Richmond defeats Seton Hall 69-61

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Justin Harper scored 24 points, 18 of which came on 3-pointers, leading Richmond to a 69-61 victory over Seton Hall on Sunday.

The victory was the second straight road win for the Spiders (10-3), who won at UNC-Greensboro on Wednesday night. The Pirates (6-6) lost for the second straight time at home to an Atlantic 10 opponent.

Kevin Anderson added 14 points, 10 of which came in the final 10 minutes of the game. Anderson sealed the victory with a clutch 3-pointer with a minute left and added a driving basket with 26 seconds left that put the game away.

Jeff Robinson led Seton Hall with 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Jordan Theodore had 15 points and Fuquan Edwin added 12 for the Pirates.

Seton Hall shot just 25 percent in the second half (8 for 32) and scored just two points in the final 5:38.

The two teams played a spirited first half, trading the lead six times, before Seton Hall took a five-point lead, 33-28, with 2:41 remaining, when Robinson scored on a running shot off glass.

Seton Hall maintained the lead into halftime, taking a 35-30 lead into the break.

Robinson completed a conventional 3-point play with 18:35 remaining that gave the Pirates their biggest lead at 39-31, but the Spiders came crawling back, scoring the next eight points to tie the game at 39, with four different Richmond players contributing to the run.

The teams then exchanged the lead six more times in the final 16 minutes. Kevin Anderson nailed three free throws to give Richmond a 50-48 lead with 11:30 left and Harper pushed the lead to four, 53-49, on another 3-pointer with 10:48 left.

But the undaunted Pirates went on a 9-0 run to retake the lead. Theodore started things with a running jumper, then Keon Lawrences 3-pointer gave the Pirates a 54-53 lead with 9:56 to go. Herb Pope scored on a power move down low and Theodore made his second jumper to cap the run, giving the Pirates a 58-53 lead.

Harper continued his brilliant shooting as he nailed another deep 3 to give Richmond a 62-59 lead with 3:45 remaining, capping a 9-1 run. Richmond maintained the lead for the remainder of the game.

After Harpers 3-pointer, Darrius Garrett slammed home a bucket to make it 64-59 with 2:34 left and Andersons 3 and driving goal sealed the Pirates fate.

Dutch clear 5 of 12 detained Somalis of terrorism

AMSTERDAM (AFP) - Dutch prosecutors say they have cleared five of the 12 men who were arrested in Somalia on the eve of Holiday Birth on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack in the Netherlands.

Are the ones who arrested the man after a tip from intelligence and said an attack could be imminent. There was no information on the alleged goal, in spite of Rotterdam is one of the largest malls in Europe.

Prosecutors said Sunday it had no evidence of the involvement of criminal charges against five men. The three were released who do not have valid residence permits were handed over to the immigration police, and two of the Dutch population.

Authorities must decide by Tuesday whether to ask for court permission to continue the investigation of the remaining seven people or for their release.

NY, other states scrimp on Civil War anniversary

Albany, New York (AFP) - New York State contributed 448,000 troops and $ 150 million to the cause of the Union during the Civil War, not to mention tons of untold, supplies, guns, food and ammunition.
But with the 150 anniversary of the war began only months away, and the new government for New York state has so far failed to scrounge up the U.S. dollar and one to celebrate the struggle she played a major role in this win.
New York is not alone. Other states burdened by budget problems similar is unable or unwilling to allocate taxpayer money to restore the historic legislation and museum exhibits are placed when public sector employees and reduced services.
Even down South Carolina, where shots were fired in the first war on Fort Sumter in April 1861, to provide public funding for organizations planning events in the Palmetto State.
"State money is right now hard to find anything," said historian and a new New York State Robert Weible. "This is life. We all live with that."
Have formed at least 21 states, commissions or committees or initiatives to celebrate the 150 anniversary of the bloodiest war in America, starting next year, and falling in 2015. Of those states, Virginia and Pennsylvania, seems to be leading the way in efforts to plan, promote and stage celebrations civil war.
"Most countries have very little funding or limited," said Cheryl Jackson, Executive Director of the Virginia sesquicentennial of the American Civil War. "This is not unique among the States, what you find in New York."
Jackson said that the organization received the Virginia annual $ 2 million appropriation from the state since 2008. Three out of every five Civil War battles that erupted in the state of Virginia, Home of the Confederate capital, Richmond, and some of the greatest generals of the South, including the Robert E. Lee.
"Virginia had its share of scars, and many of them are still there, so it is natural that the State shall take the lead," said James I. "Bud" Robertson Jr., a history professor at Virginia Tech and a member of the State Committee.
Pennsylvania has been able to collect nearly $ 5 million in government funding to celebrate the event, including $ 800,000 in federal grants, according to Barbara Franco, Executive Director of the Historical Society and Museum of Pennsylvania.
Key, she said, and the decision to the state of Pennsylvania to begin planning in 2007, just before it screwed up the economy and government coffers withered. He added, in addition to that, Franco, Pennsylvania did not wait for Congress to get around to the establishment of a national civil war, something the legislators in Washington, DC, so far failed to do.

