Saturday, December 17, 2011

Report slams Dutch Catholic Church over sex abuse

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk, center, answers questions during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk, center, answers questions during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk gestures during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk, center, and chairman of the Conference of Dutch Religious Orders, Cees van Dam, right, during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk, left, and chairman of the Conference of Dutch Religious Orders, Cees van Dam, right, are seen during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk during a press conference in Zeist, Netherlands, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. A Dutch archbishop has apologized to victims after an independent inquiry reported that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about it but failed to adequately address it. Wim Eijk says the report "fills us with shame and sorrow." (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? As many as 20,000 children endured sexual abuse at Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years, and church officials failed to adequately address it or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigative report released Friday.

The findings detailed some of the most widespread abuse yet linked to the Roman Catholic Church, which has been under fire for years over abuse allegations in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

Based on a survey of 34,000 people, the report estimated that 1 in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of sexual abuse ? a figure that rose to 1 in 5 among children who spent part of their youth in an institution such as a boarding school or children's home, whether Catholic or not.

"Sexual abuse of minors," it said bluntly, "occurs widely in Dutch society."

The findings prompted the archbishop of Utrecht, Wim Eijk, to apologize to victims on behalf of the Dutch church, saying the report "fills us with shame and sorrow."

The abuse ranged from "unwanted sexual advances" to rape, and abusers numbered in the hundreds and included priests, brothers and lay people who worked in religious orders and congregations. The number of victims who suffered abuse in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000, according to the probe, which went back as far as 1945.

The commission behind the investigation was set up last year by the Catholic Church under the leadership of a former government minister, Wim Deetman, a Protestant, who said there could be no doubt church leaders knew of the problem. "The idea that people did not know there was a risk ... is untenable," he told a news conference.

Deetman said abuse continued in part because bishops and religious orders sometimes worked autonomously to deal with the abuse and "did not hang out their dirty laundry." However, he said the commission concluded that "it is wrong to talk of a culture of silence" by the church as a whole.

Colm O'Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland and a victim of clergy abuse, criticized the Dutch inquiry because it was established by the church itself.

"It is the Dutch government that should be putting in place a meaningful investigation," O'Gorman said.

Even so, he said the report "highlights widespread abuse on a scale I think would be shocking to most Dutch people."

But O'Gorman added that "the scale of the abuse is in and of itself not the significant issue. It is whether it was covered up and, significantly, this report suggests it was."

Nearly a third of the Netherlands' 16 million people identify themselves as Catholic, making it the largest religion in the country, according to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics for 2008.

The Dutch probe followed allegations of repeated incidents of abuse at one cloister that spread to claims from Catholic institutions across the country.

The investigating commission received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages. It then conducted the broader survey of 34,000 people for a more comprehensive analysis of the scale and nature of sexual abuse of minors in the church and elsewhere.

In one order, the Salesians of Don Bosco, the commission found evidence that "sexually inappropriate behavior" among members "may perhaps have been part of the internal monastic culture."

Bert Smeets, an abuse victim, said the report did not go far enough in investigating and outlining in precise detail exactly what happened.

"What was happening was sexual abuse, violence, spiritual terror, and that should have been investigated," Smeets told The Associated Press. "It remains vague. All sorts of things happened, but nobody knows exactly what or by whom. This way they avoid responsibility."

The commission said about 800 priests, brothers, pastors or lay people working for the church were identified in the complaints. About 105 of them are still alive, although it is not known if they remain in church positions. Their names were not released.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Deetman's inquiry had referred 11 cases to them ? without naming the alleged perpetrators. Prosecutors opened only one investigation, saying the other 10 did not have sufficient details and happened too long ago to prosecute.

The latest findings add to the growing evidence of widespread clergy abuse of children documented in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Belgium and other countries, forcing Pope Benedict XVI to apologize to victims whose trauma was often hidden by church cover-ups.

In September, abuse victims and human rights lawyers, upset that no high-ranking church officials have yet to be prosecuted, filed a complaint in the United States urging the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and top Vatican officials for possible crimes against humanity. The Vatican called the move a "ludicrous publicity stunt."

An American advocacy group involved in that case, the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the Dutch findings "yet another example of the widespread and systematic nature of the problem of child sex crimes in the Catholic Church."

"If similar commissions were held in every country, we would undoubtedly be equally appalled by the rates of abuse," it said.

