PST: Wambach sidelined with head injury

Two days ahead of their home opener in Rochester, Western New York announced Abby Wambach will miss Saturday?s game against the Boston Breakers, a precautionary step taken after the U.S. international suffered a concussion-esque head injury last Saturday in the team?s visit to Washington, D.C. According the the club, Wambach ?is progressing each day, but will be taking the necessary steps to ensure a full, healthy recovery.??Without her, the Flash will not only need to reorganize their attack, but they?ll need to compensate for the absence of their biggest drawing card.

Wambach was hit in the head by a kicked ball late in Saturday?s visit to the Washington Spirit. Although she finished out the five minutes remaining in the match, the Flash striker was evaluated for a concussion post-game and wasn?t made available to the media. Spirit players noted Wambach was mumbling and unable to remember the time between being hit and the final whistle. Until today?s announcement, she had been considered day-to-day ahead of Saturday?s visit from Boston.

That Wambach was allowed to continue after this ?

? was the subject of some commentary from Stefan Fatsis at Slate. Read the whole piece. Here?s a big chunk, but there?s much more to this piece:

I described the scene to neurosurgeon Robert Cantu, the co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University and co-author of the new book Concussions and Our Kids. Cantu said it was ?absurd? that Wambach wasn?t yanked off the field ?

The National Women?s Soccer League says it?s not. A spokesman said the league follows the concussion guidelines of the U.S. Soccer Federation ? The guidelines state: ?Immediately remove athlete from participation if concussion is suspected.? It was certainly possible that Wambach could have been concussed. Did game personnel just fail to follow the guidelines?

NWSL commissioner Cheryl Bailey told me that league personnel are aware of the U.S. Soccer concussion guidelines and that they were applied in this case.

Fair enough. The author of the Slate piece disagrees, but he also hypothesized a curious motive: ?did Wambach stay in because she?s Abby ? as important as anyone to the fate of the third women?s league in the last decade??

Wambach doesn?t carry that profile anymore. Not since Alex Morgan emerged, but in her home town of Rochester, Wambach is still expected significant draw, particularly for a team that was short changed in player allocation (the Flash got two, instead of three, U.S. internationals). While most expected her to land in Portland before this winter?s dispersal, Wambach was tabbed to be the new Flash?s marquee star.

Western New York head coach Aaran Lines talked to ProSoccerTalk on Wednesday ahead of our Game of the Week feature. Here were his thoughts on Wambach?s commercial value:

Abby?s here to first and foremost play for the club and play well for the club. People should come out and support the [team] and see Abby Wambach play for the [team]. I hope we get a ton of support throughout the season ? people wanting to come out and see her play on the Western New York Flash team. There?s not only Abby. There are other good players around Abby ? very, very high level players. So I hope they come out and support the team with Abby in it.

We?ll see on Saturday. Even when Wambach was expected to play, the preliminary numbers were a little low:

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/25/abby-wambach-concussion-western-new-york-vs-boston-breaks-injury/related/

Jason Molina UCF

U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Card Review ...

U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Visa card is a business card that rewards you for your spending regardless of what business purchases you make. This Visa (NYSE:V) card rewards you with up to 3 points for each dollar you spend, and even gives you an enrollment bonus of 17,500 points.

I like this business card as it has the option of not having any annual fee if you spend a certain amount on purchases yearly, and you can even enjoy 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for a certain period of time. But is this card good enough?

Here is a detailed review of U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Visa card that should answer that question and give you a broader perspective of this card?s advantages and disadvantages.

Things We Like About This Card

No annual fee during the first year. And after the first year, if you spend $24,000 or more on annual purchases with this card, you won?t have to pay an annual fee. This won?t be hard as you?ll only have to spend $2,000 each month on your card to fulfill this requirement to pay no annual fee. If you spend less than $24,000 throughout the year, you will have to pay an annual fee of $55.

