Hundreds Of Cannabis Activists Protest Against Obama

OAKLAND -- Locally-owned businesses along Oakland's Telegraph Avenue flew green flags outside their storefronts Monday afternoon in solidarity with several hundred protesters outside nearby City Hall speaking out against President Barack Obama's recent crackdown on medical marijuana.

"We are here today to send a message so loud that not even the president will be able to ignore it," Steve D'Angelo, director of Oakland's Harborside Health Care, which calls itself the "nation's largest dispensary," told the crowd as it erupted into cheers.

Obama will swoop through the Bay Area for three fundraisers Monday evening, including a reception at Oakland's Fox Theatre. And the local cannabis community is determined to make its presence known.

Since the Department of Justice began targeting medical marijuana businesses last fall, the East Bay city has been one of the hardest hit. In April, federal agents raided the iconic Oaksterdam University, forcing its owner, Richard Lee, to separate himself from the company he founded.

This month, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, the face of the Bay Area's anti-marijuana movement, threatened to seize Harborside and its sister dispensary in San Jose.

"You can close down Oaksterdam, you can close down Harborside, and lots of things will happen," said retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James P. Gray at the rally. "None of them will be good. People will still be getting marijuana, but it will be in illegal manners.

"Harborside has met the regulations," Gray, the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president, continued. "They are law-abiding people."

California became the first state to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes when voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996. The industry has since flourished into a major moneymaker for the state, generating more than $100 million in tax revenue each year.

That began to change in October, after federal authorities announced they would target medical marijuana operations throughout California, claiming the businesses have ballooned into "numerous drug trafficking enterprises" and citing their proximity to parks and schools. In the past 10 months, hundreds of dispensaries have been forced to close, and thousands of jobs have been lost.

The Obama administration's actions contradict the president's messages on the campaign trail, where he assured voters he would not use federal resources to go after medical marijuana in states that had legalized it.

Parents at Monday's demonstration said that they weren't concerned with dispensaries' locations near parks and schools, and that they wished federal officials would focus their attention elsewhere.

"As a mother, I demand our Justice Department focus on child predators, gun violence, and human traffickers," Dale Sky Jones, executive chancellor of Oaksterdam University, said in a statement. "The action by the U.S. attorneys is tragic for the victims and families of violent crime that do not have the full attention of law enforcement; tragic for schools and emergency services that depend on millions in tax dollars from medical cannabis."

Oakland has been plagued by gun violence in recent weeks.

Other protesters were quick to point to the medical benefits of cannabis.

Evelyn Hoch has been caring for her best friend, a victim of stomach cancer, for 23 years. For two decades, her pain medication "turned her into a zombie," Hoch explained. Then she tried medical marijuana, and was able to cut down on other narcotics by 50 percent.

"She's not a well person," Hoch said. "But she's so much better. She has a little bit of a life again."

Hoch's friend isn't alone -- Monday's demonstration was joined by many activists suffering from terminal illnesses who claim medical marijuana is their best antidote.

"Don't take away our medicine," Oakland resident Randy Von Gogh, whose girlfriend uses cannabis to alleviate pain from a paralysis that left her wheelchair-bound, said. "Obama's gotta go back to what he's said before. This is all just politics."

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'The Secret Life Of American Teenager'

Gusts of wind happen to the best of us.

23-year-old Francia Raisa, who Stars on "The Secret Life Of American Teenager"was the latest starlet to face the peril of a gentle breeze at Sunday night's Teen Choice Awards.

Raisa took to the red carpet in a trendy top knot and a short sleeveless pink dress to celebrate her show, which was up for Choice Summer TV Show, among other awards, when suddenly, a summer wind lifted her hemline to new heights.

To which we say: gurrrrrl, we've all been there. (Have you ever walked down a New York City street on a windy day in a wrap dress? We have.) Luckily, Raisa had some cute boy shorts on underneath, which helped her avoid a visible thong situation (ahem, Miranda Kerr) or a totally exposed rear view gaffe (Arta Dobroshi, anyone?). And, all we can say on behalf of Worst Wardrobe Malfunction of All Time-r Adrienne Bailon is: at least she was wearing something under her dress.