Archbishop Eijk said the victims in the Netherlands would be compensated by a commission the Dutch church set up last month and which has a scale starting at $6,500 (euro5,000), rising to a maximum of $130,000 (euro100,000) depending on the nature of the abuse.

O'Gorman criticized the church-established compensation scheme.

"It is simply not appropriate for the church to be the decider" of compensation, he said. "It is important the Dutch government recognizes its responsibility to ensure access to justice ... to all victims."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-16-EU-Netherlands-Church-Abuse/id-1f0c0ddbbacc4b1a834cddbf66767601

ponder loretta lynn extract extract bobby jindal bobby jindal talladega

Friday, December 16, 2011

Chinese villagers under siege mourn man who died (AP)

BEIJING ? A man from a southern Chinese fishing village whose death in police custody helped spark a rare revolt was given a hero's farewell Friday as thousands of tearful residents mourned what they called his sacrifice for them.

Wukan, a village of 20,000, has for months been the site of simmering protests by locals who say officials sold farmland to developers without their consent.

Protests against official misconduct are increasingly common in fast-developing China, but Wukan residents have taken things a step further, erecting barricades over the weekend to keep police out and posing a challenge to the authoritarian government. On a near-daily basis, thousands of villagers gather for rallies, shouting slogans for the return of their land and pumping their fists in the air.

The gathering took on a more somber note Friday as about 7,000 people attended a memorial ceremony for local butcher Xue Jinbo, who before his death had been one of the village's representatives in tense negotiations with officials over the land seizure.

Banners saying "You sacrificed your life for our land" and "Sadly mourn Xue Jinbo" were displayed at the ceremony, said villager Qin Zhuan, who was reached by phone.

Qin said they made speeches and lined up to bow in front of a large photograph of Xue, who died Sunday, not long after he was detained by police on suspicion of participating in riots in September.

Expressing commonly held suspicions over Xue's death, another villager said he appeared to have been abused in custody.

"He is man with a loving heart for people. He was killed for struggling to win the land for the villagers. We all cried for him," said villager Huang Hancan. "He must have suffered from mistreatment for a good healthy man to turn into a dead man just a day after being detained. No doubt, he was beaten to death and everyone can imagine that."

In an interview this week with Hong Kong online magazine iSun Affairs, Xue Jinbo's daughter said his body showed signs of bruising and swelling on his mouth, hands, neck and elsewhere, as well as open wounds on his forehead and jaw.

"When we looked at his back, there were also many bruises that look like he had been kicked or stamped on," she said in a video posted on the magazine's website.

Calls to the offices of the Communist Party propaganda department and the government of Shanwei city, which oversees Wukan, rang unanswered Friday. Chinese media reported that local authorities said Xue died of cardiac failure.

Problems in Wukan erupted in violence in September, when hundreds of villagers smashed buildings and clashed with police in protest against the sale of their farmland without their consent. Villagers since have submitted petitions and sought meetings with higher officials without success.

Last Friday, police took away several village representatives and when police tried to return the next day, residents blockaded the roads with tree trunks and barriers to stop them. Residents say police fired tear gas and water cannons at the villagers, who armed themselves with sticks, clubs, hoes and other farming tools.

Police then retreated and set up blockades on the main roads into Wukan, preventing villagers from entering and leaving and food from being brought in, villagers reached by phone said.

Huang said the residents would not give up. "We want justice from the government and we will fight to the end," he said, adding that the villagers also wanted the truth about Xue's death.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Shanwei city threatened to take strong measures against the leaders of the rebellion. He also promised to investigate local officials for wrongdoing and impose a temporary freeze on one farmland development project until a majority of villagers are satisfied with the conditions of the land transfer.

But signs of a split in the community were starting to emerge. Government supporters were offering food in exchange for villagers' signatures, said Qin, the woman who attended the funeral.

"Most of them are former village officials and their relatives who have an interest in the land sales," Qin said. "They offered us rice and cooking oil on condition that we must sign an empty white paper. We suspected that our signatures would be used for other purposes, so we refused to sign."

With a booming economy, demand for land to build factories and housing complexes in China has soared. Land disputes have grown apace, becoming one of the leading causes of the tens of thousands of large-scale protests that hit China every year.

Around Wukan village and in much of the rest of Guangdong province, conflicts have been intense because the area is among China's most economically developed, pushing up land prices.

