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Hero to zero? Philippine president feels typhoon backlash

Two days before one of the world's most powerful typhoons rammed into the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino had a simple but ambitious target for all government agencies: zero casualties.
Fast-forward a week: thousands are dead, anger is growing over the slow relief effort and Aquino's once-unassailable popularity is under threat - along with the reforms that have helped transform the Philippines into one of Asia's fastest-growing and hottest emerging economies.

Aquino faces a challenge that could define and undermine his presidency in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, whose 313 km per hour (195 mph) winds and tsunami-like wall of water turned coastal regions into corpse-strewn wastelands.

The 53-year-old heir to a political dynasty appears to have been caught off guard by the magnitude of the devastation and has struggled to quell the growing frustration among survivors.
He's appeared only briefly on TV, including once from the city of Tacloban huddling with local officials and again at the Malacanang presidential palace to announce a national calamity. Other media appearances, from both Manila and the affected areas, have been rare.

"He should have grasped the enormity of the crisis," said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms in Manila.

"This could be big. If nothing happens in the next week or so, and the rehabilitation goes haywire, he will have a big political problem."

Aquino spokesman Herminio Coloma both defended the president's performance but said criticism of the government was understandable.

The president had avoided visits to the hardest-hit areas so stretched local government officials were not distracted from relief work, Coloma added.

"We do not deny that there may have been shortcomings but that is borne out of severe constraints ... The severity and magnitude of this disaster are unprecedented and unparalleled in our previous experience," he said.
"
WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?"
On Sunday, while in Tacloban, Aquino refused to believe reports that the city of 220,000 people was 95 percent devastated, with looting in some parts, according to an official who was there when the president met local authorities.

He complained that disaster officials were giving him conflicting reports, with no reliable information after the typhoon brought down telephone and power lines, said the source, who declined to be identified so he could speak candidly.

One TV network quoted Aquino as telling the head of the disaster agency he was running out of patience. Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Aquino was just "discouraged" with the incomplete data he was getting.

Compounding Aquino's problems is the slow delivery of aid. For the first six days, the government distributed only 50,000 "food packs" containing 6 kg (13 lb) of rice and canned goods each day, covering just 3 percent of the 1.73 million families affected, according to government figures
As desperation grew, local media have begun to question Aquino's leadership.
"Who's in charge here?" ran a headline in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday.

Ohio man who sexually assaulted baby seeks mercy

Condemned killer Steven Smith's argument for mercy isn't an easy one. Smith acknowledges he intended to sexually assault his girlfriend's 6-month-old daughter but says he never intended to kill the baby.

The girl, Autumn Carter, of Mansfield, died because Smith was too drunk to realize his sexual assault was killing the child, Smith's attorneys were telling the Ohio Parole Board on Tuesday. And Ohio law is clear, they say: a death sentence requires an intent to kill the victim.

"The evidence suggests that Autumn's death was a horrible accident," his attorneys, Joseph Wilhelm and Tyson Fleming, said in a written argument prepared for the board.

They continued: "Despite the shocking nature of this crime, Steve's death sentence should be commuted because genuine doubts exist whether he even committed a capital offense."