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Mexico Violence: 49 Bodies On Mexican Highway (Video)

MEXICO CITY -- After police found 49 dismembered bodies strewn on a Mexican highway leading to the Texas border, it took the army just a week to parade an alleged drug trafficker before journalists as the man who purportedly oversaw the body dump.

Yet two months after the grisly discovery in Nuevo Leon state, authorities have not identified a single victim.

The 49 bodies now appear headed for an increasingly common fate in this drug war-wracked country: They could join the growing ranks of the unidentified dead.

That group has become legion as nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified, says the National Human Rights Commission, an independent government agency. In total, 24,000 people have been reported missing. Many say the country's police are simply overwhelmed by the number of drug war casualties as they struggle with poor forensic capabilities and the reluctance of some witnesses and victims' relatives to help.

That apparent futility is drawing increasing criticism from Mexicans weary of the government-led offensive against drug cartels, who are also fighting among themselves. The violence in total has claimed at least 47,000 victims since President Felipe Calderon launched his anti-cartel campaign in late 2006.

"The level of violence we're living with reflects the critical condition our institutions are in, and it reveals a corrupt government," said Blanca Martinez of the Fray Juan de Larios human rights center in the northern border state of Coahuila. Hundreds of people have gone missing in Coahuila since 2009, when violence started to erupt in northeastern Mexico.

The most recent discovery of corpses shows just how hard it is to put names to often heavily mutilated bodies.

Although the 49 corpses all lacked heads, hands and feet, police performed DNA tests on them and compared the results, without luck, to hundreds of Mexicans reported missing.

The authorities captured Daniel Elizondo, the alleged cell leader for the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel, and pinned the atrocity on him. But he and two other suspects arrested in the case apparently haven't offered any information that could help investigators. The army has said Elizondo claims he was given the bodies by someone else.

The bodies of the 43 men and six women remain at a morgue in the industrial city of Monterrey where they're marked "N.N." – the Spanish initials for "No Nombre," or No Name. They've also been given numbers as IDs, a state police spokeswoman said. Authorities believe the bodies were signs of yet another battle between the Zetas and their rival Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

Now it's up to the lead investigator to decide how long the bodies will remain at the morgue before they're wrapped in blankets and buried side by side in common graves in cemeteries throughout Monterrey's metropolitan area, said the police spokeswoman, who would not allow her name to be used under official policy. The bodies can stay in the morgue for a maximum of four months. By custom, Mexicans usually bury their dead within 48 hours.

Anguished relatives of the missing said they suffer in limbo awaiting any information about their loved ones.

"When they took my son, they destroyed me," said Maximina Hernandez, a 44-year-old maid from the Monterrey suburb of Santa Catarina whose police officer son was taken by gunmen minutes after ending a work shift in 2007. "The only thing I ask God is for some news, to know where he is. But there is no progress; there is nothing."

Hernandez has joined other people with missing relatives to push authorities to investigate the cases but said she's been disappointed by the results so far.

She said police took DNA samples from her and her son's father but never followed up on her suspicion that her 23-year-old son's commander was involved in his disappearance. Last year, authorities detained the police commander along with more than 40 Santa Catarina police officers for allegedly working for the Zetas.

Luis Garcia, an investigator with the National Human Rights Commission, said the number of unidentified bodies continues to grow, as has the number of missing persons. The commission listed 8,898 unidentified bodies from 2000 to 2005; that number had since jumped by 80 percent as of June. The number of missing people reported in the earlier period, 5,397, has grown even more dramatically, by nearly 350 percent.

No one knows exactly how many of those unidentified bodies were killed in drug-related violence or how many people are missing at the hands of cartels because such a study has never been done, Garcia said.

"There needs to be an investigation in each case, to put a first and last name (on each victim) so that there is no impunity," he said. "The issue here is that there is no effective investigation."

