackson said. "We were outgrowing our second office in 18 months at the same time the Host Committee asked for our help, so we designed and built the space with the express intention of using it as the Super Bowl Social Media Command Center, then taking over the space afterwards."?

The team ??which includes about 50 people, led by?Raidious' staff of 16 and students and journalism/telecommunications students from Ball State University, Butler University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis?? will work in the command center 15 hours a day. (Not all at once!)

One team will focus on social media management and moderation, while the other (most likely the students) will work?on content development for posts on all the events and activities that surround the game, as well as things to do in Indianapolis since a big part of the team's mandate will be promoting the city to newcomers. "It's?Hoosier hopsitality for the 21st century," Jackson said.

Given that the two league championship teams are from New York and New England, it's a good bet there will be first-timers in the zone. While most visitors are expected to arrive in the city next Wednesday or Thursday (Feb. 1 and Feb. 2), the social media command center will swing into high gear starting this week.

As we've already seen, sports fans are some of the most rabid in social media posts, with record-setting tweets about Tim Tebow?(9,420 tweets per second), as well as the 7,196 tweets per second during the Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan last summer. And have you ever looked at your Facebook on football Sundays, much less the playoffs? It's one sure way to see who's a fan, and how intense they are about it. (On my Facebook, the Bears, Ravens, Raiders and Niners fans are definitely the most vocal.)

In fact, every time the Super Bowl comes around, it's a proven magnet for the millions who are active on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users?that bested the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden.?

For those who will be in Indy, there will be plenty to write home about, but they'll also be in company with the millions glued to their sets that Sunday watching with them. ?

The Super Bowl social media command center will concentrate on key word-based monitoring, but because they're geo-targeting the Indianapolis/Indiana area and those coming to town for the game, they won't be as overwhelmed as they would be if they tried to deal with all the online traffic the event generates.

"One of the reasons we've staffed it the way we have, and put in all this technology, is to deal with the high levels of volume, even limiting that to the Indianapolis, Indiana area," Jackson said.

Safety is another priority, using Twitter to get any emergency instructions and information out quickly if necessary.?

From the main Super Bowl XLVI site, fans can access the social media command center's activity through its management of the Super Bowl Facebook page, Flickr and Twitter accounts and the site's blog.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216687-super-bowl-first-social-media-command-center

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Experts: Paterno's death won't stop court cases

FILE - In this Aug. 6, 1999, file photo, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky during Penn State Media Day at State College, Pa. In a statement made Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, retired Penn State assistant coach Sandusky, who faces child sex abuse charges in a case that led to the firing of Paterno, says Paterno's death is a sad day. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 6, 1999, file photo, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky during Penn State Media Day at State College, Pa. In a statement made Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, retired Penn State assistant coach Sandusky, who faces child sex abuse charges in a case that led to the firing of Paterno, says Paterno's death is a sad day. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Joe Paterno would no doubt have made a dramatic courtroom witness. But legal experts said his death will have little or no effect on the criminal or civil cases to come out of the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal.

"Obviously, you're taking away a great deal of the high-profile nature of this case, because it deals with Joe Paterno's football program," said Jeffrey Lindy, a criminal defense lawyer involved in a clergy-abuse case in Philadelphia. "But with regard to the legal impact of his death, there is none."

Paterno died Sunday at 85, two months after former coaching assistant Jerry Sandusky was charged with molesting boys and two university officials were accused of perjury and failing to report child sex-abuse allegations against Sandusky to police.

The criminal case against the two university officials may even become more streamlined without Paterno in the mix.

Former university vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley are charged with failing to report to police what graduate assistant Mike McQueary said he told them in 2002: that McQueary saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a locker room shower.

McQueary first told Paterno, who said he reported it to Curley and Schultz the next day. The administrators told the grand jury they were never informed that the allegations were sexual in nature.

With Paterno's death, though, a jury is free to focus not on what Paterno knew or did, but on the defendants' actions.

What McQueary told Paterno "was a distraction, and now that that part of the case is really gone, it will focus much more on his interaction not with Paterno, but with the Penn State officials," said Duquesne University law professor Nicholas P. Cafardi.