Study ties brain structure size to socializing

NEW YORK (AFP) - If you spend some time with a lot of friends, may be part of the brain to be much help towards the unusual.

This is called the amygdala (cf. Jn. MIG '- duh - the board), and it's deep in the brain. The researchers found that among volunteers who got on the brain scan, and those that have a larger amygdala tend to report seeing more parents and friends on a regular basis.

Lisa Feldman Barrett of the University of Northeastern work reports in a paper published online Sunday by the journal Nature Neuroscience. According to the logical result because the amygdala in the center of a network of the brain that is important for socialization.

The study could not show whether greater amygdala lead to more friends, or vice versa. Barrett says the effect may run in both directions.

Kennedy's exit from Congress leaves a family void

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Kennedy and held seats in Congress and the presidency, and the public's imagination for more than 60 years. That period ends when Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island vacate his seat U.S. House of Representatives next month, leaving the job the City Council in the state of California to hold the only remaining political Camelot.

The son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, he did not hesitate to walk away from politics. His departure is the first time in 63 years there will be no one working in the office of Kennedy was elected in Washington.

"In my family, and has always been the legacy of public service, and that does not necessarily mean the public service," said Kennedy (43 years) in a recent interview on Capitol Hill with The Associated Press.

Read a long list of Kennedy family members who refused to choose life and politics and activists promoting issues such as environment, human rights and women's issues.

Kennedy plans to continue the tradition of supporting the national effort in support of brain research. Hopes to inject the same speed with which his uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, inspired during the 1960s with his defiance of the Americans to put a man on the moon.

However, Kennedy out of the country's capital is in turn a bittersweet one of the political families in the United States stronger and more prominent, and the family, which has seen its influence in Washington to fade away in recent years with the younger generations to largely avoid public office.

"It's a milestone," said Allan J. Lichtman, a history professor at American University. "Frankly, it's not as if there's a new generation of the Kennedy family prepared to move in public life dramatically."

Al-Qaida threat on Iraq Christians linked to Egypt

CAIRO (AFP) - The wives of two of the priests of Egyptian Copts, forbidden by the Church of divorce abusive husbands, highly sought another way by converting to Islam. Handed when police discovered their intentions, including the church and whereabouts unknown since.

The cause of an uproar at home and that extended to the border and turned deadly when the al-Qaeda in Iraq and the woman was taken as the reason behind the attack, the deadliest ever on Christians in Iraq - a siege that lasted five hours from the church in October that left 68 people dead.

The most glaring recent example of the schism between Christians and Muslims, which passes through the Middle East and periodically erupts into violence.

"In the midst of the current sectarian conflict, the timing is perfect for al Qaeda to show they are defending Islam, and to exploit the situation to mobilize the churches against the extremists," said Ammar Ali Hassan, an expert on Islamic movements.

Israeli minister warns on peace stalemate

JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israeli Cabinet minister says that without peace talks, the entire world could recognize a sovereign Palestinian state within a year.

With negotiations deadlocked, Palestinian leaders say they are pursuing alternatives like seeking recognition from as many countries as possible of a Palestinian state in territories Israel captured in 1967.

Several Latin American countries have done so recently.

Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of the centrist Labor Party says that without negotiations, "within a year, we will find ourselves in a situation where the whole world - and I wouldn't be surprised if even the United States - would support a Palestinian state."

The U.S. and the European Union say a state should emerge from negotiations, not unilateral actions.

Playboy's Hefner announces Christmas engagement

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Hugh Hefner, the twice-married founder of Playboy, is taking the plunge again.

Hefner, 84, said on Saturday in a posting on Twitter that he and his girlfriend Crystal Harris, 24, got engaged on Friday.

"When I gave Crystal the ring, she burst into tears. This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory," Hefner tweeted.

Hefner, whose magazine was founded in 1953, was divorced from his second wife, Kimberley Conrad, earlier this year. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959.

Harris was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 2009.

Hefner, known around the world by his nickname, Hef, has championed sexual freedom and civil rights, published stories challenging McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, and backed gay causes and the legalisation of marijuana.

With a cover featuring a calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe, Hefner put the first issue together on the kitchen table in his flat. It hit the stands in December 1953 and sold 51,000 copies -- enough to finance a second issue -- and led to a multimillion dollar international corporation.

