News ~ Corpse

Berlusconi resigns, crowds in Rome celebrate

2011-11-12T21:52:00.001-08:00

Rome: Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Saturday to make way for an emergency government Italians hope will save them from financial ruin as thousands of jeering protesters shouted "clown, clown" and toasted the end of a scandal-plagued era.

Berlusconi, who failed to secure a majority in a crucial vote on Tuesday, stepped down as prime minister after parliament passed a package of measures demanded by European partners to restore market confidence in Italy's strained public finances.

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti is expected to be given the task of trying to form a new administration to face a widening financial crisis which has sent Italy's borrowing costs to unmanageable levels.

More than a thousand demonstrators waving banners mocking Berlusconi flocked to the president's residence at the Quirinale Palace as the motorcade carrying the billionaire media entrepreneur, who has been Italy's longest serving prime minister, entered.

The crowd grew so unruly that Berlusconi was forced to leave secretly via a side entrance and return to his private residence.

Cheers broke out when they heard that Berlusconi had resigned and the square broke out into a party atmosphere. People sang, danced and some broke open bottles of champagne.

An orchestra near the palace played the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. "We are here to rejoice," one said.

Demonstrators chanting "resign, resign, resign" also gathered outside the prime minister's office and parliament, heckling ministers as they walked between the two buildings.

A small group of pro-Berlusconi demonstrators gathered outside his residence but were hugely outnumbered by opponents.

After the resignation, hundreds shouting "Jail, Jail, Jail,"moved from the presidential palace to Berlusconi's residence to continue the noisy celebrations below his windows.
"This is something that deeply saddens me," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Berlusconi as telling aides.

President Giorgio Napolitano will begin consultations with political leaders at 5:00 a.m. EST on Sunday morning. He was expected to ask Monti for form a government on Sunday night.

Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, came close to disaster this week when yields on 10-year bonds soared over 7.6 percent, the kind of level which forced Ireland, Portugal and Greece to seek international bailouts.

Berlusconi, who failed to secure a majority in a vote on Tuesday, promised to resign once parliament passed the package of economic reforms demanded by European partners to restore confidence in Italy's battered public finances.
Monti, named by Napolitano as a Senator for Life on Wednesday, is expected to appoint a relatively small cabinet of technocrat specialists to steer Italy through the crisis.

With the next election not due until 2013, a technocrat government could have about 18 months to pass painful economic reforms but will need to secure the backing of a majority in parliament and could fall before then.
With a public debt of more than 120 percent of gross domestic product and more than a decade of anemic economic growth behind it, Italy is at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis and would be too big for the bloc to bail out.
Financial markets have backed a Monti government and as prospects of Berlusconi going became firmer last week, yields dropped below the critical 7 percent level, although they remain close.
"We don't yet have a new government in Italy and we have to wait, but I'm sure if Mario Monti will be appointed he will do whatever is necessary in order to restore the confidence of the financial markets in Italy," Alessandro Profumo, former head of Unicredit, Italy's largest bank, said.
Signs of opposition mount
Berlusconi, fighting an array of scandals and facing trials on charges ranging from tax fraud to paying for sex with an under-aged prostitute, had been under pressure to resign for weeks as the market crisis threatened to spin out of control.
International leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde have expressed hopes a new government can be in place quickly.
Talks with Italian political parties are expected to begin on Sunday with hopes that a new government can be in place in time for the opening of financial markets on Monday.
However, even as preparations for a transition begin, signs of opposition have appeared, with Berlusconi's PDL party split between factions ready to accept a Monti government and others deeply opposed.
Berlusconi had a working lunch with Monti before the vote, suggesting the outgoing government will not try to block a quick handover, but the attitude of the center-right as a whole remains unclear.
The PDL's main coalition ally, the regional pro-devolution Northern League, has declared it will go into opposition, underlining the risk that the new government will lack the broad parliamentary support it will need to pass deep reforms.
"The convulsions in the center-right at the prospect of a government led by Mario Monti signal a danger: that a divided coalition may be tempted to unload its divisions on the country," the daily Corriere della Sera said.
The center-left Democratic party and smaller centrist parties have pledged support to Monti. Italy's main business and banking associations and some of the moderate trade unions have also called for a government of national unity.

We Are All Gossips Now. Let’s Start Acting Like It

2011-11-04T00:41:00.001-07:00

By John Cook
For the past week, American's finest news institutions—those self-identified defenders of journalistic propriety against the teeming online hordes—have been tripping over themselves to publish vague, contextless, detail-free, anonymous accusations about the sex life of presidential candidate. Hey, that's our job!
There's nothing particularly wrong with the press frenzy surrounding the sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain. The Politico story that launched things on Sunday was maddeningly thin on details, as Jack Shafer and others have pointed out, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a story rattling around in there somewhere. Sexxxy political scandals are a gas, and we love to see Cain, who is an idiot, put through the wringer.
But wringing thus far has yielded precious few details, and the folks doing the wringing are the same people who usually turn up their noses at the sort of half-baked accusations they've been slinging. To date, for instance, all we know of the allegations—allegations—against Cain is that he's accused of inviting a staffer up to his hotel room (she apparently agreed and regretted it, though no one has reported what transpired there), and that he compared a staffer's height to that of his wife.
The rest of it is gauzy, murky stuff. We know the National Restaurant Association, which Cain ran, paid severance to two women, but we don't know why. He made a woman "deeply uncomfortable," the Times says. How? By doing what, precisely? No say. A "third former employee" has come forward to exclusively tell the Associated Press that Cain made "sexually suggestive remarks or gestures" toward her during her time at the NRA. What sexually suggestive remarks or gestures? Again, the AP doesn't say. (It says in general terms that Cain told her that she was attractive, and that he invited her to his room, but not what was sexually suggestive about those remarks.) Pajamas Media tells us that after a night of drinking, "Cain allegedly took [a staffer] by taxi to his apartment, where she spent the night and woke up." What happened before she woke up, and before she fell asleep, we are left to guess.
Such a swirling dust-devil of half-truths and anonymous accusations is the stuff of tabloids and gossip web sites. For places like the Associated Press and the Times, faceless accusations of unspecified misconduct usually represent the starting point for reporting, not the stories themselves. People can be wrong! When Iowa radio host Steve Deace claimed publicly that Cain was "compromised in his private life" because of "inappropriate and awkward" comments he'd made to female radio staffers during a visit to Deace's studio, he declined to elaborate further. But the implication was clear: Cain was grab-assing his way across Iowa, and ABC News, the Washington Post, and others breathlessly passed on the vague claims as "adding to the controversy" surrounding Cain.
It turns out that the "inappropriate" comments weren't sexual, they were at worst run-of-the-mill chauvinism: He'd asked a female reporter for get him some tea. Maybe he thought she was an intern. Or maybe he thinks he can order ladies to prepare his beverages. Either way, it's not quite as bad as the leering, sexually suggestive stuff that was implied.
All of which is fine. Gossip has a place. Right here, for a start. Anonymous accusations have a place. And details or no, the stories surrounding Cain all week were having an impact on the race and were legitimate targets of coverage. But it would be nice if they weren't being covered by the same people who are usually decrying the decline in journalistic standards and posing as the last honorable reporters.
You can be "the gold standard of newsgathering and reporting throughout the world," as the AP self-righteously claims to be as it dismisses bloggers as pajama-clad parasites, or you can report that some lady thinks Cain is a sex creep for unspecified reasons. You can't do both. You can either be a "toilet trained" grown-up, as one noted shithead once put it, or you can accuse a presidential candidate of sexual misdeeds without having one earthly idea as to what those misdeeds, precisely, consisted of. You can't do both.
No newspaper that actually lived up to the ideal of journalistic professionalism that the AP, Times, Post, etc. claim for themselves would publish anonymously sourced stories claiming unspecified sexual misconduct. Hopefully from now on they will drop the sanctimony and just give us the sex.
[Image via Getty]

Will a shortage of women lead to war?

2011-11-03T04:04:00.001-07:00

Where have all the females gone?

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Historically, societies where men outnumber women have not been nice places to live.
It's a man's world - more than ever - and that spells doom for the future.
As the global population hits seven billion, experts are warning that skewed gender ratios could fuel the emergence of volatile "bachelor nations" driven by an aggressive competition for brides.
The precise consequences of what French population expert Christophe Guilmoto calls the "alarming demographic masculinisation" of countries such as India and China as the result of sex-selective abortion remain unclear.
But many demographers believe the resulting shortage of adult women over the next 50 years will have as deep and pervasive an impact as climate change.
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The statistics behind the warnings are grimly compelling.
Nature provides an unbending biological standard for the sex ratio at birth of 104-106 males to every 100 females. Any significant divergence from that narrow range can only be explained by abnormal factors.
In India and Vietnam the figure is around 112 boys for every 100 girls. In China it is almost 120 to 100 - and in some places higher than 130.
And the trend is spreading: to regions like the South Caucasus, where Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia all post-birth ratios of more than 115 to 100, and further west to Serbia and Bosnia.
Global awareness of the problem was raised back in 1990 with an article by the Nobel prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen that carried the now famous title: "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing."
Demographers say that figure is now more than 160 million - women selected out of existence by the convergence of traditional preferences for sons, declining fertility and, most crucially, the prevalence of cheap prenatal sex-determination technology.
As many as half a million female foetuses are estimated to be aborted each year in India, according to a study by British medical journal The Lancet.
"Earlier villagers had to go to the city to get a sonogram (ultrasound)," said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the non-profit Population Foundation of India. "Today sonographers are going into the villages to cater to people who want sons."
Even if the sex ratio at birth returned to normal in India and China within 10 years, Guilmoto says men in both countries would still face a "marriage squeeze" for decades to come.
"Not only would these men have to marry significantly older, but this growing marriage imbalance would also lead to a rapid rise in male bachelorhood ... an important change in countries where almost everyone used to get married," he said.
How that change might manifest itself is hotly debated, although nearly everyone agrees there is no foreseeable upside.
Some forecast an increase in polyandry and sex tourism, while others predict cataclysmic scenarios with the rise of male-surplus societies where sexual predation, violence and conflict are the norm.
A particularly alarmist note was sounded several years ago by political scientists Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer, who wrote that Asian countries with too many men posed a security threat to the West.
"High-sex-ratio societies are governable only by authoritarian regimes capable of suppressing violence at home and exporting it abroad through colonisation or war," they said.
Mara Hvistendahl, a correspondent for Science magazine and author of the recently published Unnatural Selection, says fears of full-scale wars are unfounded, and points out that India remains a thriving democracy, despite its shockingly high gender imbalance.
However she does agree with the underlying premise.
"Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live," Hvistendahl stressed.
"Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent," she said, adding that leaders in both China and India have spoken of the threat gender imbalance poses to social stability.
UN agencies have issued similar warnings about the correlation between a scarcity of women and increases in sex trafficking and marriage migration, albeit with certain caveats.
"The data is really limited," said Nobuko Horibe, Asia-Pacific director of the UN Population Fund. "It is very likely that this marriage squeeze would lead to these phenomena ... but it's very anecdotal at this stage."
But while more and more red flags are being raised over the long-term implication of skewed sex ratios, few solutions are being offered.
Sex-selective abortion is illegal in both China and India, but officials say the law is incredibly difficult to enforce.
There is "no silver bullet," admits Guilmoto, who believes the first priority is to make sure the problem is properly publicised - and not just in the developing world.
"In some countries in eastern Europe, people are absolutely not aware of what is going on," he warned.
AAP

A ride on the wild side

2011-10-25T01:41:00.001-07:00

Organisers describe the three-wheeled auto rickshaw provided for a rally across India as the "ultimate long-distance off-road machine".
A driver calls it a "hair-dryer-powered tin can on shopping cart wheels".
A sense of humour is as important as a sense of adventure and a willingness to raise cash for charity for anyone signing up for the Rickshaw Run, a 3,500 kilometre odyssey organised by The League of Adventurists International.
The British-based company says it is "not just hell bent on fighting to make the world less boring but also raising massive buckets of cash for charities".
The Adventurists provide teams with one of India's famed Bajaj 145cc rickshaws, start and finish lines and a two-week deadline.
In return, each team is required to raise a minimum of 1,000 pounds (about $1,500) for a charity chosen by the company, while also paying a rickshaw 'hire' fee of 1,000 pounds.
The Rickshaw Run is held three times a year. The autumn run this year, from September 11 to September 24, was in benefit of Frank Water, a charity building water-treatment stations in poor village communities in India.
The organisers insist they are not "hand holders". Teams of up to four people are given the three-wheeled, hand-cranked, open-sided vehicles -- also known as tuk-tuks, a few tips on what to avoid, and the rest is up to them.
The route, accommodation, rough roads, wild traffic, monsoon floods, cows in the middle of the highways and mechanical and medical emergencies must be handled by the teams themselves.
"That's the adventure," said Matt Davis, an India Adventurists staff member.
At the start of the autumn run at Shillong in northeastern Meghalaya state, 74 teams were presented with their rickshaws, brightly pimped in team colours and with names such as "By Hook or by Tuk" and "Tucking Awesome".
They were all supposedly in good working order.
On the first day three teams lost their wheels.
"We did not know anything was wrong until we saw the wheel roll past us on the mountain road," a team member from Tucking Awesome said. "That was the start of our nightmare."
At one stage Tucking Awesome could only drive at 20 kilometres an hour -- way short of the maximum speed of 60kmh a rickshaw could achieve on a rare good road.
Another team, Right Place, Right Time, also lost a wheel on the first day then went on to have its chassis split in two, its brakes fail, accelerator cable snap and an electrical fire.
They were not alone in their misery. Team Brits Abroad, broke down "a hundred times", complaining that their trip was "not an adventure. Breaking down is not an adventure!"
The breakdowns, getting lost or having to put the rickshaw on a riverboat because the highway "ran out" for Rangeela Racers, were all part of the experience.
Other dangers were more testing.
Some teams were robbed and beaten up in Bihar, a state troubled with Maoist rebels and bandits. Others sought to avoid the state by putting their rickshaws on a train and skipping it all together.
Despite the challenges most teams tried to stay positive. Team Gandhi Warhol wrote on their blog: "Watched sunrise over Mt. Everest this morning in Darjeeling.
"Also, broken: brakes, rear lights, front fog lights, spark plug, chassis, horn, fuel intake. Service and MOT (roadworthiness test) complete. On we go through Bihar."
Not all who start the run make it to the end. One team left their rickshaw at a police station at the end of the first day, telling the organisers "it was not what we signed up for".
But the sense of achievement for those teams that did cross the finish line in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan was tremendous.
"I never thought we would make it," said Jennifer Morris, a Habibi Babes team member. "After days of breakdowns, driving in the dark and being driven off the road by big trucks, we had almost lost hope.
"But we made it, we made it!"
The Adventurists also host the Mongol Rally, Mongol Derby (on horseback) the Africa Rally, Ice Run (1,500km across the frozen Siberian wilderness on 650cc Ural motorbikes and sidecars), among others. Charity always plays a part.
"We figure since we are rather fond of adventuring in the world we should do our bit to look after it," the Adventurists say.

Political prisoner release should prompt continued pressure on Myanmar

2011-10-14T21:21:00.001-07:00

Zarganar had been jailed for his activism in the wake of Cyclone Nargis
© AAPPB

Su Su Nway had successfully sued the government over forced labour
© AAPPB

Zaw Htet Ko Ko was arrested after the 'Saffron Revolution' in 2007
© Amnesty International
14 October 2011
Prisoners of conscience Zarganar, Su Su Nway and Zaw Htet Ko Ko have been released in Myanmar’s latest mass prisoner amnesty, after sustained campaigning by human rights organisations including Amnesty International.
Amnesty International’s membership across the world has been campaigning for the release of the three political prisoners by writing letters, signing petitions and lobbying governments.
“We are celebrating the freedom of people for whom we have campaigned for years,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director. “The now confirmed release of more than 200 political prisoners this month shows that all those letters and petitions can have a real impact in individual cases.”
“But the work is far from over while many more political prisoners remain behind bars. This amnesty should inspire the international community to keep pressuring Myanmar to release all political prisoners immediately.”
The Myanmar government announced that the latest prisoner amnesty was on humanitarian grounds for the elderly, sick and disabled.
“This is ironic, considering that political prisoners are routinely placed in remote jails far from hospitals and support networks, and intentionally mistreated and denied medical treatment in order to ruin their health and break their spirits,” said Sam Zarifi.
Zarganar, Su Su Nway and Zaw Htet Ko Ko were no exceptions.
Zarganar, Myanmar’s best-known comedian, had been serving a 35-year prison sentence in a prison in Kachin state at the time of his release. Aged 50, he had reportedly been suffering health problems in prison.
He was jailed in 2007 for leading a private donor movement in response to the government’s blocking of foreign aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. He gave regular interviews to foreign media criticising the government and exposing the unfolding humanitarian crisis, marshalling over 400 volunteers to deliver emergency aid.
In the 2010 documentary ‘This Prison Where I Live’, he described the mistreatment he suffered during a previous detention: “They beat and they kick and sometimes they use some rubber pipe. They use a rubber pipe to beat my back and my belly…Some of my friends in that jail tried to kill themselves…”
Labour rights activist Su Su Nway, 39, had been serving a seven and a half-year sentence for treason and other vaguely defined security offences at the time of her release this October.
Her acts of political protest even while in prison saw her despatched to a jail near the border with India’s Nagaland, far from her family and medical treatment, despite her heart problem. There was later a reported tuberculosis outbreak in that prison.
She had been arrested in November 2007 in the wake of the ‘Saffron Revolution’, after putting up an anti-government banner near a hotel where the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar was staying.
Su Su Nway was the first person in Myanmar to sue the government successfully for subjecting her and her village to forced labour. The government imprisoned her for eight months in retaliation.
Upon being released in 2006 from that first imprisonment, she said to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident media outlet based outside the country: “I take my prison uniform with me because I know that I will have to come back to jail until Burma gets democracy."
Despite being 30 years old at the time of his release, Zaw Htet Ko Ko was also known to be suffering health problems while in prison in Rakhine state, over 660km away from his family in Yangon.
Shortly after his arrest in October 2007, his father told Amnesty International that he feared his son was being tortured in detention.
At the time of his release, Zaw Htet Ko Ko had been serving a 10 year sentence for ‘inciting offences against public tranquility’ due to his involvement in the ‘Saffron Revolution’ protests of 2007.
As a young member and official photographer of the 88 Generation Students Group, Zaw Htet Ko Ko was of the internet-savvy generation who had embraced new technology to circumvent censorship and communicate with the world outside Myanmar.
During August and September 2007, the authorities reportedly raided his home up to five times and repeatedly threatened and harassed his family in Yangon.
His father U Aung Myint, a political exile living in the Netherlands, told Amnesty International that he had asked his son in the past if he understood the risks of political activism.
His son replied: “Yes, I've considered everything, about dangers. If I don't do what I'm doing, who will do it for the Burmese people?"

The New Roads Of Mandalay

2011-10-13T21:18:00.001-07:00

Sanctions make Burma the only Asian country without access to Western markets and learning—and drive it closer to China.

By EMMA LARKIN

It is a bold thesis that places a backwater like Burma at the geopolitical heart of Asia. For nearly 50 years, the country has been isolated from the rest of the world by an inward-looking military regime and sanctions imposed by Western governments. Burma is poor, undeveloped and neglected by international trade and aid. Yet in recent years China and India have formulated daring economic schemes that include the country. Thant Myint-U has been tracking these plans and believes that they promise "nothing less than a new map of Asia."

China, situated along Burma's northeastern border, is a voracious country, and Burma provides it with a ready source of raw materials, such as timber and its treasured jade, as well as much-needed oil. Massive hydroelectric dams are being planned in northern Burma that will sell most of the energy they generate to China. Construction has begun on a pipeline to transport natural gas extracted offshore in Burma to China.

Burma also offers China a direct path to the Indian Ocean. Just as the Suez Canal once sliced a route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, dramatically shortening the journey between East and West, so a land route across Burma could provide China with an alternative to shipping cargo through the Straits of Malacca. To exploit this access, the Chinese recently began building a deep-sea port on the Burmese island of Ramree. It will be linked to China via high-speed rail and a highway more than 1,200 miles long.

Meanwhile, to the northwest of Burma, lies India. The Indian states that border Burma are among the poorest in the country, crippled for decades by insurgencies. Connected to India only by the narrow Siliguri Corridor, the area is landlocked and utterly remote. Renewed ties to Burma offer one of the best chances for economic growth in the region—as well as better access, for the Indian economy as a whole, to the markets of the Far East.

Where China Meets India

By Thant Myint-U
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 361 pages, $27)

In 2008, India signed an agreement to rebuild the port at Akyab on Burma's western shoreline and link it to northeast India by turning the Kaladan River into an inland waterway and linking it with India's highway system. Though the $400 million "Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project" is progressing slowly, another highway is under way that will link Calcutta in India with Kunming in China via Burma.

Historically, the hinterlands between China and India have been an uncharted territory of dense, malarial jungles and mountainous terrain. Ancient Chinese explorers encountered tigers, giant snakes and ferocious barbarians. Much later, in the 19th century, the British colonial powers in India dreamed of a trade route through Burma to China but found it logistically impossible. These age-old visions are today becoming reality as roads, railways and pipelines begin to crisscross the region and open up hitherto inaccessible and seldom-exposed corners of the Asian map.

This is the story that Thant Myint-U tells in "Where China Meets India," wondering what will happen as India and China (antagonists in the postwar era) nudge closer together by way of Burma. "Some," he writes, "have predicted the making of a new Silk Road, like the one in ancient and medieval times that connected China to Central Asia and Europe. Others warn of a new Great Game, and rising conflict between the world's largest rising powers."

An American-born Burmese scholar, Thant Myint-U has written extensively on Burma and is well-placed to explore the possibilities. His book is divided into three sections, covering Burma, China and India respectively. He blends ancient and modern history with current-day political analysis and some travel writing. Though he visited some remote regions, the travelogue is stilted and dry compared with the fluidity and charm of the history sections.

He uncovers enticing characters, such as the avaricious ruler of the Chinese kingdom of Shu who, in the fourth century B.C., lost his kingdom through a ruse involving statues of cows and blocks of gold. Conned into thinking that the cows excreted solid gold, he allowed the construction of a new road to import the miraculous beasts, thereby literally paving the way for an invading army. Then there is Ida, the wavy-haired daughter of an Irish seaman and a Chinese dancing girl who in the 1940s became the concubine of a Shan chieftain. Dissatisfied with her lowly origins, the chieftain upgraded her parents to an English colonel and a Mongolian princess and only ever learned only two words of English: "Ida darling."

The book touches on forgotten peoples. In the hills south of Imphal in northeast India live the Bnei Menashe, a Lost Tribe of Israel currently awaiting resettlement in the Jewish homeland. At Dali, in Yunnan, there is a dwindling Muslim population—survivors of a mid-19th-century massacre that exterminated up to 7,000 Muslims and the last remnants of a wave of Islamic influence that rode in with the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. Such stories conjure up long-gone migratory routes and bring the little-known region to life.

Beyond its central narrative, "Where China Meets India" can be read as a treatise against the sanctions imposed on Burma by Western governments. These have pushed Burma ever closer to China, argues Thant Myint-U: "As Western rhetoric in favor of an immediate democratic transition became more shrill, China's steady declarations of friendship and pledges of 'non-interference in the internal affairs of Myanmar' [as the Burmese dictatorship renamed the country in 1989] rose in value."