Receive 17,500 bonus FlexPoints when spending $2,500 within the first 150 days. This is an attractive bonus reward which you should be able to earn by spending $2,500 during the first 5 months. Since you only need to spend a small amount over an extended period of time, it is easily achievable. A few other business credit cards in the market may give you more bonus points, but you would have to spend a certain amount within a shorter period of time. For example, Ink Cash Business by JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), gives you 20,000 bonus points ($200 bonus cash back) after you spend $3,000 during the first 3 months (read our review of Ink Cash Business card here).

0% intro APR on all purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 billing cycles. After that, you?ll pay a variable APR of 11.99% ? 17.99%, depending on your creditworthiness, if you hold a balance on your card.

Earn 3 points for each dollar you donate to charity. If you like helping others and donating to charity once in a while, you will be rewarded for your altruism.

Earn 2 points for each dollar you spend on a category of either gas, airline purchases or office supplies, whichever you spend the most in each month. That means if you charge the highest amount to say, gas, for that month, you will automatically earn double points in that category. You will also earn double points on most cell phone expenses such as monthly bills and Internet charges. By earning double points, you will be able to accumulate your points twice as fast.

Earn 1 point for each dollar you spend on net purchases. You will earn 1 point for each dollar you spend on your card regardless of the purchase you?re making.

Receive $25 airline allowance along with every award travel ticket. This allowance can be used to pay for food and beverages on the plane, baggage fees, and so on.

Redeem your points for travel starting at 20,000 points, which you can be redeemed for a $400 airline ticket. If you spend a reasonable amount on this card, you can earn these points relatively fast. Within the first year, you can earn these points to spend on travel purchases by spending $2,500 within the first 150 days, which earns you 17,500 points and when making $1,250 in purchases in a category that earns you double points, such as gas.

No redemption fees or blackout dates when redeeming your points for travel. Unlike many travel rewards cards you won?t have to worry about blackout dates when redeeming your points for travel.

Our Least Favorite Things About This Card

$55 annual fee after the first year if you spend less than $24,000 annually on this card. If you spend less than this amount during the year on this card, you will have to pay a $55 annual fee. Because of this, we will only recommend this card if you spend at least $24,000 a year on company expenses. If not, you are better off with a no-fee card such as Ink Cash Business, one of the highest rated business credit cards at DailyMarkets.com.

Our Verdict: 4.2/5 Stars

U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards card is a business card that rewards business owners for their spending by giving them points for each dollar they spend. With this card, you will be able to earn double points on one of the following categories, whichever you?ve spent the most on during that month: gas, office supplies or airline purchases. You?ll also get double points on your cell phone payments.

You will also enjoy 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers, which will save you a lot of money if you?re planning on making big purchases and then paying them back within 12 months interest-free or if you want to transfer a balance to this card.

The U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Visa card will only be worth it if you plan on spending at least $24,000 a year on purchases each year. If not, you?ll have to pay an annual fee of $55 after the first year.

Click here to go to the official U.S. Bank website to apply online for U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Visa card now.

For those of you who prefer a business credit card with absolutely no annual fee, you might want to go for Ink Cash Business Card by Chase, a cash back card which offers new sign-ups $200 bonus cash back when you spend $3,000 during the first 3 months.

Source: http://www.dailymarkets.com/creditcards/us-bank-flexperks-business-travel-rewards/

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Twitter #music

After months of rumor and speculation, Twitter has officially unveiled #music, the company's surprising foray into the music space. Twitter #music (pronounced Twitter Music), however, isn't like any other music service on the market. Twitter #music leverages your social circle to serve up music recommendations and song samples. In this regard, Twitter #music is fairly effective, but it asks you to jump through some rather bizarre hoops to receive those personalized recommendations or listen to full tracks?hoops that will likely turn away many people expecting a true streaming music service. Note: I'm reviewing the Twitter #music website, but there's also an iPhone app.

Getting Started
Pointing your browser toward music.twitter.com takes you to a panel-driven interface which displays by default the 140 most popular songs currently trending on the 140-character social network. If you'd like to bypass the most popular artists, a drop-down menu in the upper-left lets you check artists who are Emerging (described as "the hidden talent found in the Tweets"), Suggested (recommended tracks based on musicians you follow), Now Playing (music "Tweeted by people you follow"), and the ones you follow, called Me in the menu.