Government efforts to tackle the monumental problem have produced mixed results. Calderon has tried to reform and professionalize the federal police force, which has tripled in manpower to 35,000 officers, but has had little success improving local and state forces. The government proposed creating a national database with information on missing persons that could be accessed by investigators in all 32 states but is still trying to get it up and running.

Crime victim relatives have long complained that requests for help are often ignored and say it's not uncommon for them to be harassed to stop pushing for an investigation.

Unlike Nuevo Leon, the majority of Mexico's 32 states don't even have the technology to do DNA profiles, and few investigators are trained on how to process a crime scene.

In many cases, overwhelmed police have to identify dozens of bodies, dumped in abandoned mine shafts, left in the middle of busy avenues or buried in mass graves.

In Durango state, authorities found five bodies in a clandestine mass grave in mid-July, raising the total of corpses unearthed in the state since April 2011 to 336, said state prosecutor Sonia de la Garza. More than 600 families have turned over DNA samples to state authorities, who have to send them to neighboring Chihuahua state for processing.

Police around Durango initially were using backhoes to dig out bodies from mass graves before investigators intervened because that was destroying evidence.

"The fact that so many bodies remain unidentified tells you about the enormous scale of the violence in some parts of the country where the cartels have fought each other and also ravaged the civilian population in the process," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

The widespread corruption among Mexico's police, particularly in small local forces, complicates identifications. As a result, many people with missing relatives don't approach authorities out of fear of being targeted should the officers be in collusion with criminals.

Hernandez said state investigators once told her they were afraid to look into the disappearance of her son, Jesus Everardo Lara Hernandez, because it was a "tough situation."

"They told me to understand them because they, too, had families." Hernandez said.

Hernandez, who has three other children, ages 7 to 14, said she was petrified when her son was taken, but her drive to find him was stronger and she began her own investigation and talked to her son's colleagues.

"It was very difficult because I stopped paying attention to my little ones to be able to look for him," she said. "It has been a horrible five years, but the hope of finding him keeps me strong."

Watch the Video Below On The Current Situation In Mexico:

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India's New President Pranab Mukherjee Is Now Ready For Action

India’s presidential election is out of the way, and the time has come for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to take action on economic reforms.

For the past couple of months, several senior officials and Congress Party leaders signposted the election as a political barrier against any major reform move. The Congress Party couldn’t afford to upset the opposition — or its allies and risk losing its thin majority, they said.

But Pranab Mukherjee, who gave up the finance minister’s job to contest the poll, has now won with almost 70% of the votes.

All eyes are now on whether the government will begin to push through reforms crucial to revivingIndia’s economy and restoring investor confidence.

Mr. Singh wants to, after all, “reverse the atmosphere of pessimism and revive the animal spirits in the country’s economy.”

Observers say Mr. Mukherjee’s comfortable victory will bolster the government’s confidence, but Congress may not push its luck by trying to bulldoze several reforms at one go.

Instead, Mr. Singh may look to ease through measures on which it is likely to face lesser political opposition, or on which it does not require parliament’s approval.

These include:

FDI in multi-brand retail: This is on top of the agenda, coming after a series of flip-flops dented the government’s credibility.

But Mr. Singh — who has taken over the finance ministry from Mr. Mukherjee — needs to push this through. The entry of global retail giants into the Indian multi-brand retail market would add about 10 million jobs over the next three years, and improveIndia’s attractiveness as an investment destination.

The decision requires an executive order, and not political unanimity. That said, this didn’t help earlier this year when protests from both within and outside the ruling United ProgressiveAlliancescuttled the move.

This time around, however, the government claims that nearly a dozen states support the move.

Trade Minister Anand Sharma told The Wall Street Journal last week that the government is trying to persuade other states to back the move as well.

Standing in the way is the Samajwadi Party as well as India’s left wing parties, who are opposed to any such decision, according to a report in the Times Of India Monday.

Subsidy cuts: A decrease in fuel subsidies is on the cards, with the government indicating recently that it is likely to finally raise diesel prices.

