17 Beheaded In A Ghastly Nightmare Across Afghanistan

KANDAHAR — Seventeen civilians were beheaded, 10 Afghan soldiers killed and two NATO troops shot dead in a new insider attack in a bloody few hours across Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

The civilians, including two women, were beheaded in a southern Afghanistan village in a region plagued by the Taliban insurgency.

"Last night 17 local villagers, two women and 15 men, were beheaded by unknown people in Kajaki district," Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial administration, told AFP.

"We don't know who was behind the killings at this time. We're investigating," Ahmadi said.

A senior police official in the province, Mohammad Ismael Hotak, confirmed the incident, giving a similar account.

Taliban insurgents are active in the troubled region and they have in the past been blamed for beheading local villagers, mostly over charges of spying for Afghan and US-led NATO forces.

Haji Musa Khan, a tribal elder in the neighbouring district of Musa Qala, said the region had seen a surge in such killings in recent months.

"We had three people beheaded during the month of Ramadan. Another person, the son of a tribal elder, was beheaded recently," he said.

Khan said the killings followed major military operations by Afghan and NATO troops in the area.

Hours later, an Afghan army soldier killed two NATO troops in a new "green-on-blue" insider attack, the US-led International Security Assistance Force said.

"A member of the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on ISAF forces, killing two ISAF service members in (eastern) Laghman province today," a spokesman told AFP.

"ISAF soldiers returned fire and killed the attacker."

The latest deaths take the toll from insider attacks this month alone to 12 and to a total of 42 this year, making up around 13 percent of all NATO deaths in 2012.

NATO has struggled to stem the attacks in which uniformed Afghans turn their weapons against their international allies and they have become a major issue in the Afghan war, eroding trust between the two forces.

Taliban insurgents claim responsibility for many of the attacks, but NATO attributes most to cultural differences, stress and personal animosity between Afghan troops and their international allies.

In a pre-dawn attack Monday, 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban insurgents overran their post in the troubled southern province of Helmand in what one official said was an insider attack.

Four soldiers were wounded and six others were missing following the attack in the province's Washir district, the senior police official Hotak told AFP.

Ahmadi, the Helmand provincial administration spokesman, confirmed the incident and said the attack was an "insider" plot in which some army soldiers helped the rebels attack the post.

"The Taliban attacked a post in Washir and killed 10 soldiers. Four other soldiers were wounded and five others have gone with the Taliban with their guns," he said.

Hotak could not confirm Ahmadi's account but said an investigation was underway.

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Details:'How Romney Turned The Tables On Obama In Recent Poll"

TAMPA — The Republican National Convention opens this week with President Obama and presumptive nominee Mitt Romney running evenly, with voters more focused on Obama’s handling of the nation’s flagging economy than on some issues dominating the political debate in recent weeks.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent — barely changed from the deadlocked contest in early July.

The findings continue a months-long pattern, with neither the incumbent nor the challenger able to sustain clear momentum, despite airing hundreds of millions of dollars in television ads — most of them negative — and exchanging some of the harshest early rhetoric seen in a modern presidential campaign.

Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate also did not fundamentally reshape the race, although the GOP’s conservative base has grown more enthusiastic about the ticket — but no more so about the chances of beating Obama in November.

Enthusiasm — or a lack thereof — will be on display as Republicans and Democrats hold their conventions over the next two weeks. The two parties will make their pitches to an electorate stuck in a deeply pessimistic mood. More than eight in 10 give the economy negative marks and nearly seven in 10 see the country as seriously off track — an assessment that has not changed significantly all year.

The Post-ABC survey highlights the dominance of the economy as an issue in the 2012 election. Seventy-two percent of voters say the president’s handling of the economy will be a “major factor” in their vote this November.

Fewer voters place great significance on other issues that have roiled the campaign, including newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate’s plan to restructure Medicare, differences between the parties on women’s issues and Romney’s handling of his tax returns.

The proposed Medicare changes included in Ryan’s budget proposal in the House have been a focus of sharp debate since he was picked by Romney two weeks ago, and the specific changes to the health-care program are viewed negatively by about two to one.

Though more focused on the economy, half of all voters still see the Wisconsin congressman’s plan as a big factor in their vote. That’s the same percentage that sees Democratic and Republican differences on women’s issues as playing a major factor. Women’s issues dominated the campaign over the past week because of the controversy that erupted over Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape” and the ability of women to “shut down” their bodies in such circumstances.