His argument against sanctions is not laid out on moral grounds (there is little about the Burmese regime's extensive human-rights abuses within these pages) but is instead part of a pragmatic look at future prospects. On the unfolding new map of Asia, Thant Myint-U notes, Burma will be the only country without access to Western markets and Western learning. It's a potentially destabilizing imbalance of influences that should lead Western policy makers to review the effectiveness of sanctions and to put "Where China Meets India" on their required reading lists."
Ms. Larkin is the author of "No Bad News for the King: The True Story of Cyclone Nargis and its Aftermath in Burma."

Indonesia's Bali rattled by quake; dozens injured

2011-10-13T02:38:00.001-07:00

Bali: A powerful earthquake jolted Indonesia's popular resort island of Bali on Thursday, causing widespread panic and injuring at least 50 people, many with broken bones and head wounds.

The walls and ceilings of some temples and at least one school along the coast crumbled, and witnesses told local radio and television stations the roofs of homes collapsed.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.0-magnitude quake was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the island. It hit 36 miles (60 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.
Although not strong enough to trigger a tsunami, the quake was felt on neighboring Java and Lombok islands, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.
"It knocked me off my motorcycle," said one badly shaken Bali resident, Miftahul Chusna.
Candy Juliani, a public relations officer for the Sanur Beach Hotel, said terrified guests fled the building.
"We have special emergency routes for this type of situation, but everyone was so scared, they just ignored them," Juliani said.
At least 50 people were hurt, suffering cuts, broken bones and head wounds, said Wayan Sudanti, a hospital spokesman.
The patients included 12 students and three teachers injured when the ceiling of their high school caved in, said I Gede Tejo from the local disaster agency.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.

What do super-rich Americans own? Nearly the whole country!

2011-10-12T04:29:00.001-07:00

With protests against the Wall Street spreading from New York to other American cities, demonstrators have found a new slogan: "We are the 99 per cent".
This points to an economic struggle between 99 per cent of Americans and the richest one per cent, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth.
Let us have a look at the share of the super-rich Americans.
Image: A view of the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Photographs: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

1. Top one per cent of Americans own 40 per cent of nation's wealth
Next four per cent own 27 per cent wealth
Next 10 per cent own 12 per cent wealth
Next five per cent own 11 per cent wealth
The bottom 80 per cent own just seven per cent
25 years ago, the top one per cent owned 33 per cent wealth
Image: An aerial of New York City.
Photographs: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

2. Top one per cent takes home 24 per cent of national income
While the richest one per cent of Americans takes home almost a quarter of national income today, in 1976 they took home just nine per cent - meaning their share of the national income pool has nearly tripled in roughly three decades.
Image: A general view of Los Angeles from Griffith Park.
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

3. Top one per cent owns half of the country's stocks, bonds and mutual funds
The Institute for Policy Studies illustrates this disparity in financial investment ownership, noting that the bottom 50 per cent of Americans owns only .5 per cent of these investments.
Top one per cent owns half of the country's stocks, bonds and mutual funds
The next nine per cent owns 39.4 per cent of stocks, bonds and mutual funds
The next 50-90 per cent owns 9.3 per cent of stocks, bonds and mutual funds
The bottom 50 per cent owns 9.3 per cent of stocks, bonds and mutual funds
Image: A girl plays with a giant bubble as the sun sets at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California.
Photographs: Mike Blake/Reuters

4. Top one per cent has only five per cent of nation's personal debt
Top one per cent has five per cent of the nation's personal debt, while the bottom 90 per cent has 73 per cent of total debt
Top one per cent has 20 per cent deposits
The next nine per cent has 38 per cent deposits
The bottom 90 per cent has 42 per cent deposits
Image: Old Faithful Geyser erupts in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Photographs: Reuters

Top one per cent has 14 per cent pension accounts
The next nine per cent has 45 per cent pension accounts
The bottom 90 per cent has 41 per cent pension accounts
Image: Girls run through a field of giant tecolote ranunculus flowers in Carlsbad, California.
Photographs: Mike Blake/Reuters

Top one per cent has 22 per cent life insurance
The next nine per cent has 33 per cent life insurance
The bottom 90 per cent has 45 per cent life insurance
Image: With the New York skyline behind them, people play a game of ultimate frisbee in Weehawken, New Jersey.
Photographs: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Top one per cent has five per cent debt
The next nine per cent has 21 per cent debt
The bottom 90 per cent has 73 per cent debt
Image: Concert goers attend the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.
Photographs: Mike Blake/Reuters

5. Top one per cent is taking in more of the nation's income than at any other time since the 1920s.
Not only are the wealthiest one per cent are taking home a tremendous portion of the national income, but their share of this income is greater than at any other time since the Great Depression.
Image: Queen of Endymion waves before Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Photographs: Sean Gardner/Reuters

Share of national income distribution:
From 1923 to 1929: Top one per cent took 70 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 15 per cent.
From 1960-69: Top one per cent took 65 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 11 per cent.
From 1976-79: Top one per cent took 48 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 36 per cent.
From 1982-89: Top one per cent took 41 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 26 per cent.
From 1992-2000: Top one per cent took 43 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 39 per cent.
From 2002-2007: Top one per cent took 64 per cent of the nation's income. The bottom 90 per cent took 12 per cent.
Image: Three surfers catch a large wave in Haleiwa, Hawaii.
Photographs: Hugh Gentry/Reuters

Why do intelligent young women who are nurses, teachers and mothers drink themselves to oblivion every night across Britain?

2011-10-08T22:35:00.001-07:00

By Laura Powell
Midnight on St Mary Street in Cardiff and everything is exactly as expected. Half a dozen young women slump in a gutter, men urinate outside a health-food shop and, as hordes stagger between nightclubs, someone lifts up a blow-up doll with a sex toy protruding out of it.
The street smells of urine and lager, police struggle to break up a fight outside the Walkabout bar and a paramedic bundles a comatose girl on to a wheelchair. But it's a quiet night for 20-year-old Naomi Jenkins. She has 'only' drunk three shots of peach schnapps, cider and three shots of Jagermeister (during a drinking game called I Have Never) and still feels 'a bit sober'. Her friend Hannah Freeman, 19, was punched in a fight and stumbles about swearing and searching for a bathroom.
'We only do embarrassing things when we're really drunk,' Naomi says. 'I kiss random men in the street and Hannah has had sex behind a chicken coop.' She screams with laughter as Hannah lurches unsteadily in the stairwell of Charleston Bar and Grill on Caroline Street (known locally as Chip Alley) and unashamedly urinates in front of us.

Rocky road: Scantily clad girls swap shoes in a Cardiff street while another bends down to pick up her handbag
Amazingly, none of the 80-strong throng of passers-by seems to notice – or perhaps care. Hannah rearranges her minuscule dress, steps over her own urine, shouts 'f*** off' and the pair stumble back to Walkabout. It's only midnight, after all.
To anyone who has spent time in the often Hogarthian surroundings of Britain's towns and cities at night, nothing about this scene will be surprising. Indeed, when Polish photographer Maciej Dakowicz displayed his collection called Cardiff After Dark at the International Festival of Photojournalism in the French city of Perpignan last month, the squalid snaps of barely dressed women striking crude poses or vomiting were depressingly familiar.
It would be easy, perhaps, to explain away this phenomenon as young women letting off steam after a monotonous week on the factory floor. Boozy Saturday nights have, after all, long been part of working-class culture in cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Cardiff and Glasgow.
But as I found out on the streets of Cardiff after midnight, many of these women are – by day at least – well qualified pillars of the community. Among them I met teachers, nurses, occupational therapists,
personnel professionals and full-time mothers, all determined to shake off responsibility and have fun in the only way they know how. By getting 'smashed'.
Every week, the ritual is the same: Groups of between four and six girls congregate to dress up and competitively drink bottles of cheap wine or sickly shots. Competition ramps up over who can wear the tiniest mini-dress, the highest heels or the reddest lipstick. Drinking carries on during the bus ride to Cardiff (many young women travel from the surrounding Valleys) and continues in bars between 9pm and 11pm, or until they feel bold enough to dance.
Condom in purse and telephone number for a pre-booked 3am taxi in handbag, they stagger between nightclubs. The ritual continues long into the morning when, dulled by hangovers, they congregate for McDonald's or fried breakfasts to giggle about the drunken 'fun'.

Girls' night out: A trio dressed up for an evening out in Cardiff. But this group didn't get out of control
New figures show that alcohol misuse costs the nation £7.3 billion in crime and antisocial behaviour and that one woman in five drinks at levels hazardous to health (more than 14 units each week).
I went looking for the answer to the real question: Why? In a series of raw but illuminating interviews, I discovered that beyond the superficial bravado, their nights of booze-fuelled excess make them anything but happy – but they still have no intention of changing. Naomi Jenkins is a classroom assistant from Carmarthen and is adamant that downing sickly Jagermeister shots (which she nicknames medicine) is 'a laugh'.
I hear the same knee-jerk answer again and again. Human-resources administrator Becky Sherlock
from Chepstow tells me: 'Tomorrow morning, I'll lift my head off the pillow and think, “Oh s***.” But it's worth it.'
'A hangover is the sign of a good night,' says her friend Danielle Malson, a secondary-school teacher.
What quickly becomes apparent is the ease with which these young women distinguish their responsible weekday personas from their 'fun' selves. Naomi easily switches from diligent teaching assistant to Saturday night party girl when she squeezes into a skintight minidress. She tells me: 'I wouldn't do this if it affected my work.'
Occupational therapist Sally Baldwin, 24, added: 'If I bumped into any of my patients or their relatives, I'd hide. It doesn't give off the right image... But as long as it doesn't interfere with my work, I'll carry on.' By splitting their characters into two personas (professional and social), these young women appear confident that their professional reputations remain unblemished. In their own minds, at least.
'I just like knowing I haven't lost my mojo,' admits a 27-year-old full-time mother, dressed in a skimpy football kit and slumped in a shop doorway on St Mary Street. 'The world seems a better place when you're wearing beer goggles.'

Refuelling: Revellers stock-up amid the rubbish at the roadside
A pattern emerges: first they tell me mindlessly 'it's fun'. Bolshie camaraderie quickly kicks in and, egged on by friends, they proudly share anecdotes of 'a drunken foursome' (shop assistant Lucy Griffiths, 19), exhibitionist nudity (Danielle Malson, 23), and flashing their breasts for free drinks (hairdresser Lucy Walker, 21). Later, an 18-year-old law student from North Wales who has just swallowed ten peach schnapps shots propositions the photographer.
Girly camaraderie is clearly a massive draw, regardless of whether they have husbands or boyfriends waiting for them at home. 'Normally we go out to pull men but tonight not one of us is single,' says shop assistant Lucy Griffiths. 'It's still a laugh, though. When men come on to you, you don't kiss them or anything but it's still a bit of fun.'
One rather more honest 18-year-old from Caerphilly admits that she decides what to wear depending on whether she is on the prowl for a partner. Tonight – in a transparent Primark blouse and black bra – she undoubtedly is. 'I wouldn't wear this if I had a boyfriend. He'd be like, “You ain't wearing that,” ' she says.
Even dulled by hangovers, the young women I speak to continue to revel in solidarity. Naomi says: 'Hannah couldn't remember peeing on the stairs. When I told her this morning, I was laughing so much I could hardly get the words out. Hannah cracked up laughing too and begged me not to tell anyone.' She was embarrassed? 'No, she thought it was funny.'
The real reasons for their binge-drinking are buried within these anecdotes. Peer pressure looms large, as does a lack of confidence, boredom, burdensome responsibility and misery.
'I drink because life is a pile of s***,' says hairdresser Lucy Walker. She is particularly miserable because her mother is on holiday, leaving her responsible for two younger sisters.
'This place is really rough. You've got to be drunk to feel happy here,' she continues, sitting in the gutter. 'I've drunk so much but I'm still not p*****.' She clearly wants to be.
When we speak the next morning, her version of the night is very different: 'Yeah, it was a good night. I was laughing my t*** off,' she says.

In the gutter: Feeling tired and emotional after a night out drinking
More pitiful still is Jessica Hooper, an 18-year-old health and social care student from Ebbw Vale, who tells me that being drunk feels 'really nice'. 'It doesn't hit you until you go outside and realise how drunk you are, then it just feels lush. I feel good about myself... My excuse is it's all rubbish so I just get hammered.' But what is rubbish, exactly?
'Everything. It's all so boring. I drink to laugh and I drink to speak to people. Usually, I'm not confident enough to talk to strangers.'
No one is ashamed or regretful when I speak to them on Sunday morning but Naomi sadly admitted: 'Sometimes I tell myself I'm not going to drink that much again and ban myself from particular drinks. But if you don't drink when you go out with your friends, you're being really antisocial.'
Days later, her story changes again when she sends me a text message: 'Due to the nature of my job, it is very important that any information you have on me is not put in the
public eye.'
Eight girls ask me not to use the interviews in the four days afterwards. I agree and have changed several of the names in this article. Tellingly, no one will explain why anonymity is now so important to them but I suspect my presence has blurred the line between weekday and night time and, on returning to their workplaces, they have panicked. Many are no doubt worried that their parents or bosses will find out about just how extreme their Saturday night personas are, compared with the way they usually act as daughters or employees.
Psychotherapist Adrianna Irvine believes that regular binge-drinking feeds on buried feelings of depression. She argues that many of these young women can't communicate this to me because they are unaware of it themselves.
She says: 'It's not a thinking process, it's a feeling process. Picking up the 11th drink comes from despair, anger, pain and loneliness. If we dig deep, this is true of most regular binge-drinkers. It is important to remember that those feelings are not operating in isolation or just around alcohol. They will be present when dealing with relationships, money and work too, then all come to a head on the weekend.'

Down... and out: Lying on the kerbside amid cigarette butts and litter a young woman puts her head on her handbag and falls asleep

Unsteady: Friends try to drag a girl back on to her feet, who fell after her heel broke in Warrington town centre
To make matters worse, the women get in a vicious circle impossible to break without losing face or friends. Softly spoken Jessica admits pitifully that two weeks ago she was tricked into participating in a crude sex game on the stage of a bar. She believes that if she refused, her friends would think her 'a freak'.
She was lured on stage with the promise of free drinks and then told what she had to do – enact a series of sex positions with a stranger. She says: 'If I'm honest, I felt humiliated and miserable. If I'd said no, everyone would think I was stupid.'
Jessica admits she would be mortified if her mother knew about the sex game and Naomi confides on Sunday morning that though she is happy to talk to me about her binge drinking, her mother is firmly against it. No one tells me their behaviour is censured by their parents or partners. No doubt, many of their loved ones are unaware of it.
Usually, though, Jessica is happy to get obliterated. Tonight, after drinking peach schnapps, Jagermeister, sambuca, a woo woo cocktail, two absinthe shots and two litres (about 3½ pints) of cider, she still feels remarkably sober.
But aren't these girls worried about their health, liver, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and their personal safety? Most of them laugh off the suggestions and reassure me that they are 'responsible', despite the fact that some can barely stand.

Jessica admits she does worry and so gave up alcohol for four months in September last year. She says: 'I still went out but it didn't feel as good sober. You don't talk to anyone. Drink changes the way you think – for the better.'
It is a sad testimony that obliteration of reality is the highlight of the week for many of these young women. For Alicia Howley, 20, and Lucy Griffiths, both shop assistants, the ritual of dressing up in tight minidresses and wearing lashings of make-up begins at 4.30pm, straight after their Saturday shifts at Matalan.
Lucy says: 'After a few drinks, you feel like you can do anything. It's amazing. The only time I usually talk to new people is speaking to customers at work. Alcohol makes me loads more confident... Like the time I had a foursome.' They laugh.
Part of the problem, according to London businessman Moniz Gbinigie who owns The 411 bar in Cardiff, is that women are lured into a sense of false security in what they perceive to be 'safe' cities. He says: 'Cardiff is perceived as such a safe place. They happily put themselves in vulnerable states. Girls will walk home barefoot, even if it's 35 minutes away. I rarely see behaviour like that in London.'
Teacher Danielle agrees: 'We keep our wits about us and stick together.'

Bottom of the class: In short skirts, pigtails, knee socks and neon braces, two revellers dressed as schoolgirls end the night in a drunken clinch (and don't let smoking get in the way)
Moniz concedes that rival bars offering free or cut-price shots are irresponsible. In one night on Cardiff's pavements I was offered six flyers, offering buy-one-get-one-free cocktails and wine, free entry and £1.50 drinks, £1 beer bottles, £1 wine and £1 shots until 2am.
'I only drink special offers or two-for-one drinks,' says Sally Baldwin, the occupational therapist who I spot in a gutter on St Mary Street nursing her paralytic 32-year-old colleague, Sarah Howells.
Between them, they have downed two pitchers of cocktails (for £10), a 'few' fruity ciders, cosmopolitans, Jack Daniel's and a 'zombie' cocktail that contains whisky, brandy, gin and vodka.
Sally even took up the 'block shot challenge', a drinking game that comprises a large block of wood with a shot glass on top. 'The aim is to drink the shot without touching the glass,' she explains. Why? 'Because it was free.'
Another drinking challenge called 'suck and blow' involves sucking a jelly shot out of a tube while another participant blows the other end of it – successful challengers get stickers. Becky says: 'I thought it was hilarious last night but it seems a bit disgusting this morning. It's gross.'
Dr Fiona Measham, senior lecturer in criminology at Lancaster University, says: 'The alcohol industry changed drastically in the mid-Nineties and has become better at appealing to women. First, the types of drinking venues available changed from spit-and-sawdust pubs to glamorous glass and chrome cafe bars designed to appeal to women.
'Women had more disposable income and a new range of drinks, such as Smirnoff Ice and WKD, were marketed to them. Some had very high alcohol contents but this has since been reduced. It meant women could drink a lot more units in a smaller volume that tasted nice. It made binge-drinking possible.'
Bizarrely, many women set self-imposed rules. One 26-year-old woman who holds a senior position at a charity confesses she uses 'tacticals' to increase her drinking capacity. 'It's a tactical vomit,' she says. 'If I get so smashed I feel sick, I make myself throw up in the toilets then get back on the shots.'
Sally admits: 'I ate a packet of salt-and-vinegar crisps between drinks so I didn't get too drunk.'
Like most women I interview, she is adamant that she 'deserves' these Saturday night benders.
She adds: 'I have a dog and a boyfriend so I have to be responsible during the week. I don't drink during the week. I save it all up for a Saturday night and then I think, “I'll do what I want.” '
And why would they want to stop? When the only deterrent, in their eyes, is a fleeting Sunday morning hangover while the glorious upsides are temporary anaesthesia – and a tawdry night in the small town limelight in which they are unequivocally the stars.

'My family comes first': Sarah Palin announces she will NOT run for President

2011-10-06T07:18:00.001-07:00

Out of the running: Palin has announced she will not run for President in 2012
Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for President in 2012.
There has been much speculation about whether the former Alaska governor, who famously became John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election, would enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
And after months of side-stepping questions she has finally announced that she will not run for the White House - because her 'family comes first'.
In a letter sent to her supporters, she wrote: 'After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for president of the United States.'
It has been suggested that she now will lend her weight to Texas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry.
The announcement comes after she was stung by suggestions in a new book that she once snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends and had illicit affairs with a top NBA star and one of her husband's business partners.
The revelations, which will inevitably now be seen to have struck a devastating blow to her political ambitions, suggest Mrs Palin took the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors.
Joe McGinniss's book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin also alleged that the former governor of Alaska is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be.
Mrs Palin, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, the book claimed.
She was said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.

Race: It is likely Palin will now support Rick Perry in the battle to unseat President Obama
It was also claimed that she had a six-month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd - a betrayal which led to Todd dissolving their business.
In a bid to expose Mrs Palin's skeletons, Mr McGinness studied the former vice presidential candidate for three years and last year even moved in to a home next door in Wasilla, Alaska, to dig some more.
Recent polls had, however, suggested the outspoken politician was gaining ground on President Barack Obama.
According to a new survey, she was as little as five points behind him.

Heat: The book alleges that Palin had a one night stand with basketball star Glen Rice

Explosive: The book, written by Joe McGinness, right, may well be seen to have halted Palin's 2012 bid
After trailing Mr Obama by more than 20 percentage points in polls all year, the McClatchy-Marist survey, taken on September 13 and 14, had the President leading Mrs Palin by only 49 points to 44.
A key reason is that she started to lead Mr Obama among independents - a sharp turnaround.
The poll found that Obama looks increasingly vulnerable in next year's election, with a majority of voters believing he will lose to any Republican, a solid number saying they will definitely vote against him and most potential Republican challengers gaining on him.
Mr Obama still leads all the announced candidates, however.

Separation?: Todd Palin, seen here with his wife outside their house in Wasilla, Alaska, is said to be filing for a divorce
Governor Rick Perry of Texas continues to lead the field of announced candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, supported by 30 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
He is followed by former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 22 per cent and Representative Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota with 12 per cent.
Others trail in single digits.
A separate survey for Fox News - where Palin is a highly-paid commentator - found that an astonishing 66 per cent of Tea Party supporters - and 71 per cent of Republicans - would prefer, however, if she did not run for President.

'MY FAMILY COMES FIRST': PALIN'S STATEMENT IN FULL

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
Sarah Palin

US lawmaker: China trying to steal industrial secrets

2011-10-04T22:36:00.001-07:00

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has accused China of waging an unprecedented campaign of cyber espionage aimed at stealing some of the most important US industrial secrets.

WASHINGTON: The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday accused China of waging an unprecedented campaign of cyber espionage aimed at stealing some of the most important US industrial secrets.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich, said Chinese efforts to pilfer the United States' technological know-how via the Internet have reached an "intolerable level," and called on the US and its allies to pressure Beijing to stop. He made his remarks during a congressional hearing.

Few intelligence insiders have discussed such concerns so bluntly. China is both a major US economic partner and the nation's biggest foreign creditor.
Rogers said the corporate victims of cyber spying, when they were willing to discuss it at all, are also reluctant to point the finger at China out of concern they could become the target of retaliatory attacks.

"In Washington there has been this big dance around the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and that is Chinese industrial espionage," Rogers told The Associated Press in an interview after the hearing. "Listen, this is thievery. At the end of the day, it is stealing."

China has said that allegations of cyber espionage against US companies were groundless, and the sources of Internet attacks are notoriously difficult to pin down.

Experts said the pace and scale of cyber attacks are increasing, and that the most sophisticated and effective attacks are mounted by criminal organizations and governments. Defense systems in particular are targets, and cyber raiders have stolen data about US fighter jets, missile systems and unmanned drones.

McAfee Inc, a leading Internet security firm, recently published a study of Operation Shady Rat, a hacking campaign that targeted more than 70 governments, international institutions, corporations and think tanks over the past five years. McAfee said the AP was among the organizations hacked.

Rogers and other experts also said US intelligence agencies are keeping too much secret about details of cyber espionage secret, instead of using the information to help corporate targets defend themselves.

Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency, told Congress there is too much secrecy within the government cyber community, due to privacy concerns and what he called a "classified culture" at NSA and elsewhere.

"I think this information is horribly over-classified inside the government," Hayden said.

A security expert, Kevin Mandia of Mandiant Corp., said that in more than 90 percent of the attacks that his company investigated, victims didn't even know they were under cyber assault until the Pentagon, FBI or another government agency told them.

After the Internet search giant Google was the target of attacks in January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked China to investigate Google's claims it had been targeted by China-based hackers. Google said hackers had tried to access Google's proprietary software as well as the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Paper on climate financing targets fuel subsidies

2011-09-29T01:31:00.001-07:00

Global financial institutions are recommending raising money to fight climate change by trimming subsidies for fossil fuels, putting a price tag of $25 per ton on carbon emissions and collecting a surcharge on aviation and shipping fuels.

