Fishers near marine protected areas end up traveling farther to catch fish but maintain their social and economic well-being, according to a study by fisheries scientists at Washington State University and in Hawaii.
The study, reported in the journalBiological Conservation, is one of the first to look closely at how protected areas in small nearshore fisheries can affect where fishers operate on the ocean and, as a consequence, their livelihood.
"Where MPAs are located in relation to how fishers operate on the seascape is critical to understand for fisheries management and this is an important lesson to draw from this study," said Todd Stevenson, the paper's lead author, who did the research as part of his WSU doctorate.
Marine protected areas have become a cornerstone of ocean conservation, setting aside specific waters to preserve and manage vulnerable resources like declining fish stocks. In theory, the MPAs will provide a refuge in which fish can breed and help replenish nearby, open areas with their offspring. Nearly 6,000 MPAs have been set up around the world, according to a 2010 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Stevenson focused on a network of MPAs on the west coast of the island of Hawaii, home to an aquarium fish trade and one of the state's most lucrative nearshore fisheries. While the fishery is relatively small, with only about 40 active fishers, small-scale fisheries actually employ more people than large-scale operations and catch fish more efficiently. Their small size also makes fishers more vulnerable to changes, as a poorly placed MPA can have a large effect on their options.
Starting in 1999, the west Hawaii MPAs closed more than one-third of the coast to aquarium fishing. Many areas were closed to avoid conflicts with dive charters and the tourism industry, particularly in the more populated central part of the west coast. This is where most ports and launches are, too. As a result, fishers had to go farther in search of fish.
Analyzing social surveys and state catch reports, Stevenson and his colleagues found just that.
"Fishing cost and distances traveled were perceived to have significantly worsened," he and his colleagues wrote, "while economic status was perceived to have significantly improved."
"It's not uncommon to establish MPAs in areas where fishers operate, as these are usually biologically and economically productive spots that receive heavy fishing pressure and thus need the most protection," said Stevenson. "When MPAs are placed in these locations, they displace fishers into new, slightly less optimal fishing spots.
"This happened in Hawaii," he said, "and it appears to have had little impact on the socioeconomic well-being of fishers who remained involved in the fishery since before the MPAs were in place, which is somewhat counterintuitive and makes our study interesting."
Without a separate economic analysis, said Stevenson, it's hard to say how the changing fish stocks might have affected fishing incomes. He and his co-authors?WSU Professor Brian Tissot and Bill Walsh of Hawaii's Division of Aquatic Resources?conjecture the fishers had higher yields, in part because they were steered toward underexploited or more biologically productive areas.
Fishers also benefited from rising prices for yellow tang, the most abundant and popular fish in Hawaii's aquarium trade, and price wars among island buyers working to satisfy the growing demand from coral aquarium tank owners.
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Washington State University: http://www.wsu.edu
Thanks to Washington State University for this article.
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By Kimberly Dozier - The Associated Press Posted : Wednesday Mar 6, 2013 9:08:20 EST
KABUL, Afghanistan ? The Afghan president on Wednesday called on his security forces to end incidents of torture and abuse of the Afghan people, a shift from past speeches that have solely blamed NATO troops for the violations in the country.
In an address to parliament, Hamid Karzai said Afghan forces are also violating their own people?s rights, making it harder for him to raise the issue when abuses are carried out by foreigners.
?It?s not forgivable ... Our Afghan people are not safe in their houses,? because of Afghan troops? treatment, he said. ?Why should I blame foreigners??
The Afghan leader said he did not initially want to believe reports that his own security forces had tortured prisoners, for instance, but that now he was calling on Afghan forces to respect human rights.
An Afghan government investigation last month found widespread cases of abuse at government-run prisons, backing up the results of a U.N. investigation that Karzai had initially repudiated.
Karzai?s speech is likely to be welcomed by diplomats who have called on him to acknowledge his own troops? responsibility for incidents of abuse.
But with the remarks, the Afghan leader also made a veiled reference to his recent calls for the withdrawal of U.S. special operations forces from Wardak province, neighboring Kabul, because of alleged incidents of abuse by U.S. and Afghan forces there. U.S. officials have said they are investigating the allegations.