An artist panel features an artist's photo, the artist's Twitter handle, and song name, but mousing over it reveals more information. A highlighted panel becomes greyed out and reveals the artist's name, a Twitter follow icon, an "Explicit" label when appropriate, and a play button which streams a crisp iTunes?song snippet when clicked (you can also purchase the song from iTunes). This is easily Twitter Music's most disappointing and frustrating aspect as you need to use other services?namely Rdio or Spotify?to listen to tracks in their entirety. Existing Rdio and Spotify subscribers may see the integration as a nice touch, but those who don't subscribe to those streaming music services (or use a non-supported service like Slacker Radio) may feel left out in the cold.

Music Discovery, Not Music Listening
Clicking the big, blue "Play Full Tracks" icon lets you select either Spotify or Rdio as a music source. Twitter #music then requests permission to access either Spotify or Rdio. I logged into Spotify using my Facebook account, but I still couldn't access full-length songs because I needed a $9.99 Spotify Premium account (it's the same with Rdio). That would've been nice to know beforehand.

So, I whipped out my credit card and subscribed. A few minutes later, the "Play Full Tracks" icon became a "Spotify Settings" icon when I returned to it. Clicking the icon let me disconnect Spotify from Twitter #music. An additional option becomes available when you click the gear icon?it lets you ban explicit songs. The banned songs will still appear in the Twitter Timeline, but you can't play them.

I dove into the music catalog by playing the #1 most popular song on Twitter?Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack." It was, as one would expect from crowded sourced recommendations, typical pop music fare. At least the audio streamed smoothly and sounded good. The Twitter #music player has a skip icon that lets you jump to the next most popular song, but there's no back/rewind button. Bummer. It also serves up a single track from an artist at a time?there's no way to see, for example, an album's track listing from within Twitter #music. You can, however, click on the Rdio or Spotify icon to visit the external artist pages on those sites if you'd like more information.

Twitter #music also gives you the option to Tweet what you're listening to at the moment. My immediate thought was that if the service caught on, my Timeline would be filled with these annoying shout outs and links to Rdio and Spotify. I could happily do without it.

That said, Twitter #music may serve music artists fairly well. No matter where you are in the app, an artist is staring back at you. The sheer number encourages exploration, but that may not result in finding music you like. In my case, the Popular section meant nothing to me?it was mainly pop swill. Now Playing, the music tweeted by my Twitter buds, didn't help much either (at least on launch day). There were nine recommendations and none moved me. The Emerging section was a mixed bag of potential Vice-worthy indie darlings, but certainly a step up from Popular. The Suggested section proved the most helpful as it recommended songs based on the two musicians I follow: Chuck D and Talib Kweli. Naturally, there were a lot of hip hop-heavy songs from the likes of Q-tip, Pharoahe Monch, and Bumpy Knuckles. I would have preferred if my actual tweets influenced the suggested artists, too, as I tweet about all types of music. In order to get a more varied suggestion range, I would have to follow more artists?and I don't want to do that. I prefer a clean Twitter feed.

There's also a search button, but it doesn't return song results?it returns user names. Type in "Walk This Way" and you'll get zilch unless that name is actually a Twitter handle. In this instance, Twitter #music felt even less like a music service and simply a tool to drive up engagement numbers.

Room For Improvement
The intermingling of music and social network in the manner presented here is troublesome. I like, for example, John Mayer's music, but do I really want to follow his Twitter account in order to receive Mayer-like recommendations? No. ?Plus, I don't want to clutter my Twitter stream with a slew of artists just to help sculpt personalized suggestion results.