The recommendations are part of a draft paper by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international groups prepared for a meeting Friday in Washington of G20 finance and development ministers. It was leaked prematurely and distributed Wednesday by aid agencies.
The ministers of the world's 20 largest economies are responding to a commitment to channel $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to global warming and develop low-carbon economies.
A separate paper by Microsoft founder Bill Gates will be given to the ministers. It is focused on financing development aid, and promotes the idea of a tax on international financial transactions.

The draft plan on climate finance, which could be adopted at the G20 summit in the French city of Cannes in November, refines proposals last year by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's advisers on how to meet the $100 billion target. The pledge would form part of a new global accord on climate change.
The summit of the G20 countries, which account for 85 percent of the world's economy and two-thirds of its population, will set the stage for a resumption of negotiations on a climate pact by more than 190 countries beginning Nov. 28 in Durban, South Africa.
"It's a big deal. You have to get a breakthrough at the G20 to get anything through" in a final climate deal, said Tim Gore, of the nonprofit Oxfam.
The draft paper says the starting point should be a review of fossil fuel subsidies, amounting to $40 billion to $60 billion a year. But many of those subsidies are handed out in poor countries, where people living on the edge of subsistence need help, for example, to buy cooking gas. Still, subsidy reforms in industrialized countries and emerging economies could contribute $10 billion a year to a climate fund, it said.
Bigger sums could be raised by charging $25 per ton on so-called bunker fuels, the carbon-heavy oil used for aviation and shipping.

A bunker fuel charge could raise $40 billion a year by 2020. Part of that would be earmarked to compensate poor countries for higher import costs, but about $25 billion could go toward climate change, it said. It also would lead to a reduction of 5 to 10 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted by aircraft and the merchant marine, it said.
A charge on all carbon emissions, whether through a tax or a cap-and-trade program as exists in Europe, also would lead to a 10 percent emissions reduction and raise at least $230 billion, it said. Most of that revenue would be used to reduce other taxes or compensate poor families, but allocating just 10 percent to the climate fund would meet nearly one-fourth of the goal, it said.
Private investments, based on competition and profit, are essential to the plan, the paper said. Investors will seek out the most cost-effective ways of fighting climate change, and investments are especially necessary when governments are grappling with a financial crisis.
Last year investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric cars and other forms of green energy totaled $500 billion, including more than $200 billion in developing countries, the paper said. Private capital can benefit from public finance through concessional loans or grants.
Source: AP

Christian girl's error sparks Islam row in Pak

2011-09-27T02:35:00.001-07:00

Islamabad: A hate campaign has been launched against the family of a teenage Christian girl accused of blasphemy and expelled from school in the northern Pakistani town of Havelian, a media report said today.

An SMS campaign against the family of Faryal Bhatti has created panic among the 12 other Christian families living in the Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF) colony at Havelian near Abbottabad.
Bhatti, an eighth grade student of Sir Syed Girls' High School, misspelt the word 'naat' (hymn) as 'laanat' (curse) in an Urdu examination last week.
She made the mistake while answering a question on a poem written in praise of Prophet Mohammed.
The error led to accusations of blasphemy against Bhatti and uproar among Muslim religious leaders. Though she apologised, Bhatti was expelled from school and her mother, Sarafeen Bhatti, a staff nurse at the POF Hospital in Havelian, was transferred to the Wah Cantonment Hospital.
Officials of the POF colony in Havelian directed Bhatti's family to vacate their residential quarters. The family has moved to an unknown location, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
"Although we have been living peacefully with the Muslim community for three decades, following this episode no one can say with any guarantee what they (Muslims) are harbouring in their minds now," an elderly Christian man, who did not want to be identified, told the daily.
However, Muslim scholars and civil society activists have organised protests and opposed Bhatti's expulsion from school. They demanded an inquiry into the actions of the school administration.
Mr Muhammad Aslam Khaki, an advocate of the Supreme Court and a "juris consult" of the Federal Shariah Court (FSC), said the FSC had clearly ruled in a case that if an accused had acted unintentionally, then the act could be pardoned. He said the FSC had ruled that the offence of blasphemy is 'Hadd' and that there is a clear verdict by the Prophet Mohammed that the 'hadood' must be spared if there is doubt.
In this case, the doubt arose from the girl's young age and the similarity between the two words, he said.
Mufti Naeem of Jamia Naeemia in Karachi and Allama Asghar Askari, President of the Punjab chapter of the Majlis-e-Wahdul Muslimeen, both said Bhatti should be pardoned. Other religious scholars who came to the girl's defence included Sajid Mir, head of the Jamiat Ahle Hadith, and Mufti Muhammad Khan Qadri, convenor of the Milli Majlis-e-Sharai.
Ziaul Haq Naqshbandi, a spokesman for the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz, blamed Bhatti's teacher for the incident.
"The real culprit is the man who set this question paper for the Christian girl. If you are not taught Islam during your childhood then even a Muslim student can make such a mistake," he said.
Source: PTI

BBC turns its back on year of Our Lord: 2,000 years of Christianity jettisoned for politically correct 'Common Era'

2011-09-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

By Chris Hastings
The BBC has been accused of 'absurd political correctness' after dropping the terms BC and AD in case they offend non-Christians.
The Corporation has replaced the familiar Anno Domini (the year of Our Lord) and Before Christ with the obscure terms Common Era and Before Common Era.
Some of the BBC's most popular programmes including University Challenge, presented by Jeremy Paxman, and Radio 4's In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, are among the growing number of shows using the new descriptions.

BBC goes PC with BCE: The birth of Jesus will no longer be used as a reference point at the Corporation. The Before Christ time marker will be replaced with Before Common Era

God fearing: University Challenge, presented by Jeremy Paxman (pictured here with the Corpus Christi team), is among the growing number of shows using the new descriptions
The BBC's religious and ethics department says the changes are necessary to avoid offending non-Christians.
It states: 'As the BBC is committed to impartiality it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians.
In line with modern practice, BCE/CE (Before Common Era/Common Era) are used as a religiously neutral alternative to BC/AD.'
But the move has angered Christians, mystified other faith leaders and been branded unnecessary by the Plain English Campaign. Critics say the new terms are meaningless because, just like AD and BC, they still denote years in relation to the life of Christ.

The website for BBC Religion and Ethics, headed by commissioning editor Aaqil Ahmed, who is a Muslim, is littered with references to Common Era and Before Common Era
Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said: 'I think this amounts to the dumbing down of the Christian basis of our culture, language and history. These changes are unnecessary and they don't achieve what the BBC wants them to achieve.
'Whether you use Common Era or Anno Domini, the date is actually still the same and the reference point is still the birth of Christ.'
Marie Clair of the Plain English Campaign said: 'As with most politically correct innovations, I am sure this was done with the best of intentions. But it is difficult to see what the point of the changes are if people do not understand the new terms. It sounds like change just for the sake of change.'
The website for BBC Religion and Ethics, headed by commissioning editor Aaqil Ahmed, who is a Muslim, is littered with references to Common Era and Before Common Era.
However, the BBC bizarrely insists the bbc.co.uk/religion website has nothing to do with Mr Ahmed and is actually the responsibility of BBC Learning.
The terms are not confined to religious output and have also been used in news bulletins. Some reports add to the confusion by switching between both terms in the same item.
A report on historic monuments in Jerusalem, for instance, informed viewers that Temple Mount, a shrine which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, was built in '70 AD (the Common Era)'; while a recent report on frankincense quoted one reference to 7000 BC before describing another event as taking place in the 1st Century BCE.

The BBC's Learning and GCSE Bitesize websites, which are aimed at schoolchildren, also use the terms.
The Learning website advises that 'BCE/CE is now more acceptable to a greater number of faiths and religions'.
This is absurd political correctness and these new terms do not mean anything to anyone. I think it's an example of the BBC trying to undermine Christianity by pushing an aggressive secularism. Rev Peter Mullen
One of the BBC's study guides highlights Greek philosopher Demokritos, whose dates are given as 460-370 BCE, while a section on GCSE Bitesize on American playwright Arthur Miller says that the first tragedies were written by the Greeks in the 5th Century BCE.
Similarly, a section about the rules of Hindu warfare refers to 3000 BCE.
A Radio 3 profile of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, stated he lived from 551 BCE to 479 BCE.
BBC presenters and producers have used the phrase in their online blogs. Last year, Northern Ireland correspondent William Crawley referred to the construction of the Temple of Solomon in about 950 BCE.
Earlier this year, Stephen Marsh, producer of the upcoming 23 Degrees science programme, used a reference to 250 BCE in an item on the summer solstice.
Often viewers have no idea why presenters, contributors and guests are using the new terms.
In an edition of In Our Time broadcast in March, one contributor made several references to the Common Era in a discussion on sacred Hindu texts. Melvyn Bragg did not feel the need to clarify it.

Offended: Ann Widdecombe, the Catholic former Tory Minister
This is not the first time the BBC has caused controversy over its use of alien language to promote a politically correct, Europhile agenda.
Its increasing reliance on metric measurements rather than the imperial system and its occasional reference to expenditure in terms of euros rather than pounds has infuriated many viewers.
Several prominent Christians last night blasted the Corporation for sidelining Christianity.
The Rev Peter Mullen, Anglican chaplain to the London Stock Exchange, said: 'This is absurd political correctness and these new terms do not mean anything to anyone.
'I think it's an example of the BBC trying to undermine Christianity by pushing an aggressive secularism.
'I would be very surprised if any other faith had complained about the use of Anno Domini and Before Christ.'
Ann Widdecombe, the Catholic former Tory Minister, said: 'I think what the BBC is doing is offensive to Christians. They are discarding terms that have been around for centuries and are well understood by everyone.
'What are they going to do next? Get rid of the entire calendar on the basis that it has its roots in Christianity?' A spokesman for the Church of England said that although both terms were common, BC and AD 'more clearly reflect Britain's Christian heritage'.

Traditional: Presenter John Humphrys will continue to use BC and AD
Several of the BBC's most well-known presenters said they saw no problem with the established system of AD and BC.
John Humphrys, who presents Radio 4's Today programme and TV's Mastermind, said: 'I will continue to use AD and BC because I don't see a problem.
'They are terms which most people use and are clearly understood.' Historian Simon Schama, who has presented several programmes for the BBC, said: 'As a Jew I don't have any problems with AD or BC. But CE and BCE are used frequently in Jewish circles.
'I have been familiar with them since the Fifties, so it's not like the BBC have just made them up.'
Other faith leaders were divided on the move.
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Institute, said: 'I don't know anyone who has been offended by AD and BC, so why change them?'
But Rabbi Jonathan Romain, from Maidenhead Synagogue, said he could see the logic behind the change.
He said: ' “In the year of Our Lord” is a religious view that is not shared by many across the world, or even the UK. The change to BCE and CE is simply more inclusive.'
The BBC said last night: 'The BBC has not issued editorial guidance on the date systems.
'Both AD and BC, and CE and BCE are widely accepted date systems and the decision on which term to use lies with individual production and editorial teams.'

Do AOL's Employees Like Arianna Huffington?

2011-09-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Nov. 29, 2010: Arianna Huffington, author, syndicated columnist and co-founder and editor-in-chief of the "The Huffington Post, poses in Toronto.

If you could rate your boss, what would you say?

What if your boss was Arianna Huffington?

AOL has sent out an expanded version of its standard employee-feedback survey, asking AOL staffers to rate "communications and culture" -- as well as the litany of changes brought about by Huffington, who has overhauled the company's news business.

The move comes amid confusion and controversy surrounding the abrasive but insightful former TechCrunch head Michael Arrington -- who was shown the door mere days ago, and given a $10 million payout in the form of an investment in his new venture-capital firm.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt event immediately after AOL announced it had let him go, Arrington "rated communications and culture" in his own way, sporting a green T-shirt that read "unpaid blogger" -- a clear nod to The Huffington Post's business model.

“That’s what I’m down to: making statements on f*****g T-shirts,” Arrington reportedly said later.

The TechCrunch turmoil may be biting AOL back, it seems. And to gauge employee sentiment, the company will give staffers a venue other than T-shirts for voicing their opinions.

According to Business Insider, which acquired a copy of the survey, the feedback survey starts by asking employees which unit they work for. Then it asks them to rate their superiors.

"As we continue to evolve as a company, we want to hear what’s on your mind, particularly when it comes to what the company can do to improve our employee communications and culture. As a part of this, we're inviting all AOL employees to participate in an expanded edition of our usual Pulse (employee feedback) survey."

An AOL spokeswoman denied that characterization of the survey, telling FoxNews.com that it is not intended as a venue for employees to vent spleen about Huffington or CEO Tim Armstrong.

"It's not about rating. We regularly survey our employees just to get their feedback," the spokeswoman told FoxNews.com.

"We're not rating our executives."

'Take those sons of b******s out': Obama refuses to condemn Teamster chief Jimmy Hoffa's declaration of war on Tea Party

2011-09-06T03:12:00.001-07:00

President Obama has refused to condemn a declaration of war on the Tea Party by Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, despite calls for more courtesy in US politics.

Warming up the crowd before the president at a Labor Day event Teamsters Union leader Hoffa referred to Tea Party activists, saying Democrats should “take these sons of b*****s out.’

But despite Obama’s promise to bring a more civil tone to Washington politics, the White House had no comment to make on the union leader's combative remarks on Monday.

Teamsters Union President James Hoffa warmed up the crowd for Obama

Speaking shortly before Obama in Detroit on Monday, Hoffa warned the largely union crowd that the Tea Party was waging a ‘war on workers.’

He said: ‘We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war.’

He added: ‘President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march…Everybody here’s got a vote…Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.’

Obama has refused to condemn the union leader's comments

The Tea Party Express has called on President Obama to ‘condemn this inappropriate and uncivil rhetoric,’ saying it ‘has no place in the public forum.’

Chair Amy Kremer said: ‘Jimmy Hoffa’s remarks are inexcusable and amount to a call for violence on peaceful tea party members, which include many Teamster members.’

Dutch game show for asylum-seekers offers plenty of food for thought

2011-09-03T21:30:00.001-07:00

Think the irony of The Colbert Report in game show format where winners don’t have to go back to their home countries broke, and there you have Weg van Nederland, the liberal contribution to the country’s immigration debate. Neither winners nor losers receive the asylum they’ve been seeking in the Netherlands, but losers do get a bulletproof vest. The question being posed is whether or not everyone is a loser thanks to the country’s tightening rules regarding those seeking asylum.
According to Frank Wiering, head of VPRO that airs the program:

"My first reaction was: terrible idea, we're not doing that. Then I looked into the issue more deeply and decided we have to do this.
"Weg van Nederland focuses attention on the fact that, these days, many asylum seekers who are being expelled have children who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years or more. They have had a good education, speak perfect Dutch and have only seen their country of birth on television. We believe it's time to stop and think about this."
The contestants are, he added, "highly intelligent, self-assured people quite capable of deciding for themselves whether to take part or not".

The real question is whether those opposed to immigration are more concerned with losing talent or losing competition? That could make all the difference.
Full story at Guardian.

Are Wikileaks and Anonymous Hackers All There Is Left We Can Rely on, with Trust in Business and Government at Rock Bottom?

2011-09-03T01:42:00.001-07:00

By Joshua Holland

Are Wikileaks and Anonymous Hackers All There Is Left We Can Rely on, with Trust in Business and Government at Rock Bottom?

Their ability to bring powerful giants to heel is as compelling as the mythical Robin Hood's battle with a haughty medieval aristocracy.

It may not be appropriate to say in polite company, but there's no doubt that some Americans who hold a deep respect for the rule of law also find themselves cheering the information-age ronin who appear capable of waging war against the mightiest states and the most powerful corporations with impunity – the WikiLeakers and shadowy hackers that make up groups like Anonymous.
They may not approve of all of their actions – indeed, they may find some to be deeply misguided – but for those who aren't instinctively deferential to authority, their ability to bring powerful giants to heel is as compelling as the mythical Robin Hood's battle with a haughty medieval aristocracy.
Consider the environment in which these anti-heroic nerds operate. The United States jails more of its citizens than any other country on the planet, often for offenses as minor as possessing some marijuana. In six states, courts are now throwing people in jail for failing to make scheduled debt payments. An Illinois man was recently sentenced to 75 years for recording cops he alleged were harrassing him. Just last week, a Tennessee woman was threatened with arrest for the “crime” of allowing her 10-year-old child to bike a mile to school; police said she'd be charged with child neglect if she didn't send the kid to school on the bus.
There's very little accountability, however, for the large and increasingly powerful institutions with which we interact every day. It's become extremely hard for individuals to escape from beneath a pile of debt in bankruptcy court, but for corporations moral hazard abounds. Nobody has gone to prison for the widespread fraud Wall Street committed in building a house of cards out of a pile of mortgage-backed securities. In fact, a settlement is being worked out that will let banks off the hook for their scandalous robo-signing fraud with a slap on the wrist, even as they continue to fabricate foreclosure documents. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court made it almost impossible for people ripped off by big corporations to file class-action suits. Nobody at a high level was punished for torturing terror suspects, or for spying on American citizens in apparent violation of the law.
As these increasingly unaccountable institutions – both private and public – have grown larger, we human beings have come to feel ever smaller. We have no means of resisting the myriad small insults that we suffer day in and day out dealing with corporations and negotiating government agencies. We tolerate the rudeness of customer service reps and endless hours navigating phone trees. We try to ignore the rise of the surveillance state even as it has come to surround us. Nobody really knows how to get off the no-fly list once one is suspected by the powers-that-be of being “trouble.”
More and more, our democracy feels like a Potemkin Village in which we make a grand show of participating in billion-dollar, ad-driven elections only to see our government captured by elites working behind the scenes. The corruption – the legal kind – is so pervasive that most of us simply turn a blind eye to it, helpless to push back. Sure, the vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum, including a majority of rank-and-file Republicans, would like to see the deficit tamed by raising taxes on the rich – people who have seen their burdens decline dramatically over the past 30 years. But tough luck – it's the donor class that holds sway over our representatives and fuming about it only earns one charges of “class warfare.”
It should come as little surprise that trust in the institutions that shape our entire society is largely a thing of the past. A poll conducted last September for the Associated Press found that Americans had become cynical about our major institutions. Not one of the 18 institutions pollsters asked about got high marks from a majority of respondents. “Glum and distrusting, a majority of Americans today are very confident in – nobody,” concluded the pollsters. Sixty-two percent of those polled by Gallup said they “want major corporations to have less influence in the United States.” The most recent Household Survey of Adult Civic Participation found that almost four in 10 Americans said politics were "too complicated to understand," and a similar number believed, not incorrectly, that their families "had no say in what federal government does."

Gender Gap Vanishes in Female-Empowered Cultures

2011-08-31T23:24:00.001-07:00

By John Timmer, Ars Technica
One of the issues that has prevented the full participation of females in math and the sciences is the persistent belief that males have innate math skills that are superior to those of females. Even as studies show that the math gap disappears in countries with greater gender equality, it seems to persist in higher education, which allows it to be transmitted to new generations.
But, even as basic math skills have evened out in many countries, differences in spatial reasoning abilities have not followed as quickly, even in places like Sweden and Norway, where math skills are now equal. This raises the prospect that there is some biological difference between the sexes — it just isn’t basic math. A new study in PNAS, however, suggests that spatial reasoning differences may also be the product of society.
The study takes advantage of a convenient natural experiment. There are two tribes in Northeast India that are very similar in many ways. They both share the same agrarian lifestyle and diet, reside in close proximity, and DNA tests indicate that they are closely related. The biggest difference between them is culture. Among other differences, the Karbi are patrilineal; women do not typically own land, and the oldest son inherits the family’s property after the death of the parents. The Khasi could not be more different in this regard. Men are not allowed to own land at all, any money or goods earned by a male are handed over to his wife or sister, and inheritances go to the youngest daughter in the family.
The authors of the new paper have gone to the areas occupied by the different tribes, and surveyed occupants from four villages in each. They were given the task of solving a simple three-dimensional puzzle that involved four blocks, with portions of a picture on a single face. The subjects would have to identify the correct side of the block, rotate it to the top, and then arrange the pieces to re-form the picture. To provide a bit of incentive, the authors would give anyone who could solve it in under 30 seconds the rough equivalent of a quarter of a day’s wages in the area. All told, nearly 1,300 villagers agreed to participate.
In the patrilinial society, men outperformed women on this task, taking 35 percent less time to complete it than the females. That difference vanishes when the test is given to the matrilinial tribe members; there was simply no significant difference between the sexes.
The authors looked at some of the cultural factors that might be expected to explain the difference between the two societies. Males are likely to receive more education in the patrilineal society, and the authors found that introducing education as a factor in their analysis accounted for a third of the difference. Male ownership of the home also had a large effect; the gender gap is only a third the size in homes that are not owned solely by males.
Other factors don’t seem to have a significant impact. Those who would be inheriting the property, either male or female, didn’t outperform their siblings of the same sex. A separate test of competitiveness did not seem to have any correlation with the performance in the puzzle solving test.
In their conclusions, the authors are careful to state that the work demonstrates that culture influences spatial performance “in the task that we study.” That task definitely requires spatial reasoning, but it certainly doesn’t tax the full suite of abilities that humans can master. They also note that their work is correlative, and its implications “should be taken with a grain of salt, because causality cannot be ascertained.” I’d add that the abilities of the tribes in Northeast India are only ever going to provide a small snapshot of the full range of human diversity.
What the study does do is narrow the range of things that we can readily describe to innate abilities. It also provides a clear indication that at least some spatial skills appear to be significantly influenced by cultural factors. There may yet be places where innate differences in math and spatial reasoning exist between the sexes, but those places are becoming ever smaller.
Image: Aurich Lawson
Source: Ars Technica
Citation: PNAS, 2011. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1015182108

Obama uncle held in US by immigration officials

2011-08-29T23:21:00.001-07:00

President Barack Obama's uncle, who was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving, told police he planned to arrange bail through the White House and was being held without bail on an immigration detainer, authorities said Monday.

Onyango Obama was arrested last week in Framingham, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Boston, after police said he made a rolling stop through a stop sign and nearly caused a cruiser to strike his sport utility vehicle.
Police said that after being booked at the police station, Obama was asked whether he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail.
"I think I will call the White House," he stated, according to a police report filed in Framingham District Court.
Police said Obama, who's originally from Kenya and is the half-brother of the president's late father, pleaded not guilty Friday and was being held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a court document, ICE said he had an earlier deportation or removal order.
His immigration status couldn't immediately be confirmed, but such orders are generally reserved for people living in the country illegally.
An immigration detainer, used by ICE to identify people in jail or prison who could be deported, is a request to another law enforcement agency to notify ICE before releasing the person from custody so ICE can arrange to take over custody.
A spokesman for ICE declined to comment on Obama's immigration case, and the White House had no comment.

The president refers in his memoir "Dreams from My Father," about retracing his roots and his 1988 trip to Kenya, to an Uncle Omar, who matches Obama's background and has the same date of birth.
Obama, 67, was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to yield the right of way.
Michael Rogers, a spokesman for Cleveland immigration attorney Margaret Wong, said Wong will represent Obama. He confirmed that Obama is the half-brother of the president's father and the brother of another relative, the president's aunt Zeituni Onyango, of Boston.
Onyango made headlines last year when she won the right to stay in the United States after an earlier deportation order. She came to the U.S. from Kenya in 2000 and was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2004.
She stayed in the country illegally and was granted asylum last year by a judge who found she could be a target in Kenya not only for those who oppose the U.S. and the president but also for members of the Kenyan government.
In "Dreams from My Father," the president mentions photographs of his Uncle Omar, "the uncle who had left for America twenty-five years ago and had never come back." He also discusses a Kenyan expression about getting lost, meaning to not see someone in a while or to move away and stop communicating with relatives -- "like our Uncle Omar, in Boston."
Framingham police said Obama was arrested Wednesday after he failed to stop completely at a stop sign and a police officer had to quickly apply his brakes to avoid hitting Obama's sport utility vehicle.
Officer Val Krishtal said in a written report that Obama slurred his speech and became argumentative after he was told that he was being stopped because he had failed to fully stop and yield to traffic.

