Building used by CIA attacked in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) A building used by the CIA in Kabul came under attack Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the Afghan capital. Afghan authorities said gunfire was heard in the evening near the Ariana Hotel, a building that former U.S. intelligence officials said was the CIA station in Kabul. The CIA occupied the heavily secured building just blocks from the Afghan presidential palace in late 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. There was no immediate word on casualties. A U.S. official confirmed there was an attack on a facility used by American officials in Kabul. "The situation is fluid, and the investigation is ongoing," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Officials at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters nearby said they heard the gunfire, but did not have details about the incident. All the officials in Afghanistan spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The attack came two weeks after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings, killing seven Afghans. No embassy or NATO staff members were hurt in the 22-hour assault, but accusations over who was responsible have plunged U.S. relations with Pakistan to new lows. The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, last week accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting insurgents in planning and executing the Sept. 13 attack as well as a truck bomb days earlier that wounded 77 American troops. The insurgents, from the Haqqani network, are affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida. The group primarily operates in eastern Afghanistan and is often blamed for attacks in Kabul. Senior Pakistani officials have lashed out against the allegations of support for the Haqqani network, accusing the U.S. of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its troubled war in Afghanistan. Pakistan also is receiving criticism from Afghanistan. Afghan defense officials warned Pakistan on Sunday to stop firing rockets and heavy artillery into the northeast of the country or the military will respond with force. Pakistan denied it was responsible. In its strongest condemnation to date, the Afghan Defense Ministry accused the Pakistani army of firing more than 300 artillery rounds and rockets into Kunar and Nuristan provinces during the past five days. The area is a haven for hardcore insurgent groups fighting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. U.S.-led coalition forces have a light footprint in the area and the cross-border fighting highlights NATO's struggles to pacify the remote region. It also underscores the lack of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan against their common foes.

Diana Nyad: Ending swim was 'huge disappointment'

filled waters between Cuba and the Florida Keys, climbing into a boat only to be treated for searing welts left by Portuguese man o' war stings. Left swollen and red, Nyad had no choice but to end her trek early when medics warned another sting could be deadly. The 62-year-old soldiered on for a time, cutting eye and mouth holes into a cap she wore over her face to protect against future stings. She surpassed 100,000 strokes, but the stings which team members said left what looked like branding marks from the jellyfish-like creatures' tentacles were too much of a risk. "I trained this hard for this big dream I had for so many years, and to think these stupid little Portuguese man o' war take it down," Nyad told The Associated Press, just hours after getting out of the water. "It's a huge disappointment." She said she was in the best shape of her life but was blinded by the stings. Late Sunday morning, she heeded the warnings of experts who told her not to continue another two days in the water. "You go into convulsions, your spine feels paralyzed. I've had kidney stones. Nothing compares to the pain," Nyad said, wearing loose bandages and rehydrating with water and juice on her boat. "It just took the life force out of me." Nyad arrived Sunday evening in Key West, where she spoke with reporters. She walked off her boat "Sunluver" wearing a white bathrobe, her face and lips swollen from the stings, and pulled up a sleeve to show a long cross-shaped welt on her right forearm. "It's such a bitter pill," she said. "I am so capable of that swim. That's the end though." "Because if it was the weather or Tylenol, but those damned jellyfish," she added. Nyad said that as she swam, she felt paralysis in her back. She recalled swimming through the two stings, which she described as like something out of a sci-fi movie when the tentacles whipped across her. "I went through two of them and I kept swimming," said Nyad, who wore long pants and a longsleeved shirt while swimming. Her clothing covered everything but her hands feet and lips, and she got stung in the lips. "My lips are like Angelina's," she quipped. But Nyad said she also took pride in swimming for 40 hours, saying she did much better than in a previous try in August. She said visions of the Florida coastline helped keep her going. "I pictured it," she said. "I really pictured it. I knew I could do it. I just couldn't get there. I wanted that feeling to be on the beach so badly. I'm just not going to have it." Her team tentatively scheduled a press conference in Key West for Monday morning. Nyad was making her second attempt in as many months at the Cuba-Florida crossing, a lifelong dream that she first tried as a 28-year-old back in 1978, when she swam inside a steel shark cage for about 42 hours before ending the attempt. A cageless attempt this past August fell short 29 hours in when, gasping for breath, Nyad threw in the towel after an 11-hour asthma attack she blamed on a bad reaction to a new medicin

