Thứ Hai, 25 tháng 2, 2008

Pakistan attacks hit aid group, military HQ

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Gunmen fired on a children's aid group in Pakistan's tribal region Monday, leaving three staffers dead and at least one critically injured, the organization said.
And earlier Monday a suicide bomber struck Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi Monday, killing at least eight people, including the army's top ranking medical officer and himself, military officials said.
Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, the army surgeon-general, was among those killed in the blast in Rawalpindi, the officials said.
The non-governmental organization, Plan, said that at around 4:15 p.m. up to a dozen men carrying guns and grenades entered the office in Mansehra, in the North West Frontier Province -- Pakistan's lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The gunmen began firing and detonated three explosive devices.
Video from the scene showed the building engulfed in smoke and flames as staffers tried to escape from windows. Others were carried out by hand or on stretchers. The fire destroyed the building.
Plan's chief executive, Tom Miller, said the office immediately shut down as security teams looked into the incident.
"Our primary concern is for our staff and the families of those hurt in the attack," Miller said in a written statement. The motive for the attack remains under investigation. Officials were not aware of any prior threats to the office, Plan spokesman Jon Slater told CNN.
Slater said 21 full-time and seven part-time employees work at the office, though it's unclear how many were present at the time of the attack. Most of the employees are locals.
Plan, which helps Pakistani communities provide education and other opportunities to children, has had a presence in the region for more than a decade. The group says it was deeply involved in the relief effort following a major earthquake in 2005 that left nearly 3 million people homeless.
At least 20 others were wounded in the Rawalpindi suicide bombing which happened along Mall Road, a heavily traveled thoroughfare in Rawalpindi, according to Pakistani officials. Watch the aftermath of the suicide bombing »
The government promoted Baig to lieutenant general last January and he assumed his role as army surgeon-general the following month, according to a news release at the time.
Baig, who graduated from a Lahore medical college, was an ophthalmologist.
Rawalpindi, which lies just outside Islamabad, is a closely guarded city and home to Pakistan's military headquarters. It has, in recent months, experienced several suicide bomb attacks -- including the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The government blames the attacks on militants operating out of the country's northwest tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
In early February, a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a van carrying army medics, killing at least four people.
Opposition leader and Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed at a rally in the city on December 27. A bomber blew himself up near her limousine, and videotape showed a gunman firing toward her vehicle as she left the rally.
Both the Pakistani government and British investigators concluded that she died from the suicide blast, not from a gunshot wound. Violent riots in the wake of her death forced the postponement of parliamentary elections.
The government contends that Bhutto's killing was orchestrated by Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban who has ties to al Qaeda. The CIA reached the same conclusion.
Two months before Bhutto's assassination, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the army headquarters -- which houses President Pervez Musharraf's office -- killing six people and wounding 10 others.
Musharraf who was inside his office at the time of the blast was not injured. Musharraf survived two assassination attempts in the city in 2003.
And in September, two suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing at least 25 people. One attack targeted a bus carrying government employees. The other involved a suicide bomber who crashed his motorcycle into cars.