The government has come under severe criticism from the central bank and economists as well as rating agencies for failing to cutIndia’s massive subsidy bill, which contribute to the fiscal deficit.

The high deficit increases the government’s market borrowings, which crowd out private investment, slow growth and add to inflation.

Economists are demanding a steep rise in diesel prices, but Mr. Singh is likely to push through smaller hikes to protect the government from a populist backlash ahead of the general elections in 2014.

Will it happen? Earlier this month, a senior oil ministry official said that a diesel price hike “is inevitable” and that it may come after the presidential elections.

FDI in civil aviation: The battered state ofIndia’s airlines makes it likely that the government will allow foreign carriers to own stakes in Indian airlines.

Indiahas six airlines, but only one of them is making a profit. Their cash positions are terrible, and their once lofty ambitions are flying on a wing and a prayer.

Private carrier Kingfisher Airlines has been hit the hardest over the past year, failing to deposit taxes or even pay salaries on time in a sign of the urgent need for corrective policy steps to create a more conducive business environment.

Apart from this, expectations are high also that the government will try to provide more clarity on the controversial General Anti-Avoidance Rules proposal, which aims to check tax evasion.

Though its implementation has been deferred by a year toApril 1, 2013, chances are that the government will still look to address the grievances of foreign investors.

Mr. Singh may also work on building consensus on the Goods and Services Tax, which aims to provide a uniform tax rate across states.

Other reform proposals such as allowing foreign investment in local pension fund management or increasing the investment cap in the insurance sector could also see the light of day.

But these would require parliamentary approval, which may slow things down.

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A R Rahman's Plans For 2012 London Olympics

It’s been a busy time for Oscar-winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman, and there’s no sign of a let-up given that he’s involved in 2012’s biggest event, the London Olympics.

Mr. Rahman has composed a Punjabi track for Friday’s opening ceremony, which is being directed by Danny Boyle. The Chennai-born musician and the Lancastrian movie director have enjoyed great success in their past collaborations, most notably 2008’s multi-Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Mr. Rahman has told India Real Time that his composition “Nimma Nimma” will be a hybrid desi sound with some brass elements and lots of voices. He says the tune had to be arranged in a way that is “full-on” from the start, as it is part of a medley.

Late last month, Mr. Rahman announced on Facebook that his track would “celebrate the Indian influence in the U.K.”

How does Mr. Rahman, who composed the theme song for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and performed at the opening ceremony, feel about being invited to compose music for the Olympics?

“It’s always interesting to work with Danny Boyle,” says Mr. Rahman, who also worked with the British director on “127 Hours,” a highly acclaimed movie about the true story of an American adventurer who gets trapped in a canyon.

Mr. Boyle has opted for an “Isles Of Wonder” theme for the opening ceremony, complete with meadows and farmyard animals.

In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, the director said he would be most honored if his spectacle was compared to the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, “a wonderful people’s Games.”

The London 2012 opening ceremony, with an estimated global audience of four billion people will surely be a career highlight for those involved. Still, Mr. Rahman has managed to keep himself busy with other projects in the run-up to the Olympics.

The 46-year-old was music director for Gautham Menon’s movie “Ek Deewana Tha” released in February, as well as Imtiaz Ali’s “Rockstar” from November last year, for which he won Best Music Director at both the Filmfare Awards and Star Screen Awards.

He also composed the music and soundtrack for the Hollywood movie “People Like Us,” which hit theaters in June.

“The story really moved me when I read the script and it had an interesting first time director, Alex Kurtzman, who is a big time soundtrack fan. He was in love with ‘127 Hours’ which got me nominated for this,” he told India Real Time.

“Since it is a middle class American family story, I decided to stick with a more American friendly sound for the music,” he added.

For a couple of songs on the movie, Mr. Rahman collaborated with Liz Phair, an indie artist with no formal training in music. It was also the first score he had composed in his new Los Angeles home, according to the LA Times.