Just 20 percent see Romney’s handling of his tax returns as very important to their vote. The issue has attracted considerable attention, largely due to efforts by the Obama campaign and other Democrats to force the Republican candidate to release more than the two years of returns he has promised. On the substance of the issue, public opinion nearly matches the horse race: 47 percent of voters say releasing two years of tax information is sufficient, and 47 percent want more
.

Obama continues to get more negative reviews than positive ones for his handling of the economy, and there is tepid confidence that the economy would get back on track in a second Obama term. Majorities have disapproved of how Obama is dealing with issue No. 1 for more than two years, although his numbers have not further deteriorated, despite a string of weak jobs reports leading into the fall campaign season.

Romney now holds a slim, seven-point edge among registered voters when it comes to handling the economy, even as there is also limited faith that things would quickly get better if he was to win. Obama counters with an equivalent advantage over Romney when it comes to who is seen as having a better understanding the financial problems people are facing.

Obama’s campaign has spent freely to portray Romney as a businessman more interested in profits than creating jobs, and one who enriched himself even as his company, Bain Capital, was closing companies and shedding jobs. In the new poll, nearly six in 10 voters say Romney, as president, would do more to help the wealthy than the middle class. For Obama the numbers are basically reversed, with about six in 10 saying he does more to help the middle class.

The president’s advantage in helping the middle class is key and gives him some push-back when it comes to voters’ views on the size of government. By 54 percent to 36 percent, voters are more apt to say that unfairness in the economic system is a bigger problem than government overregulation of the private sector. By a similar split, voters prefer a smaller government to a larger one and overwhelmingly see Obama as favoring a more robust role for Washington.

On 13 issues and attributes tested in the poll, Obama has double-digit leads among voters on three: social issues, women’s issues and being more friendly and likable. On that last attribute, likability, Obama’s lead is a still-dominant 34 percentage points — 61 percent to 27 percent.

In addition to his narrow edge on the economy, Romney has a clear edge when it comes to dealing with the federal budget deficit. On all the others, the two are about even or one is ahead by an insignificant margin.

Another indicator of why the race for the White House remains so close is the public’s judgment of Obama’s overall performance. In this latest poll, his approval rating is 50 percent positive, 46 percent negative among all Americans. Among registered voters, 47 percent saying they approve and 50 percent say they disapprove.

The near-even appraisal continues to put Obama in a tenuous position for reelection — neither strong enough to virtually ensure victory nor low enough to presage a loss.

Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush also had a 50 percent approval rating at this time in 2004. And it is Bush who provides a boost to Obama now — more than half of all voters see Bush, not Obama, as the one more responsible for the economic challenges the country faces.

The president has other advantages, too. On the choice of whether to create jobs by cutting taxes or enacting more government spending programs, spending holds a 14-point advantage among voters. Even among those who would prefer a smaller government, more than a third say spending is a better way for the government to try to spur job growth, as opposed to tax cuts.

One advantage that Obama held in previous polls — a big lead on enthusiasm — is no longer evident. In the new poll, 48 percent of Obama’s backers say they are “very enthusiastic” about his candidacy, compared with 42 percent of Romney backers who feel that way about the Republican’s campaign — a difference that is not statistically significant. Obama had a 13-point edge in July in this measure; his lead was 25 points in May.

Newfound enthusiasm for Romney probably stems in part from his selection of Ryan as his running mate. Very conservative voters overwhelmingly approve of his pick and are now more likely to be “definite” GOP voters. For the first time, enthusiasm among conservative voters who back Romney rivals that of liberals for Obama.

The latest poll points to demographic divisions that have defined the Obama-vs.-Romney contest all year. Prominent among them are a gender gap, with 49 percent of female voters backing Obama and 43 percent supporting Romney, while men break 51 percent to 42 percent in favor of Romney. White voters break for Romney by 18 percentage points; non-whites go for Obama by better than three to one.

The telephone poll was conducted Wednesday through Saturday among a random national sample of 1,002 adults, including 857 registered voters. The margin of sampling error for both samples is plus or minus four percentage points.