"I explained to him that I narrowly avoided striking his vehicle, and he told me that he did not hear my tires screeching so I was not being accurate," Krishtal said in the report.
Obama originally told Krishtal he had nothing to drink but later said he had had two beers, Krishtal wrote in the report.
Krishtal said Obama failed several sobriety tests and blew a reading of 0.14 percent on a blood-alcohol breath test, which is above the state's legal driving limit of 0.08 percent.
The president's administration announced this month that it would allow many illegal immigrants facing deportation the chance to stay in the U.S. and apply for work permits and would focus on removing convicted criminals and people who might be national security or public safety threats.
Source: AP

Politicians and their affairs

2011-08-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

In any case, a politician with a damsel on his arm is newsworthy material, but if that pretty young thing is not his wife or girlfriend, it becomes the fodder for reams of fiery gossip. And, thankfully, we have had a lot! Here's a look at some of the most talked about, and celebrated, affairs in the world of politics.

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

A political sex scandal that convinced the world of the grey goings-on in the White House, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair has all the ingredients of a potboiler: the most powerful man in the world (Clinton), an intern (Lewinsky), an upcoming politician (Hillary Clinton), an impeachment motion, and the subsequent acquittal.
Clinton went on to complete his term as President, and is now a guest at numerous talk shows; his wife, Hillary, could well be the next American President. And Monica Lewinsky — who?

Silvio Berlusconi and Ruby Rubacuori

Italy's playboy Prime Minister is known for his voracious appetite for women — and bunga bunga parties. But if the participants in the said 'bunga bunga' romps are under-aged girls, well, let's just say Silvio bungled up.
Widely circulated reports about his multiple affairs with high-class escorts may or may not be true, but one that caught the imagination of the Italian public and the world was his alleged affair with a Moroccan nightclub dance, Karima El Mahroug who is better known by the stage name Ruby Rubacuori.
Berlusconi was accused of paying for the sexual services of Ruby when she was still a minor girl, an offence in Italy.
Whatever the case, the world will not see a more colourful leader, except, of course, Nicholas Sarkozy!

John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe

Did it happen? Did it not? Yes, screamed the headlines of half a century ago, and 'No' were the categorically stoic White House officials.
What? Well this was THE affair (or not) of all time — the swashbuckling American icon JFK and the most enduring actresses Hollywood history Marilyn Monroe.
The two took their secret to the grave, but the grapevine hasn't stopped buzzing since.

Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten

India's first Prime Minister, the charismatic Jawaharlal Nehru, and Edqina Mountbatten, the wife of India's last Viceroy. They made a beautiful couple, but, if reports are to be believed, they shared a strictly platonic relationship.

Antonio Villaraigosa and Mirthala Salinas

Former Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa made the news for all the wrong reasons when he divorced his wife for Spanish television reporter, Mirthala Salinas. After intense media scrutiny, Villaraigosa filed for divorce, and subsequently Salinas was also suspended by her employers.
Villaraigosa is now in a relationship with Lu Parker, a former Miss USA, 17 years his junior.

Amarinder Singh and Aroosa Alam

Rumour mills have it that former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh is in love. His relationship or 'friendship' with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam has raised many eyebrows, even raising a political storm of sorts in the Punjab Assembly.
On a lighter note, his political opponents are convinced that Singh was the first official Indian conquest of the pakistani ISI!

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mildred Baena

Terminator proved that he was human after all. One of the most loved action heroes of Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger proved that he was far from the ideal hero when earlier in the year it emerged that he had an affairwith his maid Mildred Baena and had even fathered a child with her. To top it all the actor had kept his 'affair' a secret for almost 14 years.
Needless to say, the actor and his wife Maria Shriver soon separated. Shriver is believed to have told Arnie, while leaving, that "I'll never be back". (We just made that one up, but you knew that, didn't you?)

John Profumo and Christine Keeler

A scandal that rocked Britain in the 1960s, the 'Profumo Affair' could well have been the epitome of 'love at first sight', after politician John Dennis Profumo saw Christine Keeler emerging out of a swimming pool wearing nothing but her smile.
Media reported the 'Profumo Affair' as a torrid sexual relationship between the two. Keeler, as it emerged, was a prostitute, as well as the mistress of a Russian spy.
All said, clandestine, this affair was not!

Gavin Newsom and Ruby Rippey-Tourk

Another Mayor falling from grace. This time it was the reported affair between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of his former deputy chief of staff and then campaign manager, Alex Tourk, which created a furore among the supporters of the Mayor.

Rise of the Fourth Reich, how Germany is using the financial crisis to conquer Europe

2011-08-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

By SIMON HEFFER
Yesterday’s crisis meeting between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy was arranged before the participants knew of the disastrous growth figures in the Eurozone that emerged in the morning.
The background to the meeting was last week’s tumult in the world financial markets. Shares had gone into freefall after the downgrading of America’s credit rating.
Worse than that, however, were the tremors rattling some of Europe’s most important banks, notably in France, caused by further evidence of the utter failure of even the more developed European economies to live anything like within their means.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met to discuss the crisis yesterday, with the outcome of conversations suggesting a fiscal union could be created - of which Germany will dictate terms
Chancellor Merkel has managed to use the hard-earned money of German taxpayers to bail out profligate Eurozone countries without suffering any political fall-out. This is unlikely to remain the case and Mrs Merkel knows it.
That is why yesterday she played down talk of the European Central Bank — funded by German-backed Eurobonds — paying off the debts of these all-but-bankrupt nations.
Instead, there was forceful talk of Eurozone countries being coerced into balancing their budgets and reducing their debt through what Merkel and Sarkozy called a ‘true European economic government movement’ made up of all the heads of state and led, initially, by the EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
Frau Merkel called for a ‘stronger coordination of policy’ and ‘a new quality of cooperation’ within the Eurozone.
Although she will not yet admit it, this all suggests the first step has been taken towards a fiscal union that will leave Germany dictating the financial terms for the rest of Europe.

Mr Sarzoky and Mrs Merkel talked of a 'true economic government movement' while the German leader called for 'a stronger coordination of policy' during the meeting in Paris
It is the one country that is able to do so. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are economic basket cases. We have heard more and more about the trouble in Spain, where unemployment is over 20 per cent.
Italy is tottering — the figures for 2010 show it has debts of 116 per cent of GDP, making the country second only to Greece at around 143 per cent.
Meanwhile, the recent addition of France to the list of at-risk economies has caused real shock and panic across the Channel. Its banks hold about an eighth of Greek debt, or $57 billion, its stock market has tumbled and credit rating agencies are talking of removing France’s triple A status.
So, after a summer of increasingly shrill panics around the Mediterranean, the contagion is moving north. Individual bail-outs have been tried, but they obstinately refuse to work. Only an idiot would think they would: they treat only the symptoms of Europe’s economic decline, not its causes.
If only everybody could be like the Germans, and spend just a mite more than they earn, then all would be well, the markets seem to say.
Germany lay in ruins in 1945, but it then invested in manufacturing plant, developed first-class education, innovated, raised its productivity and competed on quality not price.
Over the next 60 years it won the peace as comprehensively as it lost the war.

The addition of the French economy to the at-risk list has sent tremors through European banks, and across the Channel, while also caused the country's shares to tumble
If the euro is to survive — and with it the European project — the other 16 Eurozone countries will have to be like the Germans. Indeed, they must lose the freedom not to be like the Germans.

Be in no doubt what fiscal union means: it is one economic policy, one taxation system, one social security system, one debt, one economy, one finance minister. And all of the above would be German

That means a complete fiscal union in which Germany, as the EU’s most powerful economy and principal paymaster, makes the rules and makes them unbreakable.
George Osborne interrupted his holiday in austerity-free Beverly Hills a fortnight ago to make this point by telephone to the European Commission and the ECB.
It is a high-risk strategy on his part, for if such a plan succeeded it would make Europe effectively a German empire, with non-Eurozone countries such as Britain on the sidelines.

George Osborne believes the UK have no choice but to allow the creation of a union, because if European economy implodes then Britain would be badly damaged
Mr Osborne clearly believes we have no choice. His concern is that if the European economy implodes we would be badly damaged: not so much because of the debt owed by countries such as Greece to British banks, but also because of the loss of export markets in the Eurozone countries and investment by them in Britain.
However, the prospects of Germany’s partners in the Eurozone are starker still.
If the global financial markets continue to have no confidence in the sticking-plaster rescue packages offered by Eurozone leaders, some nations will go bankrupt — one or two, such as Greece and Ireland, are already more or less trading while insolvent.
They may hope their salvation, apart from pulling out of the single currency and devaluing, would be to accept Germany properly bolstering the euro and effectively colonising the Eurozone.
This would entail a loss of sovereignty not seen in those countries since many were under the jackboot of the Third Reich 70 years ago.
For be in no doubt what fiscal union means: it is one economic policy, one taxation system, one social security system, one debt, one economy, one finance minister. And all of the above would be German.
That is not merely the price the markets would demand to be confident about the euro’s future, and to be happy to buy debt that could help fund Greece, or Ireland, or Italy. It is also the price that Germans themselves seem to be demanding for their support.

The markets seem to imply that if everyone followed the German lead and spent a mite more than they earned then all would be well
Stern, the German news magazine, conducted a poll last week among Mrs Merkel’s own supporters that showed that 52 per cent were opposed to her bail-out policy, and 62 per cent worried about the course of her party generally.
She is only two years from having to fight another election and cannot defy democratic gravity for ever.
Germany has already pumped 120 billion euros into the 440 billion bail-out fund. It is the fifth biggest economy in the world, which would mean that imposing its way of doing things on the other 16 nations would carry tremendous clout internationally.
It also has another reason for needing to shore up its partners: 42 per cent of its exports go to the Eurozone, with France alone taking 90 billion euros’ worth a year.

Demand for German goods, such as these Volkswagen cars, has slowed in recent months, but German has good reason for shoring up its partners as 42 per cent of exports go to the eurozone
However, the latest figures show that demand for German goods is slowing, as is German growth. Shortly before the extent of the French problem with Greece was made public, Commerzbank — one of Germany’s leading banks — announced that it had to use 93 per cent of its second-quarter profits to write down $1.1 billion of Greek debt.
If Germany is to continue to prosper, Europe must prosper: but a ruthless solution may have to be imposed in order for that to happen. If the European project is to continue, Germany will not merely have to underwrite it, but control it.
The recently-agreed European Financial Stability Facility is not the answer. It is just another in a series of sticking-plasters that allows the ECB to buy the bonds of debtor nations to keep them solvent.
All these sticking-plasters are designed in the belief that the wound will not become yet more gaping: but it always does.
The alternative is the massive surrender of sovereignty to Germany by the rest of the Eurozone that would allow the economic policy of Greece, Ireland and Portugal to be made in Berlin.

The recently-agreed European Financial Stability facility allows the ECB to apply sticking-plasters to some of the debtor nations, but is not the answer to the crisis
That would reassure the markets, but it would also remove any pretence of democracy in those 16 countries: for once you have lost control of your economy, you have lost your sovereignty.
Every spending department in every government in the Eurozone would have its policy made in the old capital of Prussia.
And if the people did not like their governments being left with fewer powers than a county council, that would be tough. The alternative is ruin.
Where Hitler failed by military means to conquer Europe, modern Germans are succeeding through trade and financial discipline. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

Huge rise in intensely sexualised pictures of women... but not men

2011-08-15T00:30:00.001-07:00

The number of intensely sexualised images of women in the media has soared in recent years.
Pictures of women have increasingly become hyper-sexualised, research has found. But the same is not true of the portrayal of men.
Images of women on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine were 89 per cent more likely to be sexualised and even 'pornified' in the 2000s than in the 1960s, the study by the University of Buffalo revealed.

Bringing sexy back: The study examines the covers of Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 to 2009

After analysing more than 1,000 images of men and women on Rolling Stone covers over the course of 43 years, the authors concluded that though images of both men and women have become more sexual, sexualised images are more frequent with women.
At the same time, the number of intensely sexualised images of women -- but not men -- have surged.

Inthe 1960s they found that 11 percent of men and 44 percent of women on the covers of Rolling Stone were sexualised. In the 2000s, 17 percent ofmen were sexualised (an increase of 55 percentfrom the 1960s), and 83 percent of women were sexualised (an increase of 89 percent). Among those images that were sexualised, 2 percent of men and 61 percent of women were hyper-sexualised.

[caption

Hatton said: 'In the 2000s there were 10 times more hyper-sexualised images of women than men, and 11 times more non-sexualised images of men than of women.
'What we conclude from this is that popular media outlets such as Rolling Stone are not depicting women as sexy musicians or actors; they are depicting women musicians and actors as ready and available for sex.
Previous research has found highly sexualised images of women to have far-reaching negative consequences for both men and women.
Hatton said it was 'problematic' 'because it indicates a decisive narrowing of media representations of women.

She added: 'Wedon't necessarily think it's problematic for women to be portrayed as 'sexy.' But we do think it is problematic when nearly all images of women depict them not simply as 'sexy women' but as passive objects for someone else's sexual pleasure.
'Sexualised portrayals of women have been found to legitimise or exacerbate violence against women and girls, as well as sexual harassment and anti-women attitudes among men and boys.

'Such images also have been shown to increase rates of body dissatisfaction and/or eating disorders among men, women and girls; and they have even been shown to decrease sexual satisfaction among both men and women.'
In order to measure the intensity of sexualised representations of men and women, the authors developed a 'scale of sexualisation.' An image was given "points" for being sexualised if, for example,the subject's lips were parted or his/her tongue was showing, the subject was only partially clad or naked, or the text describing the subject used explicitly sexual language.
The study, 'Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualisation of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone', will be published in the September issue of the journal Sexuality & Culture.

Outsourcing could become hot target in US election cycle

2011-08-15T00:24:00.001-07:00

In a rollercoaster ride that mimics the recent ups-and-downs of the stock market, the Republican Party moves ever closer to picking a 2012 presidential candidate.
In Saturday’s much-watched Iowa Straw Poll, a Republican fundraiser that’s viewed as a barometer of candidate’s viability, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann walked away as the voters’ top choice with 28 percent of the votes.
In a close second was Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas, with 27 percent of the straw poll votes. Tim Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, came in a distant third with 13 percent, prompting him to surprise supporters by announcing on Sunday that he was exiting the race altogether.
“I wish it would have been different. But obviously the pathway forward for me doesn’t really exist so we are going to end the campaign,” Pawlenty said on ABC’s “This Week.” “What I brought forward, I thought, was a rational, established, credible, strong record of results, based on experience governing — a two-term governor of a blue state. But I think the audience, so to speak, was looking for something different,” he said.

The 2012 US election cycle will likely be dominated by the debate around jobs and outsourcing. Jim Young / Reuters

A buzzy event where voters are fed corn dogs and ice cream, the Iowa straw poll certainly isn’t a fool-proof indication of who will ultimately snag the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) presidential nomination next August.
For example, Mitt Romney, a frontrunner in the race according to recent polls, declined to officially participate in the Iowa straw poll. And Texas Governor Rick Perry stole the spotlight on Saturday when he announced his presidential candidacy at a meeting of conservative bloggers in South Carolina as the Iowa straw poll was underway.
These events came on the heels of a Thursday GOP debate marked by inter-partisan jabs and some memorably bizarre moments.
Bachmann, the only female participating, was incomprehensibly asked whether she would remain “submissive” to her husband if she were elected. Meanwhile, Romney remarked that he would not “eat Barack Obama’s dog food” when asked about why he was so late to the party on the debt ceiling debate.
On the topic of immigration, most candidates sang a similar tune that decried illegal immigration, and called for increased border security.
Romney was the only candidate to address high-skilled immigration directly when he said he liked the idea of stapling green cards to PhDs. ”I want the best and brightest to be metered into the country based upon the needs of our employment sector and create jobs by bringing technology and innovation that comes from people around the world,” he said.
Anything can happen
Though some campaigns bank on the Iowa poll numbers, anything can happen in the battle for the RNC presidential nomination. (Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are both rumored to throw their hat in the ring.) At the moment, however, it appears that Romney, Perry, and Bachmann are the current candidates to beat.
Bachmann chairs the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, and she has positioned herself as a populist, anti-Big Government candidate who has been vocal about her opposition to raising the debt ceiling, and who promises to repeal Obama’s health reform. “I am unwilling to accept the new normal of ramped-up spending. We have to grow the economy and reduce government spending. That’s how we will get to balance,” Bachmann said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Romney has historically had difficulty proving his conservatives credentials, although the Washington Post reported that recent polls show that he is currently more popular among Republicans than ever before. His biggest political Achilles heel may be the fact that Republicans oppose health care reform under Obama, but the Massachusetts’ universal healthcare program came online under his watch as governor. It’s sure to be a political liability; Pawlenty has famously dubbed health care reform “Obamneycare.”
Meanwhile, Perry is painting himself as the “jobs candidate” who is pro-business, anti-government spending, and who understand the needs of the everyday American. A social conservative who is not shy about his religious devotion (he hosted a Christian prayer rally last weekend that involved international prayer partners from India), Perry has a mighty arrow in his quiver with his record for job creation. According to to the Dallas Federal Reserve, nearly half of the new jobs created since June 2009 have been in Texas. (Some challenge this finding.)
More jobs, less outsourcing
The GOP candidates’ recent activity makes it clear that jobs and the economy will be the focus of the campaigning leading up to the Republican primaries—and it could prove to be the hot-button topics during the presidential campaign itself.
In a down economy and an era of globalisation, this means that Americans and those running for higher office will be confronted with what it means to create jobs in a new economy.
Given the increasingly international flow of workers and capital, efforts that merely focus on outsourcing is an antiquated way of looking at job creation. A recent San Jose Mercury News report found that Indian companies are creating thousands of jobs in the US, and immigrant entrepreneurs have created companies that currently employ 200,000 Americans.
Firstpost has also argued that the cure to “capitalism’s crisis” is freer immigration; some policy makers—including the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation—have also cautioned against economic protectionism.
Still, the popular conversation on jobs and immigration don’t tend to consider the developments and nuances of business and employment in a global economy. A March 2011 Gallup Poll, for instance, found that one in four Americans believed that the best way to create more jobs in the US is to stop outsourcing.
As campaigning for the Republican primaries heats up, the high-skilled immigration debate will rear its head again, and so will charged and at times uninformed rhetoric about the perils of outsourcing and “sending jobs overseas.” Brace yourselves.

U.S. appeals court rules Obamacare is 'unconstitutional'

2011-08-13T00:21:00.001-07:00

Massive blow to Obama as appeals court rules against healthcare mandate

Court found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage
Reversed a lower court decision that threw out the entire healthcare law
Will now move to Supreme Court to be decided

President Barack Obama's healthcare law suffered a setback on Friday when a U.S. appeals court ruled that it was unconstitutional to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a penalty.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also reversed a lower court decision that threw out the entire healthcare law.
The legality of the individual mandate, a cornerstone of the healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents have argued that without the mandate, which goes into effect in 2014, the entire law falls.

Obama has championed the mandate as a way to try to slow the soaring costs of healthcare while expanding coverage to the more than 30 million Americans without it
The law, adopted by Congress in 2010 after a bruising battle, is expected to be a major political issue in the 2012 elections as Obama seeks another term in office and as all the major Republican presidential candidates have opposed it.
Obama has championed the individual mandate as a major accomplishment of his presidency and as a way to try to slow the soaring costs of healthcare while expanding coverage to the more than 30 million Americans without it.
The White House said it strongly disagreed with the ruling and voiced confidence the decision would not stand.
'Today's ruling is one of many decisions on the Affordable Care Act that we will see in the weeks and months ahead. In the end, we are confident the Act will ultimately be upheld as constitutional,' Obama aide Stephanie Cutter said in a statement.
The Supreme Court is expected to take up the healthcare law during its upcoming term that begins in October with a ruling possible by the summer of 2012, just a few months before Obama faces re-election.
Twenty-six states had challenged the mandate, arguing that Congress had exceeded its authority by imposing such a requirement, but the Obama administration had argued it was legal under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
A divided three-judge panel of the appeals court found that it did not pass muster under that clause or under the Congress' power to tax. The administration has said the penalty for not buying healthcare coverage is akin to a tax.
'This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives,' the majority said in its opinion.

Decision: Judge Frank Hull, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, was one of the appeal court judges who deemed the bill unconstitutional
That opinion was jointly written by Judges Joel Dubina, who was appointed to the appeals court by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and by Frank Hull, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
Republicans have sought to undercut or repeal the healthcare law at every level of government -- in federal court, in the state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress.
The decision contrasts with one by the U.S. Appeals Court for the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, which had upheld the individual mandate as constitutional. That case has already been appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, has yet to rule on a separate challenge by the state of Virginia. A federal judge in that state had ruled the mandate unconstitutional as well.
The state of Florida had led the 26 states to challenge the insurance requirement, winning a ruling by a federal judge in Florida that the entire law was unconstitutional.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said: 'Today we have prevailed in preventing Congress from infringing on the individual liberty protected by the U.S. Constitution.'
However, the 11th Circuit did not agree that the entire Obama healthcare law should be tossed out.

Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign includes a strong push to repeal Obamacare and she said the decision was a 'welcome relief'
Many provisions are already being implemented, including allowing children to stay on their parents' health insurance plan until age 26 and banning lifetime coverage limits.
Further, the Obama administration on Friday issued new incentives for states and people to participate in health insurance exchanges, including tax credits and funding grants for the states.
The Obama administration did win some support from the appeals court for the individual mandate.
One of the three judges, Stanley Marcus, dissented from the majority opinion.
The majority 'has ignored the undeniable fact that Congress' commerce power has grown exponentially over the past two centuries and is now generally accepted as having afforded Congress the authority to create rules regulating large areas of our national economy,' wrote Marcus, also a Clinton appointee to the appeals court.
Michele Bachmann called the ruling a 'welcome relief' and she urged the Obama administration to rethink the entire healthcare bill in light of the ruling.
She said in a statement: 'Removing the individual mandate from Obamacare deprives it of the revenue necessary to pay for the bill.
'Implementing the remaining provisions without the mandate would dramatically increase our budget deficit and do further harm to our economy.'

Chef and steward among rioters charged

2011-08-12T23:39:00.001-07:00

London: Young rioters have clogged Britain's courthouses, each one painting a bleak picture of a lost generation: a 15-year-old Ukrainian whose mother died, a 17-year-old who followed his cousin into the mayhem, an 11-year-old gangster arrested for stealing a garbage can.

But while many involved seemed to fit a picture of youngsters from broken families, the first court appearances also suggested a broader cross-section took part. These included an organic chef, an opera house steward and university student.
Britain is bitterly divided on the reasons behind the riots - some blame the unrest on opportunistic criminality, others say conflicting economic policies and punishing government spending cuts have deepened inequalities in the country's most deprived areas.
Nearly 1200 people have been arrested since the riots erupted on Saturday, mostly poor youths from a broad section of Britain's many races and ethnicities. Many of the youths themselves struggle to find any one plausible answer, but a widespread sense of alienation emerges from their tales.