It’s not just been a string of musical hits for Mr. Rahman. In February, he partnered Shekhar Kapur to launch a digital media company called “Qyuki,” in which Cisco has reportedly invested 270 million rupees ($4.9 million) for a 17% stake. In May, Mr. Rahman got his fourth honorary doctorate, but his first in the U.S., from Miami University.

Now expectations for Mr. Rahman’s Olympic composition are high. If his record for the last few months is any indication, he might just exceed them.

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Hollywood Star: Madonna (Video)

Hollywood is full of women who know how to put on a gown and pose for the cameras. But there are a handful of ladies whose sartorial selections elevate them head and exposed shoulders above the rest. V.F. highlights these elegant, glamorous stars of the carpet, with commentary by fashion and style director Jessica Diehl, fashion market director Michael Carl, and special correspondents Amy Fine Collins and Matt Tyrnauer.


Watch the video below to see your favourite 'Madonna'

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How He Runs To Work!

The executive team at Pandora Media Inc., the automated music recommendation service, is used to seeing Chief Marketing Officer Simon Wood-Fleming break a sweat at Monday staff meetings. His sweaty brow isn't a result of job pressure. It's a sign that he's just back from a run.

"It's definitely not ideal to be dripping sweat in front of our employees, but I'm not going to miss a workout," he says. The Pandora offices are one block from a trail that circles Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif. It takes Mr. Wood-Fleming almost exactly 45 minutes to change in the office locker room, run around the lake (four miles round trip), shower and get back to his desk. "I am usually sweating for another 15 minutes after my shower," he says.

Mr. Fleming-Wood, 44 years old, notes that he is a runner, not a jogger. His pace ranges from 6½ to 7 minutes a mile. While Mr. Fleming-Wood often encourages his colleagues to run with him, it is rare that they can keep up. "We'd go out for a run and talk business issues and I'd lose my breath trying to answer," says Matt Nichols, Pandora's director of search engine marketing. "If I want to keep up I need to grill him with questions so that he's talking the whole time."

Mr. Fleming-Wood grew up playing hockey and rugby—he still plays in a men's hockey league—and says fitness is critical to his daily life. "It's very rare that I go three days without exercise," he says. He uses his mornings to walk the dog and be with his daughters, ages 11 and 12. On weekends, his girls join him for part of his run. "I slow down the pace for them," he says.

In nice weather, he bikes five miles round trip to work. Three to four days a week he runs around the lake near his office. Some days he calls in his sandwich order pre-run and then swings by the deli post-run to pick it up before returning to the office. Mr. Fleming-Wood says he often does his most creative thinking while circling the lake. "My head just clears. It's time where I can marinate on issues I'm dealing with. The answers sometimes just come to me."

He runs five to seven miles on both Saturday and Sunday with his foxhound, Walter, and his daughters. He also spends about 30 minutes strength training in his garage gym on the weekend. "It's a Rocky-style set up," he says. His chin-up bar is a hockey stick hung from the rafters with two pieces of rope. He uses it to do three sets of 10 pull-ups. He has a mat for crunches.

The Diet

Mr. Fleming-Wood has a cup of coffee while his daughters eat breakfast. He gets oatmeal topped with fruit from a coffee shop near the office. "That is my sustaining meal," he says. "If I don't get fed the rest of the day, I know that oatmeal will keep me going." He tries to eat light and healthy for lunch. Pandora gets fruit delivered to the office so he usually grazes on it throughout the day, while avoiding the free candy. Mr. Fleming-Wood says his wife is determined to use their entire CSA box of locally grown produce each week for family meals. "Right now we're eating a lot of kale and chard," he says. On weekends, Mr. Fleming-Wood will indulge in pancakes or eggs.

Equipment/Cost

Mr. Fleming-Wood spent about $1,800 on his Specialized Sirrus hybrid bike. His Asics sneakers cost around $100. He keeps a pair at home and a pair at the office. Mr. Fleming-Wood turned his garage into a modest home gym with a set of adjustable 5-to-50-pound dumbbells, a chin-up bar, and a weight bench. He says the total cost for his equipment was around $300.