The Twitter brand has given this service a lot of buzz, but I predict that the hype will quickly fade when the limitations arise. By requiring users to sign up for a premium Rdio or Spotify account and follow musicians to receive personalized music recommendations, Twitter #music has erected roadblocks for those who simply want to hear a quick song or two. That's not to say that Twitter #music doesn't have room for improvement. Should Twitter #music implement album info and create a way to get personalized recommendations without the need for users to follow artists it could be worth consideration. But for now? Pass unless you're a Twitter diehard.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/fiM2YUzh87M/0,2817,2417950,00.asp

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Jolicloud's Jolidrive adds search to its cloud-based services hub

Jolicloud's missions have been many over the years, from its initial open-source Joli OS ambitions to its brief stint as netbook manufacturer and now an identity as a cloud-based services aggregator. But one thing's remained consistent for the Paris-based outfit: a willingness to listen to user feedback. This is what prompted Jolicloud to once again update Jolidrive, a dashboard for third-party cloud apps, with search. As you can see from the image above, users will now be able to index any of the cloud-based apps they've integrated into their "dashboard," making the service a truly convenient multimedia hub. This updated search functionality is just the latest in a string of tweaks (e.g., the ability to share and like) Jolicloud's been rolling out to improve its cloud drive in recent weeks -- all thanks to the clamoring of users like you.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Jolicloud

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/76WYlaprj1Q/

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Ionic Security Raises $9.4M From Kleiner Perkins To Help Companies Secure And Control Their Data In The Cloud

Ionic Security, a TechCrunch Disrupt SF Battlefield company that offers an enterprise security software, has raised $9.4 million in Series A1 funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with TechOperators, Ken Levine and Dr. Paul Judge also participating. Ted Schlein, general partner at KPCB, will be joining Ionic Security's board.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lVrVj0Vak7A/

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Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world's most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.

More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state's rainy season in just seven weeks, Feiber said.

The snails attack "over 500 known species of plants ... pretty much anything that's in their path and green," Feiber said.

In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails' shells blow out tires on the highway and turn into hurling projectiles from lawnmower blades, while their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.

"It becomes a slick mess," Feiber said.

A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year and the creatures are a particular pest in homes because of their fondness for stucco, devoured for the calcium content they need for their shells.

The snails also carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Feiber said, although no such cases have yet been identified in the United States.

EXOTIC INVASION

The snails' saga is something of a sequel to the Florida horror show of exotic species invasions, including the well-known infestation of giant Burmese pythons, which became established in the Everglades in 2000. There is a long list of destructive non-native species that thrive in the state's moist, subtropical climate.

Experts gathered last week in Gainesville, Florida, for a Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium, to seek the best ways to eradicate the mollusks, including use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.

Feiber said investigators were trying to trace the snail infestation source. One possibility being examined is a Miami Santeria group, a religion with West African and Caribbean roots, which was found in 2010 to be using the large snails in its rituals, she said. But many exotic species come into the United States unintentionally in freight or tourists' baggage.

"If you got a ham sandwich in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, or an orange, and you didn't eat it all and you bring it back into the States and then you discard it, at some point, things can emerge from those products," Feiber said.

Authorities are expanding a series of announcements on buses, billboards and in movie theaters urging the public to be on the lookout.

The last known Florida invasion of the giant mollusks occurred in 1966, when a boy returning to Miami from a vacation in Hawaii brought back three of them, possibly in his jacket pockets. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden where the population grew in seven years to 17,000 snails. The state spent $1 million and 10 years eradicating them.

Feiber said many people unfamiliar with the danger viewed the snails as cute pets.

"They're huge, they move around, they look like they're looking at you ... communicating with you, and people enjoy them for that," Feiber said. "But they don't realize the devastation they can create if they are released into the environment where they don't have any natural enemies and they thrive."

(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/florida-battles-slimy-invasion-giant-snails-161432518--sector.html

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A Poker Players Tells Are In The Hands As Much As The Face

Michael Slepian, a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University, has been studying the way poker players communicate the value of their poker hands through non-verbal signals. He tells Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin that they give themselves away, not in their facial expressions, but with hand motions.

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Let's talk poker. Dealer, let me see those cards.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "COOL HAND LUKE")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as character) King-three, you got a four. Queen-deuce gets a five. And a pair of sevens gets a john. And the big ace gets a slap in the face. OK, you still do the talking.