"Nobody is doing nothing for us - not the politicians, not the cops, no one," a 19-year-old who lives near Tottenham, the blighted London neighbourhood where the riots started. He only gave his nickname "Freddy," because he took part in the looting and was scared of facing prosecution; he was not among the youths in court.
AFP reported Fitzroy Thomas, a 43-year-old organic chef, was accused with his brother Ronald, 47, of smashing up a branch of the Nando's chicken restaurant chain in Clapham, south London, the Times daily reported. The pair pleaded not guilty in a London magistrates court and were remanded in custody, the paper said.
Nan Asante, 19, who recently started work as a steward at an outdoor opera venue in the upmarket London district of Holland Park, reportedly pleaded not guilty to looting a supermarket in the capital, AFP also reported. The apparent involvement of such people in the riots will only deepen the debate over who and what was behind the outbreak of violence.
Britain has one of the highest violent crime rates in the EU and alarmingly high youth unemployment - roughly 18 percent of youths between 16 and 24 are jobless and nearly half of all young black youths are out of work.

As the government battles colossal government debt with harsh welfare cuts that promise to make the futures of these youths even bleaker, some experts say it's blinkered to believe the riots have only been a random outburst of violence unrelated to the current economic crisis.
"There's a fundamental disconnect with a particular section of young Britain and sections of the political establishment," said Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at University of Nottingham. An 11-year-old boy was among one of the youngest to appear in court on Wednesday.
The boy, from Romford, Essex, told the court he had joined in a gang of youths who looted a department store. Wearing a blue Adidas tracksuit, the youngster spoke only to confirm his name, age and date of birth. He pleaded guilty to burglary, after stealing a waste bin worth Stg50. A charge of violent disorder was dropped.
Courts have been running nearly 24 hours a day to hear all the cases since the rioting began. Most cases are heard in a blink of an eye and only give a snapshot of some of the youngsters' lives. Most of the youths also can't be named because they are minors.
The courts have been chaotic with a near-constant stream of defendants - many of whom haven't had a chance to talk at length with their attorneys or some whose records have been sent to the wrong courts or wrong attorneys.

Another of the boys who appeared on Wednesday was a 15-year-old charged with using or threatening unlawful violence, a charge to which he pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said the boy, who already has a criminal record of theft, is an only child who lives with his widowed father. He came to Britain from Germany three years ago after leaving Ukraine when his mother died.
Police say he was in the thick of Tuesday's rioting in London's Hackney area, throwing stones and missiles. In Tottenham, most residents are white but blacks from Africa or the Caribbean account for around a quarter of the ethnic mix. It's also home to Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Asian immigrants. The rage has appeared to cut across ethnic lines, with poverty as the main common denominator.
But there's a history of racial tension in many of these neighbourhoods, and the riots themselves were triggered by the fatal police shooting of a black man in Tottenham.
In 1985, the neighbourhood was home to the Broadwater Farm riot, an event seared in the memories of many of the rioters' parents. Back then, violence exploded in the area when a black woman died from a stroke during a police search. The area remains a hotbed of ethnic tension: In the past year, police have logged some 100 racist or religion-based hate crimes.

Other social problems afflict the places where rioting erupted: high teen pregnancy rates, gun crime and drug trafficking. Daniel Cavaglieri, one of the lawyers for a 17-year-old black teenager who appeared with dozens of others at Highbury Magistrates Court on Wednesday, said the youth was studying mechanics and trying to finish school. He was accused of following his older cousin into looting a clothing shop, and charged with intent to steal.
"His mother is furious he was out and about at that time. She genuinely thought he was at a friend's house," Cavaglieri told the court. "He's going to be grounded." Britain's Conservative-led government is implementing painful austerity measures in an attempt to get the country's finances in order. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged Stg80 billion of spending cuts and Stg30 billion in extra taxes to trim Britain's huge deficit, swollen after the government spent billions bailing out foundering banks.
The plans to cut services from welfare to education sparked violent protests last year, as students took to the streets to demonstrate against the tripling of university fees. The government is also cutting civil service jobs and benefits, raising the state pension age from 65 to 66, hiking the amount public sector employees contribute to pensions and reducing their retirement payouts.
The austerity measures will also slash housing benefit payments used to subsidize rents for the low-paid, threatening to price tens of thousands of poor families out of their homes and force them toward the fringes of the country's capital. Economists at the Centre for Economic Policy Research say such cuts promise more unrest. Most of Britain's deepest cuts haven't even come yet.
"There's usually something that sparks these things off," said Hans-Joachim Voth, a research fellow at the centre. "The question is why is it that in 90 percent of these cases that nothing happens? Why is it that some places just end up like a tinder box?"
Source: AP

Reclusive Amazon tribe missing after attack

2011-08-09T01:24:00.000-07:00

Gleison Miranda / FUNAI / Survival International
This 2010 image shows part of an uncontacted Indian tribe in western Brazil. The tribe has disappeared since a group of armed men (presumed to be Peruvian drug traffickers) overran a Brazilian guardpost near the tribe's lands. Brazilian officials are now looking for signs of the missing tribe.
By Stephanie Pappas
An uncontacted Amazon tribe that made headlines earlier this year after being filmed from the air is feared missing after presumed drug traffickers overran the Brazilian guards posted to protect the tribe's lands.
According to tribal advocacy group Survival International, Brazilian officials can find no trace of the Indians in the area after heavily armed men ransacked the guard post in western Brazil about 32 miles from the Peruvian border. Like other uncontacted tribes, the Indians live a traditional life in the forest and does not have contact with the outside world.
Workers from FUNAI, the government bureau of Indian affairs, found a broken arrow in one of the men's backpacks, raising fears for the tribe's safety.
"We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee," Carlos Travassos, the head of the government's isolated Indians department, said in a statement. "Now we have good proof. We are more worried than ever."
Lost tribe As many as 2,000 uncontacted Indians may live in the Javari Valley of the western Amazon, Survival International estimates. Brazilian officials keep an eye on tribal lands but do not force contact with the inhabitants. In February, Brazil's Indian Affairs Department released aerial photos and film of the tribe that is now missing, revealing thatched dwellings, tribe members in red body paint, and gardens full of manioc tubers and papaya.
Now the Indians seem to have disappeared. According to Survival International, police found a package containing 44 pounds of cocaine in the area. That could mean that the Envira River, where the Brazilian guard post is located, is now an entry point into Brazil for Peruvian cocaine smugglers, they said.
According to local reports, police have detained one man, a Portuguese national who was arrested and deported for drug trafficking in March. Jose Carlos Meirelles, who headed the remote guard post, is now back in the area and reported that several groups of men armed with sub-machine guns and rifles are in the forest near the base.
Guns aren't the only threat to uncontacted Indians. Common diseases can also kill them, because they have not built up immunity to the viruses and bacteria outside their forest home. According to Survival International's uncontactedtribes.org, there are about 100 uncontacted tribes in existence worldwide.
"This situation could be one of the biggest blows we have ever seen in the protection of uncontacted Indians in recent decades," Travassos said, referring to the possible drug traffickers. "It's a catastrophe."

China gains rights to explore Indian Ocean

2011-08-03T02:22:00.001-07:00

Beijing: China has obtained approval to explore a 10,000 sq km polymetallic sulphide ore deposit in an international seabed region in the Indian Ocean, much to the disquiet of India.
The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association in a statement last night said that its application for the exploration of the southwest Indian Ocean region was recently approved by the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Following the approval, the association will sign a 15-year exploration contract with the ISA later this year, adding that China will enjoy pre-emptive rights to develop the ore deposit in the future.
China had also obtained exclusive rights to prospect in a 75,000-square-km polymetallic nodule ore deposit in the east Pacific Ocean in 2001, state-run Xinhua reported.

The move has already raised concerns in India with reports stating that Directorate of Naval Intelligence (DNI) has expressed concern to the Indian government that the contract would provide an excuse for China to operate to operate its warships besides compiling data on the vast mineral resources in India's backyard.
Apparently in preparation for this, China has stepped up its experiments with first manned deep sea submersible in the Pacific ocean which currently touched 5,180 meters with three people aboard yesterday.
According to State Oceanic Administration (SOA), the submersible named Jiaolong has conducted four dives in the Pacific Ocean since July 21.
Jiaolong is designed to reach a maximum depth of 7,000 meters expected sometime next year.
It completed 17 dives in the South China Sea between May 31 and July 18 last year, reaching 3,759 meters during its deepest dive.
China is the fifth country to send a man 3,500 meters below sea level, following the United States, France, Russia and Japan.
Meanwhile, in another bid to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region, China has made a "big donation" to the eighth edition of the Indian Ocean Islands Games that will kick off in Seychelles on August 4.
The sponsorship from the Guandong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, was made through the Chinese embassy in Seychelles at a ceremony held Thursday at the Roche Caiman sports complex in the southern suburb of Victoria, capital of the Seychelles, Xinhua reported.
The donation which was accepted by Seychelles consisted of equipment worth USD thee lakhs.
With this donation China becomes the biggest single sponsor of the Indian Ocean Islands Games. The sponsorship includes LCD screens, laptop computers and T-shirts, the news agency reported.
The Indian Ocean Islands Games is the largest sports event regrouping the islands of the southwest Indian Ocean regions, namely the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, Mayotte and Seychelles.
It is the second time in 18 years that Seychelles hosts the Indian Ocean Islands Games.
The sports event that will end on August 14 is expected to attract some 2,000 athletes from these islands.

US debt crisis blows over

2011-08-01T02:08:00.001-07:00

Washington: Republicans and Democrats in Congress reached agreement with President Barack Obama to raise the limit on US borrowing and forestall an unprecedented American default, marking the start in the final chapter of one of the nastiest and divisive episodes in recent American political history.

Shortly after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, minority leader Mitchell McConnell, endorsed the plan on the Senate floor, Obama went to the White House press room to add his support for the deal. It meets one of his key demands, raising borrowing power sufficiently to keep the partisan poison pill from returning to the national agenda until after the 2012 election. It does not include any tax increases that Obama had pressed hard for to include.
House Speaker John Boehner, in a conference call with Republican members of the lower chamber, said the deal was a good one that met the demands of all Republicans.
Bowing to the still unknown outcome of congressional action, Obama said important votes remained to be taken but that leaders of both parties in both houses of Congress agreed to a plan that would initially cut about $1 trillion from US spending, "the lowest level of domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was president" in the 1950s.
"Is this the deal I would have preferred," Obama asked, answering his own question with one word. "No."
But he said: "Most importantly it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America. And it will allow us to lift the cloud of doubt and uncertainty" that has hung above the United States for weeks.
And not just America: World markets showed their relief immediately. Japan's benchmark Nikkei index, opening Monday morning -- at 8 p.m. Sunday on America's East Coast -- was up 1.7 percent in early trading. On Wall Street, US stock futures surged.
No votes were expected in either house of Congress until Monday at the earliest, to give rank and file lawmakers to review the package. Tuesday is the deadline to avoid a US default on payments to investors in Treasury bonds, recipients of Social Security pension checks, those relying on military veterans benefits and businesses that do work for the government.
Obama and many economists and financial experts predicted global chaos and plunging stock markets had no deal been reached by midnight Tuesday.
If approved in Monday votes, the compromise would presumably preserve America's sterling credit rating, reassure investors in financial markets across the globe and possibly reverse the losses that spread across Wall Street in recent days as the threat of a default grew.
The broadest outlines of the emerging plan, a deal that involved deep negotiations between McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden, would raise the federal debt limit in two stages by at least $2.2 trillion, enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections.

Big cuts in government spending would be phased in over a decade. Thousands of programs -- the Park Service, Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department accounts among them -- could be trimmed to levels last seen years ago.
No benefit cuts were envisioned for the Social Security pension system or Medicare, the federal program that provides health care payments to the elderly. But other programs would be scoured for savings. Taxes would be unlikely to rise.
The first step would take place immediately, raising the debt limit by nearly $1 trillion and cutting spending by a slightly larger amount over a decade.
That would be followed by creation of a new congressional committee that would have until the end of November to recommend $1.8 trillion or more in deficit cuts, targeting benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, or overhauling the tax code. Those deficit cuts would allow a second increase in the debt limit, which would be needed by early next year.
If the committee failed to reach its $1.8 trillion target, or Congress failed to approve its recommendations by the end of 2011, lawmakers would then have to vote on a proposed constitutional balanced-budget amendment.
If that failed to pass, automatic spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion would automatically take effect, and the debt limit would rise by an identical amount.
Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps would be exempt from the automatic cuts, but payments to doctors, nursing homes and other Medicare providers could be trimmed, as could subsidies to insurance companies that offer an alternative to government-run Medicare.
Any agreement will have to be passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, which was seen as assured, and Republican-controlled House, which still could face a major tussle, before going to the White House for Obama's signature. With precious little time remaining, both chambers had been on standby throughout the day Sunday.
Some Republicans were said to still be balking over proposed cuts in defense spending. It also was unclear how the 87 new House members, voted in with support from the low-tax, small-government tea party wing of the Republican Party, would vote. But it was believed that both Boehner, the Republican House speaker, and Reid, leader of majority Democrats in the Senate, felt certain they could garner sufficient votes.
The coming days will be clogged with statements from both Republicans, especially the tea party caucus, and Democrats as they try to convince their constituencies that they held firm and won the day in the bitter divide over how the government operates and what it owes to its citizens.
Source: AP

Every H-1B visa creates 5 US jobs: Nasdaq chief

2011-07-29T05:30:00.001-07:00

For every H-1B visa, US tech cos hire 5 workers: NASDAQ

WASHINGTON: Refuting the allegations of US lawmakers and certain quarters here that H-1B visas take away jobs from Americans, NASDAQ's chief has claimed that studies show that for every H-1B visa, technology companies increase employment by five workers.

"Let me take the job stealing issue head-on," NASDAQ CEO Robert Griefeld told Senators at a Congressional hearing on immigration reform early this week.

"Opponents of enhanced legal immigration argue that when a foreign-born, highly skilled immigrant gets a job, American graduates are the losers," he said.

"But my research and experience tell me quite a different story. For example, the National Federation for American Policy says that for every H-1B worker requested, US technology companies increase their overall employment by five workers," Griefeld said.

The NASDAQ CEO argued there was a case to enact a more flexible and stable regime for legal immigration.

"Reform must convey economic priorities about job growth and global competitiveness. Increasing H-1B visas is simply not enough. We need to admit and keep entrepreneurs here so that the creative dynamic of our economy is enhanced by the very best skills and minds," he said.

"Whether in Silicon Valley, Austin, Chicago, or anywhere else in the United States, I hear from CEOs that the H-1B visa system is inadequate for today's human capital marketplace and the backlog for green cards and what they mean to the quality and the uncertainty of the lives of these foreign-born employees is a legitimate threat to their businesses," he said.

"Many companies can, if needed, locate people in Canada, Europe, India or any country that wants those jobs and the benefits they bring," he said.

Hotel maid in Strauss-Kahn case speaks out

2011-07-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

New York: The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her said in an interview published on Newsweek's website on Sunday that he appeared as a "crazy man" and attacked her when she entered his room.
Nafissatou Diallo also gave the newsmagazine and ABC News permission to identify her by name.
The magazine interview marks the first time the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant to the United States has publicly spoken to the media since she shocked the world with allegations that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom of his luxury suite on May 14 and forced her to perform oral sex.

Until now, Reuters had kept to the practice in the United States of protecting the identity of alleged rape victims.
ABC News on Sunday also announced it would broadcast an interview with Diallo on Monday morning.
"I want justice. I want him to go to jail," she said in excerpts from the television interview released on Sunday.
"I want him to know that there is some places you cannot use your money, you cannot use your power when you do something like this," Diallo said.
One of Diallo's attorneys, Douglas Wigdor, told Reuters she has come forward to let the world know she is not a "shakedown artist or a prostitute."
"She's being attacked ... and she thought it was important to put a name and face to her account," Wigdor said.
She also plans to file a civil lawsuit soon, which means her name would become public, he added.
ABC reported Diallo also acknowledged "mistakes" but said that should not stop prosecutors from going forward.
"I never want to be in public but I have no choice," she told ABC News, adding "Now, I have to be in public. I have to, for myself. I have to tell the truth."
Diallo, who Newsweek said had agreed to be photographed for next week's edition, said she saw Strauss-Kahn appear naked in front of her when she opened the door to his suite. He was like "a crazy man to me," she said.
"You're beautiful," she reported Strauss-Kahn as saying, and said he attacked her despite her protestations.
Dines all charges:
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has repeatedly denied all the charges against him. In a statement on Sunday, his lawyers called the interview a last-ditch effort by the maid and her lawyers to extract money from the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
She is "the first accuser in history to conduct a media campaign to persuade a prosecutor to pursue charges against a person from whom she wants money," lawyers Benjamin Brafman and William Taylor said.
"Her lawyers and public relations consultants have orchestrated an unprecedented number of media events and rallies to bring pressure on the prosecutors in this case after she had to admit her extraordinary efforts to mislead them."
Her credibility was thrown into question when Manhattan prosecutors revealed Diallo told authorities numerous lies, including fabricating a story about being gang-raped in Guinea in order to gain US asylum. She also changed details of her story about what happened following the purported assault.
Wigdor said Diallo has worried that prosecutors would drop the charges. "That has been a concern, but we're all hopeful that the district attorney's going to do the right thing," he said.
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance had no comment on the interviews, saying: "We will not discuss the facts or evidence in what remains an ongoing investigation."
Fled after rape
After arriving from Guinea in 2003, Diallo, who is illiterate, told Newsweek she spent years braiding hair before working at a bodega in New York City's Bronx borough. As a maid at the Sofitel hotel, she received $25 an hour plus tips.
Diallo said her husband in Guinea died of an illness but did not provide further details. Roughly two years after being raped by two soldiers in Conakry, the Guinean capital, she fled with her daughter, now 15, to the United States, where she said she has few close friends.
Following the alleged attack, Diallo spent weeks in protective custody, holed up in a hotel with her daughter.
"She's been in seclusion for over two months. She hasn't been able to take a walk in the park," her lawyer said.
French newspaper France Soir reported in a front page headline that David Koubbi, the lawyer for French writer Tristane Banon, who has accused Strauss-Kahn of a 2003 sexual assault, had met with Diallo. It added only that he "was impressed by her courage."

Crowd waits for Japan ladies at airport this morning

2011-07-19T07:53:00.001-07:00

Russia not to exploit space shuttle monopoly

2011-07-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Moscow: Russia will not take advantage of its temporary monopoly on flying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), the country's space agency has said.

Russia has signed a number of contracts with NASA on the delivery of US astronauts to the ISS until 2016. The contracts take into consideration annual inflation rates and rising cost of materials in Russia.
NASA is paying space agency Roscosmos more than $1 billion for crew transport services over the next four years.
"We are not going to play around with prices despite the fact that we have become the exclusive participant in this market and only we have the capability to deliver crews to the ISS," Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said.
Once the US shuttle fleet is retired after the end of the current Atlantis mission to the ISS, Russia's Soyuz and Progress spacecraft will take the bulk of crew rotation and cargo missions to the space station until at least the middle of the decade.

'War' Erupts Between Vatican, China Catholics

2011-07-18T03:53:00.001-07:00

It's a battle for control over China's estimated 14 million Catholics

Cardinal Joseph Zen has called the appointment of Chinese bishops without Vatican permission "war." (Getty Images)

With the Chinese Catholic Patriot Association continuing to appoint bishops without Rome's approval, relations between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party have plunged to their lowest point in years, threatening to become an all-out spiritual war, reports the Telegraph. “At the moment, it’s a war,” said Hong Kong-based Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the highest-ranking Vatican representative in China. The Chinese association most recently appointed Joseph Huang Bingzhang bishop of Shantou last week without Vatican approval, and he was immediately excommunicated in retaliation.

The two forces are battling for control of 6 million official Catholics in China and another estimated 8 million in underground churches. The cardinal, who has been outspoken about human rights in China, wrote an open letter to Chinese leader Hu Jintao blaming “rogue civil servants” and “the scum of the church” for “forcing mainland bishops, priests and lay people to do things that go against their conscience.”

Rebekah Brooks 'arrested over phone hacking scandal at News International'

2011-07-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

The former editor of the News of the World Rebekah Brooks has been arrested in relation to the phone hacking scandal.
Police confirmed that a 43-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.
At approximately 12.00 a 43-year-old woman was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden and is currently in custody.

Scandal: Rebekah Brooks has reportedly been arrested
She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.
The Operation Weeting team is conducting the new investigation into phone hacking.
Operation Elveden is the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police. This investigation is being supervised by the IPCC.

China Has a Pork-Flation Problem

2011-07-16T00:59:00.001-07:00

By Uri Friedman
The news today that China's government will try to tame inflation by releasing "pork reserves" from freezer facilities and subsidizing live pigs in large farms might reasonably strike you as bizarre. But, as The Wall Street Journal explains, the move actually makes sense. China, after all, is the pig capital of the world. The country is the world's biggest pork consumer, with the average Chinese person eating about half a grown hog each year, and China produces more pigs than the next 43 pork-producing countries combined. Furthermore, volatile pork prices are perhaps the most important contributor to inflationary pressure in China right now because China's favorite meat is, by one estimate, the single largest component of China's Consumer Price Index (or, as some call it, the "China Pig Index"), which measures the change in price of a "basket" of typical household consumer goods. Those pork prices are rising sharply, hitting record levels last month.
The government's now trying to boost supply to meet demand, the Journal notes, but its stockpiles represent a tiny fraction of China's annual pork consumption of 50 million tons and subsidizing pigs may "take four to six months to show results, in line with the amount of time it takes to rear a pig for slaughter." If China can't get inflation under control, it risks undermining economic growth and social stability. What accounts for the disconnect between supply and demand? There are multiple theories:
DEMAND
Rising Incomes: The AP explains that China's households are growing richer, which may translate into rising demand for meat, especially among lower-income Chinese families.
Money Supply: The AP adds that a rush of bank lending following the 2008 global economic crisis means there's more money swishing around the country.
SUPPLY
Fewer Pigs: The Journal notes that China's hog population took a beating from a swine flu epidemic in 2009 and foot-and-mouth disease last year. China's small-scale farmers, who account for up to 90 percent of China's pork and are "acutely sensitive to the movements in price that determine their profit or loss" also didn't have much incentive to breed pigs in 2009 because pork prices were low.
Costlier Feed: Yes, the Journal observes, pork prices are now high again, so farmers should be motivated to breed more pigs. But corn prices are also at record highs, which is giving the farmers pause.
Costlier Labor: Rural workers are demanding higher wages as factory wages rise in China, according the the Journal, making it costlier for farmers to raise pigs.
Credit Supply: China's central bank has been tightening the credit supply to keep inflation in check, the Journal explains, but that means China's slaughterhouses don't have much cash to buy pigs from the farmers.
Time: "It's not like we can just instantly raise pigs when prices are high, it takes time," a farmer tells The Financial Times. An economist tells the paper that he expects pork prices to begin falling in the next few months. "Pork profitability for hog farmers has been improving since last July, and given the one-year pig production cycle from mating to maturity, we should see rising production," he explained.

Why Hogwarts is Better Than Washington

2011-07-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

David Rothkopf on the dark magic afoot in the capital

In this film publicity image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Ralph Fiennes portrays Lord Voldemort in a scene from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures)

In honor of Harry Potter’s last cinematic outing—and the debt ceiling negotiations playing out in Washington—David Rothkopf of Foreign Policy has come up with a list of the top 10 ways Washington is worse than Hogwarts:

Peter Pettigrew was only a rat sometimes. Unlike politicians like Mitch McConnell, who are rats all of the time.