Cousin: Dying woman twice was refused oxygen on flight

NEW YORK (AP) -- American Airlines defended its staff as professional and its equipment as sound Monday after a swift review of a passenger's in-flight death, despite her family's claims that the crew ignored her pleas until it was too late.
Carine Desir, 44, was pronounced dead Friday on a nearly full Haiti-to-New York flight by a pediatrician who said he tried to use the plane's defibrillator on her as she faded, but her pulse was already too weak for it to work.
The doctor, Joel Shulkin, was one of several medical professionals who stepped in after flight attendants asked if any were onboard. Shulkin said through his attorney, Justin Nadeau, that two emergency medical technicians performed CPR on Desir, a diabetic.
Sitting in the 10th row, four rows back from first class, Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty after she ate a meal on the flight home from Port-au-Prince to John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her and her brother. A flight attendant brought water to her, he said.
A few minutes later, Desir, herself a nurse, said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, Oliver said. But a flight attendant twice refused her request, he said. Watch CNN's Elizabeth Cohen on what kind of medical care air travelers can expect »
"Don't let me die," he recalled her saying. Watch Oliver recount his cousin's words »
Airline spokesman Charley Wilson said Desir's cousin flagged down a flight attendant and said Desir had diabetes and needed oxygen.
"The flight attendant responded, 'OK, but we usually don't need to treat diabetes with oxygen, but let me check anyway and get back to you,"' Wilson said.
The employee spoke with another flight attendant, and both went to Desir within three minutes, according to Wilson.
"By that time the situation was worsening, and they immediately began administering oxygen," he said.
Flight attendants are trained not to automatically give oxygen to every passenger who requests it but instead use airline criteria to judge when it's needed, said Leslie Mayo, a spokeswoman for the union representing American's attendants.
There were 12 oxygen tanks on the plane and the crew checked them before the flight took off to make sure they were working, Wilson said. He said at least two were used on Desir.
"Each tank worked properly. I cannot speculate as to why a second tank was used," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial flights to carry no fewer than two oxygen dispensers. The main goal of the rule is to have oxygen available in case there is a rapid cabin decompression, but it can also be used for other emergencies. It is up to the airlines to maintain the canisters.
Oliver said other passengers -- the 267-seat Airbus A300 was carrying 263, the airline said -- aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, and the flight attendant tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty. Shulkin could not confirm whether the oxygen was flowing, his attorney said.
"It was working, and the defibrillator was applied as well," Wilson said.
An automated external defibrillator delivers an electric shock to try to restore a normal heart rhythm if a particular type of irregular heart beat is detected. The machines cannot help in all cases.
Wilson and Shulkin said the defibrillator indicated Desir's heartbeat was too weak for the unit to work. Shulkin declined to provide additional detail, out of concern for Desir's family.
Oliver said he asked for the plane to "land right away so I can get her to a hospital," and the pilot agreed to divert to Miami, 45 minutes away. But during that time Desir collapsed and died, Oliver said.
"Her last words were, 'I cannot breathe,"' he said.
Wilson said three flight attendants helped Desir, but "stepped back" after doctors and nurses on the flight began to help her.
"Our crew acted very admirably. They did what they were trained to do, and the equipment was working," he said.
Desir was pronounced dead by Shulkin, and the flight continued to New York without stopping. Desir's body was moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said.
With Desir's body near the front bulkhead, all passengers left the plane through an exit behind the first-class section. Her body was then removed, Wilson said.
Desir died of complications from heart disease and diabetes, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.
FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said the agency's Federal Air Surgeon's office plans to discuss Desir's death with officials at Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp.

Killer apologizes, asks jury to spare him

(CNN) -- A former police officer convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their unborn child tearfully apologized to her family Monday in front of the jury that will decide whether he lives or dies.

Bobby Cutts Jr. weeps openly as his mother describes his childhood during a sentencing hearing.