Sneijder amongst Inter absentees in Moscow

Playmaker Wesley Sneijder, seen here in 2010, was amongst the absentees as Inter Playmaker Wesley Sneijder was amongst the absentees as Inter Milan named their squad for Tuesday's Champions League clash with CSKA in Moscow. Brazil full-back Maicon and Serbia captain and midfielder Dejan Stankovic will also miss the crunch encounter. Having lost their opening match at home to group outsiders Trabzonspor, Inter are desperate to take something from the game. Nigerian midfielder Joel Obi will make the trip but such are Inter's injury problems that coach Claudio Ranieri has called up youth team midfielders Lorenzo Crisetig and Andrea Romano into his 21-man squad. He also has to do without forward Diego Forlan, who is cup-tied having represented Atletico Madrid in the Europa League qualifying rounds.

Zimbabwe 'match-fixers' face ban: FIFA

FIFA security chief Chris Eaton warned Sunday that there will be no amnesty if Zimbabwe fooballers and officials are found guilty in an ongoing probe into alleged match-fixing on a tour of Asia. "There is no amnesty, not today," Eaton told the Sunday Mail. He is in Harare to meet football officials. "We have got zero-tolerance on match-fixing and we have to understand that this is now a big problem facing the sport." Eaton dismissed local newspaper reports that anyone found guilty would be pardoned and sent for rehabilitation instead of being banned. "We want our football to be clean because criminals take advantage of the sport. We didn't invite gambling and now, because of gambling, we have got criminals." Zimbabwe is under investigation by FIFA over an alleged match-fixing scam in Asia involving the national team. Former Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya sent the national team to play unsanctioned friendlies in Thailand, Syria and Malaysia two years ago and a betting syndicate allegedly fixed the results. Rushwaya was fired last October. She is also said to have cleared former league champions Monomotapa to travel to Malaysia masquerading as the national team. Last month, ZIFA suspended three board members, including a former national team player and a former referee, for alleged involvement in match-fixing.

The No. 1 Danger of Using Facebook

Spending too much time on it and neglecting other stuff? Your boss finding embarrassing photos? Nope, and nope. People have been getting obsessed with stuff long before Facebook, and "Facebook addictions" making the news now mostly because it's so new. Meanwhile, not everyone finds themselves turned down from a job because of embarrassing pictures, but every Facebook user is affected by the No. 1 danger. It's not Facebook addiction, in the sense that you need to get your fix like a shot of caffeine. It's Facebook dependency, in the sense that you need Facebook. And that a single, profit-driven corporation is becoming as much a part of our lives as email and the Internet. No one individual controls either of those, but Mark Zuckerberg holds the keys to Facebook. And he doesn't answer to you. A single point of failure The danger isn't that Facebook will stop working all of a sudden, a la Twitter's "fail whale." It's that a lot of power is being given to someone who wasn't elected, and who has no accountability to the people on Facebook. The only people Mark's accountable to are Facebook's investors, and they have only one request of him: Make money. That's why Facebook can experiment with stuff like its unpopular new "Timeline" system and make everyone who uses Facebook deal with it. Where are you going to go if you don't like Facebook? LiveJournal? Maybe that new thing Google is doing? Yeah, right. How are you going to see what your friends and favorite brands are up to if you're not on Facebook? Plus all your crops in Farmville will die! Having a Facebook account is like having a car. Everyone assumes you have one, and there are things you can't do and places you can't go if you don't. Even online games and websites' comment forms require you to have a Facebook account these days. Unless you want to give all that up, you're not allowed to stop using Facebook. And Facebook's not like other companies Not even other monopolies like AT&T and Verizon are in some places. Because to the phone companies, you're the customer, even if it's mostly because there's no one else you can buy from. But to many Internet companies, like Google and Facebook, you aren't the customer. You're the product. No, they're not grinding you up and making Soylent Green. They just need your eyeballs, because they're selling advertisers the right to put ads in front of them. And while there's nothing especially sinister about online advertising (please do click on one of our fine sponsors), in Facebook's case you can't just change the channel or go to a different website.