(Writing by Paul Simao, Americas Desk

Philippines pushes for peace with Marxist rebels

The chief negotiator of the government's promise of a new popularity in the Philippines to address the poverty and corruption, could strengthen the upcoming peace talks with the rebels and make the link the communist insurgency in the country, which turned on Sunday, 42 - Davao, Philippines (AFP).
Celebrated the anniversary of the camps in the jungle with a pledge to intensify attacks - the New People's Army guerrillas - one of the Maoist forces in Asia, more flexible, and decades of military campaigns permanent.
But behind the scenes, negotiators have agreed on both sides already on the resumption of the talks after six years - the fruits of political goodwill and optimism that followed the May elections of reformist President Benigno Aquino III.
The chief government negotiator Alexander Aquino Padilla represents a "new dynamics" in the Philippines, told the Associated Press this week.
Padilla said that Aquino, who has the support across the political spectrum as a son of revered symbols of democracy, inject honesty and good faith and to call for strong reforms and human rights in the peace talks, which often undermine public confidence and support the weak.
"This could be the best chance of the other party can come with really a political settlement," Padilla said of the talks to be held in February.
Generated by the Cold War in the late 1960s, emerged as the insurgency in rural areas on the basis of Communist Party-led underground in the Philippines, the danger of this nation in Southeast Asia the most dangerous security, stoked by decades of poverty and unrest agricultural, and government corruption and mismanagement. Five presidents failed to crush the Maoist insurgency that has killed at least 120,000 civilians and combatants.
Dates from the party split from the Communist group, the oldest in the Conference on December 26, 1968, in the northern province of Pangasinan. That date was also rejoicing the birth of 75 for China's Mao Tse-Tung.
Washington has blacklisted the Communist Party and its armed wing, the 5000-strong New People's Army, and terrorist organizations, and blaming them for separate attacks killed four members of the U.S. Army in the 1980s.
The rebels pulled out of peace talks brokered by Norway in 2004, and then doubt government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of instigating their inclusion on lists of the United States and the European Union, a terrorist group.
Since taking office, Aquino began to address widespread government corruption and human rights violations blamed on state security forces that have helped to generate the insurgency.
Padilla said the President understands the concerns of the rebels. Led his mother, and former President Corazon Aquino, the 1986 "people power" that toppled the protest of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the declaration of martial law in 1972 provided fodder for the insurgency as students, farmers and middle class swelling ranks of some 25000.
After the restoration of democracy, and the opening of Corazon Aquino talks with the rebels, but quickly failed. I have drained the battle setbacks, factionalism and the surrender of their power, but they still claim a presence in all 81 provinces of the Philippines.
New People's Army and the Government is working in the shadow areas under its influence, and conduct trials - and sometimes death - from the police and village officials accused of hurting people. The rebels also collect "revolutionary taxes" - and to punish businesses refused to pay.
Aquino won rare praise from the rebels when he was recently dropped the charges against the workers in the field of Health 43, who claimed they were tortured in military custody after being arrested and 10 suspected insurgents for months.
Padilla said that the rebels - and faced with the collapse of many communist countries that supported and inspired, with a leader of the popular new national viewed as addressing social inequality - may fade soon to futility if they continue to wage protracted war.
He pointed out that he was elected left-wing extremists in Congress until after the abandonment of armed struggle.
He said rebel spokesman George Madlos repressive conditions in the country, which was reinforced by poverty, corruption and violations of rights has been under Aquino.
"We will continue to launch the revolution that is right and we are in a position to intensify attacks," Madlos said in a statement this week, before the anniversary on Sunday.
Despite sporadic fighting, including that killed 10 army soldiers in an insurgent ambush on Dec 14, the two sides agreed to resume formal talks February 15 to 21 in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. They also agreed to a truce Holiday Birth through Jan. 3.
Army, meanwhile, eased the counterinsurgency strategy, which has been linked to the operations of extrajudicial killings of hundreds of leftist activists and sympathizers with the rebel suspects.
Unveiled a new program for six years in the past week seeking to exclude civil society from the rebels and includes support for advocacy groups outside the government in addressing human rights concerns.
He said political analyst Ramon Casiple it showed that part of the army 120,000 soldiers and agreed to adhere to human rights guarantees.
"It's no longer a body count approach, and this is a war for the hearts and mind," said Casiple. "We should realize that the rebels the ground is shifting."
He criticized the Communist Party of the new plan. In a statement this week, and said it "will keep the revolution to generate even a puppet, corrupt the entire system is brought down to the retro."

Food stations closed to the United Nations in the north-western Pakistan after an attack

Injured victims of suicide bombing are treated at a local hospital in Khar, the main town of Pakistan's Bajur tribal region along Afghan border, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest killing scores of people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan while army helicopter gunships and artillery killed a similar number of Islamic militants in neighboring tribal regions near the Afghan border, officials said. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Khar (Pakistan) (AFP) - An official stations closed distribution of food aid on a temporary basis in northwestern Pakistan after a suicide bombing that killed 45 people outside the warehouse of the World Food Program.

Said Shafiq Khan, an official at the WFP food distribution project, on Sunday four relief centers in the Bajaur region had been closed after the government ordered the closure of regional temporarily after the attack, which occurred Saturday in the main town of Khar.

Was not immediately clear when it would close the food distribution points.

World Food Program project in Bajaur feeds thousands of people who have been displaced since early 2009 due to fighting between the Pakistani army and militants.