Biram blog

Lawyer: Ga. soldier in shooting was on strict diet

FORT McPHERSON, Ga. – A soldier was fasting to meet strict military weight guidelines and nearly catatonic when he shot and killed a supervisor who denied his vacation request, his attorney said Monday.

Attorney William Cassara said Army Reserve Sgt. Rashad Valmont was dehydrated, exhausted and delirious when he burst into Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado's office in nearby Fort Gillem in June and shot him six times.

Valmont, 29, faces a premeditated murder charge. The details of the shooting were revealed for the first time Monday at a military hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to go to trial. No immediate recommendation was issued.

The military routinely requires soldiers to pass physical tests and meet body-fat requirements to be eligible for promotions and advanced training courses.

But Cassara said another sergeant, Tracy Mosley, ordered Valmont to lose an additional 3 percent beyond the minimum body fat requirements to attend a course he had long sought. He said his client spent weeks trying body wraps and sauna treatments and starving himself to meet the standards.

"He showed some form of diminished capacity, some sort of delirium in the days and hours leading up to this incident," Cassara said. "He was in a near-catatonic state, a near trance. And after being belittled, humiliated and berated ... you're on this crash course."

Mosley said she set the higher standard because she wanted to make sure Valmont succeeded in the demanding course.

Prosecutors said he had long frustrated his superiors and was known around the base as a lazy worker who frequently showed up to work late. The week of the killings, Mosley gave him a bad review because he arrived to work two hours late and then was tardy to a fitness examination.

Valmont demanded to see one of her bosses, Mercado, who went over his case file "line by excruciating line," said Capt. Sean Sullivan, a military prosecutor. Valmont angrily accused Mercado of being a liar, and the master sergeant denied his vacation request and threatened to seek more disciplinary action.

The next morning, Valmont surprised his co-workers by showing up before his 7 a.m. start time. Witnesses described him as sullen, and a mentor told investigators he tried to calm Valmont and encourage him to apologize to Mercado.

It didn't go smoothly.

Mercado, according to prosecutors, told Valmont: "When you called me a liar, it feels like you shot me."

Witnesses said Valmont stared blankly at his computer screen much of the rest of the day, until he pulled a Glock pistol from his backpack and calmly walked into Mercado's office around 5 p.m.

Sullivan said Valmont raised his left hand and fired six shots at Mercado, who crumpled to the floor.

After emerging from the office, prosecutors said he shouted that he was tired of Mercado giving him a hard time and then sought out Mosley, who said she fled at the sound of gunfire. When he couldn't find her, he hopped in his car and drove to the nearby Lake City Police Department to turn himself in.

Cassara noted that one of the first things he requested was a bite to eat "because he hadn't eaten in days." Prosecutors, however, said the shooting was not a gut reaction but rather a carefully planned outburst.

"This has been a thorough and complete investigation, and evidence points to one thing — this was a cold-blooded, premeditated murder," Sullivan said. "He felt like he had no other choice but to do something drastic, to use that Glock he had in his backpack."

UN nuke agency warns monitoring of Iran hampered

VIENNA – The U.N. atomic agency expressed alarm Monday about Iran's decision to bar some of its inspectors, suggesting that its efforts to monitor the country's nuclear program were suffering as a result.

The unusually blunt International Atomic Energy Agency warning was voiced in a restricted report on Iran made available to The Associated Press that otherwise contained few surprises. It followed Iran's recent decision to strip two experienced inspectors of the right to monitor its nuclear activities after the two reported what they said were undeclared nuclear experiments.

The Islamic Republic says the reporting by the two was inaccurate, but the IAEA stands by the findings. And the 11-page IAEA document issued Monday devoted a special section to the complaint, reflecting the importance attached to it by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.

Such a section was included in only one previous report, after Iran stripped the right of dozens of inspectors in 2006 and 2007 — most of them in order to show displeasure over recently passed U.N. Security Council sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Monday's report said that objections by Iran to some experienced inspectors "hampers the inspection process and thereby detracts from the Agency's capability to implement effective and efficient safeguards in Iran."

Diplomats from three countries accredited to the agency echoed the IAEA's concerns in comments to the AP, saying Iran appeared keen to ban seasoned inspectors — particularly those from nuclear weapons countries with special skills that could help detect attempts to make nuclear arms.

And a U.N. official who was a former IAEA inspector in Iran spoke of intense scrutiny while on such missions and the fear among inspectors that they would be banned from returning if they reported something the Iranians did not like.

"If you opened your eyes too much you ran the risk of being de-designated" by the Iranians said the official who — like the diplomats — asked for anonymity because his information was confidential.

He said he agreed with the concerns that Iran was weeding out experts most likely to discover secret programs designed to make weapons.

"The IAEA doesn't teach you about weaponization," he said. "Only experts from weapons countries are good at that kind of thing."

Iran rejected allegations of selective bans and intimidation of IAEA inspectors, with Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's chief delegate to the agency calling them "absolutely unjustified."

Soltanieh told the AP that the IAEA currently has 150 inspectors able to work in Iran and noted that the report mentioned the country's approval of five additional inspectors.