Smith, 46, was never charged with sexual assault, meaning the jury's only choice was to convict or acquit him of aggravated murder, his attorneys say.
The Richland County prosecutor said Smith continues to hide behind alcohol as an excuse, and calls Smith's actions "the purposeful murder of a helpless baby girl."
Prosecutor James Mayer told the board in his own written statement that the girl's injuries are consistent with a homicide that contradicts Smith's claim he didn't intend to kill the girl.
"The horrific attack upon Autumn Carter showed much more than Smith's stated purpose," Mayer said.
Mayer said Monday he didn't know why Smith wasn't charged with rape, but said it wasn't part of a trial strategy.
The attack happened early in the morning of Sept. 29, 1998, in the Mansfield apartment of the girl's mother, Kaysha Frye, a woman Smith had been dating about six months.
Frye was awakened after 3 a.m. by a naked Smith, who placed Autumn beside her in bed, according to records prepared for the parole board hearing. Frye realized the girl wasn't breathing, told Smith he'd killed her, then ran to a neighbor's house for help.
Smith, known to consume as many as 12 beers a day, had had several beers earlier in the evening and had a blood-alcohol content of .123 — well above the legal limit for drivers — when he was tested almost eight hours later, at 11 a.m., records show.
Smith had unsuccessfully tried to have sex with his girlfriend the evening before the attack, according to records. The prosecutor argued that Smith's assault of the girl was revenge for Smith's failure to perform with Frye.
Smith's attorneys dispute this, saying the girlfriend was not upset with Smith.
Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that Smith's attack lasted as long as 30 minutes, during which time Smith beat the girl to death.
Expert witnesses for Smith conclude he may have accidentally suffocated the girl within three to five minutes while he lay on top of her, according to Smith's clemency petition.
Smith's attorneys have an uphill battle in their argument because of the "moral repugnancy" surrounding the claim of partial innocence, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and death penalty expert.
"But if the lawyers for this defendant can legitimately assert that the evidence doesn't show or support that this was an intentional killing, not only is it appropriate to bring this up at clemency, I think they're obliged, representing their client appropriately, to stress this point," Berman said.
If executed, Smith would become the 51st inmate put to death in Ohio since the state resumed executions in 1999. The state has enough of its lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, to execute Smith and two other inmates before the supply expires. Eight more inmates are scheduled to die from November through mid-2015.

Cain Velasquez gets revenge, looks near-invincible in thorough beatdown of Junior dos Santos

AS VEGAS – Cain Velasquez is not a perfect fighter; Junior dos Santos proved that fairly conclusively in 64 seconds last year.

But when Velasquez is on top of his game, as he was on Saturday in the heavyweight title match with dos Santos at UFC 155, there aren't many heavyweights who could compete with him.
Velasquez conclusively proved he's the best heavyweight in the world by putting a frightful five-round beating on dos Santos in front of 12,423 people at MGM Grand Garden to regain the belt he lost on Nov. 12, 2011.
Cain Velasquez celebrates after beating Junior dos Santos. (USA Today Sports) He fought with a fury, relentlessly attacking the power-punching Brazilian, taking out 13 months of frustration with one epic performance. It was by far the best performance of a great career, and it was  fueled in large part by a desire to prove a point to those who mocked him after his only loss.
Velasquez was taunted by fans after losing to dos Santos at UFC on Fox 1 in Anaheim, Calif. last year. He remained stoic and tight-lipped in the interim, but it was clear he had heard those words. He responded to them Saturday by taking an elite opponent and sending him to the hospital a bloodied, swollen, beaten mess.

Delhi Rape Victim Dies in Hospital

NEW DELHI—The victim of a gang-rape earlier this month in India's capital that prompted widespread rage and a national debate over the treatment of women died in a Singapore hospital where she was receiving specialized care, according to her doctors.
The woman, who hasn't been identified but is in her early 20s, was airlifted to Singapore earlier this week after she was treated for injuries in a New Delhi hospital, including the removal of much of her intestines.
Doctors at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital said in a statement she "died peacefully" early Saturday with members of her family and officials from the High Commission of India by her side.
The woman was raped and beaten by a group of men on a bus as it was driven around India's capital on the night of Dec. 16. A male companion was badly beaten trying to defend her. Six men, including the bus driver, have been arrested and charged with offenses including rape and kidnapping, according to Delhi police.
The incident exposed a violent and chauvinistic side of a nation that is often portrayed world-wide as a rapidly growing democracy that respects personal freedom, and is full of aspiration-filled young people especially when compared with the intolerance toward women elsewhere in the region, notably in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

RAW re-predicts doom of ruling party during next election in Bangladesh

Indian intelligence agency – RAW, in its recent report has once again forecasted massive defeat of the ruling
Bangladesh Awami League, during the 2014 general election in the country. It said, although Bangladesh Awami League, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina has been exhibiting sincerity in strengthening relations with India, its popularity at home has been miserably dropping down due to series of high-profile corruptions, financial scams, campus violence, deteriorating law and order situation, suffocation of media and freedom of expression. It said, the ruling party, which even in the recent past enjoyed reasonably good relations with the Islamic political parties and fronts despite its secularist policy, some of the recent actions of Bangladesh Awami League has not only created huge gap between them and the Islamic leaders, but also giving wrong impression amongst the people, interpreting the ruling party as "anti-Islam". On the other hand, continuous repression on religious minorities, including Hindus and very recent incident at the Buddhist temples at Chittagong Hill Tract areas, the religious minorities are no more feeling comfortable under the rule of Bangladesh Awami League. The vandalism on the Buddhist temples and population in the eastern part of Bangladesh has already tarnished the image of the ruling party at home and abroad.