McQueary is also the more crucial witness in the case against Sandusky, who is charged with abusing 10 boys, at least two of them on the Penn State campus.

Paterno testified for just seven minutes last January before the grand jury. He gave only vague answers ? and was never pressed ? when asked what he knew about anyone accusing Sandusky of molesting boys.

"Without getting into any graphic detail, what did Mr. McQueary tell you he had seen and where?" Paterno was asked, according to the grand jury testimony read in court last month.

"Well, he had seen a person, an older ? not an older, but a mature person who was fondling, whatever you might call it ? I'm not sure what the term would be ? a young boy," Paterno replied.

He was asked if he ever heard of any other allegations against Sandusky, who had been the subject of a lengthy campus police investigation four years earlier after a mother complained Sandusky had showered with her young son at the football complex.

"I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no. I do not know of it," Paterno said, adding, "You did mention ? I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody. I don't know."

Paterno's grand jury testimony cannot be used in court, because the defense never had the chance to cross-examine him.

"His passing deprives folks from finding out, directly from his lips, exactly what he knew and when he knew it, and what he did or didn't do. But the reality is, sometimes those things can be proved by other means," said Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul, Minn., lawyer who filed the first civil case against Penn State on behalf of a Sandusky accuser.

It's not unusual for a witness to die or become infirm before trial, especially in child sex-abuse cases, which can take years or even decades to surface. In Philadelphia, prosecutors won the right to question 88-year-old retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua on video last year to preserve his testimony before the spring trial of three priests and a church official. Bevilacqua suffers from dementia and cancer.

Prosecutors never got the chance to preserve Paterno's testimony, given his surprise cancer diagnosis and rapid decline after they filed the charges Nov. 4.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-22-Paterno-Legal/id-5bc7bfbf3a914437a49e15cb7bce7219

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Equatorial Guinea gets $1M win over Libya

Co-host of African Cup of Nations earns bonus with 1-0 upset

By MARK WALSH

updated 4:57 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2012

BATA, Equatorial Guinea - Equatorial Guinea made a dramatic and rich debut in the African Cup of Nations with a stunning 1-0 win over Libya in the tournament opener on Saturday.

Equatorial Guinea qualified for the first time only because it's the co-host with Gabon, but it gave Africa's showpiece event a terrific start despite police having to tear gas some of the thousands of fans who overcame the security at Bata Stadium to force their way in.

In a game in which Equatorial Guinea deserved to win, it threatened the upset throughout and finally delivered when Javier-Angel Balboa scored after racing onto a throughball and slotting past Libya goalkeeper Samir Aboud into the top corner in the 87th minute.

"We played a good game. We had trained so little time, but the tactical dedication of our players was great," said Equatorial Guinea coach Gilson Paulo.

Paulo had only a few weeks to get to know his squad after replacing predecessor Henri Michel, who resigned just before the tournament.

This week, the team was promised a $1 million bonus from the son of the country's president if the team won the match.

"It's the famous $1 million," midfielder Juvenal Edjogo-Owono said a grin. "For us the money is not very important, the most important thing is to start the competition with a win.

"Now we will see the future more optimistically."

Edjogo-Owono missed a chance in the first half when his deflected shot rebounded off a post. Ivan Bolado put the rebound into the net, but the effort was disallowed for offside.

Despite injured captain Rodolfo Bodipo managing only a 15-minute substitute role, Equatorial Guinea belied its billing as the tournament's lowest-ranked team by matching Libya and creating opportunities.

Libya controlled possession early on, the first half-chance falling to Walid al-Katroushi, who was tackled at full stretch by Rui Da Gracia just before shooting in the opening minutes.

Unexpectedly, the co-host then took control of the match, forcing Libya goalkeeper Samir Aboud into some nervous fumbles.

The game continued its surprise pattern into the second half. Thierry Fidjeu tried an acrobatic finish but hooked his volley wide in the 53rd.