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Armstrong's Small Step Was A Giant Leap For Humanity

WASHINGTON • When man first harnessed fire, no one recorded it. When the Wright Brothers showed man could fly, only a handful of people witnessed it. But when Neil Armstrong took that first small step on the moon in July 1969, an entire globe watched in grainy black-and-white from a quarter million miles away

We saw it. We were part of it. He took that "giant leap for mankind" for us.

Although more than half of the world's population wasn't alive then, it was an event that changed and expanded the globe.

"It's a human achievement that will be remembered forever," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of space policy at George Washington University. Those first steps were beamed to nearly every country around the world, thanks to a recently launched satellite. It was truly the first global mass media event, Logsdon said. About 600 million people — 1 out of every 5 on the planet — watched.

The two historical events likely to be long remembered from the 20th century are the moon landing and the first atomic bomb, said Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius.

"There is no way to overestimate that significance in human history, and he is forever linked to that," Launius said of Armstrong, who died Saturday at age 82.

Just as the voyage of Christopher Columbus split historic eras 500 years ago, so will Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11, said Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, a specialist in 20th-century history.

"We may be living in the age of Armstrong," said Brinkley, who conducted oral histories for NASA, including sessions with Armstrong.

The late science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote that the Apollo 11 moon landing was "one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."

Since that day, there's been a common phrase: "If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we ... ?" with the blank filled with a task that seems far less difficult.

Armstrong's small step was that leap in confidence telling the world "if we can do this, we can do anything," said Howard McCurdy, a professor of space and public policy at American University and author of the book "Space and the American Imagination."

"He took something that 20 years earlier was pure fantasy and turned it into reality, and if we could do that for space we could do it for anything," McCurdy said Saturday.

The Apollo 11 moon landing was the finish line in a decade-long space race started by the Soviet Union. And so the first steps on the moon coming from an American civilian had many meanings. Getting there first showed American technological superiority, but Armstrong mentioned mankind — not Americans — demonstrating that this was a moment for the people of Earth, McCurdy said.

Armstrong and Aldrin left a plaque on the moon that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

For all mankind. And that's how the world took it.

"The success for America (is a) success for every living man," reported the Swahili-language newspaper Nguromo of Dar.

And if that wasn't enough, Armstrong and Aldrin also left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in pursuit of space.

"It was special and memorable, but it was only instantaneous because there was work to do," Armstrong told an Australian television interviewer this year.

The Cold War may have slightly muted the significance of the event at the time, but over the years, the importance of the moon landing has only grown, Logsdon said.

It is permeated into culture. The moon landing is in movies, television, books, songs, and it was even Michael Jackson's signature dance step. That's probably because in some ways that moonwalk touched something that has been hard-wired into humanity: the need to explore. For 25,000 years, humans have been migrating and pushing into new places. Armstrong took it to new heights.

John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, noted it was "the first time any human being set foot on a place other than Earth, and that's a pretty big step.

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Quake Of 7.4 Magnitude Hits Off El Salvador Coast-USGS

Aug 27 (Reuters) - A major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit in the Pacific Ocean about 78 miles (125 km) off the coast of El Salvador late Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

No destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is expected, and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

The center said, however, that although it did not know if a tsunani had been generated, a warning was in effect for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico.

The earthquake struck 74 miles (120 km) south of Usulutan, El Salvador, at a depth of 33 miles, the Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage to coastal areas or to shipping.

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More Than 320 People Killed In Dariya,Syria

Covered bodies fill a mass grave reported to be in Dariya, Syria, where hundreds of people have been killed.

BEIRUT — Bloodied bodies lay strewn in the streets, in basements and even in the cemetery in the besieged Damascus suburb of Dariya, site of what may be the largest mass killing to date in more than 17 months of fighting in Syria, according to opposition and pro-government accounts Sunday.

Video posted Sunday on the Internet purported to show groups of victims in Dariya being buried in a mass grave, a deep trench several yards long.

"We are finding bodies everywhere. What has happened in Dariya is the most appalling of what has happened in the revolution till now, what has happened in Syria till now," said an opposition activist who goes by the name Abu Kinan for security reasons. "The smell of death is everywhere."

At least 320 people have been killed in Dariya, a working-class town southwest of the capital, since the military launched an assault on the suburb five days ago, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group opposed to President Bashar Assad.