That, he said, "is a clear indication that we have cooperated with the agency."

The quarterly report, which was being circulated to the IAEA's 35-nation board and to the U.N. Security Council, also confirmed public statements by Iranian officials that the country continues to enrich uranium in contravention of U.N. Security Council demands.

Iran insists it only wants to enrich uranium to create energy. But international concerns are high because enrichment can also create the fissile core of nuclear warheads — low enriched uranium is used as nuclear fuel but the same process can produce high enriched, weapons-grade material.

The report noted that while the scope of enrichment had not significantly increased over the past year, output had been steady, with Iran now accumulating about 2.8 tons of low-enriched material — nearly enough for three nuclear bombs — since its program was revealed seven years ago. That translates to about 15 percent more such material than in May, when the last IAEA report was published.

Separate enrichment for what Iran says will be fuel for its research reactor had produced about 22 kilograms — more than 45 pounds — of 20-percent enriched uranium.

While still substantially less than the 90 percent needed to make weapons, production of 20 percent enriched material is of concern because it can be turned into weapons grade material more quickly than the low enriched uranium turned out by Iran's main enrichment facility.

The report also said that Iran continued to stonewall the agency in its efforts to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence indicating past experiments meant to develop a nuclear weapons program and warned that chances of establishing the accuracy of such information were diminishing.

With Iran refusing to engage on the issue for over two years, "the possible deterioration in the availability of some relevant information increase the urgency of this matter," said the report.

In a separate report, the agency expressed similar concerns about Syria's refusal allow the IAEA to probe U.S. assertions that a facility destroyed three years ago by Israeli warplanes was a secretly built reactor meant to produce plutonium.

"After two years of investigations constrained by Syria's lack of cooperation, it is critical that Syria positively engage with the Agency ... without further delay," said that report.

Oil operations in Gulf unaffected by storm

HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N), the largest oil producer in U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico, and Shell Oil Co (RDSa.L) said Monday that Tropical Storm Hermine was not affecting their offshore operations.

Hermine, which formed early Monday morning, was churning toward landfall by late Monday near the Mexico-Texas border.

Hermine was forecast to take a path between both U.S. and Mexican major offshore oil and natural gas production areas.

For the United States, the Gulf of Mexico's offshore oil patch provides 30 percent of national crude output and 11 percent of the country's natural gas production.

Oil companies were carefully monitoring Hermine on Monday.

"It's not impacting any of our operations," said BP spokesman Neil Chapman.

Shell said operations and staffing at its offshore facilities were unaffected by the storm.

Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) said production at its 315,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery was at planned levels, but the plant was preparing for possible rough weather from Hermine.

Flint Hills Resources and Citgo Petroleum Corp also operate refineries in Corpus Christi, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center said faces a 70 percent chance of tropical storm force winds from Hermine.

No cutbacks in oil and natural gas production had been announced by U.S. companies as of 13:30 p.m. CDT (2:30 p.m. EDT).

Pemex, Mexico's state-run oil company, said there were no reports of damage to its facilities in or near the Gulf of Mexico due to Hermine.

Hermine is also expected to pass south of three refineries in Corpus Christi.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has said Hermine could approach hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Kenneth Barry)

OddGrooves Releases Reggae Drum Loops Pack

OddGrooves releases Reggae Drumming, a drum loop pack inspired by the great roots reggae drummers of the seventies. Reggae Drumming features 247 professionally recorded drum loops arranged for Toontrack EZdrummer, Superior Drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, Steven Slate Drums, Sonic Reality I-MAP and General MIDI.

(PRWEB) August 31, 2010 -- Inspired by the great reggae drummers of the mid-seventies, Swedish music production company OddGrooves releases Reggae Drumming - a MIDIpack arranged for several popular drum samplers.

According to OddGrooves' chief drummer Magnus Brandell the goal with the Reggae Pack was to "get into the soul" of the reggae drummers of the 70's. Burning Spear, Peter Tosh and The Wailers served as major sources of inspiration when recording the loops.

OddGrooves CEO/producer Per Ulfhielm says: "While our background is mainly in the progressive rock genre, many of our customers have requested that we produce a set of high-quality reggae drum loops. There are plenty of audio loops in that genre out there but we saw the need for a high quality MIDI loops reggae pack that you can use with your own drum sampler and select the sound sources that work best in your music".

Reggae Drumming features:* 247 , predominantly roots reggae, but also reggae pop such as The Police and loops inspired by Frank Zappa's classic reggae variations.* Recorded in a total of 10 tempos* All drum loops are played live by a professional session drummer* The grooves are not quantized * All grooves are in song format to make life easier for composers and producers on a time schedule* Arranged for Toontrack EZdrummer/Superior Drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, Sonic Reality I-MAP, Steven Slate Drums and General MIDI

Song FormatOddGrooves Reggae Drumming is designed in a "song format" structure, which enables composers and producers to quickly preview and put together a drum track without first having to go through countless MIDI files. The available song sections are:

* Intro* Verse* Pre-chorus* Chorus* Outro/ending

The Reggae Drumming pack is priced at 27 US dollars. For more info, please visit OddGrooves .