Karzai also called on the Afghan Taliban to acknowledge his offer to open negotiations with them through an official Taliban office, which is due to open in Qatar. The senior Taliban leadership has not responded to the offer.
And in a possibly troubling statement for the international community, Karzai criticized the cost of the last presidential elections, saying that paying for international advisers and enablers drove up the price of each vote to between $30 and $40.
He said elections next time around should be run solely by the Afghans, calling into question whether his government would welcome international monitoring. The last round of elections was widely criticized for incidents of fraud.
?Our election must be an Afghan-led election without the interference of foreigners,? Karzai said, adding that although the law prohibits him from running for another term, he wants to ensure a free and fair election.
?A good election would bring to Afghanistan more stability and prosperity,? he said.
The progress of Afghan forces, however, has been uneven.
A weekend attack on an army convoy in Badakshan province killed 16 soldiers, according to Abdul Marouf Rassekh, a spokesman for the province?s governor. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Then on Sunday, Afghan forces thwarted an attempted jailbreak by rioting prisoners at the central jail in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, according to the chief of Afghan prison system, Gen. Amir Mohammad Jamshid.
Jamshid said his forces disrupted a complex plot in which Taliban fighters planned to launch suicide attacks outside as rioters attacked guards inside the jail.
The rioting prisoners managed to take three guards hostage and at one point controlled large portions of the jail, but when a group of prisoners freed two of the guards, vicious infighting ensued among the rioters and several were injured, Jamshid said.
Late Tuesday night, Afghan security forces managed to retake most of the prison and freed the final guard through negotiations, he said. A small group of prisoners was still in a standoff with the police in one section of the prison Wednesday, demanding improved conditions, including weekly visits by family members and more freedom of movement within the prison, Jamshid said.
Staff at a nearby hospital said nearly a dozen people ? mostly prisoners but also some Afghan security forces ? were being treated for injuries sustained during the riot. The medical staff spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential medical records.
Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
Google has drawn flak for wanting much ofour access to its services linked under a single Google+ identity -- and preferably a real one. However, company internet evangelist Vint Cerf argues that Google shouldn't (and doesn't) cross a line in the sand on user anonymity. He contends in a Reuters interview that no one should be forced to use their real name, and that Google won't press for one, especially in politically oppressive situations where there could be dire consequences to protesting under a real identity. What about less sensitive conditions, however? Cerf would like to strike a balance: he prefers solutions that "strongly authenticate" people when necessary, without eliminating anonymity altogether. We're glad to hear that there's a place Google won't go in its quest for social network supremacy, although we're sure some would like the search giant to take another step back and restore the controls over anonymity and privacy that they believe have been lost.
Miami Heat's LeBron James, right, beats Minnesota Timberwolves' Dante Cunningham in the second half of an NBA basketball game for one of his 10 rebounds Monday, March 4, 2013, in Minneapolis. The Heat won 97-81. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Miami Heat's LeBron James, right, beats Minnesota Timberwolves' Dante Cunningham in the second half of an NBA basketball game for one of his 10 rebounds Monday, March 4, 2013, in Minneapolis. The Heat won 97-81. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Miami Heat's Ray Allen, right, is separated by a teammate and an official is he jaws with Minnesota Timberwolves' J.J. Barea in the second half of an NBA basketball game Monday, March 4, 2013, in Minneapolis. Barea was ejected after a flagrant foul was called on him. The Heat won 97-81. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Miami Heat's LeBron James shoots as Minnesota Timberwolves' Greg Stiemsma, right, and Mikael Gelabale, left, of France, defend in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 4, 2013, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Dwyane Wade has seen a lot in his 10 years on South Beach. He's won championships and lost them. He's been on top of the basketball world and at the bottom of the heap.
Through it all, he's never been on a 15-game winning streak. Until now.
He's also never won back-to-back titles. With LeBron James leading the way, everything is changing in Miami and anything is possible for the Heat.
Wade had 32 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, James shrugged off a sore left knee to score 20 points and grab 10 rebounds, and the Heat earned their franchise-record 15th straight victory with a 97-81 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
"I've been around for a long time. When you start breaking your own records, you've been around for a while," said Wade, who made 15 of 23 shots. "Hopefully we can continue to win. If we don't, hopefully we can get right back on it. That's what we've done all year. We in a groove. We're playing well and finding ways to win."