"I encourage folks on my team to bring clothes and run with me. I think people should prioritize and fit in their workout at any point in their day and don't be apologetic about it."

Melissa Waters, a senior brand manager at Pandora says seeing his commitment to exercise inspired her to take Zumba classes at the gym across from the office during her lunch hour. "I've been in meetings where Simon is sweating and I realized it's OK to step out during the day to make time for yourself."

On Motivation

For his 40th birthday, he set a goal of running one mile in five minutes. He trained for six months and was able to finish the mile in four minutes and 59 seconds. "As I get older I don't want to lose my speed so I always try to push my pace."

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Iraq Blasts Leave More Than 100 Dead

BEIRUT—Iraq suffered its worst day of violence in nearly two years as bombings and attacks in nearly two dozen towns left almost 100 people dead, in what Iraq's government characterized as a clear spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Syria.

Attacks broke out at dawn Monday and lasted throughout the day, targeting security and military sites and several predominantly Shiite areas across the Shiite-majority country. As late as 11 p.m. local time, reports came in of a bombing in the Hay Ur neighborhood of Baghdad, raising the death toll to at least 96 people and 318 wounded, according to official tallies.

Iraq's Shiite-led government is under assault from the same Sunni extremists who have taken up the fight in Syria, many of them linked to al Qaeda, according to Izzat al-Shahbandar, a senior member of Iraq's Parliament and close aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.Regional and international diplomats have increasingly characterized the conflict in neighboring Syria as a sectarian civil war, pitting a regime dominated by the Shiite-linked Alawite sect against rebels from Syria's majority Sunni population. The conflict has dramatically fanned insecurities of Iraq's ruling Shiite establishment.

In recent weeks, Mr. Shahbandar said in an interview, Iraq has stepped up its intelligence-sharing with the Syrian regime. The findings, he said, is that many of the same al Qaeda-linked militants are active in both countries and frequently travel back and forth. "We have names on our wanted list that disappear for a while and then resurface in Syria, and vice versa," he said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks. But in an audio message posted on jihadist websites on Sunday, a speaker who characterized himself as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda's Iraq affiliate, warned the Iraqi government of "a new phase in the struggle" that will "rock your seats of power."

The speaker, identified by the pseudonym Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, said his fighters were invigorated by the conflict in Syria. He urged Iraq's Sunni tribes—which dominate provinces bordering Syria, such as Anbar and Nineveh—to join the jihad, or holy war, to topple the "infidel" Shiite-led government in Iraq.

Monday's attacks amounted to Iraq's worst spate of violence since U.S. combat troops withdrew at the end of last year. They targeted mainly security forces and other symbols of law and order. Multiple bombs in cars—some parked, others commanded by suicide bombers—were used to strike Iraqi army and police convoys and patrols in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh, said Iraqi security officials.

In one of the most brazen attacks, gunmen equipped with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and hand grenades descended at dawn on an army outpost in a remote desert area known as Udhaim. The area, north of Baghdad, was until the launch of a sweeping U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign in 2008 a stronghold for al Qaeda fighters and other militants.

The assailants killed at least 16 soldiers, according to witnesses, senior Iraqi army officers and medics in the city of Kirkuk, to the north, where most of the casualties were taken.

"It was worse than 2008," said Kawa Hassan, a soldier who survived the assault. The militants were shouting "God is greatest," as they attacked, he said.

The attacks add a new wrinkle to the troubled relationship between Iraq's Shiite leaders and the Syrian opposition. They have accused Mr. Maliki of allowing weapons to pass from Iran to support President Bashar al-Assad, a charge denied by Baghdad, which has taken pains so far to maintain neutrality in the Syrian conflict.

Earlier Monday, in what appeared to be a concession to powerful Sunni tribes along the border with Syria, Mr. Maliki instructed Iraq's Red Crescent and the country's security forces to expedite preparations for any possible flow of Syrian refugees into Iraq

Iraq's leaders also have a rocky relationship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Shahbandar said he is close with Mr. Assad. But he and other politicians say Iraq's Shiite leaders still haven't forgiven Mr. Assad for what they say was his role in allowing foreign fighters to stream into Iraq from Syria after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation.