___

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_as/as_china_village_riot

evelyn lauder nfl standings devin hester devin hester shayne lamas cain velasquez dos santos

Microsoft Is Nuking Internet Explorer 6 With Worldwide Automatic Upgrade [Microsoft]

At last! Microsoft is killing the last vestiges of that dreadful, obsolete program known as Internet Explorer 6. They are going to force the upgrade and that's a good thing—the web needs to get rid of this crap. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5nieRgEKyj8/microsoft-is-nuking-internet-explorer-6-with-worldwide-automatic-upgrade

dia frampton dia frampton zook john elway john elway eric decker eric decker

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

'Laugh-In' comic actor Alan Sues dies at 85 (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Alan Sues, who brought his flamboyant and over-the-top comic persona to the hit television show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" in the 1960s and 1970s, has died, a close friend said Sunday night.

Sues died of cardiac arrest on Thursday at his home in West Hollywood, Michael Gregg Michaud, a friend since 1975, told The Associated Press.

"He was sitting in a recliner watching TV with his dachshund Doris who he loved in his lap," Michaud said.

Sues had various health problems in the last several years, but the death came as a shock to friends, Michaud said. He was 85.

A native Californian who moved to New York in 1952, Sues began his career as a serious actor and in 1953 appeared in director Elia Kazan's "Tea and Sympathy" on Broadway.

But he would be remembered for his wild comic characters.

They included "Big Al," an effeminate sportscaster, and "Uncle Al the Kiddies Pal," a hung-over children's show host, on "Laugh-In," the TV phenomenon that both reflected and mocked the era's counterculture and made stars of Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and many others.

Sues also donned tights as the commercial spokesman for Peter Pan peanut butter, and appeared in the popular 1964 "Twilight Zone" episode "The Masks."

Fellow cast members and crew from "Laugh-In" remembered him as even more entertaining behind the scenes.

"Alan Sues was one of those guys even funnier in person than on camera," Ruth Buzzi, a co-star who appeared in many skits with Sues, said on her Twitter account. "Across a dinner table, over the phone ... hysterical. We'll miss him."

Executive producer George Schlatter, who would eventually bring Sues to "Laugh-In" after seeing him alongside future co-star Jo Anne Worley in the Off-Broadway comedy "The Mad Show," said Sues was "a free spirit," an "outrageous human being" and "a love child."

"He was a delight; he was an upper," Schlatter told the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the death. "He walked on the stage and everybody just felt happy."

Sues would always be best known for "Laugh-In," which he left in 1972 before its final season.

But Michaud said the Peter Pan spots brought Sues nearly as much recognition in later years.

And he said the "Twilight Zone" episode brought him appearances at sci-fi and autograph conventions for decades.

"Fans of `The Twilight Zone' are cuckoo," Michaud said.

Michaud said that while Sues was always cast as the stereotypically gay character, he believed he needed to hide his own gay identity during his years on television.

"He felt like he couldn't publicly come out," Michaud said. "He felt like people wouldn't accept him."

Sues was grateful for "Laugh-In," but wasn't happy he was typecast in his comic persona as he sought to return to more serious acting.

He got one chance that he cherished in 1975, the serious role of Moriarty with the Royal Shakespeare Company in "Sherlock Holmes" on Broadway.

He stayed with the show until it closed the following year, then went out to perform it with the touring company.

In later years he would make many more theater appearances, do voiceover work for television, and appear in guest spots on TV series like "Punky Brewster" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."

Sues is survived by a sister-in-law, two nieces and a nephew.

There were no immediate plans for a memorial.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_en_tv/us_obit_alan_sues

virgin diaries kevin smith kevin smith carlos mencia green bay packers giants packers

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Debt funds needed in all eurozone states: Germany (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? Every country in the euro zone needs to set up a special national fund for sovereign debt that is more than 60 percent of gross domestic product, Germany's finance minister told a newspaper.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, detailing a proposal he will make at a European Union summit on December 9, told the Passauer Neue Presse that a total of 500 billion euros ($672 billion) would need to go into the German fund.

"We need a redemption fund in every single country of the euro zone," he told the newspaper in comments released on Saturday.

Tax revenues should be used to support the funds, Schaeuble said, adding that Germany would not need to raise taxes to implement the plan.

"Around 500 billion euros needs to be stored in the fund. This affects federal, state and municipal debt," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes Schaeuble's proposal could help restore confidence in the euro, her spokesman said on Friday.