They've beaten good teams and bad during this streak, won in nail-biting fashion and breezed through blowouts, played ugly and played beautifully. They haven't lost since Feb. 1 at Indiana and now head home for four straight games to see how far they can take this thing.
"I haven't even addressed it with the team," coach Erik Spoelstra said of the record. "It feels awkward addressing it with you guys. But obviously it's a residual of our group effort and obviously group success. I don't want our guys focusing on the record. I know it's a great thing for our franchise, but we're trying to improve and we can start with that process with a better game on Wednesday."
There was a time when focus appeared to be an issue for James, when he just couldn't seem to muster the inner fortitude and go-for-broke attitude it takes to win at the highest level. That seems so long ago now. He wasn't his usual force of nature self against the undermanned Timberwolves, preferring to let Wade exploit a mismatch with the undersized Luke Ridnour at shooting guard. But he took another step in showing that this year's LeBron is a different player. More focused, more determined, more dedicated to the game than ever before.
He had every reason to sit down in this one, and the runaway favorite for MVP wouldn't have been blamed. The Heat were playing the second game of a road back-to-back, coming off a stirring victory over New York and playing an undermanned opponent that had lost 21 of its last 25 games.
James tweaked his knee in the third quarter against New York on Sunday when he landed awkwardly while chasing down a lob. That didn't stop him from scoring 12 points and swatting Tyson Chandler in the fourth quarter to lead the Heat to their first win of the season over the Knicks, an important victory for the defending champions to assert themselves in the Eastern Conference.
Maybe in the past, James would have chosen rest. But not this year. He's reached a different level, one that no one has been able to match, whether he is completely healthy or not. He knows more is expected of him, and is delivering it every night.
"His leg would probably have to fall off for him to miss a game," Chris Bosh said.
His knee was examined when the team arrived in Minnesota and no serious damage was found.
"My knee responded well from that fall yesterday," James said. "I'm blessed. It's nothing really, a little jam when I landed on the floor."
He made 9 of 16 shots and had three steals to offset seven of the team's 24 turnovers. The Heat led 67-54 with four minutes to play in the third quarter and they looked to be cruising to the finish.
But the Wolves fought back. Alexey Shved's driving layup cut the deficit to 76-70 with 8:20 to play, and the home crowd was alive. But the game turned when J.J. Barea was ejected for a Flagrant-2 foul after he knocked Heat guard Ray Allen to the court and Miami responded with a 17-5 surge to put the game away.
Officials initially ruled it a Flagrant 1, but changed the call upon reviewing it, eliciting strong protests from Barea and Wolves coach Rick Adelman, who also picked up a technical.
Allen immediately got up and rushed Barea, but players from both sides stepped in and broke up the confrontation.
"It just came out of nowhere," Allen said. "I was dribbling down the floor, it was a play where he kind of chucked me a little bit and knocked the ball away. I got it back and drove and he just leveled me. I thought it was uncalled for. There's no place for that in this game."
Barea was jawing at Allen as he left the court and said he expected the league to change the call on Tuesday.
"I've been playing in the NBA for seven years," Barea said. "I get hit harder than that every night. I don't get up crying and want to fight."
Chris Bosh added 11 points and nine rebounds, and James played 35 minutes despite being listed as a game-time decision with that twisted left knee.
Derrick Williams had 25 points and 10 rebounds and Ricky Rubio had 14 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds for the Timberwolves, who again played without Nikola Pekovic (abdominal strain) and Andrei Kirilenko (strained left calf).
"Any time you get an opportunity set a record, it's great for the organization and the guys involved," James said. "But we want to keep going. We want to keep winning each game by itself. We don't talk about the streak. We just go to the next game and play it out. We look forward to the next one."
NOTES: C Chris Andersen sparked the Heat in the second quarter and finished with six points and seven boards. ... Heat F Shane Battier played under Adelman in Houston. "One of my favorite players I've ever had," Adelman said. ... Baltimore Ravens LB Terrell Suggs, who started high school in St. Paul, sat courtside for the game wearing a Heat cap.