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"It was a nightmare that will continue to haunt me for the rest of my days," said Bobby Cutts, Jr., 30, reading from a prepared statement at the penalty phase of his murder trial.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm asking you to spare my life."
Cutts was convicted on February 15 of the murder of girlfriend Jessie Marie Davis and the aggravated murder of the unborn girl Davis had planned to name Chloe.
Chloe's slaying, which jurors found occurred during the commission of another crime, makes Cutts eligible for the death penalty
"To imagine that I was responsible for the death of Jessie, the mother of my children and my unborn daughter, is beyond any words that I can express," Cutts said. "Words cannot bring them back, nor can they erase the pain I've caused, but I want to apologize." Watch Cutts' tearful apology »
He thanked Davis' family for taking care of the other child he had with Davis. Blake was 2½ at the time of his mother's murder in June 2007.
"I pray that you find peace and you someday find room for forgiveness," he said.
Earlier, Cutts' mother, Renee, Jones, had told jurors, "I don't know what I would do without him." She described Cutts as a former honor student who loved his job as a police officer.
"He was my firstborn, my only son," Jones testified tearfully. "He means so much to me," she continued. "He used to call me three, four times a day." Watch Cutts react as his mother pleads for his life
Cutts' punishment is being decided by the same jury of six men and six women who found him guilty. All the jurors are white; Cutts is African-American.
Cutts' sister, father and one of his school teachers also testified.
Judge Charles E. Brown ordered jurors to return early Tuesday for attorneys' closing arguments. When they arguments conclude, jurors will begin their deliberations.
If jurors do not agree on the death penalty, Cutts could receive a possible sentence of life in prison without parole or become eligible for parole in 20, 25 or 30 years.
Jones, was the first witness called to the stand by the defense. She said her son was a good youngster who was active in sports, Scouts and his church.
"I never had any trouble out of him," she said as Cutts teared up at the defense table. She said Cutts' relationship with his father deteriorated after the parents split.
A former teacher described Cutts as a social child given the nickname "Gobble" by his classmates. He was helpful in class, often volunteering to pick stray crayons up from the floor.
His father testified that he gave Cutts the nickname "Gobble" because as an infant he resembled " a little Butterball turkey." He said Cutts was a "gifted child" in school.
He blamed himself for the break up of his marriage, saying his drinking and gambling contributed to it.
Cutts' own personal life was rocky, according to testimony. Davis was nine months pregnant when she disappeared in June 2007. Her body was found in a northeastern Ohio park after a 10-day search that brought national media attention
He is Blake's father, as well as the father of the unborn girl, Chloe.
According to testimony, Cutts, 30, rolled Davis' body in a comforter and dumped it in a park, leaving toddler son Blake in the house alone at the crime scene in a soiled diaper.
"Mommy's in the rug," Blake told police, according to testimony.
During the guilt phase of the trial, Cutts sobbed on the witness stand as he admitted killing Davis and Chloe. But Cutts insisted that their deaths were an accident.
"I didn't mean to hurt her," Cutts testified, clasping a handful of tissues. "This isn't real," he said he kept telling himself.
Prosecutors discounted Cutts' story, claiming he buckled under the financial pressure of child support, killed the mother of his child and then created a cover story to try to get away with it.
On the stand, Cutts said he went to pick up his son, Blake, and became agitated when Davis, 26, wasn't moving fast enough to get the boy ready. He said he tried to leave her house, but she grabbed him to keep him from leaving, and he accidentally elbowed her in the throat.
Cutts told the jury he performed CPR on Davis and then tried to revive her with bleach. When he realized Davis was dead, Cutts said he panicked and put her in the back of his truck, so Blake wouldn't have to see his mother. E-mail to a friend
All About Murder and HomicideCriminal Trials

Thứ Bảy, 23 tháng 2, 2008

Compound Paths

The Compound Paths command enables us to create paths that have transparent interior spaces where the original objects overlapped (such as the interiors of the letters o and g). This method lets us create objects more complex than we could easily create using the Drawing tools or Pathfinder commands.
Compound paths act as grouped objects. To select part of a compound path, we must use the Direct-selection tool.
Once we define objects as a compound path, all objects in the compound path take on the paint attributes of the backmost object in the stacking order. Releasing the compound path does not reapply the objects' previous paint attributes.
To apply Compound paths to objects
Select object > Compound Path > Make or Ctrl + 8 (Windows) or Command + 8 (Mac OS). To remove the effect
Select object > Compound Path > Release or Ctrl + Alt + 8 (Windows) or Command + Option + 8 (Mac OS).

Spiral tool

Spiral tool creates a spiral-shaped object of a given radius and number of winds; that is, the number of WS that the spiral completes from start to finish.
0% the pointer in an arc to rotate the spiral. Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees or bt* angle specified in the Constrain Angle text box in the General Preferences dialog box. Hold down the Pcebar to move the spiral. Press or hold down Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or delete winds.
On *Wg the work area the Spiral options dialog box pops see. Figure 5.12 and specifying the dimensions INN Spiral dialog box can draw a spiral of a specified dimension.

Shapes Tools

Rectangle tool
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The rectangle tool is used to draw rectangles and squares. To draw a rectangle simply click and drag. And to draw a square, hold down the Shift key and drag. To create an object with a proper dimension, select the rectangle tool and click on the artboard. In the dialog box, specify the required dimensions.
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Ellipse tool
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The oval tool is used to draw ovals and circles. To draw a oval simply click and drag. And to draw a Circle, hold down the Shift key and drag. To create an object with a proper dimension, select the ellipse tool and click on the artboard. In the dialog box, specify the required dimensions.
Line and arc segments
The line and arc segment tools are used to quickly and easily create individual lines and arcs by dragging,
The Line and Arc Segment dialog boxes display the values of the last segment created. We can reset to the default values in the dialog box by pressing Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and clicking Reset.

Web Safe RG B

This is not a color model in itself but a small collection of RGB colors 216 to be exact that can be safely viewed without dithering on the World Wide Web. If you're designing artwork for the Web, you will have to wk with this palette to ensure that your artwork appears as intended.