The report said, the decline in popularity of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League is even beyond speculations, while Bangladeshi masses are openly expressing anger at the poor governance of the ruling party. Taking advantage of such situation, main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has suddenly boosted its diplomatic efforts within and outside the country, which is clearly aimed at winning a diplomatic battle with the ruling party. While Bangladesh Nationalist Party is intensifying its diplomatic efforts, including visit of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to China and her upcoming visit to India, the ruling party as well as its foreign minister is rather sitting reluctantly, as if they are prepared to accept the diplomatic defeat. Dhaka's relations with Washington is already freezing down, which became clear when the Prime Minister's office ignored repeated requests from the US ambassador in Bangladesh, Dan W Mozena, who had been seeking appointment to meet the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. Top brasses in the foreign ministry had reportedly suggested its staffs to refrain from showing "extra importance" to any of the members of the Western missions in Dhaka.

Indian intelligentsia and political pundits had been expressing concern over potential security threats to Indian soil, if Bangladesh Awami League gets defeated in the next general election, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been taking numerous measures in uprooting anti-Indian activities within Bangladesh as well as activities of the separatist groups in India, who had been earlier using Bangladeshi soil as safe haven. During Sheikh Hasina's current tenure, a large number of members of the United Liberation Front of Assam [ULFA], including its bigwig Aravind Rajkhowa, had been handed over to the Indian authorities, while the Bangladeshi government is set in handing over ULFA leader Anup Chetia and two of his accomplices to India in next few weeks. It may be mentioned here that, Anup Chetia along with his accomplice Babul Sharma and Laxmi Prasad had been serving in Bangladeshi prison since 1993. Anup Chetia and two others were arrested from Dhaka by the local intelligence agency in 1993, when Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] was in power. Although Anup Chetia was arrested during BNP's rule, it is rumored that the party had been extending support towards ULFA and other Indian separatist groups while there is also allegation of providing logistic supports by the BNP led government to these anti-Indian elements. Currently, trial into the case of recovery of a huge arms haul is continuing in Bangladeshi court, where leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami are accused of having hands behind this arms trafficking, which reached Bangladeshi soil en-route to separatist groups in the North-Eastern provinces in India. Few of the top figures of country's intelligence and law enforcement agencies are also accused in this huge arms haul.
Earlier on December 17, 1995, western nationals were arrested when arms were being dropped from Latvian Antonov AN-26 aircraft at Indian district of Purulia in the state of West Bengal. The chief accused "Kim Davy" [real name Niels Holck, alias Niels Christian Nielsen] claims that it was a conspiracy of the Indian government together with RAW and MI5 to overthrow the communist government in West Bengal and he was given assurances from the central government about his safety and return to Denmark. He further alleges that MP Pappu Yadav, who is in touch with the Prime Minister of India, facilitated his safe exit from India. The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and Peter Bleach, a British citizen and an ex Special Air Service operative turned mercenary who was based in Yorkshire and involved in arms dealing. However, Annie Machon, the former MI5 officer, accuses Bleach of being an MI6 agent in her book "Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers". In numerous interviews, Bleach has always evaded questions on this subject and has declined to answer questions on his military background. They were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment while alleged kingpin Niels Christian Nielsen [aka Kim Peter Davy], a Danish citizen and member of the Ananda Marga group, escaped. Later, an Interpol red notice was issued against him. Following the intervention of Russian authorities, the Latvian crew [who gained Russian citizenship while in Indian custody] were later pardoned and released in 2000. An appeal has been submitted by the pilot lawyer before the Calcutta High Court in March 2000 challenging the trial results and the judgment but it is still pending. Peter Bleach, too, was released on 4 February 2004, via a presidential pardon, allegedly due to persistent British Government pressure. In 2007 Kim Davy was traced by Denmark authorities and on April 9, 2010 Danish government decided to extradite Kim Davy to India but Danish authorities failed to successfully defend their decision in the Danish high court. The court, therefore, refused extradition of Kim Davy to India. Further, Danish authorities decided not to appeal the high court judgment to the Supreme Court.