New Center for Open Science designed to increase research transparencyPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fariss Samarrai fls4f@virginia.edu 434-924-3778 University of Virginia
Scientific research aims to create knowledge about how the world works. Knowledge accumulates when scientists conduct studies and share their findings with others. Sharing allows other scientists to identify flaws or to extend the findings to get more knowledge.
However, a large portion of scientific research is never shared at all, said Brian Nosek, an associate professor of psychology in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, who is co-founder of the new Center for Open Science, which opens today in Charlottesville.
Funded by a $5.25 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the aim of the center is to improve how science in all fields is conducted and communicated, and is the first of its kind.
Center members will build tools to improve the scientific process and promote accurate, transparent findings in scientific research. It also will provide scientists with incentives to conduct original research and to replicate previous studies to verify their accuracy.
"Learning new things is hard, and a single study is not enough to establish new knowledge," Nosek said. "Important new findings are challenged, replicated and reinterpreted by many independent scientists to confirm their validity. Without openness, science simply cannot operate."
Nosek founded the center with Jeffrey Spies, a U.Va. graduate student, who said, "The Center for Open Science will encourage openness, accessibility and reproducibility across all phases of the research work flow."
Leading researchers who study scientific practices are recognizing the center's importance. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine in the Stanford University School of Medicine, said, "Improving scientific openness and reproducibility is one of the most pressing issues of this generation of science. I applaud this new initiative and hope that all my colleagues will do their part to make science more accurate and transparent."
The center's signature project is the Open Science Framework website. The website allows scientists to easily store and manage research materials, collaborate with others and publicly share their hypotheses and findings. Scientists can register their research designs ahead of conducting a study to improve confidence in the final result.
"When there is a strong hypothesis for a study, registration provides accountability to truth and reduces opportunities to flexibly analyze data in order to produce the result we want rather than the result that we got," Nosek said.
He said that the Open Science Framework website makes it easier to practice science in an open and transparent manner. "It supports a novel publishing model in which study designs are peer-reviewed before data collection, rather than afterward. Designs are evaluated on the quality of the methods and the importance of the question, rather than the nature of the results."
The journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, a premier journal of the Association of Psychological Science, has announced adoption of this publishing format for a new type of article reporting simultaneous replications of a single study by multiple research teams.
Perspectives editor Barbara A. Spellman, a U.Va. psychology professor, said, "Some ideas are so important that we should publish high-quality tests of them regardless of the outcome. When multiple labs coordinate with original study designers to do multiple replications, we can learn about the robustness, generalizability and effect sizes of noteworthy research."
The center already is leading initiatives, such as the Reproducibility Project, to investigate replicability of published results. This open, crowd-sourced study involving more than 100 scientists is conducting replications of studies published in the 2008 issues of three major psychology journals.
Rebecca Saxe, associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the contributors to the project, said, "This project embodies what I love about science. Scientists seek truth by being persistently self-critical. It is exciting when our findings survive our efforts to poke holes in them. And, when they don't survive, we learn something new. Knowledge wins either way!"
Stuart Buck, director of research at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, said, "We decided to support the center's operating costs for an initial four-year period because we believe so strongly in the mission of improving the integrity of scientific scholarship."
The center's operations and activities are growing rapidly. Scientists and publishers of academic journals are eligible to receive Center for Open Science grants for replication studies designed to verify the results of important research. Those interested in applying for grants should email the center at contact@centerforopenscience.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New Center for Open Science designed to increase research transparencyPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fariss Samarrai fls4f@virginia.edu 434-924-3778 University of Virginia
Scientific research aims to create knowledge about how the world works. Knowledge accumulates when scientists conduct studies and share their findings with others. Sharing allows other scientists to identify flaws or to extend the findings to get more knowledge.
However, a large portion of scientific research is never shared at all, said Brian Nosek, an associate professor of psychology in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, who is co-founder of the new Center for Open Science, which opens today in Charlottesville.
Funded by a $5.25 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the aim of the center is to improve how science in all fields is conducted and communicated, and is the first of its kind.
Center members will build tools to improve the scientific process and promote accurate, transparent findings in scientific research. It also will provide scientists with incentives to conduct original research and to replicate previous studies to verify their accuracy.