The killings reported in Dariya contributed to a death toll Saturday that topped 400 throughout Syria, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition umbrella coalition. It appears to be the largest single-day death toll reported to date in the conflict. The group reported more than 200 people killed Sunday.

The numbers could not be independently confirmed. The government has accused the opposition of exaggerating death tolls and inventing massacres in a bid to discredit the armed forces.

According to United Nations figures, at least 17,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since antigovernment protests broke out in March 2011. The opposition puts the death toll at more than 20,000.

Verifying casualty counts in Syria has become more difficult with the departure of United Nations monitors, who had visited some previous massacre sites and provided confirmation of the numbers killed and injured. With the U.N. monitoring mission over, there was little prospect Sunday of any independent investigation into the killings in Dariya. The Syrian government places severe restrictions on media coverage.

Opposition advocates blamed government troops and plainclothes militiamen for the killings. The government blamed "terrorists," its usual term for armed rebels.

The opposition says many victims in Dariya, previously a stronghold of rebels seeking to oust Assad, were executed after pro-government forces entered the town Friday. Others were killed in shelling or shot by snipers, the opposition says.

Opposition activists said many victims were taken prisoner by government forces and executed in basements. In one grisly discovery Saturday, more than 120 bodies were found in one basement, activists said.

According to opposition activists, more than 100 additional bodies were discovered Sunday as government forces withdrew to the town's outskirts and residents were able to begin searching more thoroughly.

Most victims were men, but many women and children were also among the dead, the opposition said.

Even the pro-government Syrian TV channel Addounia showed images of residents who had apparently been killed in the midst of seemingly routine daily activities. The station aired footage of a girl killed on a street, a man fallen from his motorcycle, and several bodies at a cemetery.

"As we have become accustomed, every time we enter an area that has terrorists, they have committed crimes and killings in the name of freedom," the Addounia reporter said in her report.

As the camera scanned behind her and got closer on a man shot to death in the driver's seat of a blue pickup truck, she added, "This is their doctrine and this is how they think."

The Addounia footage from Dariya that aired Sunday showed bloodied bodies on streets, in homes and scattered in a cemetery. Many victims appeared to be women and children. The members of one entire family executed in their home were shot because they didn't support the "terrorists," a soldier told the station's reporter.

On Sunday, the army returned to some Dariya neighborhoods that had been raided the day before, leading to the deaths of additional residents, said Abu Kinan, the opposition activist.

The government onslaught against Dariya began last week when regime forces began shelling from tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, according to opposition activists. It was the latest in what the opposition calls a methodical attempt to retake and punish rebel-held neighborhoods in Damascus and surrounding suburbs. The assault on Dariya and other suburbs followed an uprising last month that saw intense combat in many parts of the city.

The Syrian military eventually crushed the rebellion in the capital districts. The army then moved its focus to outlying areas such as Dariya.

After fighters with the Free Syrian Army, the rebel umbrella group, withdrew from the town Friday night, soldiers accompanied by shabiha militia members stormed in, opposition groups said. They raided homes and arrested many, taking prisoners to the basements of empty buildings where they were shot execution-style, according to opposition accounts.

Before Dariya, the opposition said, dozens were killed in Moadamyeh al-Sham, another Damascus suburb, and on Sunday military forces were reported to be moving toward the nearby town of Ajdaideh, the opposition said.

The pro-government Addounia channel, reporting on the violence in the Damascus suburbs, aired a surreal sequence in which a reporter, standing in the cemetery where fresh corpses were tossed about, announced the discovery of a woman shot but "clinging to life." The camera cut to a woman lying on the ground, her head resting on a shattered stone grave marker, her hands bloody from her wound.

"I was heading to Damascus with my husband and children and suddenly I found myself like this," explained the wounded woman, who said that her husband worked for state security and that she didn't know what had happened to him or her three children.

"Who hit you, ma'am? Tell us," the reporter said.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't remember anything, I don't remember, except that I was shot."

Once the brief interview was over, army soldiers arrived and took the wounded woman away on a stretcher.

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Analysis: "How Apple Overwhelmed Samsung's Patent Case Tactics"

(Reuters) - In August 2010, just a few months after Samsung Electronics launched its Galaxy smartphone, a team of Apple Inc lawyers flew to South Korea.

Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, had already told Samsung executives at a meeting earlier that summer that he considered the Galaxy S, based on Google's Android operating system, an illegal copy of the iPhone. But given the extensive business ties between the two companies - Samsung is one of Apple's key component suppliers - a negotiated solution seemed most likely.

The Apple attorneys were blunt: "Android is designed to lead companies to imitate the iPhone product design and strategy," read the second slide in their presentation.

But the meeting did not go well, according to a person familiar with the case. Samsung attorneys bristled at being accused of copying, and produced a set of their own patents that they said Apple was using without permission.

The meeting brought to the fore a fundamental disagreement between the two companies, and set the stage for a bitter, multi-country patent dispute that led to Friday's U.S. jury verdict that Samsung had violated Apple's patents. The jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, which could be tripled as the jury found Samsung acted willfully.

Samsung could now face a costly ban on sales of key smartphone and tablet products. Shares in Samsung - the world's biggest technology firm by revenue - tumbled more than 7 percent on Monday, set for its biggest daily percentage drop in nearly four years, wiping $12 billion off its market value.

Samsung says it will seek to overturn the decision, and the worldwide patent battles among tech giants are hardly over. But for now at least the decision in what was widely seen as a critical case promises to re-set the competitive balance in the industry.

The vast majority of patent disputes settle before trial, particularly between competitors. In this case, though, the stakes were just too high - and the two companies ultimately had very different views of the often murky legal issues.

Samsung believed its wireless communications patents were strong and valuable, and would serve as a counter-weight to any Apple showing of infringement, people close to the case say.

The South Korean company also didn't believe Apple could or should be allowed to claim patent protection on design elements like the form of a rectangle, or the front flat surface embodied on the iPhone.

Apple, for its part, considered its feature and design patents to be very high up on the intellectual property food chain - and demonstrating their validity was critical to a much wider war against Android.

The two companies never came close to settling their differences, according to courtroom testimony, trial evidence and interviews with several sources close to the case.

And when it came to the trial, Samsung's lawyers miscalculated in arguing that a verdict for Apple would harm competition in the marketplace. The jurors, led by a foreman who holds his own patent, were more persuaded by Apple's pleas to protect innovation. For them, it ultimately wasn't even a close call.

A spokesman for Samsung in Seoul had no immediate comment.

CORDIAL BUT ADAMANT

Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, revolutionizing the mobile phone market. But later that year Google, then still an ally of Apple's, unveiled the Open Handset Alliance, with the aim of distributing its Android smartphone software to all-comers.

Google's open approach quickly caught on among manufacturers looking to compete with Apple. The strategy infuriated Jobs, and by 2009 relations between the two companies had soured and Google's then-CEO, Eric Schmidt, left Apple's board. Jobs' biographer famously quotes him as accusing Google of "grand theft" and vowing to "go to thermonuclear war" over the issue.

In January 2010, Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC Corp launched a touch screen, Android-based smartphone that sported features very similar to the iPhone. Apple sued in March of that year, and the Android smartphone patent wars were on.

HTC, though, was a minor player compared with Samsung.

After the cordial but failed August 2010 meeting, attorneys from Apple and Samsung talked in a series of meetings both in South Korea, California and elsewhere in the United States.

Apple's attorneys set to work putting a price tag on a royalty demand. By October 2010, they had concluded that Samsung should pay $24 per smartphone, and $32 per tablet. Based on Samsung's own estimation of its profits, Apple's royalty payments would effectively wipe out more than half of Samsung's margins on any phone priced less than $450.

And, Apple's offer wouldn't have covered the "unique user experience" patents Apple holds dear. "We made that clear," said Apple licensing chief Boris Teksler.

By the end of 2010, the meetings stopped as the two sides were too far apart.

VIEWED AS RIP-OFF

Apple hoped its relationship with Samsung would make filing an actual lawsuit unnecessary. Yet instead of wilting under Apple's pressure, Samsung instead pressed its own patent claims, including a critical one relating to how mobile products send and receive information over wireless networks.

Samsung eventually would request a 2.4 percent royalty on those patents, or $14.40 per device.

But Samsung had committed to license its wireless patents on fair terms to competitors over the years, in exchange for the technology becoming part of the industry standard. Courts have generally been reluctant to bar companies from using such "standards essential" patents, and thus they are often less valuable than other types of intellectual property.

Then, in early 2011, Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1. To Apple, it was a clear rip-off of the iPad, and showed Samsung had no intention of modifying its products.