The government in Bangladesh led by Sheikh Hasina also nabbed a number of anti-India terror outfit, including Lashkar-e-Toiba, Sipah Sahaba, Joish-e-Mohammed etc, which had been reportedly operating from within Bangladesh. Some of these terror outfits reportedly had direct links with Al Qaeda. When Bangladesh Nationalist Party led government was in power, a team of Al Qaeda clandestinely visited Bangladesh and held secret meeting with the local counterparts inside a warehouse in Ashuganj area, which is 25-30 kilometers from Indian district of Agartala. The international terror outfit Al Qaeda reportedly established connections with a number of Bangladeshi Islamist and jihadist groups. But, since Sheikh Hasina's government came in power, jihadist operatives within Bangladesh have been significantly eliminated with the help of Indian intelligence. The Indian intelligence strongly believes that, during the rule of Bangladesh Awami League, threats to India's domestic security from the cross-border terrorists is greatly checked. For this particular reason, Indian intelligentsia is recommending New Delhi's direct hands in ensuring Bangladesh Awami League in continuing in the office, at least for another term, while it categorically predicts a huge political doom to the ruling party, if the election is participated by Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which may bag brute majority in the election, mostly because of anger of the voters over gross misrule of the grand alliance government led by Bangladesh Awami League.

While the possible outcome of the electoral result of 2014 polls in Bangladesh is clearly going to be unfavorable to the ruling grand alliance government, Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] has recently intensified its activities inside Bangladesh with the ulterior motive of putting the ruling grand alliance government into further political complicities. According to sources, ISI operatives have suddenly become over-active in Bangladesh, while some of its jihadist contacts are regularly holding secret meetings possibly to finalize blueprint of anti-government sabotages in the country. Some of the ISI operatives are regularly holding meetings at Dhaka's Banani and Dhanmondi areas, while an ISI agent with extensive connection with local Jihadist groups and fanatic clergies, is giving anti-government provocations with the instigation of unseating the current government much ahead of the next general election. The same ISI agent is also reportedly holding secret meetings with some of the retired offic

Debate returns 2012 focus to fundamentals

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Barack Obama did well enough in the second debate that he can rest assured about one thing: If he loses his bid for a second term it won’t be because he is bad at debates.
If Mitt Romney wins the presidency, likewise, it won’t be because in the final weeks of the campaign he revealed exciting new dimensions of his personality and record that were somehow obscured during the previous two years.

In that sense, the Hofstra University debate and Obama’s spirited performance there succeeded in stripping away atmospherics and peripheral arguments to expose the bare guts of the 2012 choice, in both its personal and ideological dimensions.
That choice is now inescapably focused—in a way it was not at the Denver debate and the flood of commentary afterward on Obama’s listless first outing —on fundamental questions.
Is Obama’s record, especially on the economy, defensible? The president defended it as effectively as he is ever going to in the face of some skeptical questions from voters assembled for the debate’s town-hall format. Romney’s hope is that no rhetorical argument from the incumbent is sufficient to mask the weak facts behind it. In a nod to that assumption, Obama showed again Tuesday that he’s far more voluble about Romney’s vulnerabilities than he is making the case for his own record.
Is the Republican nominee an acceptable alternative? If the candidate in Denver seemed to show a whole new side of himself, the one who showed up in Hempstead was entirely familiar to anyone who watched any of the 20 Republican primary debates: crisp, well-prepared, sometimes a little peevish, sometimes a little awkward. It was a stark if redundant reminder: At age 65, Romney is who he is as a politician, and his performances typically fall within a narrow range. Romney advisers feel that their candidate must do no more than clear a basic plausibility standard to exploit Obama’s weaknesses.
Along the way to his party’s nomination, however, Romney embraced a lot of orthodox Republican positions—most notably on immigration and women’s issues—and Obama was relentless in highlighting the most unpopular pieces of Romney’s primary baggage. Both men seemed as if they had been steeped for days on end in their campaign’s opposition research files.
“Clearly his advisers told him, drink your Red Bull, get ready to attack, don’t do what you did last time,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Romney surrogate, said of Obama.
The intense natural competitiveness of both men was on display. Obama was clearly helped by this, snapping-to after a first debate that must have embarrassed him. Romney was probably hurt at least a little by his competitive instincts. He jostled with moderator Candy Crowley to ensure he got the last word on several exchanges, and at several junctures seemed to act as if the evening would be scored like a real debate—with the prize going to whoever recites the most complete set of arguments—rather than as a stage to highlight which person comes off as more credible as a leader and appealing as a person.
Because of this, Obama seemed to come out ahead in the second debate, though not by the emphatic margin that Romney did in the first.
Going forward, this outcome probably helps reset the race and steer the national conversation away from theater criticism and toward more substantive closing arguments. That itself is a considerable relief for Obama, since another weak show would have turned growing unease among Democrats about a tightening race into genuine panic.
After Hofstra, it seems clear the election will not be turn on minutia, such as whether it was cockiness or the thin Rocky Mountain air that made Obama groggy in Denver, or whether Vice President Biden was appealingly forceful or unappealingly annoying with his interruptions of Paul Ryan at the debate in Kentucky.
With both nominees having turned in one strong performance, the temptation is to look to next Monday’s debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., as the tie-breaker. Historically, however, later debates matter less than the early ones. The question is whether the first two debates have altered the basic trajectory of the race.

