Barack Obama receives 12 stitches after being 'elbowed'

President Barack Obama received 12 stitches in his lip on Friday after being hit in the face with an elbow while playing basketball, the White House said, stating that the injury was an accident. 

The injury was caused by Rey Decerega, director of programmes for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the White House said.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit," said spokesman Robert Gibbs in a statement.

The president played basketball for about two hours at a gym at Fort McNair in Washington on Friday morning. It was a five-on-five contest involving family and friends. Among the players were Mr Obama's nephew, Avery Robinson, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Reggie Love, Mr Obama's personal assistant, who played basketball for Duke University.

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Chelsea's sporting director Frank Arnesen to leave after five years at Stamford Bridge

Arnesen will step down when his contract expires at the end of this season after spending five years at Chelsea, where he has overseen the club's youth development and other areas, announcing that he wants to "seek a new challenge".

The Dane, who joined Chelsea in 2005 after previously working at Tottenham, said: "It has been a privilege and an honour for me to work for such a big club with so many great people.

"After six wonderful years I have decided to seek a new challenge when my contract expires at the end of this season."

Arnesen continued on chelseafc.com: "It has been a tremendous journey and I would like to thank everyone at Chelsea, especially Roman [Abramovich], for giving me the incredible opportunity to help build on the club's academy and youth system along with our greatly talented academy and scouting staff.

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Somali-born teen arrested in US car bomb sting

A Somali-born teenager was arrested yesterday for attempting to detonate what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Oregon, US authorities said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the annual event in downtown Portland, the FBI said in a statement late yesterday.

The bomb was a fake and had been provided to Mohamud as part of a long-term sting by the FBI. It also said Mohamud had been in contact with an unnamed individual overseas believed to be involved in terrorist activities.

"The threat was very real. Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale," said Arthur Balizan, a senior FBI agent in Oregon.

Agents shadowed Mohamud, who is a naturalized US citizen, for months and met him several times as the plot developed, officials said, adding he had told them that he had thought of waging violent jihad, or holy war, since the age of 15.

He went ahead with the plot despite being given a number of opportunities to drop the idea, the FBI said. It said the affidavit against Mohamud quotes him as saying: "I want whoever is attending that event (in Portland) to leave, to leave either dead or injured."

The arrest came a day after Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday amid heightened security.

Mohamud is expected to make his initial appearance in a federal court in Portland on Monday. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Federal officials said the public had never been in danger at any time during the operation.

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Obama Faces ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ Hecklers At Speech

President Barack Obama was in California today at a campaign fundraiser for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

During President Obama’s visit to California, he gave a speech in which he started talking about the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. That is the policy that currently prevents gays from serving openly in the United States Military.

As President Barack Obama was speaking, hecklers broke out in the crowd wanting to know what he was going to do to get rid of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy – and to which, President Obama simply said, after a bit of exasperation, “I support the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy”. Upon him saying that, the crowd started to cheer!

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Laboratories show they can accurately measure heavy metals

A new report studying the abilities of laboratories worldwide to measure heavy metals - arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, methylmercury and inorganic arsenic - in seafood has been published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Of the 57 laboratories who reported back on their values, 80-96 per cent showed satisfactory scores depending on the heavy metal tested. 

A total of 57 laboratories from 29 countries from across the globe volunteered to test their measuring competence test. The JRC sent each laboratory a sample of heavy metals - while unaware of the levels present - and the labs had to measure and report the values back to the JRC.

Seafood consumers in the European Union (EU) may find comfort in the results, as levels of lead, cadmium and total mercury are regulated by law in the Union and most laboratories who participated in the interlaboratory comparison demonstrated that they could accurately measure them.

Moreover, the project underlined issues including the apparent dependency of the measurements of inorganic arsenic on the type of food tested.

It has been shown that excessive consumption of foods containing heavy metals could cause a decline in mental, cognitive and physical health levels, and this is especially troubling in regards to potential developmental defects in children exposed in utero, JRC said. 

From a toxicological perspective, the chemical form in which the metal is consumed is important; for instance, while methylmercury is much more toxic than inorganic mercury compounds, inorganic arsenic is more toxic than its organic species.

In opposition to a previous exercise (IMEP-107 on total and inorganic arsenic in rice), the values reported for inorganic arsenic appeared widespread, indicating that seafood has a strong influence on the analytical determination of inorganic arsenic. This is key knowledge for legislators, as specifying single maximum level of arsenic in food thus seems unfeasible.

In the EU, maximum legal levels for lead, cadmium and total mercury in food vary from 0.5 to 1.0 mg per kg for different seafood, but no maximum level exists for the methylmercury form of mercury because its measurement necessitates specific analytical equipment usually unavailable in testing laboratories. At the same time, most human intake of mercury comes from methylmercury in fish and fishery products and has a high toxicity compared to inorganic mercury.

As well, no maximum levels for arsenic have been set in European legislation because of insufficient information about reliable analytical methods for determining inorganic arsenic in different foods, and its measurement values are normally thought method-dependent.