MARTIN: That's a poker game from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." Poker, of course, is a game of deception. You have to play your bet based on the cards you think your opponent has. And if you think they've got good cards, you should probably fold. But there's always a chance the other guy is bluffing.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "COOL HAND LUKE")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as character) A hand full of nothing. (unintelligible) mom and dad. He beat you with nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: (as character) Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.

MARTIN: Well, it turns out, a person's cool, confident hands, as opposed to her tight-lipped poker face, might be the best place to look if you're trying to guess her cards. Which leads us to the research of Mike Slepian. He's a grad student in psychology at Tufts and Stanford Universities. He studies the way our intentions can influence our movements, and he was looking for a real world example.

MIKE SLEPIAN: When people are playing the game of poker, they move chips into the center of the table, and we're like, oh, well, what if how good their poker hand is influences how they move their chips into the center of the table. And if so, can people sort of decode maybe the quality of their poker hand without them, obviously, wanting to repeal their poker hand.

MARTIN: That would be valuable information. So, what did you find out? Can you apply this to poker?

SLEPIAN: So, you can. So, we showed participants videos of professional poker players playing in the World Series of Poker, and participants watched either just players placing bets but only their faces or they watched their whole bodies or they watched just their arms pushing chips into the center of the table. And it turned out that people couldn't do it from just the whole body. They couldn't guess accurately how good a poker hand was. They couldn't do it for their face. In fact, they're a little bit worse than chance suggesting that the facial cues players were sort of admitting were deceptive. But when just looking at the arms, they could tell how good professional poker players' poker hands were.

MARTIN: Wow. The truth is in the arms. Why does that make sense? What is it about our arm movements - and that one in particular, moving chips into the center of a table - that's so revealing?

SLEPIAN: So, it could be if you have a really good hand and you feel confident about that, you might just push the chips into the center of the table just a little bit more smoothly. And actually, we found that if we have participants rate how smoothly is this person putting chips into the center of the table, the smoother they're doing it, the better their poker hands were.

MARTIN: Do you play poker?

SLEPIAN: I actually don't. Maybe I should start.

MARTIN: Mike Slepian is a grad student at Tufts and Stanford Universities.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: This is NPR News.

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/177204411/a-poker-players-tells-are-in-the-hands-as-much-as-the-face?ft=1&f=1007

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Numark announces Mixtrack Quad four-channel DJ controller, we go hands on

Who'd have thunk it? Numark, at a music trade show with a new another DJ controller for your consideration. This time it has taken its popular Mixtrack console, and doubled down on the number of channels on offer. This now means between the Mixtrack, the Mixtrack II, the Mixtrack Pro II, and this, there's likely a Mixtrack for everyone. Evidently it's a format that works, so it only makes sense to offer a number of options based around the theme. As with other members of the Mixtrack family, the layout is fairly traditional, with two platters plus transport controls flanking a central mixer section. Above each platter is a set of eight MPC-style trigger pads and some rotary controls for FX and filters. If the Quad looks like it's got an extra splash of color compared to its siblings, that's because it has. The pads and platters have have configurable RGB LEDs, which we first saw in the NS7 II (Numark is going strong on the colors generally, it seems). Again, as before there's a built-in audio interface, which is pretty much essential for a controller of this level. And what level is that? Around the $349 one, apparently, whenever it comes to market (no word on that at this point). While you're waiting to find out, however, you might as well scoot over the fold for the hardware impressions.

Gallery: Numark Mixtrack Quad hands-on

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/11/numark-mixtrack-quad-four-channel-dj-controller-hands-on/

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Australian Badminton Open: Nichaon Jindapon outplays Millicent ...

Australian Badminton Open: Nichaon Jindapon outplays Millicent Wiranto in round-of-16 clash

Thailand?s upcoming shuttler Nichaon Jindapon showed her impressive craft on court when she outplayed Indonesia?s Millicent Wiranto in Women?s Singles round-of-16 at Yonex Australian Open 2013 on Thursday, April 4, in Australia.