"Learning new things is hard, and a single study is not enough to establish new knowledge," Nosek said. "Important new findings are challenged, replicated and reinterpreted by many independent scientists to confirm their validity. Without openness, science simply cannot operate."
Nosek founded the center with Jeffrey Spies, a U.Va. graduate student, who said, "The Center for Open Science will encourage openness, accessibility and reproducibility across all phases of the research work flow."
Leading researchers who study scientific practices are recognizing the center's importance. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine in the Stanford University School of Medicine, said, "Improving scientific openness and reproducibility is one of the most pressing issues of this generation of science. I applaud this new initiative and hope that all my colleagues will do their part to make science more accurate and transparent."
The center's signature project is the Open Science Framework website. The website allows scientists to easily store and manage research materials, collaborate with others and publicly share their hypotheses and findings. Scientists can register their research designs ahead of conducting a study to improve confidence in the final result.
"When there is a strong hypothesis for a study, registration provides accountability to truth and reduces opportunities to flexibly analyze data in order to produce the result we want rather than the result that we got," Nosek said.
He said that the Open Science Framework website makes it easier to practice science in an open and transparent manner. "It supports a novel publishing model in which study designs are peer-reviewed before data collection, rather than afterward. Designs are evaluated on the quality of the methods and the importance of the question, rather than the nature of the results."
The journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, a premier journal of the Association of Psychological Science, has announced adoption of this publishing format for a new type of article reporting simultaneous replications of a single study by multiple research teams.
Perspectives editor Barbara A. Spellman, a U.Va. psychology professor, said, "Some ideas are so important that we should publish high-quality tests of them regardless of the outcome. When multiple labs coordinate with original study designers to do multiple replications, we can learn about the robustness, generalizability and effect sizes of noteworthy research."
The center already is leading initiatives, such as the Reproducibility Project, to investigate replicability of published results. This open, crowd-sourced study involving more than 100 scientists is conducting replications of studies published in the 2008 issues of three major psychology journals.
Rebecca Saxe, associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the contributors to the project, said, "This project embodies what I love about science. Scientists seek truth by being persistently self-critical. It is exciting when our findings survive our efforts to poke holes in them. And, when they don't survive, we learn something new. Knowledge wins either way!"
Stuart Buck, director of research at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, said, "We decided to support the center's operating costs for an initial four-year period because we believe so strongly in the mission of improving the integrity of scientific scholarship."
The center's operations and activities are growing rapidly. Scientists and publishers of academic journals are eligible to receive Center for Open Science grants for replication studies designed to verify the results of important research. Those interested in applying for grants should email the center at contact@centerforopenscience.org.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 image taken from video obtained from the Beloved of Allah Brigade , which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian rebel Abdullah Qadi, foreground, addresses other fighters in the village of Orim, Syria. Qadi, a fresh graduate of veterinary school when Syria's conflict began, was killed this week while fighting the forces of President Bashar Assad.(AP Photo/Beloved of Allah Brigade via AP video)
In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 image taken from video obtained from the Beloved of Allah Brigade , which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian rebel Abdullah Qadi, foreground, addresses other fighters in the village of Orim, Syria. Qadi, a fresh graduate of veterinary school when Syria's conflict began, was killed this week while fighting the forces of President Bashar Assad.(AP Photo/Beloved of Allah Brigade via AP video)
In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 image taken from video obtained from the Beloved of Allah Brigade , which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian rebel Abdullah Qadi, second right, addresses other fighters in the village of Orim, Syria. Qadi, a fresh graduate of veterinary school when Syria's conflict began, was killed this week while fighting the forces of President Bashar Assad.(AP Photo/Beloved of Allah Brigade via AP video)
In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 image taken from video obtained from Beloved of Allah Brigade, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, dead Syrian rebel fighter Abdullah Qadi lies on a floor before burial in Syria. Qadi, a fresh graduate of veterinary school when Syria's conflict began, was killed this week while fighting the forces of President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Beloved of Allah Brigade via AP video)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Abdullah Qadi stood apart from his fellow rebel fighters ? an educated young man from a poor farming town who managed to make it through veterinary school.
He was fresh out of school in March 2011, when Syria's uprising began and erased his career plans of treating animals and someday becoming a professor.