Dozens more bodies found at Syria massacre site

At least 320 people have been killed in Dariya, a suburb of Damascus, an opposition group says. The opposition and government blame each other for the deaths

 

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.

A Times staff writer in Beirut and special correspondent Rima Marrouch in Antakya, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Anyone who put credence in a short-lived rumor that the Rams might consider trading Sam Bradford and use the No. 2 pick to select Robert Griffin III wasn't paying attention last January when Jeff Fisher took the St. Louis job.

St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) warms up during preseason football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012 in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero) ORG XMIT: CBS110

Sam Bradford is the primary reason Fisher viewed the Rams as a better opportunity than the Miami Dolphins. Miami offered more money. The Dolphins are closer to battling for a playoff berth.

But the Rams had Bradford, the former Oklahoma star who Fisher labels a “franchise” quarterback that can help the Rams become a perennial playoff contender.
It won't happen overnight. The Rams have lost more games (65) the past five years than any team in NFL history.

St. Louis was 2-14 last season. The roster is full of holes. But the Rams have Bradford, who endorses Fisher, the NFL's third-winningest active coach.
“My excitement level with coach Fisher is through the roof,” Bradford said. “I had the opportunity to meet with Coach before we hired him. As soon as I got done with that meeting, I knew coach Fisher was the guy I wanted to take over our organization.”

Wide receiver Danny Amendola, the former Texas Tech star who missed almost all of last season with a knee injury, made a similar comment about Bradford being the face of the franchise.

“You could tell the minute he walked in he was a guy we could depend on that would be one of our leaders,” Amendola said. “To be such a good leader this early in his career is really great for our team. He's only going to get better. He's going to be a great one.”
To be a great one, the Rams eventually need to surround Bradford with more talent and provide better protection.

After being named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and setting the league rookie completion record, the Putnam City North product was banged up last season. He played in only 10 games after suffering a high ankle sprain midway through the season.
Bradford's left ankle continued to be a hot topic until he stressed recently it's a nonissue, noting he hasn't missed a single snap in training camp. His focus is digesting a new West Coast offense.

“We've had an entire offseason to try and get my hands around it,” Bradford said. “I think I've made a lot of strides. I'm just trying to become a better quarterback in all aspects, things like pocket presence, trusting my (offensive) line and delivering the ball down the field.”
Changing offenses (again)
Brian Schottenheimer is Bradford's third offensive coordinator in three years. The quarterback has learned a new offense every season.

“Obviously it's not ideal,” Bradford said. “It was great when I was at OU because the system stayed the same since from when I was a redshirt freshman until I left. That allowed me to learn the finer points of our system.

“When you have to switch every year, it's really hard to get to know some of those finer details. But I really like what we're doing. I'm excited that we brought in coach Schottenheimer. ... I'm excited for the season. I think it's going to be a good year for the Rams.”