Apple sued Samsung in a San Jose, California federal court in April 2011, saying the Korean company "slavishly" copied its designs. Samsung quickly counter sued, and the dispute bled into at least 10 courts around the world, including Australia and South Korea.

Over the next year, outside law firms hired by both companies racked up thousands of billable hours around the world, but no decisive rulings threatened either side. Jobs passed away in October 2011, and Cook carried on the litigation, filed "reluctantly," he said.

Until recently it had mostly been a see-saw battle. Apple largely succeeded in thwarting HTC. But earlier this year a federal judge in Chicago threw out a case pitting Apple against Google's Motorola Mobility unit, saying neither side could prove damages.

For Apple, the California lawsuit against Samsung took on even more urgency as it sought to prove the basic validity of its iPhone and iPad patent claims.

It scored its first serious victory in the San Jose court when U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued two sales bans: one against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the other against the Galaxy Nexus phone. In her ruling on the tablet, Koh said Samsung had the right to compete, "but does not have right to compete unfairly."

Yet Koh repeatedly urged the two sides to settle. Last month, Cook and his Samsung counterpart Choi Gee-sung participated in one last mediation in an attempt to stave off the impending U.S. trial.

They couldn't agree. Besides the dispute over the "standards essential" patents, Samsung believes it has a stronger patent portfolio than Apple when it comes to next-generation technology like 4G. [ID:nL2E8INE3P]

OUT OF TIME

The trial began on July 30. Apple presented top executives who testified in coherent narratives, and revealed damaging internal Samsung documents that showed the company modifying its products to be more like the iPhone.

Samsung's case was far less slick. Koh gave both sides 25 hours of trial time, but Samsung lawyers used up too much time in the beginning and couldn't cross examine some Apple witnesses towards the end. Samsung employees testified through interpreters, or in video depositions that alienated jurors.

"Instead of witnesses, they sent you lawyers," Apple attorney Harold McElhinny said during his closing argument.

And while Samsung's own patents were a major part of behind-the-scenes negotiations, at trial its lawyers struggled to present them on an equal footing with Apple's intuitively comprehensible design and feature patents.

Samsung could have opted for a separate trial on its patents, but declined. Its lawyers may have believed that placing its own allegations in front of the same jury would balance out any toxic impact from breaches of Apple patents.

It didn't work. Samsung violated six of Apple's patents, the jury said. Whether damages will be tripled is a decision for Koh in the coming weeks.

Samsung asked for up to $399 million on its standards patents. It got nothing.

Samsung has vowed to keep fighting. It could get an appeals court to delay any potential sales ban, which would give it time to bring new, modified products to the market.

But barring a reversal on appeal, Apple now has a clear verdict: how it values its intellectual property is more than just a theory.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

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Ashley Greene Wows With Her High Slit Dress

With September and its many red carpets (the MTV VMAs, the Emmys) right around the corner, we're itching for some gorgeous gowns.

So hooray for Ashley Greene for giving us a preview: the "Twilight" star hit the premiere of her new movie, "The Apparition," in an eye-grabbing fuchsia dress, complete with a strapless neckline and a ruffle-lined slit reaching all the way up her thigh. In the bright Donna Karan Atelier gown (Greene is a Donna Karan ambassador) and spiked Jimmy Choos to match, Greene was totally channeling Barbie.

Or Angelina Jolie. Is Greene bringing back the high-slit trend that bombarded red carpets worldwide after Angie struck her memorable 2012 Oscars pose? Say it ain't so, Ashley. We were looking forward to some exciting new trends for the fall red carpets... not more of everyone's left legs.

What do you think of the "Twilight" star's bombshell look -- too over-the-top Barbie or classic Hollywood glam?

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'Heart Disease' No-1 Killer In Women

When you hear the term 'Heart Disease,' what is your first reaction? Like many women, you may think, “That’s a man’s disease” or “Not my problem.”

 But here is The Heart Truth: Heart disease is the number one killer of women . Most women don’t know this. But it is vital that you know it—and know what it means for you.

One woman dies almost every minute from Heart Disease.Yet Studies Show that only 21%One woman view Heart Disease as Health Threat. 

Worldwide 8.6 million women die of heart disease each year, accounting for a third of all deaths in women. With all the risk factors common to men additionally use of Oral Contraceptive pills is there in women. So women should be educated about everything they need to know about their heart.