Barcelona's Messi closing in on Kubala 194goal record

Lionel Messi is determined to keep breaking goal-scoring records at Barcelona after his 12th career hat-trick for the European and Spanish champions took him to 192 at the club. The 24-year-old Argentine magician hit his latest hat-trick in the 5-0 demolition of Atletico Madrid and is now just two behind Hungary's Laszlo Kubala who scored 194 in his career at the Camp Nou in the 1950s. Once he gets past that, the all-time club record of 235, set by Cesar Rodriguez betwen 1939 and 1955, will be easily within his sights. "I'm pretty calm about it. I just take it a game at a time, but obviously I'm very excited about becoming top scorer," Messi told fcbarcelona.com. "Many years have gone by and it?s still the same player (Kubala). Hopefully I can beat his stats. I want to continue breaking records here". Atletico are his favourite victims with 14 goals scored against the Madrid side, including three hat-tricks. Barcelona have racked up 22 goals in five La Liga games this season, but Messi insists there is still room for improvement, especially getting used to playing a 3-4-3 system that coach Pep Guardiola has chosen. "We feel pretty comfortable with it. There are some things we still aren?t doing well, just like with the previous system, but that's OK," he said. "It takes time and practice. We still aren?t totally used to it. Personally I'm pretty happy, because up front we have more space and we can link up better with the midfield players, and receive more passes."

Nuggets forward Gallinari rejoins Italian club

MILAN (AP) Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari rejoined his former Italian team Olimpia Milano on Tuesday, agreeing to play until the NBA lockout ends. "I'm happy for the opportunity that Olimpia offered me to get back on the court with the team that I had some unforgettable experiences with," Gallinari said. "I hope to give the Milan fans more to cheer about and give them back in return the affection they showed by following me once I reached the NBA." Olimpia's new coach is Sergio Scariolo, who guided Spain to the European Championship title Sunday in Lithuania. Along with fellow NBA players Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli, Gallinari was on the Italy squad that failed to advance to the second round. "The only player for which we would have even considered making an exception to the rule of not hiring 'part-time' players was Danilo Gallinari," Scarolo said. "We're confident to get from him, even for only a brief time, the effort and dedication needed to become part of the team." Gallinari played for Olimpia from 2005 to 2008 before being drafted sixth overall by the New York Knicks in 2008. In February, the Knicks traded him to the Nuggets in a three-way blockbuster deal. Gallinari's father, Vittorio, also played with Olimpia. Also known by its sponsor's name Emporio Armani, Olimpia has a difficult series of games to open this season's Europa League, where it will face Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes Istanbul. "With the time frame coinciding with our goal of qualifying for the top 16 in the Europa League, that obviously gave us extra motivation to make this deal," Scarolo said. Olimpia opens the Italian league season against Varese on Oct. 9. Gallinari is expected to travel with Olimpia to a preseason camp in Spain on Thursday. Other NBA players have committed to leagues outside the United States. Nuggets free agents Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith plan to play in China, Denver's Ty Lawson will play in Lithuania and New Jersey Nets All-Star Deron Williams signed with the Turkish club Besiktas. The NBA season usually begins in late October but owners and players have so far failed to agree on a new labor deal. The sides are at odds over how to divide the league's revenue, a salary-cap structure and the length of guaranteed contracts.