"The chancellor welcomes the proposal of introducing national redemption funds as very interesting," Steffen Seibert told a news conference.

Merkel has ruled out the idea of common euro zone debt issuance as a way to restore confidence in the currency bloc and Schaeuble again underlined Germany's opposition in the newspaper interview.

"There cannot be euro bonds. The German economy would be overburdened should we have to guarantee the debts of all the states. On top of this, the necessary pressure on countries to sort out their national debt problems would fall by the wayside.

If all were to keep to the stability criteria, then the problem is solved by itself."

Asked whether the European Central Bank's recent bond buying activities could increase inflation risks, Schaeuble said there was no reason to fear this.

"Serious economists see neither risk nor signs of inflation dangers. The euro is stable, inside and out."

He also rejected the idea of kicking Greece out of the euro zone as a way to help end the crisis.

"We can't just show states the door if they have difficulties. Also, the economic consequences would be totally unforeseeable were one or more countries to leave the euro zone. The vast majority say that this would be the worst of all developments."

($1 = 0.7446 euros)

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111203/bs_nm/us_germany_eurozone_fimmin

steelers namibia namibia hell on wheels hell on wheels new york city marathon andy williams

Cancer cells' DNA repair disrupted to increase radiation sensitivity

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? Shortening end caps on chromosomes in human cervical cancer cells disrupts DNA repair signaling, increases the cells' sensitivity to radiation treatment and kills them more quickly, according to a study in Cancer Prevention Research.

Researchers would to like see their laboratory findings -- published in the journal's Dec. 5 print edition -- lead to safer, more effective combination therapies for hard-to-treat pediatric brain cancers like medulloblastoma and high-grade gliomas. To this end, they are starting laboratory tests on brain cancer cells.

"Children with pediatric brain cancers don't have very many options because progress to find new treatments has been limited the last 30 years," said Rachid Drissi, PhD, principal investigator on the study and a researcher in the Division of Oncology at Cincinnati Children's. "The ability to make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation could allow physicians to use lower radiation doses to lessen side effects. Too many children with brain cancer can develop disabilities or die from treatment."

Before treating cells with ionizing radiation, the researchers blocked an enzyme called telomerase, found in over 90 percent of cancer cells but barely detectable in most normal human cells. In cancer cells, telomerase helps maintain the length of caps on the ends of chromosomes called telomeres. This helps cancer cells replicate indefinitely, grow and spread, Drissi said.

Unraveling DNA stability

Found on chromosomes in both cancerous and normal cells, telomeres are analogous to plastic caps that keep shoestring ends from unraveling. Telomeres help preserve DNA stability in cells by containing genetic miscues. This helps explain why cells with maintained or long telomeres appear to be more resistant to radiation.

In normal cells lacking the telomerase enzyme, telomeres get shorter each time cells divide. They continue doing so until normal cells stop dividing, reaching a condition called senescence. If this first cell-cycle "stop sign" is bypassed, cells continue dividing until telomeres become critically short and reach a second stopping point, when most cells die. In rare instances, cells bypass this second "stop sign" and survive. This survival is often associated with telomerase activation and the onset of cancer.

This was the basis for experiments Drissi and his colleagues conducted to compare the radiation sensitivity and survivability of cells based on telomere length. They also monitored DNA repair responses in the cells by looking for specific biochemical signs that indicate whether the repair systems are working.

The tests involved normal human foreskin cells -- called fibroblasts -- and human cervical carcinoma cells. They exposed the cells to ionizing radiation and analyzed DNA repair responses as telomeres became progressively shorter. In the cervical cancer cells, researchers blocked the telomerase enzyme before radiation treatment to induce progressively shorter telomeres.

Both late-stage noncancerous cells with shorter telomeres, and cancer cells with induced shorter telomeres, were more radiosensitive and died more quickly, according to the study.

Among cancer cells with maintained telomere length, close to 10 percent receiving the maximum dose of ionizing radiation used in the study (8 Gy, or Gray Units) survived the treatment. None of the cancer cells with the shortest telomeres survived that exposure.

Researchers said the cancer cells became more radiosensitive because material inside the chromosomes -- called chromatin -- compacted as telomeres became shorter. Compacted chromatin then disrupted the biochemical signaling of a protein called ATM (ataxiatelangeietasia mutated).