Congress is full of Death Eaters. Although in this case, Voldemort is played by Grover Norquist, who “may succeed with anti-tax religion in doing what the Soviet Union could not—bankrupting and thus breaking America,” Rothkopf writes.
Voldemort didn’t tolerate rivals the way John Boehner does. “Admit it, you’d vote for Draco Malfoy over Eric Cantor (if you could tell the difference).”
Hollywood math > Washington math. Sure, tinseltown’s known for some creative accounting, but they at least watch the bottom line. They certainly wouldn’t have cast “engorgio” on our deficit the way Washington has in the past 10 years.

Click to read his full list.

Harry Potter Conjures Box Office Records

2011-07-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

$180 million possible this weekend in United States alone

Fans watch the climax of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" at a midnight showing at the Carmike 14 theater in Tyler, Texas, on Friday. (AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman)

Harry Potter is shouting "Expelliarmus " to box office records all over the world, as the last film in the Potter series hits cinemas with an unprecedented bang. Factoring in midnight screenings, Warner Bros thinks Deathly Hallows: Part 2 could pull in $80 million today for the best single-day box office ever, beating the $72 million of Twilight, reports Nikke Finke at Deadline Hollywood.
Warner also says the film could reach $180 million domestically over the weekend, blowing away the three-day weekend record held by The Dark Knight at $158 million. International sales also are on a record-breaking pace. Click to read more specifics on the numbers, or here to read a roundup of the strong reviews from last week's debut in the UK.

When it comes to presentation, Mark Zuckerberg is no Steve Jobs

2011-07-11T04:16:00.003-07:00

By John D. Sutter, CNN

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg turned to equations and graphs before announcing a new partnership with Skype.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Mark Zuckerberg appeared Wednesday to announce Facebook video chat
Online, Facebookers openly mocked the Facebook CEO's presentation style
One common theory: Zuck is trying, and failing, to imitate Steve Jobs
Jobs, Apple's co-founder, is known for his wiz-bang press conferences

(CNN) -- Don't let the sweatshirts and flip-flops fool you: The tech world is all about image. And there's no better place to see this than the tech-company press conference -- in which execs show off new products with elaborate PowerPoint presentations.
The most recent example: Wednesday's awkward Facebook event, hosted by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Here's a smattering of comments about Zuckerberg's presentation, in which he announced a new video-conferencing feature. These popped up on Facebook, during the event in Palo Alto, California:
-- "omg! I'll just read about it later. This is like water torture."
-- "Im gona play solitaire if he doesn't get on with it"
-- "Someone needs to bump him to get him to stop saying UM"
-- "After this, I need an UM detox program.."
At one point, Zuckerberg -- forever the geek -- pulled up a chart about Facebook's projected growth, which he introduced as a "log-normalized graph." The Internet's collective eyes rolled back.
"Logarithmic graphs? Jesus Christ."
So what went wrong?
Essentially, Zuckerberg seems to have tried -- and failed -- to imitate the undisputed king of the tech presser: Apple's Steve Jobs, who is known for leaving even the most skeptical of tech bloggers in a "hypnotic daze" after he finishes a talk.
"Zuckerberg at times appeared to be attempting to channel Steve Jobs in his presentation style," wrote Beatweek Magazine. "But too often he lost sight of the fact that most of his online audience members were from the non-geek general public."
"Steve Jobs builds his presentations around our innermost needs and desires," one Twitter user wrote. "Zuckerberg builds his around normalized logarithmic charts."
Here's a look at the key features of a Jobs presentation -- which he trots out each time Apple has a new iSomething to announce -- and how Zuckerberg fell at least a little short of the mark in copying him.
The pre-show buzz: Apple is notoriously silent before its announcements. This drives the tech industry crazy and creates a frenzied rumor mill. But before the Facebook announcement on Wednesday, Zuckerberg made what some tech writers now consider a mistake: He said Facebook would be announcing "something awesome."
This raised expectations, and when those weren't met, the technosphere rushed to declare his Skype partnership decidedly "unawesome," especially since it came on the heels of the release of Google's new social network, Google+, which has a video-chat feature some consider to be more robust.
The anecdote: Zuckerberg opened his presentation, in true Jobsian form, with a personal anecdote, saying he was walking around his neighborhood that very morning and met an older man who told him he wanted to video chat on Facebook with his grandson.
Well, hey there, neighbor -- you're in luck! The anecdote came off to some as almost too perfect. Zuckerberg fidgeted while telling it, emitting an awkward, I've-been-practicing-this laugh.
The wardrobe: Jobs is known for his mock turtleneck, mom jeans and gray New Balance sneakers. It's a wardrobe he's been wearing for decades, with virtually no alterations. When Jobs showed up to an Apple event in March with a belt on his jeans (he usually doesn't wear one) a frenzy of speculation erupted on the subject of his health: Is he too skinny to wear his jeans anymore?
Zuckerberg seems to be copying this idea of wardrobe as signature. In his last few appearances in public, he's worn a gray T-shirt and jeans. Problem one: A T-shirt is a little less memorable than a turtleneck. Problem two: The outfit, which he sometimes pairs with white running shoes, is an open subject of mockery in the fashion world. Esquire put Zuckerberg in its "Celebrity Style Hall of Shame."
"No matter how much money you have or how many people's secrets you hold in your digital palm, you cannot show up to a black-tie event in a T-shirt and jeans and expect to be taken seriously. Seriously," that magazine wrote in 2010.
The PowerPoint: That other stuff many be a little catty, but here's the meat of the difference, as described by various tech writers and Twitter users: Jobs speaks in a way that appeals to normal people, telling them how the company's gadgets will make their lives richer and less stressful; Zuckerberg speaks in code, preaching about Moore's Law, exponential growth and "inflection points."
But maybe it doesn't matter. Zuckerberg, after all, is reported to be richer than Jobs. He also runs the world's largest online network -- with 750 million users.
Beatweek writes that people expect Zuck to be awkward, especially after Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of him as a robotic misanthrope in "The Social Network." So this presentation, despite all the real-time, online mockery, may have actually helped his reputation.
"We've already accepted that he's an insulated geek, we're all still just trying to figure out whether he's a trustable one."
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Murdoch’s Watergate?

2011-07-11T04:16:00.001-07:00

His anything-goes approach has spread through journalism like a contagion. Now it threatens to undermine the influence he so covets.

The hacking scandal currently shaking Rupert Murdoch’s empire will surprise only those who have willfully blinded themselves to that empire’s pernicious influence on journalism in the English-speaking world. Too many of us have winked in amusement at the salaciousness without considering the larger corruption of journalism and politics promulgated by Murdoch Culture on both sides of the Atlantic.
The facts of the case are astonishing in their scope. Thousands of private phone messages hacked, presumably by people affiliated with the Murdoch-owned News of the World newspaper, with the violated parties ranging from Prince William and actor Hugh Grant to murder victims and families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The arrest of Andy Coulson, former press chief to Prime Minister David Cameron, for his role in the scandal during his tenure as the paper’s editor. The arrest (for the second time) of Clive Goodman, the paper’s former royals editor. The shocking July 7 announcement that the paper would cease publication three days later, putting hundreds of employees out of work. Murdoch’s bid to acquire full control of cable-news company BSkyB placed in jeopardy. Allegations of bribery, wiretapping, and other forms of lawbreaking—not to mention the charge that emails were deleted by the millions in order to thwart Scotland Yard’s investigation.
All of this surrounding a man and a media empire with no serious rivals for political influence in Britain—especially, but not exclusively, among the conservative Tories who currently run the country. Almost every prime minister since the Harold Wilson era of the 1960s and ’70s has paid obeisance to Murdoch and his unmatched power. When Murdoch threw his annual London summer party for the United Kingdom’s political, journalistic, and social elite at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens on June 16, Prime Minister Cameron and his wife, Sam, were there, as were Labour leader Ed Miliband and assorted other cabinet ministers.
Murdoch associates, present and former—and his biographers—have said that one of his greatest long-term ambitions has been to replicate that political and cultural power in the United States. For a long time his vehicle was the New York Post—not profitable, but useful for increasing his eminence and working a wholesale change not only in American journalism but in the broader culture as well. Page Six, emblematic in its carelessness about accuracy or truth or context—but oh-so-readable—became the model for the gossipization of an American press previously resistant to even considering publishing its like. (Murdoch accomplished a similar debasement of the airwaves in the 1990s with the—tame by today’s far-lower standards—tabloid television show Hard Copy.)
Then came the unfair and imbalanced politicized “news” of the Fox News Channel—showing (again) Murdoch’s genius at building an empire on the basis of an ever-descending lowest journalistic denominator. It, too, rests on a foundation that has little or nothing to do with the best traditions and values of real reporting and responsible journalism: the best obtainable version of the truth. In place of this journalistic ideal, the enduring Murdoch ethic substitutes gossip, sensationalism, and manufactured controversy.
And finally, in 2007 The Wall Street Journal’s squabbling family owners succumbed to his acumen, willpower, and money, fulfilling Murdoch’s dream of owning an American newspaper to match the influence and prestige of his U.K. holding, The Times of London—one that really mattered, at the topmost tier of journalism.
Between the Post, Fox News, and the Journal, it’s hard to think of any other individual who has had a greater impact on American political and media culture in the past half century.
But now the empire is shaking, and there’s no telling when it will stop. My conversations with British journalists and politicians—all of them insistent on speaking anonymously to protect themselves from retribution by the still-enormously powerful mogul—make evident that the shuttering of News of the World, and the official inquiries announced by the British government, are the beginning, not the end, of the seismic event.
News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s media empire, “has always worked on the principle of omertà: ‘Do not say anything to anybody outside the family, and we will look after you,’ ” notes a former Murdoch editor who knows the system well. “Now they are hanging people out to dry. The moment you do that, the omertà is gone, and people are going to talk. It looks like a circular firing squad.”
News of the World was always Murdoch’s “baby,” one of the largest newspapers in the English-speaking world, with 2.6 million readers. As anyone in the business will tell you, the standards and culture of a journalistic institution are set from the top down, by its owner, publisher, and top editors. Reporters and editors do not routinely break the law, bribe policemen, wiretap, and generally conduct themselves like thugs unless it is a matter of recognized and understood policy. Private detectives and phone hackers do not become the primary sources of a newspaper’s information without the tacit knowledge and approval of the people at the top, all the more so in the case of newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, according to those who know him best.
As one of his former top executives—once a close aide—told me, “This scandal and all its implications could not have happened anywhere else. Only in Murdoch’s orbit. The hacking at News of the World was done on an industrial scale. More than anyone, Murdoch invented and established this culture in the newsroom, where you do whatever it takes to get the story, take no prisoners, destroy the competition, and the end will justify the means.”
“In the end, what you sow is what you reap,” said this same executive. “Now Murdoch is a victim of the culture that he created. It is a logical conclusion, and it is his people at the top who encouraged lawbreaking and hacking phones and condoned it.”
Could Murdoch eventually be criminally charged? He has always surrounded himself with trusted subordinates and family members, so perhaps it is unlikely. Though Murdoch has strenuously denied any knowledge at all of the hacking and bribery, it’s hard to believe that his top deputies at the paper didn’t think they had a green light from him to use such untraditional reportorial methods. Investigators are already assembling voluminous records that demonstrate the systemic lawbreaking at News of the World, and Scotland Yard seems to believe what was happening in the newsroom was endemic at the highest levels at the paper and evident within the corporate structure. Checks have been found showing tens of thousands of dollars of payments at a time.
For this reporter, it is impossible not to consider these facts through the prism of Watergate. When Bob Woodward and I came up against difficult ethical questions, such as whether to approach grand jurors for information (which we did, and perhaps shouldn’t have), we sought executive editor Ben Bradlee’s counsel, and he in turn called in the company lawyers, who gave the go-ahead and outlined the legal issues in full. Publisher Katharine Graham was informed. Likewise, Bradlee was aware when I obtained private telephone and credit-card records of one of the Watergate figures.
All institutions have lapses, even great ones, especially by individual rogue employees—famously in recent years at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the three original TV networks. But can anyone who knows and understands the journalistic process imagine the kind of tactics regularly employed by the Murdoch press, especially at News of the World, being condoned at the Post or the Times?
And then there’s the other inevitable Watergate comparison. The circumstances of the alleged lawbreaking within News Corp. suggest more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon presiding over a criminal conspiracy in which he insulated himself from specific knowledge of numerous individual criminal acts while being himself responsible for and authorizing general policies that routinely resulted in lawbreaking and unconstitutional conduct. Not to mention his role in the cover-up. It will remain for British authorities and, presumably, disgusted and/or legally squeezed News Corp. executives and editors to reveal exactly where the rot came from at News of the World, and whether Rupert Murdoch enabled, approved, or opposed the obvious corruption that infected his underlings.
None of this is to deny Murdoch’s competitive genius, his superior understanding of the modern media marketplace, or his dead-on reading of popular culture. He has made occasionally dull newspapers fun to read and TV news broadcasts fun to watch, and few of us would deny there are days when we love it. He’s been at his best when he’s come in from the outside: starting Sky News, which shook up a complacent British broadcasting establishment; contradicting conventional American media wisdom that a fourth TV network (Fox) could never get off the ground; reducing the power of Britain’s printing trade unions that were exercising a stranglehold on the U.K. press.
But Murdoch and his global media empire have a lot to answer for. He has not merely encouraged the metastasis of cutthroat tabloid journalism on both sides of the Atlantic. But perhaps just as troubling, authorities in Britain may respond to popular outrage at the scandal by imposing the kind of regulations that cannot help but undermine a truly free press.
The events of recent days are a watershed for Britain, for the United States, and for Rupert Murdoch. Tabloid journalism—and our tabloid culture—may never be the same.
Bernstein’s most recent book is A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Correction: This article initially described News of the World as a daily paper.

Burma acts as neocolonial nationalist on ethnic people

2011-07-10T23:20:00.001-07:00

By - Zin Linn

A 9-page analysis paper revised on 1st July, 2011- Burman Troop’s Offensive War against Kachin: A Postcolonial Nationalistic Interpretation By Zau Lawn - about offensive war against Kachin by Burma Army has been delivered publicly 10 July through Kachin News Group’s online information bulletin.
Amidst constant political insecurity across Burma (Myanmar) due to the Burma Army’s offensive war against the ethnic armed groups, Zau Lawn from ‘The Kachin Research Group’ has written a vivid research-paper explaining the norms of military system in the name of the “Disciplined Democracy” which stands for the policy of the newly civil dressed military government under the leadership of President Thein Sein.
Moreover, the paper underscores the effort and genuine collaboration of Ethnic nationalities - Kachins, Shan and Chin - in view of the 1947 Panglong accord. The paper also criticizes the current situation that the implementation of the Panglong belief in formulation of a Federal Union, has been systematically downgraded till today. The Burmese government in power used to say that “the era of Panglong is over.
In one clause, the research paper says: “Having manipulated the power to rest only in Burmans and constructed Burman nationalism based on chauvinism and jingoism, the Burman groups grasped both the central and the state power rejecting the provision of sharing power by means of the Federalism. Moreover, all the “rights and privileges” provided are cut off. Instead the Burmans in power are treating Ethnic nationalities as their alien and enemy.”
The researcher recounted about the civil war between Burmese Military and the KIA. As said by the paper, the almost seventeen year old cease?fire agreement between the Burmese Military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) completely collapsed once Thein Sein’s troops invaded the KIO’s territory at Sang Gang and seized the KIA’s Bum Sen post on the 12th of June, 2011.
It occurred amidst having been officially warned repeatedly by the KIO in order to avoid the civil war across the land. The Sang Gang war broke out on 9 June as a defensive action against the Burmese military troops which fired first toward the KIA. The conflict lasted for three days and nights. This war made the KIO declare “civil war between Burmese Military troops and the KIA across Kachinland and beyond”, on 12 June 2011, the paper explained.
It also continues its explanation that for the sake of security, the KIA has destroyed a dozen bridges used for major communication of government troops. As the war has spread out across the area, it is assumed that there is high number of causalities, particularly to the government side.
The paper points out that during the civil war, attention is given towards a particular issue of Burman Nationalism on the bases of the government’s troops’ ill-treatment. Burmese soldiers committed inhumane torture, rape, dehumanization and killing of local Kachins in the war zone, violating the UN Declaration of Human rights and the international law for prisoners of war.
According to ‘The Kachin Research Group’, the analysis is based upon accessible data form radio news, news papers, messages and interviews. The first category is the analytical synthesis to the policy of waging war upon KIO by Thein Sein’s troops as the state?run, the New Light of Myanmar “blames Kachin rebels for fighting” in the aftermath of the week long war. The state-paper claims that the fight at the KIA’s Bum Sen post was its “inevitable reaction to the ethnic Kachin rebels, who fired first, in order to protect a major Chinese?built hydroelectric power project.”
The research-paper says in a place: “This wording “the ethnic Kachin rebels” and “protection of a major Chinese?built hydropower project” is to be considered logically and realistically and reflect the plan and fundamental policy of Burmanization, exercised as Burmese Nationalism. Obviously, it indicates the government troops, sent by Thein Sein, are an official body deployed in order to protect the state?run project for the prospect of economic development with military might and KIA as “the rebels”, which resist the state’s policy and its project.”
It says that Ethnic nations like Kachin, Kayin and so on are not to be condemned by accusing them as “the separatists” from Union of Burma. Rather Kachins have struggled for federal democracy from the hands of consecutive Burmese military nationalists. The current government also represents the neocolonial power within the respective ethnic soil. The spirit of friendship and or brotherhood established between General Aung San and Kachin Duwas could activate the Panglong agreement. But at present, the research-paper says, Kachins are treated as the “enemy” of the Burman majority in various ways.
In conclusion it says: “Therefore, it is not the time to stick too much on a certain nationalism which leads one to be disloyal to one’s country. Instead, the right nationalism has to be the act of revolution, identification of a common political policy which could render hope, security, prosperity, peace and dignity for all. Therefore, the nationalism here has to be a civilized ideology, which is the real power in the contemporary era, resisting all uncivilized manner of discrimination, ethnic extermination and domination, not to love a certain group of people and to campaign on a mission in its interest by misuse of its power, particularly with military might.”
Burma’s sixty-four year-old Historic Panglong Agreement has been ignored by the successive Burmese military regimes up to this day. The said agreement has been ignored by the current President Thein Sein government which is also under military control.
The question of Panglong Agreement nowadays become a key point in the contemporary history of Burma’s politics.
“All the armed forces in the union shall be under the command of the Defense Services,” says section 337 of the 2008 constitution.” It means ethnic armed troops must be under state control and the union government will not allow self-determination of the ethnic people. Equality of ethnic minorities with the Burmese majority was out of the question to the new constitution.
Aung San Suu Kyi told the media a day after her release that she would like to call for a second Panglong Conference that is fitting to the 21st century perspective.
Without addressing and honoring the ethnic people’s political aspirations, the new military-controlled President Thein Sein government will be toothless to stop political and civil strife throughout ethnic areas. National reconciliation and ethnic self-determination are two sides of a coin.
- Asian Tribune -

Is the world ready for “Real Housewives of the Bible”?

2011-07-09T21:59:00.001-07:00

There are few people out there who would say The Real Housewives series is family viewing any more than Jersey Shore could be considered a kids show no matter how juvenile they act, but web-based evangelist Ty Adams is determined to bring a few Biblical lessons to the block in order to show women how to be good wives.

“I was frustrated with what I was seeing,” she said. “A lot of society is looking towards programming to educate them on relationships and these shows haven’t effectively done that.”
“They have ruined and tainted our ability to secure good relationships and to make women into good wives,”

Each of the six women featured on the DVD is based on a woman from the Bible, including Sarah, Delilah and “plenty of Jezebels,” which makes one wonder how different the series will really be from the original, except maybe that Sarah told Abraham to sleep with the maid.
Full story at CNN.