Saudi women get right to vote, but can't drive yet

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultraconservative kingdom, decreed on Sunday that women will for the first time have the right to vote and run in local elections due in 2015. It is a "Saudi Spring" of sorts. For the nation's women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian. Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses. In itself, Sunday's decision to give the women the right to vote and run in municipal elections may not be enough to satisfy the growing ambition of the kingdom's women who, after years of lavish state spending on education and vocational training, significantly improved their standing but could not secure the same place in society as that of their male compatriots. That women must wait four more years to exercise their newly acquired right to vote adds insult to injury since Sunday's announcement was already a long time coming and the next local elections are in fact scheduled for this Thursday. "Why not tomorrow?" asked prominent Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame ... when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights." The announcement by King Abdullah came in an annual speech before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council. It was made after he consulted with the nation's top religious clerics, whose advice carries great weight in the kingdom. It is an attempt at "Saudi style" reform, moves that avoid antagonizing the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population. Additionally, it seems to be part of the king's drive to insulate his vast, oil-rich country from the upheavals sweeping other Arab nations, with popular uprisings toppling regimes that once looked as secure as his own. Fearing unrest at home, the king in March announced a staggering $93 billion package of incentives, jobs and services to ease the hardships experienced by some Saudis. In the meantime, he sent troops to neighbor and close ally Bahrain to help the tiny nation's Sunni ruling family crush an uprising by majority Shiites pressing for equal rights and far-reaching reforms. In contrast, King Abdullah in August withdrew the Saudi ambassador from Syria to protest President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on a seven-month uprising that calls for his ouster and the establishment of a democratic government.

"We didn't ask for politics, we asked for our basic rights. We demanded that we be treated as equal citizens and lift the male guardianship over us," said Saudi activist Maha al-Qahtani, an Education Ministry employee who defied the ban on women driving earlier this year. "We have many problems that need to be addressed immediately." The United States, Saudi Arabia's closest Western ally, praised the king's move. In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said it recognized the "significant contributions" women have been making in Saudi Arabia. The move, he continued, would give Saudi women more ways to participate "in the decisions that affect their lives and communities." The king, in his own remarks, seemed to acknowledge that the Arab world's season of change and the yearning for greater social freedoms by a large segment of Saudi society demanded decisive action. "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said. "Muslim women in our Islamic history have demonstrated positions that expressed correct opinions and advice," said the king. Abdullah became the country's de facto ruler in 1995 because of the illness of King Fahd and formally ascended to the throne upon Fahd's death in August 2005. The king on Sunday also announced that women would be appointed to the Shura Council, a currently all-male body established in 1993 to offer counsel on general policies in the kingdom and to debate economic and social development plans and agreements signed between the kingdom with other nations. The question of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is a touchy one. In a country where no social or political force is strong enough to affect change in women's rights, it is up to the king to do it. Even then, the king must find consensus before he takes a step in that direction. Prominent columnist Jamal Khashoggi said that giving women the right to vote in local elections and their inclusion in the Shura council means they will be part of the legislative and executive branches of the state. Winning the right to drive and travel without permission from male guardians can only be the next move. "It will be odd that women who enjoy parliamentary immunity as members of the council are unable to drive their cars or travel without permission," he said. "The climate is more suited for these changes now the force of history, moral pressure and the changes taking place around us."

Definition of Reading
The act of one who reads; perusal; also, printed or written matter to be read. Study of books; literary scholarship; as, a man of extensive reading. A lecture or prelection; public recital. The way in which anything reads; force of a word or passage presented by a documentary authority; lection; version. Manner of reciting, or acting a part, on the stage; way of rendering. An observation read from the scale of a graduated instrument; as, the reading of a barometer. Of or pertaining to the act of reading; used in reading. Addicted to reading; as, a reading community.