According to statistics, the mortality rate among women suffering from cardiovascular diseases is also higher than that of men across the world, including India. The main reason behind the increased mortality rate in women is the changes in lifestyle in metropolitan cities. In big cities women are working late shifts and more and more women are taking help of smoking and drinking to deal with the stress of personal and professional life.

                                                  'Risk Factors'

1) Non Modifiable : Age , Family history and sex.

2) Modifiable :
High blood pressure, High cholesterol, Obesity , smoking, Alcohol, Unhealthy Diet, Stress and depression, Sedentary lifestyle.

Following are the Risk Factors That Play a Bigger Role in Women.
These factors affect both men and women, but doctors are finding that they may have a bigger impact on women:

a) Diabetes. This in particular is a more potent risk factor for women. Women who have diabetes have a four to five times more elevated risk for heart disease.

b) Birth Control Pills : Studies show that women who use high-dose birth control pills are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke because blood clots are more likely to form in the blood vessels.
 Much of this information comes from studies of birth control pills containing higher doses of hormones than those commonly used today. Still, the risks of using low-dose pills are not fully known. 
Therefore, if you are now taking any kind of birth control pill or are considering using one, keep these guidelines in mind: Don’t mix smoking and “the pill.” If you smoke cigarettes, make a serious effort to quit. If you cannot quit, choose a different form of birth control.

SYMPTOMS
Unusual fatigue, Sleep disturbance , shortness of breath ,Indigestion , anxiety.

'You and Your Doctor: A Heart Healthy Partnership'

"ASK AND YOU GET!" Tell your doctor you want to keep your heart healthy and would like help in achieving that goal. Ask questions about your chances of developing heart disease and how you can lower your risk.
A wholistic approach combining Allopathy, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy , Naturopathy, Yoga , and Lifestyle modifications can save your heart.
                                                             
    If you eat a nutritious diet, engage in regular physical activity, maintain a healthy weight, and stop smoking, you will improve your heart health. No matter what heart disease risk factors you have—or how many—you will greatly benefit from taking action in these four areas. If you already have heart disease, you can lessen its severity by following this plan.

True, you may need to take other steps to prevent or control heart disease. For example, if you have diabetes, you also will need to keep your blood sugar levels under control. But following a heart healthy eating plan, controlling your weight ,and engaging in more physical activity will help you keep your blood sugar at healthy levels. These steps will also help reduce your chances of developing high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol.

So Women , lets respond with one voice to the health crises of womens heart disease by creating awareness amongst ourselves.

NEWS-"Actress Elizabeth Banks promotes American Heart Association campaigns to spread awareness of Heart Disease in Women, Their No-1 Killer".

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Tropical Storm Isaac Engulfs Florida And Moves Into Gulf

 KEY WEST, Fla. - Tropical Storm Isaac barely stirred Florida Keys residents from their fabled nonchalance Sunday, while the Gulf Coast braced for the possibility that the sprawling storm will strengthen into a dangerous hurricane by the time it makes landfall there.

At 11:00 p.m. ET, the center of the storm was located about 75 miles west-southwest of Key West and 510 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving west-northwest at about 15 mph. The storm had maximum sustained winds of around 65 mph. Isaac is expected to strengthen as it moves out over the open, warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

It was on course to strike land on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a powerful storm that crippled New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and became a symbol of government ineptitude. Isaac passed the Keys late Sunday before turning northwest, where forecasters have predicted it could strike as a Category 2 hurricane somewhere between New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for a large swath of the northern Gulf Coast from east of Morgan City, La. - which includes the New Orleans area - to Destin, Fla. A Category 2 hurricane has sustained winds of between 96 and 110 mph.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called a state of emergency and officials in St. Charles Parish near New Orleans told its 53,000 residents to leave ahead of the storm. Jindal also said he may skip a speaking engagement later this week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa unless the threat to his state subsides. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has also canceled his trip to the convention because of Isaac.

The projected path of Tropical Storm Isaac as of 11 p.m. Sunday evening

 (Credit: WFOR Miami)

Elected leaders' vigilance toward tropical storms has heightened in the seven years since Katrina struck. Criticism was leveled at officials reaching all the way to the White House over what was seen as the federal government's slow and bungled response to the storm that killed 1,800.