Your Daily Posterous subscriptions July 4th, 2011 Texting teens [infographic] Posted 1 day ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post 1 Media_http9mshcdncomw_thhdp Full story at Lab 42 via Mashable. Like infographics? So do we. Groovy sticker art of the ‘60s and ‘70s Posted about 24 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post 2 Media_httpfarm1static_rdyql Gone are most of the junkers that still sported the classic bumper art of a bygone era, but luckily, JasonLiebig has rounded up an incredible collection of stickers from the 1960s and 1970s that’ll make you feel like you’re right back in the rear of the pickup truck or station wagon flaunting your non-seatbelt-wearin’ self. Media_httpfarm1static_tugor Media_httpfarm1static_eipir Full story at JasonLiebig @ flickr via Boing Boing. The art of pop culture. Cheers to perspective! Posted about 24 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post 1 Media_httpgraphjamfil_acpxk Full story at Graph Jam. By sixonefive72. Half-cup of ha-ha. 4th-of-July BBQ at Kobe Club in Japan with friends/family (a few pics) Posted about 23 hours ago by Garr_thumb Garr Reynolds to Garr's posterous Like this post Family Flag Ball See the full gallery on Posterous Family pose. Daughter loves basketball...already Swim Swim1 See the full gallery on Posterous Time to hit the pool for the first time ever. Happy She was very happy to get out of the pool. Doug_nathan Bryans See the full gallery on Posterous Friends pose with their sons... Pianos When we make it home, my wife and daughter begin playing pianos at the same time in my daughter's room. Big fun for the NYPD [video] Posted about 18 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpfarm7static_icjbb This weekend is bound to be tough one for the NYPD, so to kick start the holiday weekend they blew off a little steam (aka, 5000 lbs of confiscated illegal fireworks, including sparklers). Cops have all the fun. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Full story at Gothamist via The Daily What. Explosive video. Champion surfers duck disaster in monster waves Posted about 18 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post 1 Media_httpfarm6static_pjpvf Shooting for a film with a title like Storm Surfers 3D is bound to involve navigating some dangerous conditions, but surfers Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones made an almost miraculous escape last week. Carroll was towing Clarke-Jones into a six meter wave on a jet ski off the coast of Western Australia when the wave overtook him and ripped the jetski apart. According to Carroll: "The waves were so wild and unpredictable that it was hard to tell what was happening…I towed Ross into a wave then tried to get the ski over the back of the wave, however a large bit of chop bounced me back onto the face. From there I did all I could but just couldn't get the ski off the wave before it broke." Miraculously, Carroll only suffered a bruise on the shin and his companion escaped unscathed, but the is one the surfers won’t soon forget. They did get their footage for the film, though one wonders if movie-goers will ever know what it could have cost to get. Full story at Perth Now. Extreme surfing. Photo credit: Jamie Scott/Storm Surfers The Gizmodo Fireworks Atlas Posted about 15 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpcachegawker_cfrgr We know there’s no one out there who would ever be tempted to break the law when it comes to fireworks, but with all the people hitting the open road for the Fourth of July, you may not be aware of what the attitude toward fireworks is at your vacation destination. Pity if you miss out on the fun of playing the “Firework or gunshot?” game, but not everyone can be so lucky. Full story at Gizmodo. Nothing says “freedom” like firecrackers. What your pet says about you [infographic] Posted about 15 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post 1 Media_httpakaimg2himg_pzgbi Full story at Hunch via Neatorama. By ColumnFiveMedia. Like infographics? So do we. Hemingway’s fatal fears of FBI surveillance justified Posted about 14 hours ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpfarm6static_tffxp The seemingly fearless Ernest Hemingway spent the last year of his life haunted by suspicions he was under scrutiny by the ever-seeing eye of the FBI, a fear many dismissed as a symptom of mental illness rather than a very real possibility. Those who knew the legendary writer well were no exception, including A.E. Hotchner, author of “Papa Hemingway” and “Hemingway and His World” who recounts the heartbreaking nature of his last memories of the author and his shock at the revelation that, rather than being a manifestation of mental illness, Hemingway seemed to somehow know the FBI was indeed watching his every move. Full story at New York Times. The dark side of genius. Top 150 social media blogs Posted about 12 hours ago by Unknown35 Lily Koi to Holy Kaw! Like this post 1 Media_httpdldropboxco_pcafv eCairn is a software technology company that tries to determine who matters. Using their tool, they've ranked what they believe are the top 150 social media blogs. Here are the top 10: Jeremiah Owyang http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ Seth's Blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ Brian Solis http://www.briansolis.com/ Logic + Emotion http://darmano.typepad.com/ Social Media Explorer http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/ Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/ Social Media Strategy http://www.convinceandconvert.com/ Conversation Agent http://www.conversationagent.com/ Marketing Profs http://www.marketingprofs.com/ Full story at Influencers and Community Marketing. Top social media news. Photo credit: Fotolia World's longest hair [video] Posted about 11 hours ago by Dsc08006_thumb Noelle Chun to Holy Kaw! Like this post Did you know that humans grow about 10 miles of hair every year? Learn other weird facts about human hair in just a minute and a half. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Odd news. 1957 murder mystery may be solved Posted about 11 hours ago by Unknown35 Lily Koi to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpdldropboxco_ccyvd In 1957, young Maria Ridulph went missing in her home town; months passed and her remains were found. The town was generally described as a family-oriented, safe place, so the killing came as a shock to everyone, even drawing the attention of Washington D.C. Police suspected a man named Jack Daniel McCullough, but his alibi cleared...until a recent twist in the investigation blew a whole in McCullough's alibi. He claimed to have taken a train out of town, but an ex-girlfriend provided police with the unused train ticked. Once the ticket cropped up, police piled up evidence against McCullough, leading to an arrest. Full story at Yahoo! News. Top crime news. Photo credit: Fotolia Weird Al writes lyrics to Conan's theme song [video] Posted about 11 hours ago by Unknown35 Lily Koi to Holy Kaw! Like this post The master of musical comedy meets the master of late-night comedy; hilarity ensues. Take a look at this clip, courtesy of Best Week Ever, of Weird Al Yankovic singing Conan's theme song, with lyrics befitting Conan's uniqueness: Embedded media -- click here to see it. Top music news. 10 hidden benefits of smiling Posted about 11 hours ago by Unknown35 Lily Koi to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpdldropboxco_egfgc They always say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. Besides being less work than frowning, though, what are the scientific benefits of smiling? PsyBlog explains some of the other plus sides of smiling, and offers scientific studies that back them up. For example, Recover from social slip-ups Did you forget to buy your partner an anniversary present? Has an important client's name slipped your mind? Have you accidentally kicked a small child? If you've tripped on a social banana, embarrassment is your go-to emotion. The function of embarrassment is to get us out of tight social spots (Keltner & Buswell, 1997). The embarrassed smiles we display involve looking down and sometimes we emit a silly little laugh. This is designed to elicit fellow-feeling from other people so they think less of the slip and forgive us more quickly. So the embarrassed smile helps us get out of jail free(ish). Once again, the power of a smile. Full story at PsyBlog. Top psychology news. Photo credit: Fotolia James Brown doing miso soup commercials Posted about 6 hours ago by Unknown35 Lily Koi to Holy Kaw! Like this post Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the twilight zone. This features the legendary James Brown adversing miso soup in Japan. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Top news from Japan. I made this "Hawaii wedding slideshow" in iPhoto after our honeymoon 5 years ago Posted about 5 hours ago by Garr_thumb Garr Reynolds to Garr's posterous Like this post Embedded media -- click here to see it. Today is our 5-year wedding anniversary. We got married on the Oregon Coast on the 4th of July. (We had just had a wedding ceremony in Japan two days earlier. ) Yes, in Oregon they had a huge fireworks show on the beach that night—not sure what the occasion was. Then we went straight to Hawaii for a photo shoot and honeymoon, mostly on the Big Island, but the photos were shot on Oahu. This slideshow is not very slick or professional -- but it took only minutes to throw together. Even five years ago iPhoto was easier to use than falling of a log. I heard that my mother loved seeing it, and that's all that matters. Anyway, hard to believe it has been five years..... This is the photographer, Susanne Pridoehl: http://www.leilaniphoto.com/ Skies over the Canary Islands time lapse [video] Posted 43 minutes ago by Po-wed_0062thumb Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Like this post Media_httpfarm6static_udhye The first in a series of films about each of the Canary Islands, Daniel Lopez spent a year capturing this footage of Tenerife, the largest island, in order to portray all of its striking features in this time lapse video. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Full story at Vimeo via Kuriositas. As the world turns. FOX News Twitter Account Hacked, Says Obama Shot And Killed

2011-07-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

FOX News Twitter Account Hacked, Says Obama Shot And Killed

One of the Twitter accounts of FOX News was hacked around 2AM ET and sent out repeated tweets that President Obama had been assassinated.

Started around 2am ET, with a credibility-building tweet from @foxnewspolitics

Image: Twitter

Then came the first report, around 2AM ET

Image: Twitter

Specific credibility-building details...

Image: Twitter

And then the commentary...

Image: Twitter

A more official-looking report...

Image: Twitter

And, finally, a less politically-correct message

Image: Twitter

Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann is woken up to pursue the news. He's not fooled...

Image: Twitter

He replies to a few erroneous retweets, then says absolves FOX from blame and says he's going back to bed

Image: Twitter

But people keep repeating the fake news! He replies directly to many of them...

Image: Twitter

Then again tells his 302,601 followers that the President is fine.

Image: Twitter

The first FOX-was-hacked stories appear around 4AM...

Image: Twitter

Keith takes a few last shots at those who are apparently upset at the reality that the President has not been shot

Image: Twitter

And then goes back to bed.

http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-president-obama-assassinated-2011-7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14012294?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Myer to lift sales with Botox injections

2011-06-29T03:42:00.001-07:00

Next month, shoppers will be able to duck into a number of Myer stores in Sydney and Melbourne for a round of Botox injections / File

Myer to offer Botox injections in stores
Service an attempt to lift sagging sales
One round of Botox to cost $550

MYER will inject Botox into its department stores to lift the chain's sagging sales, says its chief executive officer Bernie Brookes.
Botox is a chemical injected into the face to temporarily smooth the appearance of wrinkles.
The cosmetic service which will be provided by an external company, costs about $550 for a series of five injections, with each round taking 30 minutes.
Next month, a number of Myer stores in Sydney and Melbourne will offer the service.
The move is Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes attempt to bring shoppers revive the company’s sales, which have remained the same per square metre for the past decade, as the retail industry struggles against frugal customers, reported The Australian.
It comes as Myer shares sank 2.2 per cent to an all-time low this morning at $2.63 a share.
It is also calculated to attract more shoppers to Myer stores, as many increasingly turn to the internet for overseas bargains.
The store will also increase its service staff by about 9 per cent this year, with more specialist staff in areas like lingerie and footwear.
The injections come on top of a number of in-store services Myer already offers, including massages, hair and nail treatment, personal shopping and weight-watcher clinics.

Germany’s season of angst: why a prosperous nation is turning on itself

2011-06-29T03:23:00.001-07:00

DOUG SAUNDERS

Dusseldorf, Germany— From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Here in the industrial core of Europe, things have never been so good.
Germany's western flank has become the greatest exporter in the Western world, second only to China and far ahead of the United States. The container ports along the Rhine are working day and night to deliver record orders of German products to southern and western Europe, the U.S. and especially to China. Shops are busy. Home sales are rocking. Unemployment hasn't been so low since the eighties. In terms of growth, profits and productivity, the current German economic boom has surpassed even the “wonder years” of the 1950s. These are, by several measures, the most successful people in the world.
Yet it is very hard to find anyone here who is happy about this state of affairs. Unlike the great Rhineland industrial booms of the 1950s and 1970s, this one is provoking Germans to turn against their government, against Europe, against technology and growth, against outsiders. It is an inward-looking, self-questioning moment in a country that the rest of Europe very badly needs to be involved in affairs outside its borders.
If previous German booms were marked with a national mood of confidence and optimism, this is a prosperity of angst and fear: According to one survey, 80 per cent of Germans now believe that the future will be worse than the present, that “everything is getting worse.” There is an entire consulting industry devoted to analyzing the “national angst.”
“What we're repeatedly finding is that, despite the very good economic data, there is a huge amount of unease and uncertainty,” says Stephan Grünewald, a Cologne-based psychologist who recently interviewed 7,000 citizens for his book Germany on the Couch. “There is a manifest crisis of trust. … The Germans have at the moment a mood, a feeling that things can go to pieces, a feeling of being in a situation in which one is completely incapable of action.”
In Dusseldorf and its neighbouring cities, I keep meeting people like Jurgen Klut. The 64-year-old lawyer, who advises major Rhineland companies, is the model of the stolid churchgoing burghers who have formed the core of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union for decades. During the 1970s boom, he backed the CDU and supported European unification; he is an ardent supporter of the euro over the old deutschmark, even today. He spends his summers in Turkey, and has no truck with his multi-ethnic city.
But something in the past couple years of crisis and recovery has made him want his country to withdraw from its continental obligations, he says. In this year's state election, he quit the CDU and joined one of the many fringe protest parties devoted to pulling Germany out of the European Union and ending immigration. “Previously, our involvement with Europe was good for us, but now it is doing nothing but expose us to danger,” he says. “We are losing our identity because of immigration, and we are losing our savings because we are expected to bail out our neighbours.”
This is an extremely widespread feeling: that Europe's strongest economy is so delicate and fragile that the outside world could destroy it at any moment.
The signs are everywhere
You can see it in numerous places – notably, this week, in the dark public mood toward the Greek bailout, which will cost German taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros, and in the widespread public resistance to a larger solution to the Greek crisis (which would entail rebuilding Greece, perhaps with a united European fiscal plan, so it would no longer be a country prone to debt and crisis). Angela Merkel, responding to that mood amid collapsing support for her party, has repeatedly delayed, postponed and weakened successive rescue efforts, a hesitancy and timidity that many analysts feel have made things much worse in Greece.
You can see it in Germany's decision not to participate in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation to support Libya's rebels – a decision driven, it appeared, entirely by a lack of public or political desire to get involved.
You can see it in the internal politics of Germany, which are defined by a new, outspoken sort of protester, a citizen infuriated by progress and change, known in the media by the neologism “Wutburger” (“angry citizen”). The actions of the Wutburgers have dominated headlines here for a year; their most dramatic action is a mass blockade designed to prevent Stuttgart from building a major railway station that would make it a hub in a high-speed intercontinental line running from France through to Hungary.
There are many reasons for this protest, but there is an overarching sense that Germany should not be involved in something so high-tech and international – a mood that links it to the other great Wutburger movement, the dramatic turn against nuclear power. It is as if millions of people, faced with the technology and connectedness that built their prosperity, are together yelling, “Stop.”
And you can see it in the new politics of immigration – a decided turn against outsiders, in mood though not, really, in practice. This shift was marked last year by the publication of the anti-Muslim bestseller Germany Abolishes Itself by central banker Thilo Sarrazin, who became a celebrity among those Germans (and his book sold a million copies) who see outsiders as a threat to German society. And it was marked by an ambiguous but highly publicized speech by Ms. Merkel in which she denounced “multiculturalism.” The most telling detail, though, is that Mr. Sarrazin has not been expelled from the left-wing Social Democratic Party. After an internal debate, the party decided to keep him on board – in large part because its leaders recognized, as well as Ms. Merkel did, that those angry, frightened people who bought the book are an important bloc of voters, worth fighting to capture.
The far right at bay
So it may seem surprising that we have not seen a major far-right-wing, anti-immigrant political party come to the fore in Germany. A dozen tiny parties, some of them fronts for genuine racists and others simply “Wutburger” protest movements, have made headlines in state and local elections, but few have captured more than 5 per cent of the vote.
“We haven't seen this sort of party emerge, in good part because, given Germany's history, you simply can't identify yourself with the far right,” says Alexander Häusler, an expert in right-wing populism at the Dusseldorf University of Applied Sciences. “But our research shows that 35 to 40 per cent of Germans feel that if the economy takes a downturn, the foreigners should leave. And that sort of thinking is being absorbed into the major parties, both on the left and the right. There's a lot more support for these views than the election results suggest.”
This is not the way we used to think things happened in Europe. By conventional wisdom, it is economic downturns and depressions that turn voters toward isolationism, nativism and fear of the outside world; it is rising unemployment that makes people fear immigrants and turn to defensive nationalism. We base this assumption in large part on the infamous example of Germany between the world wars.
But it has turned out that the opposite is true.
To understand, you have to appreciate what economic success entails in a globalized economy. Germany's success has not come simply from selling cars, appliances and medicine to other countries, but from becoming deeply interlinked with them. Its current boom was built on the birth of the euro in 1999, which German governments met with a deliberate strategy to keep labour costs low and productivity high; while this wasn't popular at home, it turned Europe's smaller states into huge consumers of German products – and meant that German banks could finance their consumption with huge amounts of cheap, low-interest debt. Even in the wake of the Greek, Portuguese and Irish meltdowns, this relationship continues.
Likewise, Germany's prosperity is built on high levels of immigration. With among the smallest average family sizes in western Europe and one of the fastest-aging populations, the country cannot possibly provide enough employment-age citizens to feed the manufacturing miracle.
So there is an awkward dance within Ms. Merkel's CDU: Even as she makes highly publicized speeches denouncing “multiculturalism” – taken by many Germany voters to mean immigration – her officials say privately that they are preparing for huge levels of immigration, in response to desperate requests from industry lobbies.
Or, sometimes, not so privately: Germany's federal labour office predicts that an additional 140,000 immigrants a year will be needed, but economists say it is likely that as many as 800,000 workers will come to Germany from Eastern Europe and Turkey before the end of 2012.
Ms. Merkel's Labour Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, announced quietly this month that she would be softening her country's foreign-labour restrictions in order to fill gaping holes in the work force.
“At the moment, the labour market is as absorbent as a sponge – the number of vacancies is rising and many firms are looking for skilled labour with increasing urgency,” she told reporters. She argued that this new wave of immigrants would be vital to the boom: “They will contribute to boosting our country economically and fill part of the skilled labour shortage.”
So we have a situation in most modern economies (including Canada) where prosperity intensifies our connections, economic and personal, to the less secure countries of the world, and to their people.
A nation on the couch
This, at least, explains why people like Mr. Klut feel like they are being assailed by the world outside and forced to play a part in solving its troubles. It does not completely explain why Germans, who have played such a forward and active role in Europe and in world affairs during much of the postwar period, have responded to this new interconnectedness with such alarm.
The German cocooning reflex has become a topic of intense debate in the media here. Some feel it is an inevitable response in a people who still have both guilty and traumatic memories of their grandparents' experience in the war, as both terrorizers of the world and as victims of its retaliation.
Others suggest that the postwar Germans – who, owing to their modern country's near-total reinvention, the erasure of its awful past and the American-led construction of its current institutions – have a sense of gaping emptiness that can lead to vertigo.
“Germans have, due to their history, no deeply rooted national identity; they are always in a state of restless longing,” Dr. Grünewald says. “In the postwar years there was a kind of replacement vision, a longing for growth, a kind of culture of accumulation. This was driven by the hope that the next burst of growth would release us from all of our problems.”
But the financial crisis, he says, has made this optimism impossible, and has replaced it with anxiety and fear.
“People no longer believe in this culture of accumulation, they no longer believe in growth. ... Nuclear power, speculation, Greece, these all strengthen their feeling that things cannot go on like this. There is a kind of vacuum of meaning. And that leads to a feeling of being in the rat race, of only being focused on next week or next month, but not having any overarching vision, let alone having any sense of optimism.”
It sounds irredeemably grim, almost Wagnerian. But it's not exactly a universal sentiment. For example, Steffen Bilger, a member of Ms. Merkel's Christian Democrat caucus, was part of a group of MPs who took a fact-finding trip to Greece this month, and came back chastened.
“Germans should understand that it's really tough for the Greeks,” Mr. Bilger told me this week, sobered by his experience there. “What they have to do is almost unbearable – the cuts, the taxes, the loss of jobs and standard of living – it is something that nobody in Germany would endure. And their fate is tied to our fate, so we Germans need to start fighting for European interests, and not just for German interests.”
That sort of outspoken opinion makes Mr. Bilger a minority within his party, and a rare voice in his country. But it is part of another Germany, one that waits beneath the gloom.
Doug Saunders is a member of The Globe and Mail's European bureau.

Can North Africa Light Up Europe with Solar Power?

2011-06-25T02:59:00.000-07:00

A plan to power Europe via massive solar arrays in the North African desert is more than a mirage but less than a reality
By Lisa Friedman and ClimateWire

Image: NASA Earth Observatory
HAMBURG, Germany -- Twenty-five years after Gerhard Knies conceived of powering Europe with the Sahara Desert's sun, the North Africa Solar project has grown into something considerably more than a mere mirage, but it's still less than a reality.
Part of the plan is to erect a network of solar plants that generate electricity by concentrating the heat from sunlight to make electricity, generating 100 gigawatts or the equivalent of 100 large nuclear power plants. Another part is to develop a grid of high-voltage transmission lines that can carry the power from Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria to power-hungry markets in Europe.
The overall plan has already attracted billions of dollars in investments from blue-chip German companies and the World Bank as well as palpable excitement among supporters. They see it as a way to fight climate change, help Europe meet its renewable energy targets and create badly needed jobs in troubled Middle Eastern countries.
But the estimated €400 billion ($566 billion), 40-year endeavor also has invited critics who question whether the region is politically stable enough for such development, and whether it's wise to create a new dependence on another source of energy from the Middle East. Others doubt the project will bring lasting benefits to North Africa. They see it as a repeat of resource exploitation -- albeit "green" exploitation -- on the African continent.
Knies is now the energetic and at times defiant chairman of the board of trustees of the Desertec Foundation, which is pushing the plan. He is eager to implement the solar vision he first developed in the wake of the horrific Soviet nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Then a particle physicist at Hamburg's Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Knies said the 1986 disaster prompted him to calculate how much energy the sun can deliver to the world.
"I thought to myself, 'Are we really so stupid that we put such things in our world that we cannot control? Just for some little comfort?'" he said.
From Chernobyl to Fukushima to Desertec?
Sitting in a tent drinking coffee at DESY during a recent conference on North Africa's clean energy prospects, Knies argued that climate change and the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan -- which turned countries like his native Germany away from nuclear as a low-carbon option -- are lending new urgency to the current, more elaborate version of the plan. He roundly rejected any challenges to Desertec's motives or ability to help North Africa, arguing that criticisms of the solar project are unfounded.
"This is not a European invention," Knies said, noting that the solar initiative was designed by 15 European scientists and 25 scientists from the Middle East and North Africa.
"The Desertec project came from the region ... and it will be to the benefit of these countries," he said. Beyond the jobs and economic development he sees for troubled countries like Egypt and Tunisia, Knies argued that Europe and the Middle East have "a common goal. We do not want a climate that is out of control."
If the Desertec plan works, it could provide 15 percent of Europe's electricity needs and help the continent achieve its target of 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. Backers believe North Africa is one of the best places in the world for concentrated solar power (CSP), largely because of vast tracts of unused land that are in close proximity to road networks and transmission grids. With solar resources in North Africa about 20 to 30 percent higher than in Europe, according to supporters, the difference more than makes up for the added transportation costs to get the electricity to Europe.
Meanwhile, a World Bank study has found that while, at the moment, all the electronic components would be imported into North Africa, by 2030, the region would see a mix of pure local production and local production with international firms. The region could create about 80,000 jobs in construction services and manufacturing if it can produce between 5 and 7 gigawatts of electricity. Already, a 500-megawatt solar concentration plant in Morocco's movie capital of Ouarzazate is under way that could become Desertec's first testing ground.
more here http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-north-africa-light-europe-solar-power

Slingshot stunt lets gamers play real-life Angry Birds

2011-06-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

Giant slingshot fires plush-toy Angry Birds

HAVE you ever wondered what it might be like to play Angry Birds in real life?
At Westfield Sydney, children and other passers-by got the chance to do just that.
Plush-toy birds rolled around the ankles of contestants who holstered them into an oversized slingshot and fired them across the room.
A team of helpers reset the green pigs and cardboard castle after each attempt.

The results were a bit mixed, as you can see in the video above. But aside from a few bruised egos, nobody was hurt.
Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 200 million times, according to its creators, and has been listed by Apple as the number one paid iPhone app in more than 67 countries.
The slingshot stunt was part of a promotional campaign for LG's smartphone the Optimus Black, and pop culture website pedestrian.tv.

Pictures: Charles Brewer

VIDEO: Angry birds

Gina Rinehart set to become the world's richest person

2011-06-24T10:26:00.001-07:00

By David Prestipino

Gina Rinehart has accelerated up the world wealth rankings. Picture: File image

Research reveals the Perth iron ore magnate's future projects will supercharge her earnings / File

Gina Rinehart set to be 'richest in world'
Mining magnate already our richest
Fortune doubled to $10.3bn in last year

GINA Rinehart is on par to become the richest person on the planet after new research revealed the Perth iron ore magnate's future projects will supercharge her earnings.
The reluctant billionaire is on her way to dominating the globe with her resources projects, according to new research by financial corporation Citigroup.
Ms Rinehart, an iron ore magnate in Western Australia, made history last month when she became the first woman to top the BRW rich list after her fortune doubled to $10.3 billion over the past year.
But, as first revealed by Perth Now, new analysis by Citigroup suggests the 57-year-old could one day become the world’s richest person as the head of Hancock Prospecting.
The report on worldwide resources projects - dubbed Generation Next - evaluated 400 mining projects around the world that are not currently in production but are moving through the design/approval stages.
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo American top the list, with Hancock Prospecting, which Ms Rinehart inherited from her late father Lang, sits fifth.
According to business website SmartCompany, Ms Rinehart's projects will catapult her to the top of the list because she owns all of hers, whereas other companies share their wealth with shareholders.
She has three projects in the top 10, the same number as Rio Tinto. BHP Billiton has none.
The projects are:
* Roy Hill iron ore in WA, which is scheduled to start production in 2014, building to a rate of 55 million tonnes a year, and valued at 688,888 tonnes of copper equivalent.
* Alpha Coal in Queensland, also scheduled to start in 2014 at a rate of 30 million tonnes of coal and year – rated as 563,000 tonnes of copper, and
* Kevin’s Corner coal in Queensland, scheduled to start in 2013 also at a rate of 30 million tonnes of coal – and also rated as 563,000 tonnes of copper.
Website SmartCompany says these three projects are expected to attract joint venture partners in the same way Ms Rinehart partnered Rio Tinto on her first iron ore project in WA, Hope Downs, which continues to generate the bulk of Hancock Prospecting's cash flow.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/gina-rinehart-set-to-become-the-worlds-richest-person/story-e6frfm1i-1226081090606#ixzz1QDPxUxIV

LulzSec Leaks Arizona Docs to Protest Immigration Law

2011-06-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

Also: 'Most-wanted' hacker says he doesn't fear arrest

A May 31 frame grab of the PBS website after it was hacked by LulzSec. (AP Photo, File)
Fuming at Arizona’s anti-immigration law, LulzSec hackers are taking revenge: They’ve released “hundreds” of Arizona law enforcement documents. These include “intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords,” the group said in a statement. They’ve chosen their target “specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.”
“Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors—the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world.” The move appears to be a shift for LulzSec, whose previous hacks, the group said, were largely for entertainment, notes TechCrunch.

Meanwhile, despite the arrest of the LulzSec hackers’ reported “mastermind,” a leader of the group says he’s not worried about a thing. For one thing, Ryan Cleary “isn't part of LulzSec... No LulzSec arrests have been made. Our Twitter hasn't even been suspended,” the hacker, who calls himself Topiary, tells Adrian Chen of Gawker. Besides, “worrying is for fools!”