ATM is a master regulator of DNA repair and cell division. It sends signals to activate other biochemical targets (H2AX, SMC1, NBS1 and p53) that help direct DNA repair and preserve genetic stability. In telomere-shortened cancer cells, the compacted chromatin inhibited ATM signaling to all of the chromatin-bound targets tested in the study. This disrupted DNA repair responses and increased radiation sensitivity.

Testing brain cancer cells

The researchers are now testing their findings in cells from hard-to-treat pediatric brain tumors. These tests begin as Drissi's laboratory also leads correlative cancer biology studies of tumor samples from a current clinical trial. The trial is evaluating telomere shortening as a stand-alone therapy for pediatric cancer.

Managed through the National Institutes of Health's Children's Oncology Group (COG), the multi-institutional Phase 1 trial is testing the safety and tumor response capabilities of the drug Imetelstat, which blocks telomerase in cancer cells. Drissi serves on the clinical trial committee along with Maryam Fouladi, MD, MSc, and medical director of Neuro-Oncology at Cincinnati Children's. She leads the medical center's clinical participation in the trial.

Drissi and Fouladi are starting preparatory work to develop, and seek approvals for, a possible clinical trial to test telomere shortening and radiation treatment as a safer, more effective treatment for pediatric brain tumors.

Funding support for the current study in Cancer Prevention Research -- published by the American Society for Cancer Research -- came from the National Institutes of Health, the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Also collaborating were researchers from Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and from St. Jude. Funding support for the Drissi lab's correlative studies on the COG clinical trial comes from CancerFree Kids Pediatric Cancer Research Alliance and from Children's Cancer Research Fund.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. R. Drissi, J. Wu, Y. Hu, C. A. Bockhold, J. S. Dome. Telomere shortening alters the kinetics of the DNA damage response after ionizing radiation in human cells. Cancer Prevention Research, 2011; DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0069

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ms9kpBJhI2g/111201105441.htm

colorado avalanche bass lake michael jackson kids michael jackson kids father of the bride father of the bride bluebeard

Friday, December 2, 2011

Prosecutors: Reagan shooter browsed books on target (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan was observed browsing books about his one-time target and other presidential assassins, prosecutors said on Wednesday as a U.S. judge weighed whether to grant John Hinckley Jr. more time away from a mental hospital.

Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for his 1981 attempt to assassinate Reagan, has been in a mental ward for almost three decades. He has been allowed to leave repeatedly to visit family in Williamsburg, Virginia.

His lawyers argued that Hinckley deserved more time away from the hospital and eventual release, saying that the hospital and his doctors do not believe he is a danger to himself or others anymore.

Prosecutors countered that Hinckley has engaged in repeated deception when away from the hospital, telling doctors he went to see a movie, but Secret Service agents tailing him found him browsing books on Reagan and presidential assassins at a Barnes and Noble bookstore on July 24, 2011.

"Mr. Hinckley has a long history of deception and misconduct," Sarah Chasson, an assistant U.S. attorney told Judge Paul Friedman, who is weighing Hinckley's request for more time away from the hospital and eventual release.

"Is this deception new? Of course not," Chasson said. She also said that Hinckley lied to doctors when he said he went to another movie a few weeks later and about his shopping trips.

While he went to the movie theater box office on the two occasions mentioned, Chasson said, he never bought tickets and instead meandered around a nearby restaurant and bookstore.

Hinckley's lawyer said that his client's lack of candor about going to the movies was a "very foolish error" but that doctors at the hospital classify him as a low risk of danger to himself and to society.

"The doctors at the hospital say he is not dangerous," said Barry Levine. "Perfection is not the standard."

Hinckley, 56, sat quietly in a brown sports coat, his brown hair starting to thin and gray. He occasionally leaned over to whisper something to his lawyer.

Hinckley tried to kill Reagan outside a Washington hotel in 1981 in order to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed. Reagan was wounded, as were White House spokesman James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a police officer.

The new revelations came on the first of several days of hearings on whether to grant Hinckley more time away from the hospital. The judge's decision is expected in coming weeks.

Prosecutors plan to call as many as six Secret Service agents during the hearings, according to a witness list. Agents have conducted surveillance on Hinckley during many of his visits to Williamsburg, according to prosecutors.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/us_nm/us_usa_reagan_hinckley

ron white ron white alcs alcs miguel cabrera pay it forward pay it forward