One plus is Fisher places a premium on protecting his quarterbacks. That's good news for Bradford, who has been sacked 70 times and knocked down 151 times. Pro Football Focus reported that Bradford has been under pressure in 34 percent of his career passing attempts, an extremely high rate.

Another plus is only two NFL teams had more rushing attempts than the Titans during Fisher's 16 seasons in Tennessee. The Rams will lean on veteran Steven Jackson, a Pro Bowl quality back.

Another change is Fisher hired Frank Cignetti as quarterbacks coach. Last season, Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels pulled double duty.
Cignetti, who made a name for himself as Fresno State's offensive coordinator, is good friends with Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy. Cignetti has NFL experience with the Chiefs, Saints and 49ers.

Having a full-time quarterbacks coach is an extra set of eyes to break down film and monitor basics like footwork.

“At the beginning of the season, you're conscious of those,” Bradford said. “But as the season goes along, sometimes you forget about the small things and just concentrate on the big picture.”
In Sam We Trust
Despite experiencing a drop-off last season, the Rams believe Bradford can develop into an elite quarterback, taking a similar path as Detroit's Matthew Stafford, who also experienced growing pains on a bad team. Cignetti said Bradford is the most talented quarterback he's ever worked with.

“You look at the physical measurables and you're talking about a young man that's tall, can stand in the pocket, has great posture, great poise,” Cignetti told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He can make all the throws. He has great movement.
“You look at Sam, you see a quarterback capable of doing all the things you'd like to do (on offense).”

Former OU teammate Brody Eldridge, a tight end, has been reunited with Bradford in St. Louis. Eldridge's first two NFL seasons were in Indianapolis, where he caught passes from future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.

“I'm not saying he's going to be the next Peyton Manning. That's almost impossible,” Eldridge said. “Peyton is one of the best there's ever been. But Sam has a lot of talent and is great in the film room. He knows what he's doing. He knows what it takes to be great.”
It will take time, but there have been some positive signs.

Two weeks ago in a preseason win over Kansas City, the Rams' first-team offense played three series. St. Louis scored touchdowns on its first two possessions, culminated by Bradford touchdown passes. Bradford completed 6 of 9 passes for 102 yards.

“His accuracy is his best weapon,” Amendola said. “He's tall. He has a great ability to see the field. His timing is great. That's pretty much all you can ask for. It's just a matter of time before we start doing great things in this league. He's going to lead us there. We're all excited about the future.”
Headed in the right direction
During his year away from the NFL, Jeff Fisher traveled. One highlight was climbing Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.

Fisher inherits the NFL's version of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Rams' Super Bowl XXXIV win against Fisher's Tennessee Titans was almost 13 years ago.
With Fisher, Bradford, some young talent and a treasure chest of draft picks, the Rams hope they're the next version of the Lions and 49ers, successful examples of methodical rebuilding projects.

“You look at them now and they're among the best teams in the league,” Bradford said. “I think we're definitely headed in that direction. It takes a lot of hard work. We're going to have to play good football. With coach Fisher coming in, he's a guy who can lead us in that direction.”
How Bradford plays is a key component in how quickly the Rams improve.

Some were concerned about his shoulder after he was sidelined twice as a redshirt junior at OU, the year after he won the Heisman with a 50-to-8 TD-to-interception ratio.
The shoulder hasn't been an issue. Bradford started all 16 games his rookie season, when he passed for 3,512 yards and 18 touchdowns.

But last year, he threw only six TDs. Nearly every stat slipped, including completion percentage and his quarterback rating.

“People can manipulate numbers all they want to make someone look good or look bad,” Bradford said. “Wins, that's the bottom line. It doesn't matter what you do, if you don't win, they don't care.”

Bradford is part of a new generation of quarterbacks, a mixed bag that includes last year's No. 1 overall pick, Cam Newton, and the top two picks this year — Andrew Luck and Griffin. And don't forget Stafford, another No. 1 overall pick.

The Rams like their guy. They're committed to Bradford, who signed a guaranteed $50 million, six-year deal worth up to $86 million. It was the largest rookie contract ever.
Trading Bradford would be salary cap suicide. That trade rumor? Ill-researched conjecture.
In the end, St. Louis traded that No. 2 pick to Washington for the sixth and 39th picks and first-round picks in 2013 and 2014. It's the type of deal that should speed up the rebuilding process, another reason Fisher liked St. Louis' foundation.