The study was organised in support of the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA), the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and the national reference laboratories associated to the EU Reference Laboratory for Heavy Metals in Feed and Food.

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To Follow Computer Virus

Computers are becoming more and more indispensable day after day. They have become primary repositories our digital photos, documents, invoices, multimedia etc. The sheer volume of computer users and the advent of cheap always-on internet connections has made computers an attractive targets to hackers distributing viruses, spyware and other malicious software.

You might have an anti-virus software installed in your computer that auto updates itself against latest threats. if you haven’t, here are MakeUseOf’s recommendations for the best free antivirus you can get your hands on. In addition to that, it is always a good idea to keep yourself on top of what exactly is happening in the computer security front. Viruses and other threats have a tendency to replicate themselves, making it tough for security software vendors to issue a patch. We have compiled a list of reliable official and independent sources that publish computer virus news and alerts as and when the outbreak happens.

Official Sources

ESET Threat Blog

ESET is a trusted name in the desktop security business. They won the hearts of both enterprise and home users alike with their rapid virus signature updates, sometimes multiple times a day, if necessary. They maintain a fantastic ESET Threat blog to keep everyone up to date on any new virus or malware threats. The blog is updated regularly and in addition to providing the latest information on viruses, they post lot of useful data walking users through tips & tricks to avoid skimming, phising etc. ESET updates the blog with content that serves everyone – from newbies to White Hat hackers.

Posts detailing as to how the malware underground works, how BlackHat hackers distribute malware via online games, how botnets manipulate the stock market are some of the interesting topics covered in the blog.

Trend Micro Threat Encyclopedia

Trend Micro is one of the pioneers in the computer security business and they have put up a threat encyclopedia to keep their users in the know of the latest computer virus news and alerts. Recent strains of malware, spyware and vulnerabilities are segregated in their respective tables, with an appropriate risk rating. Clicking on the malware name opens a pretty detailed advisory as to how this malware harms the desktop and the platforms it is active on.

McAfee Virus Information

With a global map showing virus threat levels, list of recent threats to a general purpose threat meter, McAfee’s Virus Information page is put together very well. There are free resources to teach beginners about various threats like virus, malware, spyware etc. and how to identify one from another. Free virus specific diagnostics and removal tools can also be downloaded from here.

Norton Threat Explorer

Being a name synonymous with the computer security industry, Norton maintains an exhaustive threat explorer index. You can check out all the latest computer security threats listed in a single page in alphabetical order and can even search for a particular virus if you know the name.

Securelist

Securelist is a computer virus threat information portal maintained by Kaspersky Labs. They list recent virus descriptions found, in depth reviews of Malware behaviour on test systems, news & analysis of hot security topics, Monthly malware statistics and a lot more related to information security.

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Record partnership puts Australia in charge

Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin both hit magical centuries in a record unbroken partnership of 293 to put Australia firmly in control of the first Ashes test at tea on the third day at the Gabba on Saturday.
Hussey was unbeaten on 176 with Haddin, who brought up his century with a six, on 134 not out as they continued to defy England's luckless bowlers to take the hosts to 436 for five, a first innings lead of 176 runs.
The pair, who had come together on Friday with Australia precariously placed at 143 for five, played measured cricket to weather England's new ball onslaught in the morning before tearing off the shackles as the tourists toiled in the afternoon heat.
The partnership is the highest in a test match at the Gabba, beating Don Bradman and Lindsay Hassett's 276 for Australia in the 1946-47 Ashes series.
PIVOTAL SESSION
Lefthander Hussey, who had said that the opening session could be pivotal in a tight match, rode his luck early on as he crept run-by-run towards his 12th test century.
Wicketkeeper Haddin, who had resumed on 25, stifled his attacking instincts but still scored more freely than his partner, first to put Australia past England's first innings tally of 260 then to bring up his sixth test 50.
It was not long, though, before Hussey, who had been under pressure for his place in the team before the series, brought up his century with a four through the covers, sparking wild celebrations from another packed house.
A euphoric Hussey pumped his fists then raised his bat and helmet in the air as he took the ovation before embracing Haddin in the middle of the wicket.
Haddin, returning to test cricket after missing the tour of India through injury, was not to be outdone and matched his partner's feat in some style after lunch by clubbing a six over spin bowler Graeme Swann's head to long-on.
It would all have been so different but for the umpire referral system.
Hussey had added just one run to his overnight total of 81 when he was given out lbw to James Anderson but a review of the TV pictures showed the ball had pitched outside leg stump and umpire Aleem Dar's decision was overturned.
Soon afterwards, the 35-year-old was giving thanks that England had already used the two reviews they are allowed in each innings when Dar turned down a loud shout for lbw from Anderson.
Replays showed Hussey would have gone had an appeal been available to England.
England's luck did not improve when Paul Collingwood came on to bowl later in the morning when Alastair Cook got his finger tips to a looping shot from Haddin but failed to hold the catch.
Anderson also dropped Haddin off Stuart Broad, losing the ball in the afternoon sun shortly before Hussey secured his 150 courtesy of a misfield by Swann.

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