An emergency declaration was also issued in Mississippi by Gov. Phil Bryant amid concerns of storm surge threatening low-lying areas. Oil companies began evacuating workers from offshore oil rigs and cutting production in advance of Isaac.

The storm was on a course to pass west of Tampa, but it had already disrupted the Republicans' schedule there because of the likelihood of heavy rain and strong winds that extended more than 200 miles from its center.

Even before reaching hurricane strength, Isaac caused considerable inconvenience, with more than 550 flights canceled at Miami International Airport and about 150 from Fort Lauderdale's airport. There were scattered power outages from Key West to Fort Lauderdale affecting more than 16,000 customers, and flooding occurred in low-lying areas.

Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference Sunday evening that only minor damage was reported from Isaac.

Wind gusts of 60 mph were reported as far north as Pompano Beach, north of Fort Lauderdale. But while officials urged residents in southeast Florida to stay home, that recommendation was ignored by surfers and joggers on Miami Beach and shoppers at area malls.

In Key West, Emalyn Mercer rode her bike while decked out with a snorkel and mask, inflatable arm bands and a paddle, just for a laugh. She rode with Kelly Friend, who wore a wet suit, dive cap and lobster gloves.

"We're just going for a drink," Mercer said.

"With the ones that are brave enough like us," Friend added.

Along famed Duval Street, many stores, bars and restaurants closed, the cigar rollers and palm readers packed up, and just a handful of drinking holes remained open.

But people posed for pictures at the Southernmost Point, while at a marina Dave Harris and Robyn Roth took her dachshund for a walk and checked out boats rocking along the waterfront.

"Just a summer day in Key West," Harris said.

That kind of ho-hum attitude extended farther up the coast. Edwin Reeder swung by a gas station in Miami Shores - not for fuel, but drinks and snacks.

"This isn't a storm," he said. "It's a rain storm."

With a laugh, Reeder said he has not stocked up aside from buying dog and cat food.

The forecast wasn't funny, however. Isaac was expected to draw significant strength from the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but there remained much uncertainty about its path.

The Gulf Coast hasn't been hit by a hurricane since 2008, when Dolly, Ike and Gustav all struck the region. Florida, meanwhile, has been hurricane-free since it was struck four times each in 2004 and 2005.

Hurricane center forecasters are uncertain of the storm's path because two of their best computer models now track the storm on opposite sides of a broad cone. One model has Isaac going well west and the other well east. For the moment, the predicted track goes up the middle.

Florida Panhandle residents stocked up on water and gasoline, and at least one Pensacola store ran out of flashlight models and C and D batteries. Scott Reynolds, who lives near the water in Gulf Breeze, filled his car trunk with several cases of water, dozens of power bars and ramen noodles.

"Cigarettes - I'm stocking up on those too," he said.

Forecasters stressed that the storm's exact location remained extremely uncertain - a fact not lost on Tony Varnado as he cut sheets of plywood to board up his family's beach home on Pensacola Beach. With the storm's projected path creeping farther to the west, the Mandeville, La., resident joked he might be boarding up the wrong house.

"I'm going to head back that way as soon as we are done here to make sure we are prepared if hits there," he said.

Before reaching Florida, Isaac was blamed for seven deaths in Haiti and two more in the Dominican Republic, and downed trees and power lines in Cuba. It bore down on the Keys two days after the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than $25 billion in damage just north of the island chain.

In Tampa, convention officials said they would convene briefly on Monday, then recess until Tuesday afternoon, when the storm was expected to have passed. Scott canceled his plans to attend convention events on Sunday and Monday.

At Miami International Airport, more than 550 flights Sunday were canceled. Inside the American Airlines terminal, people craned for a look out of one of the doors as a particularly strong band of Isaac began lashing the airport with strong rain and high wind.

Michele Remillard said she was trying to get a seat on a flight to New Orleans, well aware the city could be affected by Isaac later this week. In coastal Plaquemines Parish, La., crews rushed to protect the levees that keep floodwaters from reaching that New Orleans suburb.

"It's a little scary," said Remillard, who was in town for a wedding. "But I need to get home, you know? And if the storm comes my way again, who knows, I might have to come back here."

Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 205 miles from the center, meaning storm conditions are possible even in places not in Isaac's direct path.

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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

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