“We haven't been great lately, but in the NFL things can change really quickly,” Bradford said. “You can go from the bottom to the top within one season or a couple of seasons. Everyone here is in the process of getting the Rams back to where they once were.”

Neil Armstrong made "one giant leap for mankind" with a small step onto the moon.

 

FILE - This July 20, 1969 file photo released by NASA shows astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. posing for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he has died at age 82. A statement from the family says he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. It doesn't say where he died. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of "one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs. In all, 12 Americans walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972. (AP Photo/NASA, Neil A. Armstrong, file)

FILE - In this July 20, 1969, file photo, provided by NASA, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he has died at age 82 on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of "one giant leap for mankind." (AP Photo/NASA, File)

FILE - This July 20, 1969 file photo provided by NASA shows Neil Armstrong. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he died Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012, at age 82. A statement from the family says he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. It doesn't say where he died. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of "one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs. In all, 12 Americans walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972. (AP Photo/NASA)

FILE - This undated file photo provided by NASA shows astronaut Neil Armstrong. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he has died Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012, at age 82. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of "one giant leap for mankind." (AP Photo/NASA, File)

He commanded the historic landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions and becoming the first man to walk on the moon.

His first words after the feat are etched in history books and the memories of the spellbound millions who heard them in a live broadcast.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said. He insisted later that he had said "a'' before man, but said he, too, couldn't hear it in the version that went to the world.

Armstrong, who had bypass surgery earlier this month, died Saturday at age 82 from what his family said were complications of heart procedures. His family didn't say where he died; he had lived in suburban Cincinnati.

He was "a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job," his family said in a statement.

The moonwalk marked America's victory in the Cold War space race that began Oct. 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, a 184-pound satellite that sent shock waves around the world. The accomplishment fulfilled a commitment President John F. Kennedy made for the nation to put a man on the moon before the end of 1960s.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the lunar surface, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.

"The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to," Armstrong once said.
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n those first few moments on the moon, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.

 Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, the modest Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program.

"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."

Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, who interviewed Armstrong for NASA's oral history project, said Armstrong fit every requirement the space agency needed for the first man to walk on moon, especially because of his engineering skills and the way he handled celebrity by shunning it.
         
"I think his genius was in his reclusiveness," said Brinkley. "He was the ultimate hero in an era of corruptible men."

Fellow Ohioan and astronaut John Glenn, one of Armstrong's closest friends, recalled Saturday how Armstrong was on low fuel when he finally brought the lunar module Eagle down on the Sea of Tranquility.

"That showed a dedication to what he was doing that was admirable," Glenn said.

 A man who kept away from cameras, Armstrong went public in 2010 with his concerns about President Barack Obama's space policy that shifted attention away from a return to the moon and emphasized private companies developing spaceships. He testified before Congress, and in an email to The Associated Press, Armstrong said he had "substantial reservations."
Along with more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, he signed a letter calling the plan a "misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future."

Armstrong was among the greatest of American heroes, Obama said in a statement.

"When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable — that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible," Obama said.

Obama's Republican opponent Mitt Romney echoed those sentiments, calling Armstrong an American hero whose passion for space, science and discovery will inspire him for the rest of his life.

 "With courage unmeasured and unbounded love for his country, he walked where man had never walked before. The moon will miss its first son of earth," Romney said.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recalled Armstrong's grace and humility.

"As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," Bolden said in a statement.
 Armstrong's modesty and self-effacing manner never faded.

When he appeared in Dayton in 2003 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, he bounded onto a stage before a packed baseball stadium. But he spoke for only a few seconds, did not mention the moon, and quickly ducked out of the spotlight.

He later joined Glenn, by then a senator, to lay wreaths on the graves of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Glenn introduced Armstrong and noted that day was the 34th anniversary of his moonwalk.

"Thank you, John. Thirty-four years?" Armstrong quipped, as if he hadn't given it a thought.
At another joint appearance, Glenn commented: "To this day, he's the one person on earth I'm truly, truly envious of."

Armstrong's moonwalk capped a series of accomplishments that included piloting the X-15 rocket plane and making the first space docking during the Gemini 8 mission, which included a successful emergency splashdown.