The lofty Jindapon, who is fourth seed in Women?s Singles draw of the championship, played to her maximum potential and she easily overpowered her Indonesian rival by taking just 24 minutes.

Jindapon was in smashing form as she played with wonderful speed in the arena and remained successful in winning the match in straight games with a spectacular 21-10 and 21-6 score on the board.

The un-seeded Millicent, on the other hand, failed to continue her winning in the arena as she could not pose even a meagre threat to her Thai rival. She tried to play attacking badminton but committed many unforced errors and lost the match in a one-sided way.

Jindapon showed a wonderful aggression in the arena from the initial points of first game by building a huge pressure on her lower ranked Indonesian challenger. She was incredibly quick on court and remained in complete control of rallies.

The impressive variations in Jindapon?s strokes helped her to maintain her upper hand against her Indonesian opponent and she remained ahead on the board without facing any trouble.

Until the mid-game break, the confident Jindapon was leading the game with a completely commanding margin on the score board.

Millicent tried to put up strong resistance but remained unable to take charge of rallies and remained struggling in the ending half.

The fourth seeded Jindapon was very calm and composed on court as she did not commit mistakes and wrapped up the first game with a staggering margin of 21-10.

The impressive Thai shuttler did not lose her supremacy at any stage in the first part of second game as she played with confidence and precision.

Jindapon entertained the crowd with her incredible craft that helped her to keep pressure on her opponent who could not find good rhythm.

In the second half of second game, the lofty Jindapon continued her comfortable run and easily wrapped up the second game by a superb margin of 21-6.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Australian-Badminton-Open-Nichaon-Jindapon-outplays-Millicent-Wiranto-in-round-of-16-clash-a214143

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Catholic Church once again at center of abuse inquiry

Andrew Taylor / Attorney General's Dept. via AP

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the inquiry into sexual abuse a "moral moment" for the country and warned of "very uncomfortable truths."

By Duncan Golestani, Correspondent, NBC News

The Catholic Church in Australia is one of several institutions in the country being investigated by a "royal commission" that is looking into allegations of child sex abuse.

At the start of proceedings on Wednesday, the commission's chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said it was likely that at least 5,000 people would want to give evidence to the government-backed inquiry. It will investigate allegations of abuse and cover-up that could date back decades. The commission will be focusing on religious organizations, state care providers such as orphanages and not-for-profit groups such as the Girl Guides and Scouts.

Groups representing alleged victims of abuse say the proceedings will finally reveal Australia's history of widespread physical and sexual abuse of vulnerable children.

As tearful campaigners gathered outside the court in Melbourne, McClellan said he wanted to hear the personal accounts of those abused and those who may have been witnesses to crimes.

"For the individuals who have been traumatized, giving an account of their experiences and telling their story can be an important part of their own recovery process," he said. "The bearing of witness by another can break the silence over the abuse that a person experienced, in many cases, years ago."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the commission in November after allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in the Hunter Valley region, north of Sydney. A serving police officer called for a national inquiry, alleging the church had protected pedophile priests and tried to stop investigations.

The Catholic Church has said it will cooperate fully with the commission and has formed a "Truth, Justice and Healing Council." Its head, Francis Sullivan, said in a statement that the church was ready and willing to assist. "It is essential that the Commission's process contribute to the healing of the victims, and that institutions develop best-practice processes to address child sexual abuse."

Giving a sense of the scale of the inquiry, McClellan said the commission might not be able to meet its deadline of late 2015. It has already received around 1,200 telephone calls before starting. The allegations are likely to be so harrowing that staff members will be limited in how much testimony they can listen to each day.

Gillard called it a "moral moment" for the country. She told Australia's ABC News Radio, "When I established this royal commission I understood that it was going to require our whole country to stare some very uncomfortable truths in the face."

Related:

Britain's top Catholic cleric resigns

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a555c2d/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A30C175874530Ecatholic0Echurch0Eonce0Eagain0Eat0Ecenter0Eof0Eabuse0Einquiry0Dlite/story01.htm

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