As the violence deepened into a civil war, Qadi worked as a medic but later took up arms when his brother was killed, becoming a field commander.
Qadi was leading fighters into battle against the government forces when I met him on two occasions last year, a 25-year-old who was swept up in events he didn't quite understand and didn't expect to survive.
"I try to ask myself where I'll be after the revolution, and I can't imagine myself anywhere but in the grave," Qadi told me the last time I saw him in person.
I saw Qadi again earlier this week: As I sat at my computer in Beirut, a YouTube video flashed across the screen showing his body after he had been killed in northern Syria during government shelling and airstrikes. The video, posted online by the rebels, declared him a "martyr" in the fight against President Bashar Assad.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ben Hubbard, an Associated Press correspondent based in Beirut, interviewed rebel fighter Abdullah Qadi during reporting trips into Syria. Here is his remembrance of the young brigade commander who died this week while fighting in northern Syria.
___
Qadi's death was like many of the more than 70,000 in the civil war ? violent, fast and mostly invisible to the outside world, other than in a few posts on Facebook pages run by his friends.
For me, it was a moment of recognizing someone familiar in the stream of gruesome images from the nearly 2-year-old conflict.
Because the government bars most reporters from working in Syria, on-the-ground reporting can only be done on dangerous, clandestine trips into the country.
It was on one such trip in November that I spent several days with Qadi and his brigade in northern Syria, both in a simple farmhouse they used as a base near their hometown of Maaret Misreen and in a fancy villa where they squatted while planning to attack an army base.
Qadi fielded my questions about his group, answering softly and earnestly, laughing shyly at times without opening his mouth much to hide a chipped front tooth.
His college education made him different from most of his fellow fighters. He was shorter than many of his colleagues and he usually wore an army green sweater and camouflage pants. He had grown a beard in the revolutionary fashion, but it was too downy to harden his image.
When the political protests against Assad grew more violent, his future was changed forever. Instead of healing farm animals, his medical expertise was put to use in treating victims of the government crackdown.
Then, in December 2011, his brother, Mazen, was killed in a shootout with a pro-regime militia, and Qadi joined a new brigade called The Beloved of Allah, most of whose members were guys he grew up with.
Like most of those fighting Assad's forces, he was a devout Sunni Muslim who didn't fully agree with the jihadists and foreign fighters who had joined the civil war seeking to turn Syria into an Islamic state. But their presence didn't bother him enough to make him refuse their help in battle.
He was popular with his men and known for his caution, recalled Sair Schaib, another brigade member, in an interview via Skype.
Some chafed at times at Qadi's reluctance to push forward quickly, but they later appreciated it. They realized that despite all the talk of the glory of martyrdom, he really didn't want to get his men killed.
This week, Qadi's brigade was among the rebels who pushed into Khan al-Assal, a village east of Aleppo in northern Syria near a police academy that Assad's forces have turned into a military base that regularly fires shells at nearby villages.
Government forces heavily shelled the area and the rebels organized cars to evacuate the civilians, said Schaib, who was a few streets away from Qadi.
Then a government jet bombed them, damaging homes and wounding a number of fighters and civilians.
Once they had been evacuated, Schaib rejoined the rest of his group and found another fighter cradling Qadi's head in his lap and reciting the Muslim declaration of faith.
Qadi's colleagues announced his death on their Facebook page, telling his story in epic language that portrayed him as a model for all.
"He picked up his weapon and joined the valiant revolutionaries, a courageous hero who did not fear death, but instead asked Allah for it, seeking martyrdom and receiving it from Allah," it said. "You will live on in our presence and in or hearts as we continue the march until we reach one of two blessings, victory or martyrdom."
They also posted a video of his body, his face uncovered. His fellow rebels, their voices cracking with emotion, yelled "God is great!"
Qadi was buried Monday night in his hometown, next to his brother.
Months earlier, over a plate of chicken fingers and french fries, Qadi spoke of how he had deferred his dreams of work, graduate study and marriage to fight a war he didn't expect to see end.
But he didn't seem depressed at that late-night dinner. He had fully embraced his new life.
"I'm happy with the battles and the people I've gotten to know," Qadi said. "These are the best moments of my life."
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Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
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