In the years afterward, Armstrong retreated to the quiet of the classroom and his southwestern Ohio farm. In an Australian interview earlier this year, Armstrong acknowledged that "now and then I miss the excitement about being in the cockpit of an airplane and doing new things."
Glenn, who went through jungle training in Panama with Armstrong as part of the astronaut program, described him as "exceptionally brilliant" with technical matters but "rather retiring, doesn't like to be thrust into the limelight much."

The 1969 landing met an audacious deadline that President Kennedy had set in May 1961, shortly after Alan Shepard became the first American in space with a 15-minute suborbital flight. (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin had orbited the Earth and beaten the U.S. into space the previous month.)

"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth," Kennedy had said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important to the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
The end-of-decade goal was met with more than five months to spare. "Houston: Tranquility Base here," Armstrong radioed after the spacecraft settled onto the moon. "The Eagle has landed."

"Roger, Tranquility," Apollo astronaut Charles Duke radioed back from Mission Control. "We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

The third astronaut on the mission, Michael Collins, circled the moon in the mother ship Columbia 60 miles overhead while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon's surface.
"He was the best, and I will miss him terribly," Collins said through NASA.
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n all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon before the last moon mission in 1972.
For Americans, reaching the moon provided uplift and respite from the Vietnam War, from strife in the Middle East, from the startling news just a few days earlier that a young woman had drowned in a car driven off a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island by Sen. Edward Kennedy. The landing occurred as organizers were gearing up for Woodstock, the legendary three-day rock festival on a farm in the Catskills of New York.

 Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, on a farm near Wapakoneta in western Ohio. He took his first airplane ride at age 6 and developed a fascination with aviation that prompted him to build model airplanes and conduct experiments in a homemade wind tunnel.
As a boy, he worked at a pharmacy and took flying lessons. He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver's license.

Armstrong enrolled in Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in Korea.
After the war, Armstrong finished his degree from Purdue and later earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. He became a test pilot with what evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.


Armstrong was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962 — the first, including Glenn, was chosen in 1959. He commanded the Gemini 8 mission in 1966, bringing back the capsule back in an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean when a wildly firing thruster kicked it out of orbit.

Aldrin said he and Armstrong were not prone to free exchanges of sentiment.
"But there was that moment on the moon, a brief moment, in which we sort of looked at each other and slapped each other on the shoulder ... and said, 'We made it. Good show,' or something like that," Aldrin said.

An estimated 600 million people — a fifth of the world's population — watched and listened to the landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.
Parents huddled with their children in front of the family television, mesmerized by what they were witnessing. Farmers abandoned their nightly milking duties, and motorists pulled off the highway and checked into motels just to see the moonwalk.

Television-less campers in California ran to their cars to catch the word on the radio. Boy Scouts at a camp in Michigan watched on a generator-powered television supplied by a parent.
Afterward, people walked out of their homes and gazed at the moon, in awe of what they had just seen. Others peeked through telescopes in hopes of spotting the astronauts.
In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong's parents.
"You couldn't see the house for the news media," recalled John Zwez, former manager of the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. "People were pulling grass out of their front yard."
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
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n 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
He remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a 310-acre farm near Lebanon, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.
In 2000, when he agreed to announce the top 20 engineering achievements of the 20th Century as voted by the National Academy of Engineering, Armstrong mentioned one disappointment relating to his moonwalk.
"I can honestly say — and it's a big surprise to me — that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said.
From 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of Charlottesville, Va.-based Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc., a company that supplies computer information management systems for business aircraft.
He then became chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company in Deer Park, N.Y.

Armstrong married Carol Knight in 1999, and the couple lived in Indian Hill, a Cincinnati suburb. He had two adult sons from a previous marriage.
Armstrong's is the second death in a month of one of NASA's most visible, history-making astronauts. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died of pancreatic cancer on July 23 at age 61.

Just prior to the 50th anniversary of Glenn's orbital flight this past February, Armstrong offered high praise to the elder astronaut. Noted Armstrong in an email: "I am hoping I will be 'in his shoes' and have as much success in longevity as he has demonstrated." Glenn is 91.
At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on Saturday, visitors held a minute of silence for Armstrong.

For anyone else who wanted to remember him, his family's statement made a simple request:
"Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."