Meanwhile, Libya's players looked sluggish and hesitant - overawed perhaps by the expectations of a nation hoping to cap a year that included the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi with sporting success at the African Cup.

After the final whistle, the fans streamed outside blowing vuvuzelas and dancing with their hands in the air.

Libya coach Marcos Paqueta congratulated Equatorial Guinea.

"The conditions were very difficult facing the Equatorial Guinea team at home," he said.

"We started the game well, we kept the ball well, but the team started after that to get a bit nervous so we missed easy passes and lost control."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Feds: Religious employers must cover the pill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees, the Obama administration announced Friday in an election-year move that outraged religious groups, fueling a national debate about the reach of government.

In a concession, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

"I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services," Sebelius said in a statement.

Yet the concession was unlikely to stop a determined effort by opponents to block or overturn the rule. If they fail, some predicted that religious employers would simply drop coverage for their workers, opting instead to pay fines to the federal government under the health care law.

"Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience," said New York Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights."

Officials said the administration's ruling was carefully considered, after reviewing more than 200,000 comments from interested parties and the public. The one-year extension, they said, responds to concerns raised by religious employers about making adjustments. Administration officials stressed that individual decisions about whether or not to use birth control, and what kind, remain in the hands of women and their doctors.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the decision, Obama personally spoke with Dolan on Friday to inform him of the announcement, an administration official said.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a powerhouse law firm based in Washington that tackles religious freedom issues, predicted in a statement that religious groups "will never pay for abortion drugs in violation of their religious beliefs." Many religious conservatives consider the morning-after birth control pill to be an abortion drug.

Liberals and women's rights groups praised the decision, saying that women who work for religious employers should not have to accept a lower standard of health coverage.

"The administration stood firm," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "As a result millions will get access to contraception, and they will not have to ask their bosses for permission."

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of Senate leadership, said, "The president made the right decision by putting access and the reproductive rights of women first."

Birth control use is virtually universal in the United States, and most health insurance plans cover the pill, usually with copays. Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned.

At issue is a provision of the health care law that requires insurance plans to cover preventive care for women free of charge to the employee. Last year, an advisory panel from the respected Institute of Medicine recommended including birth control on the list, partly because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies.

Sebelius agreed, issuing a new federal regulation last summer.

That rule, however, exempted houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places would not be required to cover contraceptives, it specified.

It was a different story for religious-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies.

Although many of those employers had not traditionally covered birth control, the new regulation required them to do so. Catholic hospitals, which at a critical moment had defied the bishops to back Obama's health care law in Congress, immediately sought a broader exemption. On Friday they were denied.

Representing some 600 hospitals, the Catholic Health Association expressed disappointment.

"The challenge that these regulations posed for many groups remains unresolved," said Sister Carol Keehan, president of the group. "This indicates the need for an effective national conversation on the appropriate conscience protections in our pluralistic society, which has always respected the role of religions."

The administration says between 1 million and 2 million people work for religious-affiliated institutions, though it's not clear how many would be affected. Some states already require religious employers to cover the pill.

For religious-affiliated employers, the requirement will take effect August 1, 2013, and their workers in most cases will have access to coverage starting January 1, 2014.

Women working for secular enterprises from profit-making companies to government will have access to the new coverage starting January 1, 2013, in most cases.

Workplace health plans will have to cover all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration, ranging from the pill to implantable devices to sterilization. Also covered is the morning-after pill, which can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex and is considered as tantamount to an abortion drug by some religious conservatives.

However, the new regulation does not require coverage of abortions.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_free_birth_control_religious_employers

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Sum 41 Forced To Axe UK Shows Over Frontman?s Back Injury

Sum 41 Forced To Axe UK Shows Over Frontman’s Back Injury

Rockers Sum 41 have pulled out of the Kerrang! tour with New Found Glory because of their lead singer Deryck Whibley‘s bad back. The band [...]

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HRW calls on West to end 'Arab exception'

Protesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters seen through the Syrian national flag chant slogans during an anti-regime protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

CAIRO (AP) ? Popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world exposed biases by Western governments that supported Arab autocratic rulers for the sake of "stability" while turning a blind eye to their repressive policies, Human Rights Watch said Sunday.