###

OddGrooves Drum LoopsPer Ulfhielm+46 76 7842432Trackback URL: http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/Q291cC1FbXB0LU1hZ24tUHJvZi1TaW5nLVNxdWEtWmVybw==

Brazilian superstar Ivete Sangalo plays NY arena

NEW YORK – The most Earth-shattering event in Brazil this weekend took place in New York, where singer Ivete Sangalo played a sold out show at Madison Square Garden. Too bad, few Americans even noticed.

A superstar in her native Brazil, where she can pack a 70,000-capacity soccer stadium and commands crowds of millions during Carnaval, Sangalo kept the almost-entirely-Brazilian audience on its feet over the course of three hours and five costume changes.

Dancing frenetically, the crowd of 14,500 sang along with every word of her samba-inflected dance pop songs like "Festa" (Party) and "Acelere" (Accelerate).

"I just want you to be proud of me, and I want you to be proud of the show I brought here," Sangalo said from the top of a massive, thrusting stage pulsing with lights and video — designed by the man responsible for this year's Super Bowl halftime show, Bruce Rodgers.

In Brazil, Sangalo's show was touted as her first step toward conquering the U.S., placing her in a pantheon with the likes of Madonna, the Rolling Stones, Beyonce and U2.

But a 100-foot-high banner that hung outside the Garden for weeks advertising the show still required the helpful caption explaining Sangalo is "A Brazilian Star."

At a pre-concert news conference, the statuesque brunette said the relative anonymity didn't faze her.

"When I started in Brazil, I was also unknown, and Brazil is a gigantic place with lots of talent," the husky-voiced singer explained. "I haven't come here with the pretension of being well known, but what I've come do to here, I've come to do right."

As a Portuguese speaker, Sangalo may have had her work cut out for her, but promoters say selling out the Garden is a real accomplishment.

Shows by non-English-speaking acts there tend to top out at around 3,000 to 4,000 people, unless they sing in Spanish, which is spoken by a large and growing percentage of the U.S. population.

The only other Brazilian to headline a show at the Garden, singer Roberto Carlos, did so by reaching out to Latin audiences and singing in Spanish.

The closest comparison might be the Korean pop singer Rain, who sold out two nights at the smaller Madison Square Garden theater, which seats 4,000, in 2006.

Concert promoter John Scher said people have been calling him to ask who Sangalo is.

"I don't think there's been anything quite like this. There are Latin (Spanish speaking) artists who can sell out the Garden, but this is a pretty unique situation really," Scher said. "There's a lot of interest in the music industry, if not with the public."

Sangalo, 38, got her start singing as a teenager from the top of the sound trucks that ply their way through the packed streets of Salvador da Bahia during Carnaval time.

When she left the Carnaval group Banda Eva to go solo in 1999 she was already one of the country's biggest stars.

But her brand of Carnaval-inspired dance-pop, known as axe (pronounced ah-SHAY'), isn't what U.S. listeners usually think of as Brazilian music, and her audience tends to be concentrated among teenagers and twenty-somethings looking for a chance to hook up.

Her lyrics express the irrepressible optimism of youth, and her sound is a world away from the cool, cerebral bossa nova of Joao Gilberto or the smooth sounds of Caetano Veloso and Marisa Monte, all of whom are better known in the United States, even if Sangalo outsells them all at home.

As many as 5,000 fans had been expected to fly in from Brazil for the show, organizers say.

So despite all the conquering America swagger, Sangalo's intent is actually something entirely different: The Garden show was mainly intended to serve as a backdrop for her new DVD and a TV special to be broadcast in Brazil in December.

"They want a packed house and want to say 'we've sold out Madison Square Garden' and they've probably achieved that through various other means than from straight ahead ticket sales,'" says Gene de Souza, development director of the nonprofit Rhythm Foundation, who promoted Sangalo's Miami show.

In Miami, with a larger Brazilian population, Sangalo sold only 6,500 of the 7,000 seats put up for sale, de Souza said, in an arena where Britney Spears was able to pack in 18,500 fans.

On Saturday night Sangalo appeared well aware of her target audience, addressing the crowd as "Brazil" and dedicating the show to Brazilians living abroad.

Her only nods to local audiences were covers of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and Lionel Richie's "Easy" and a duet with Nelly Furtado, in which her English sounded good with only a slight accent.

She also reached out to the Spanish-speaking audiences, performing duets with Colombian superstar Juanes and Argentina's Diego Torres, but the warmest applause was reserved for Brazilian guests like Seu Jorge and fellow axe star Netinho, who appeared, briefly transforming the 25-minute-long encore into a mini-version of Carnaval.

"I didn't come with the objective to transforming anything or parting the waters for Brazilian music or anything like that," Sangalo said before the show. "I am a popular singer for the masses, and I will continue to be one, and this is my greatest pleasure."

(This version CORRECTS typo in expatriate in long headline.)