Yet Iraq's leaders now feel compelled to collaborate with him in what they see as a sectarian assault on both countries. These leaders believe that Sunni powers in the region, led by the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, want to topple the Damascus and Baghdad governments by all means, including tacit support for jihadists operating in both countries.

In the Middle East, where such divisions run deep, the line is thin between such perceptions and reality. "I am 100% sure what happened today is linked to what's happening in Syria," said Ali Karim, 67, a resident of the largely Shiite Sadr City. "It's an all-out war against Shiites everywhere."

Iraq's government has been in a state of high alert since last Wednesday, when a bombing in the Syrian capital killed four senior figures in the regime of President Assad. Military reinforcements were dispatched to the Syrian border to the west as Syrian rebel fighters took over two out of the three border crossings from the Syrian side, triggering clashes with pro-Assad forces.

As of Monday, senior Iraqi officials said that the Syrian regime was in control of two border crossings. These are Rabiah-Yaroubiyah west of Mosul and Al-Waleed-Tanaf in southwestern Iraq. Rebels still appear to be in control of the Al Bukamal crossing west of Iraq.

In one attack in Nineveh province near the Syrian border, a suicide bomber driving a tanker truck detonated his payload against the civil-defense unit of the local police.

In Baghdad and surrounding areas, the deadliest attacks were in predominantly Shiite areas, such as the town of Taji to the northwest and the Sadr City district of the capital. In Taji, a complex attack of car bombs and roadside bombs targeting two housing and commercial compounds killed and wounded dozens of people and gutted homes and shops.

In Sadr City, a car bomb parked outside a government office that issues national IDs and is located on a busy commercial street that was packed with shoppers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 12 people were killed there.

Later Monday, a car bomb on Baghdad's west side targeted the convoy of a general in the police force, killing him and wounding five others, according to a Ministry of Interior official.

The bloodshed coincided with Ramadan, a period of daylight fasting and prayers that started Saturday for most adherents of the Shiite branch of Islam, which accounts for the majority of Iraq's population. For most Sunni Muslims around the world, including in Iraq, the first day of Ramadan was Friday.

In Kirkuk and surrounding areas, eight car bombs targeting mostly police convoys and patrols killed at least nine people and wounded 32, according to Col. Sherzad Arif, a commander in one of the local police units.

In the predominantly Sunni northern city of Mosul near the Syrian border, two suicide car bombers detonated their payloads in the path of joint army and police patrols, killing at least seven people, according to a security official in the city.

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Twitter's Improvement Plan

Dick Costolo For Twitter

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Dick Costolo on Monday outlined priorities for making the short-messaging service more useful—efforts that could also put the company into increasing conflict with its allies.

In a meeting with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Costolo said Twitter is working to expand a fledgling plan to help its users make sense of blasts of messages that are concentrated around major events and sports, essentially building up more of a presence around live "tentpole"-like events.

Twitter is also trying to make it easier for third parties, such as conference organizers, to organize Twitter posts around smaller-scale gatherings.

At the same time, the six-year-old company, which allows people to post online 140-character messages called tweets, plans to become a more hospitable place for companies to build features that Twitter can't or won't adopt on its own, such as in-depth analysis of sentiment contained in tweets, said Mr. Costolo. The push would make Twitter more of a "platform," much as developers create applications for Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. devices.

In its events push, Mr. Costolo said Twitter is vying to "more closely tie the shared experience on Twitter to the actual event that is happening." As Twitter burnishes its platform, Mr. Costolo added that Twitter also wants to move away from companies that "build off of Twitter, to a world where people build into Twitter."

The efforts are part of Twitter's continuing mission to increase its service's usage and to build its business. Twitter executives still fight a perception that the service is only for tech geeks or narcissists, and there remain doubts about how big the San Francisco company can grow.