The New-York based group urged democratic governments to adopt persistent and consistent support for peaceful protesters and to press both autocratic rulers and newly emerging democracies to avoid intolerance and seeking revenge.

"The events of the past year show that the forced silence of people living under autocrats should never have been mistaken for popular complacency," HRW's executive director Kenneth Roth said. "It is time to end the 'Arab exception.'"

The Arab Spring revolts began in Tunisia in late 2010 and quickly spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, deposing or challenging authoritarian rulers as citizens who long seemed incapable or unwilling to rise against decades of repression took to the streets in a stunning awakening.

In some ways, the unexpected uprisings amounted to a slap to the United States and other Western governments, which had supported autocratic regimes that served as bulwarks against Islamists hostile to the West and appeared to offer stability in a volatile region.

Western governments also have been accused of being selective in supporting the protesters, with NATO airstrikes proving key to the ouster of slain Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Meanwhile, the West has stood largely on the sidelines amid continued crackdowns in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria.

"The people driving the Arab Spring deserve strong international support to realize their rights and to build genuine democracies," Roth said in the group's annual report, which covers some 90 countries. He added that the Arab world is in a "transformative moment," and it will not be an easy one.

Human Rights Watch pointed to five main issues that dominated the relationship between Western governments and their Arab autocratic friends: the threat of political Islam, the fight against terrorism, support for Israel, protection of the oil flow and cooperation in stemming immigration.

Even after the leaders of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia were toppled, Western governments remained hesitant to lean too hard on other shaky authoritarian leaders, the group said.

As an example, the watchdog group singled out the United States, saying it has been reluctant to "press Egypt's ruling military council to subject itself to elected civilian rule," nearly a year after the country's longtime leader was ousted following an 18-day uprising.

Roth acknowledged Western governments were re-evaluating their policies as new governments emerge in the region, but said changes have been selective.

"The West has not put Bahrain under pressure, and other monarchs, to carry out reforms," he told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the report's release in Cairo.

The organization also blamed the Western hesitation in part on the ascendence of political Islam in most of the countries that witnessed the fall of their autocratic rulers like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.

HRW urged the West to recognize that Islamists are the "majority preference," while keeping pressure on the emerging new governments to respect human rights, especially regarding women and religious minorities.

Roth was cautious when asked about concerns about potential human rights violations under Islamist rule, particularly in Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis won a majority of seats in the first post-Hosni Mubarak parliament.

He said the Muslim Brotherhood has been "saying the right things" but "we have to see how they govern and how they deal with women, religious minorities. These are the big questions."

The popular uprisings also have alarmed other repressive regimes such as China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan, where rulers were worried about facing similar fates. The group said China and Russia in particular acted "obstructionist," using their veto power at the U.N. security council to halt pressure on Syria to stop killings of protesters.

Saudi Arabia also continues to discriminate against its citizens and workers, according to HRW, which said 9 million women, 8 million foreign workers and 2 million Shiite citizens are either suppressed or lacking rights in the country.

"As we mark the first anniversary of the Arab Spring, we should stand firmly for the rights and aspirations of the individual over the spoils of the tyrant," Roth said.

Outside the Arab world, the last year has not witnessed significant progress in countries with poor human rights records, including China and North Korea, according to the report.

Corruption, poverty and repression still prevail in Equatorial Guinea, the tiny, oil-rich nation off the western coast of Africa, which has been ruled by Africa's longest-serving ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema since he seized power in a 1979 coup, the group said.

Eritrea continues to be governed by "one of the world's most repressive governments," and its citizens are subjected to torture, detentions, restrictions on freedom of speech, HRW said.

It also cited Colombia, saying armed conflict in the South American country has displaced millions while paramilitary groups with ties to the security apparatus are on the rise.

Cuba, HRW said, remains "the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent."

The group also claimed that even member states of the European Union have violated human rights through restrictive asylum and migration policies.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-22-Human-Rights-Report/id-cb9bc08685954025be900b9330733093

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