Facebook long ago managed to solve those problems and has more than 900 million active monthly users world-wide and more than $3.7 billion in annual revenue. Twitter has more than 140 million monthly active users and analysts project it will generate less than $300 million in revenue this year.

User growth is key to justify Twitter's $8.4 billion valuation, and pave the way to an initial public offering in a year or so.

Mr. Costolo, a former Google Inc. executive who was appointed Twitter CEO in 2010, has been doing this by expanding advertising personnel and sales, building the executive ranks and pushing the service to be more reliable.

Mr. Costolo said he tells employees, "We need to narrow the gap between awareness of Twitter and engagement of Twitter."

Twitter's goal of making sense of the tweet flood could put the company into more direct competition with media companies that also edit and prioritize news and information, and sell ads to people who come looking for the information. Twitter's Olympics events page, for example, could steal viewership or readership from Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal.

Mr. Costolo played down the competition and said Twitter is a "technology company in the media business." 

As Twitter works to become a platform, it has put limits on firms creating services that are similar to what Twitter already offers, such as allowing people to write and publish tweets, or that move people to non-Twitter websites. Mr. Costolo reiterated that Twitter will soon explain further restrictions. Some developers say they don't know where Twitter will draw the line between services that mimic or rival what Twitter already does and new features that expand Twitter.

Mr. Costolo also said Twitter is performing well in the fast-growing mobile industry. Some big advertisers have questioned the effectiveness of social media ads, and Web giants such as Google and Facebook have run into hurdles translating their online advertising success to mobile devices, where ad size is smaller and marketers are wary.

"We don't have any problem, we don't think, monetizing Twitter. Period," Mr. Costolo said.

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Wipro Profits Rises 18.4%

BANGALORE -- Wipro Ltd. Tuesday reported a lower-than-expected rise in its quarterly net profit and echoed its rival Infosys Ltd. by forecasting weaker growth at its outsourcing division, suggesting a slowdown in technology investments worldwide.

India's third-largest software exporter by sales said it expects revenue at its outsourcing division to be flat or at best grow 2% sequentially in the July-September period, as the weak economic climate continues to outweigh the company's efforts to turn around the unit.

The weak outlook pushed down Wipro's shares as much as 4.3% to 341 rupees--its lowest level in nine months--before paring losses to trade down 3.3% at 344.75 rupees, while the benchmark Sensex was up 0.3% at 0440 GMT.

Wipro's performance comes amid a "volatile environment" in the global economy, T.K. Kurien, executive director and chief executive of the outsourcing division said in a statement.The Bangalore-based company's outlook is in line with second-ranked Infosys, which earlier this month halved its annual revenue guidance citing a contraction in technology investments by clients. However, market leader Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is confident of outpacing the outsourcing industry's sales growth estimate of 11%-14% for the year.

The New York- and Mumbai-listed company said its net profit rose more than 18% to 15.80 billion rupees ($282 million) in the April-June period, compared with 13.35 billion rupees a year earlier. Profit grew 6.7% sequentially.

Sales rose more than 24% to 106.20 billion rupees, up 8% from the previous three months.

The average of forecasts from 23 analysts in a poll was for a net profit of 15.99 billion rupees on revenue of 105.47 billion rupees.

Wipro expects revenue of $1.52 billion-$1.55 billion from its outsourcing division in the quarter that began on July 1, compared with a sequential decline of 1.4% to $1.52 billion in April-June.

Operating margin at the outsourcing division expanded to 21% from 20.7% in the previous three months, aided by a near-8% average fall in the value of the Indian rupee against the dollar.

Wipro restructured the operations of Wipro Technologies--the outsourcing division that accounts for three-fourths of its revenue--at the beginning of last year hoping to accelerate its growth by the end of the year. However, the euro zone's debt woes at the end of last year derailed Wipro's efforts.

The company also has a consumer-care and lighting-product business.

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A Mermaid In Hamburg, Germany

This giant mermaid sculpture was sitting the central Alster River of Hamburg, Germany, although we get this feeling it isn’t there anymore. Because mermaids come and go.


   What Do You Make Out Of It?

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