Jailed Iran Activists: Guards Help Criminals Rape Us

2011-06-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

They provide condoms to encourage it, smuggled letters say

Iranian prison guards are systematically encouraging other prisoners to rape young opposition activists, even giving them condoms to do so with, according to letters smuggled out from jailed activists. “In various cells inside the prison, rape has become a common act and acceptable,” writes one Participation Front member locked up in Rajaeeshahr prison, adding that political prisoners are routinely locked up alongside the most violent criminals.
A group of 26 prominent jailed activists has written to the prison monitoring authority and accused the government intelligence ministry and the Revolutionary Guard of being behind the sexual assaults and other harassments, the Guardian reports. Amnesty International, which documented the use of rape in Iranian prisons in a report last year, has called on the government to investigate.

Alaska Earthquake: Magnitude 7.2 Temblor Strikes In Pacific Ocean

2011-06-24T07:50:00.001-07:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says a major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 has been recorded in the Pacific Ocean off Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands.
The center says the Thursday evening quake was felt through the central Aleutians and as far east as Dutch Harbor and Unalaska. There are no immediate reports of damage.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center posted a tsunami warning for certain coastal areas of Alaska, but canceled the warning about an hour after the quake. The warning covered an area from 80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor to about 125 miles west of Adak.
In Dutch Harbor, longshoreman Jim Paulin said warning sirens caused hundreds of people to begin climbing up a nearby hill.

Sarah Palin's Emails Make for Marvelous Poetry

2011-06-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

A sample: He's asking / If I support hunting bears / In the sanctuary. / No, / I don't. (PRNewswire)

Michael Solomon arranges them into verse, with delightful results

File under: Why didn't I think of this first? Editor-slash-humorist Michael Solomon has pored over Sarah Palin's email trove searching not for salacious details but for inspired verse. What he's come up with is a collection of 50 poems written by the former governor herself. And Solomon isn't wasting any time: I Hope Like Heck: The Selected Poems of Sarah Palin was published by Byliner Inc. today. The Daily Beast has excerpts, and they're, well, pure poetry. A sample:

Unflippingbelievable! Sarah Palin trademarks her name

2011-06-21T03:25:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin will soon be making people pay for trying to cash in on her name.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate applied to get her name trademarked last year along with her daughter, Bristol.
And over the past few days, the deadlines passed for anyone filing challenges against the trademarks.

Mama Grizzly: Palin said she wants to protect her name for business and advertising purposes
According to the ex-Alaska governor's application, she wants to protect her name for business and advertising purposes, political elections, entertainment services and for 'providing motivational speaking services in the field of politics.'
Bristol, 20, who famously had a baby out of wedlock and appeared on 'Dancing With the Stars', is focused on 'providing motivational speaking services in the field of life choices.'
The final day for anyone wanting to dispute the trademarks was on Friday for Mrs Palin and June 10 for her daughter.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office said both Palins should receive their trademarks within the next three months.

Brand Palin: The pair's previous applications were rejected because they forgot to sign the forms
It is the latest attempt by Mrs Palin to profit from her fame since being plucked from relative obscurity to be John McCain's running mate in 2008.
She has made millions through speeches and public appearances and is still toying with the idea of seeking the Republican presidential nomination for 2012.
This is apparently their second time applying to trademark their names. The first time, they forgot to sign the applications.

Murdered Pak governor's daughter takes up his cause

2011-06-20T06:21:00.001-07:00

A day after her father was gunned down by an Islamist extremist, a grieving Shehrbano Taseer wrote on Twitter, "A light has gone out in our home today." It wasn't long before the 22-year-old realised something else: Her father's death had lit a fire in her.

In the months since, the daughter of the late Punjab province Gov. Salmaan Taseer has emerged as one of Pakistan's most outspoken voices for tolerance. Through her writing and speaking, she warns any audience who will listen of the threat of Islamist extremism, and impatiently waits for her father's killer to be brought to justice.
And yes, sometimes she gets scared. She's received threats from militants, who've warned her to remember her father's fate.
"These extremists, they want to tell you how to think, how to feel, how to act," says Taseer, a slim, elegant young woman with intense brown eyes. "It has made me more resolute that these people should never win."
Salmaan Taseer was assassinated on Jan. 4 at a market in Islamabad by one of his own bodyguards. The confessed killer, Mumtaz Qadri, boasted that he'd carried out the slaying because the outspoken politician -- a liberal in Pakistani terms -- wanted to change blasphemy laws that impose the death sentence for insulting Islam.
To the horror of Taseer's supporters, many Pakistanis praised the assassin. Islamist lawyers showered Qadri with rose petals, and major Muslim groups, even ones considered relatively moderate, said Taseer deserved to die because, in their view, speaking out against the blasphemy laws was tantamount to blasphemy itself.

Two months after Taseer's killing, gunmen killed Shahbaz Bhatti, the sole Christian minister in the government and another opponent of the blasphemy laws, which have often been used against Pakistan's Christian minority. Bhatti's killers left a note promising to target others who pushed to change the laws.
Shehrbano Taseer still has trouble remembering those first moments and days after her father's death -- her brother telling her their father was gone, the rush of grief, the hundreds of people flooding her family's home in the eastern city of Lahore. Mostly, it's a blur.
"I'd never lost anyone in my life, not a friend or anyone," she says. "For everyone else it was the governor and their leader and this man, and it was this big, sexy story and it was so sensationalist. But for me, it was my father."
Taseer majored in government and film at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is by profession a journalist. She spends much of her time now writing columns and traveling in and beyond Pakistan to speak about Islamist extremism.
Salmaan Taseer, a father of seven, was not afraid to be blunt -- a trait that attracted both enmity and grudging respect. On Twitter, Salmaan Taseer openly taunted and trashed extremists, once tweeting that he'd never back down on the blasphemy issue, "even if I'm the last man standing."

His daughter, who tweets under the handle shehrbanotaseer, is more gentle but just as firm. Her more than 9,000 followers on Twitter often receive notes that criticise Pakistan's discriminatory laws, especially blasphemy claims that have reached the courts since her father's death.
When she singles out a politically marginalised community, either on Twitter or her other outreach, Taseer recalls how well her father treated that group, how he was often the only public official to visit their homes after an attack or publicly speak on their behalf.
Once, Salmaan Taseer took his daughter along on a visit to meet Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman whose case attracted international attention because of allegations that she was gang-raped on the orders of a village council. The governor asked Mai to put her hand on his daughter's head, so that Shehrbano Taseer could gain the same courage to stand up for her rights.
Like her father and Bhatti, the Christian leader, Taseer wants the blasphemy laws amended to prevent their misuse.
The laws are vaguely written, and often used to persecute minorities or settle rivalries, rights activists say. The state has not executed anyone under the law, but the accused may spend years in custody. Some defendants have been killed by extremists after being freed by the courts.
But Taseer has found that many Muslims, even moderate, liberal ones, are extremely sensitive about blasphemy.

She recalls giving a speech in England when a woman in the audience suggested that her father deserved what he got because he was so blunt about the topic.
"I said, 'I don't care what he said, and I don't care how he said it. He didn't deserve to be shot and killed for it,'" Taseer says.
She's dismayed at the toll extremism is taking on Pakistan by spawning violence or an intolerant mindset. She's also disappointed at how few Pakistani leaders are willing to take a public stand against extremism or how many find some reason to excuse it.
She bemoans how for decades moderate or liberal leaders in Pakistan have appeased the religious right for short-lived political gains -- whether it was by banning alcohol and nightclubs or passing laws that discriminate against certain religious sects.
Unlike many Pakistani politicians, she's willing to criticise the role Saudi Arabia has played in funding numerous hardline Islamist schools in Pakistan. And she's quick to note that the United States as well as Pakistan says little about it -- after all, it needs Saudi Arabia's oil.
Pakistan has a tradition of dynastic politics. The most famous political family has been that of the Bhuttos, which spawned former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, also assassinated by Islamist extremists. Salmaan Taseer was a member of the Bhutto-led Pakistan People's Party.

Shehrbano Taseer says she views Pakistan as an enticing challenge akin to a Rubik's Cube because of its many, convoluted problems. But she says she has no plans to run for office. "It's such a dirty profession," she says, laughing.
Sherry Rehman, a People's Party lawmaker who also has been threatened for speaking out against the blasphemy laws, says Shehrbano Taseer will "chart her own future."
"She's found a torch to carry, and she will do it," Rehman says. "It's what her father would have wanted."
Taseer is frustrated with the Pakistani justice system's delays in processing the case of Qadri, her father's confessed killer.
Pakistan's courts have very low conviction rates, even in terrorism cases. Qadri's confession may not be enough to persuade a court to punish him, considering the threats facing any judge who dares pass such a judgment.
Taseer wants the former bodyguard to spend his life in prison, in solitary confinement. A death sentence is "too easy," and a conviction would send a warning to other would-be assassins, she says.
"In Pakistan, we have very few brave and honest leaders," she says. "We need our heroes alive."
Source: AP

Sarah Palin's endearing email cache will backfire on the leftwing media who hoped to destroy her

2011-06-19T02:23:00.000-07:00

By Toby Harnden

Reporters load boxes of Sarah Palin's emails
The trove of more than 13,000 emails detailing almost every aspect of Sarah Palin’s governorship of Alaska, released late on Friday, paints a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics.
One can only assume that the Left-leaning editors who dispatched teams of reporters to remote Juneau, the Alaskan capital, to pore over the emails in the hope of digging up a scandal are now viewing the result as a rather poor return on their considerable investment.
If anything, Mrs Palin seems likely to emerge from the scrutiny of the 24,000 pages, contained in six boxes and weighing 275 pounds, with her reputation considerably enhanced. As a blogger at Powerline noted, the whole saga might come to be viewed as “an embarrassment for legacy media”.
Mrs Palin, who suddenly resigned as Alaska governor in July 2009, is no longer a public official. She holds no position in the Republican party. Despite the media hubbub that surrounds her every move, she is unlikely to be a candidate for the White House in 2012.
She is, however, viewed with a kind of horrified fascination by many in the media, who faithfully records everything she says and does while at the same time decrying her as ignorant and even evil.
Whether or not she runs for the White House – and the solid consensus among Republican leaders is that she won’t – the scramble over the Palin emails confirms her status as a pivotal figure in the race to challenge President Barack Obama next year.
It comes at a moment when the battle for the Republican nomination appears set to be transformed by the late entry of Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a social conservative and Palin ally who could almost immediately leap to the front of a currently lacklustre field.
Sources close to Mr Perry have confirmed that he is “highly likely” to announce a presidential run in the coming days. Intriguingly, they have also hinted at a something they believe would increase immeasurably Mr Perry’s chances of winning the White House – an endorsement from Mrs Palin.
On policy, Mrs Palin and Mr Perry, who succeeded George W Bush in 2000 and has since become the longest-serving governor in Texas history, are in almost perfect alignment. In addition, they are both beloved of the Tea Party, highly suspicious of Washington and physically attractive (Mr Perry is often likened to the Marlboro Man), charismatic figures.
Mrs Palin has repeatedly said that she believes Mr Obama can be defeated and that she will do everything to achieve that. With her popularity among independent voters very low, despite the intensity of her core support, throwing her weight behind a stronger candidate would be a better way of preserving her political capital and earning power than being one of the losing candidates in the Republican primaries.
The notion of Mrs Palin as White House kingmaker would have seemed wildly improbable if anyone had raised it before August 2008.
It was then that she was catapulted to international fame by Senator John McCain’s surprise decision to make her his vice-presidential running mate. Her reaction? “Can you flippinbelieveit?!”
This was a world, as the emails reveal, in which the then Alaska governor fretted about things like there being alcohol in her official residence, that might be a temptation to the teenage friends of her children.
In May 2007, she sought help from her staff in keeping the alcohol in the governor’s mansion away from young people, stating that it should be boxed up and “removed from the People’s House” – both for practical reasons and as a statement about her administration.
“Here’s my thinking: with so many kids and teens coming and going in that house, esp during this season of celebrations for young people – proms, graduations, etc, I want to send the msg that we can be – and ‘the People’s House’ needs to be – alcohol-free. There’s a lot of booze there – its too accessible and may be too tempting to any number of all those teens coming and going.”
In a February 2007 exchange, one adviser recommended that when she was in Washington she meet Pete Rouse, a Senate official who had lived in Alaska. “He’s now chief-of-staff for a guy named Barack Obama,” the aide wrote, adding that Mr Rouse “wants to help Alaska however he can”. Far from shrinking at the idea of conferring with a Democrat, Mrs Palin replied: “I’m game to meet him.”
The emails will finally confirm – in all but the darkest recesses of the world of Left-wing conspiracy theories – that Mrs Palin is, in fact, the mother of her youngest son Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome.
After relentless promotion by Andrew Sullivan, the British blogger who now works for Daily Beast/Newsweek, of the proposition that the mother was in fact Mrs Palin’s daughter Bristol, a teenager at the time, the subject had become part of mainstream debate.
The emails show Mrs Palin’s determination to protect Bristol but also her desire for a degree of privacy. “I wish I could shame people into ceasing such gossip about a teen, but I can’t figure out how to do that,” she wrote.
Communications from her children and husband make her family appear close and loving.
An email from Bristol, referring to her younger sister, said: “Hello Mother, Um, I’m sitting in library and I really thing you need to get Piper a cell phone!! Wouldn’t that be so adorable! She could text me while she was in class!! It’s a done deal right?! Perfect! Ok, I will talk to you later and I need some cash flow! Love ya!”
To an extent, the emails remind Americans of the person they saw take the stage at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota nearly three years ago – refreshing, plain-speaking, open and uncomplicated.
Since then, her image has hardened into one of a brittle, even paranoid, politician who seethes with resentment, feels aggrieved and entitled and is intent on pursuing celebrity even at the expense of her family.
Mrs Palin as a person has become so remote that it is hard to assess how much, if any, of that widely-held caricature has a basis in truth. The email release could mark the end of a chapter of what conservatives have termed “Palin Derangement Syndrome”. Her enemies in the media appear to have overplayed their hand.
Expressing a sentiment that will resonate with many, Greta Van Susteren, a Fox News anchor who is close to Mrs Palin, argued that she had been subjected to “a media colonoscopy” by news organisations on “a mission to destroy”.
With a film entitled The Undefeated, chronicling Mrs Palin’s rise to prominence, about to air, the former Alaska governor is doubtless hoping that harsher perceptions of her can be blunted.
Probably the person who has damaged her most, apart from perhaps the CBS anchor Katie Couric who elicited blank stares when she asked what Mrs Palin read, was Tina Fey, the Saturday Night Live comedienne and impersonator.
It was Fey who seared into the popular imagination the Palin phrase: “I can see Russia from my house!” Mrs Palin had never said any such thing but it encapsulated the feeling that she was frivolous and lacked any foreign policy credentials.
Three days later, a staffer called Patrick Galvin emailed Mrs Palin saying: “My suggestion is you offer to go on SNL and play Tina Fey, and you interview her as she plays you.”
Fey’s impersonation was so powerful that the two women are inseparable in some minds. Fox News, for which Mrs Palin works on a lucrative contract as a commentator, recently aired a picture of fey instead of Mrs Palin by mistake.
Mrs Palin did go on the show back in October 2008. But perhaps now might the time for Mrs Palin to take up Mr Galvin’s suggestion and return for a proper head-to-head.
Toby Harnden’s American Way column is published in the Sunday Telegraph each week.

Saudi women take to the wheel in defiance of driving ban... and post results on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

2011-06-19T02:14:00.001-07:00

'I did it to get my rights', says rebel female motorist
Saudi women have flouted a driving ban in the ultra-conservative kingdom by posting pictures of themselves behind the wheel on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Groups such as 'Women2Drive' and 'Women's Right to Drive in KSA' had called for a day of defiance involving 15,000 supporters of various social media groups.
Maha al-Gahtani, a resident of Riyadh, posted a picture on Twitter of a traffic ticket with her name.
Scroll down for video

Flouting the law: An image taken from a YouTube video of a Saudi Arabian woman driving without a license in the conservative kingdom
She wrote: 'I drove with my husband, and a policeman stopped me and gave me a ticket, which stated that I was driving without a license.
'I was disappointed that I didn't see any other women drivers. I did it to get my rights.'
Besides a ban on driving, women in Saudi Arabia must have written approval from a male guardian - father, husband, brother or son - to leave the country, work or even undergo certain medical operations.
Saudi Arabia is ruled by an absolute monarchy which applies an austere version of Sunni Islam. Religious police patrol the streets to ensure public segregation between men and women.

Tweets: Defiant Maha al-Gahtani posted these messages on Twitter

Backing: Maha-al-Gahtani's husband tweets his support
One woman in Riyadh posted a video on YouTube showing herself driving soon after midnight, face veiled as she drove to a local supermarket undetected by police.
Dima Ikhwan posted on her Twitter page on Friday: 'I drove around my neighbourhood with dad for 20 minutes,'
Two women, Shaima Osama and Manal Alsharif, were held and put in detention last month for defying the driving ban which was inspired by challenges to authority across the Arab world.
But Alsharif's arrest after she posted a video on YouTube of herself driving appeared to have deterred other women.
Released after 10 days, Alsharif distanced herself from the campaign, saying the issue of women driving was best left to the authorities to handle.

Campaign: Support for Manal Alsharif, who was held in detention for 10 days after being arrested for defying the Saudi driving ban
'When Alsharif's arrest happened many of the women were intimidated because they do not want to be arrested,' said Mariam Alawi, a Jeddah resident with a driving license from the United States who chose not participate in the campaign.
She aded: 'I think the campaign will hinder the process of legalising women driving in Saudi Arabia because it will just provoke the authorities.'
Activist Wajiha al-Huweider argued, however, that the movement would gain steam as more women defy the ban.
'It is not a one-day thing or a demonstration, it is the first day of a movement that will continue until we see a new law to allow women to drive,' Huweider said. 'Maybe we will see more women in the coming days.'

SAUDI ARABIA ONLY MUSLIM COUNTRY TO ORDER BAN

Women were forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia following a 1990 fatwa (religious ruling).
It is is currently the only Muslim country that bans women. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they issued a 2001 decree that also stopped women motorists.
John Esposito, professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, has argued that these restrictions originate from cultural customs and not Islamic teachings.
The majority of Muslim countries give women varying degrees of rights with regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education based on different Sharia interpretations.
Scholars and other commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correct interpretation of religious imperatives.
Conservatives argue that differences between men and women are due to different status, while others argue in favor of other interpretations. Some women have achieved high political office in Muslim majority states

The untold story of Obama's mother

2011-06-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's mother was a truly unusual person, a woman with a curiosity, a keen intellect, and an internationalist orientation much ahead of her times, says B S Prakash after reading A Singular Woman

Hitherto many knew a bit about Obama's papa, but less about his ma. One reason is Obama himself. In his moving book, completed even before he had became a US senator, let alone the president, titled Dreams from my father, Obama had told the story of his dad: an intelligent, charismatic and proud Kenyan who had gone back to his country after fathering Obama, and who had died in Africa much before Obama started rising.

The senior Obama, coming from Kenya as a part of a programme to prepare promising young men for the country's administration after independence, had fallen in love with a young and a somewhat impetuous white girl in Hawaii. Their union in 1961 had resulted in the birth of the personage who was to become the 44th president of the US. The mother was alive at the time the book was being written, and though Obama's love for her came through in between the lines, she was not the 'heroine' of the story. The 'dreams' came from the absent and dead father whom Obama had barely known, but who had left an indelible imprint, above all, let us face it, in the colour of the son's skin.

The lack of details about the mother's extraordinary life and character have now been remedied through a thoroughly researched biography published recently, aptly titled A Singular Woman. Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, had died of cancer at 52 in 1995 before seeing her son's real successes, but fully confident that he would have it one day.

With a twinge of regret about his relative neglect of her in his book, Obama had said movingly, that had he known that she would not survive longer, he would have probably written a different book: 'Less a meditation on the absent parent (meaning his father), more a celebration of the one who is the single constant in my life. What is best in me, I owe it to her.'

The story of Obama's ma is not a typical American story of her period, but almost its opposite. It is the story of a truly unusual person, a woman with a curiosity, a keen intellect, and an internationalist orientation much ahead of her times. Considering Obama's own unique profile, it is instructive to see the role that his mother's personality played in shaping him.

Ann came from a very ordinary white family from Kansas, a relatively backward part of the US. After a series of failures in his career, her father migrated and settled down in Hawaii, which had joined the US as the fiftieth state. At the age of 17, a student in the University in Hawaii, Ann met the tall and forceful Obama Senior in an optional Russian class that both had enrolled into.

The Kenyan student had great dignity and spellbinding oratory. Though considerably older and already married -- a fact that he hid from her -- he swept her off her feet. Ann also seems to have been an incurable romantic and the idea of this unconventional romance with a black aristocrat from a foreign land was very attractive to her. They got married in 1961 when she was already three months pregnant bearing the future president.

The marriage was not a success, but the failure was mainly because of the senior Obama's careerist reasons. In 1962, just a year after the marriage, he was accepted by Harvard and left the young wife and child for the prestige of the university. Later, he went back to join the government in Kenya, eventually to become an embittered and alcoholic bureaucrat. Ann continued her studies in anthropology at Hawaii. A greatly influential period in Obama's life was when his father came to visit the family in Hawaii when Obama was 10 and the father and son spent some 'quality time' as Americans would term it.

Ann Dunham, the mother's life trajectory continued to waver, true to her free spirit. Still studying in Hawaii, she met and fell in love with a kind and fun-loving Indonesian student, Lolo Soetoro. They married and when Obama was six years old, the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama spent four formative years of his life with the Javanese step-father, his hard-working mother and a whole gang of neighbourhood kids in a typically middle class and fun-filled environment.

Searching for the early influences for President Obama's open, tolerant, and universalist outlook, many analysts have attributed it to this period: a mother immersed in Indonesian culture with a genuine interest in working with local craftsmen, a smiling and benevolent step-father ready to play soccer with 'Barry' the black American kid, and a noisy and vibrant community life around them. Not the typical background from where American presidents have come!

With Obama in school at the age of 10, the mother made an important decision. Sensing a lack of discipline and rigour in his education, Ann felt that the best gift that she can bequeath to her son is to assert her American nationality and to send him back to Hawaii for completing school. Obama was sent away to stay with the grandparents back in the US. His academic performance gradually improved in a good school and with each good result, his confidence and ambition grew. Some of that story, I had narrated two years back in these columns after reading Obama's book about his father: Obama and your grandmother.

After the young Obama left for the US, Ann continued in Indonesia with her work and her husband. Her professional interests were village crafts, women's empowerment and micro-credit. Just as in her personal life, in her working life too she seems to have been a little ahead of the curve, as all these issues today are fashionable and marketable.

The second marriage too did not work out, over differences about her role as a wife and as a working woman. She continued to live in Asia and completed her PhD in anthropology.

What kind of a relationship did Obama and his mother have? A complex one is the simple answer. Obama seemed to be awed by his absent father whom he met only once. As a young man, Obama traveled to Kenya to look for his father's legacy and met his half-brothers and cousins. The father made an impact on him, but there is not much evidence of love. In any case, absence marked that relationship.

The mother was 'absent' too in a different sense, with her own preoccupations and activities, though she gave the boy unconditional love, as Obama himself has admitted. Current biographers of Obama can trace aspects of his personality to the two very different personalities of his parents: the formidable intellect, the aloofness, and the slightly detached style to the Kenyan father; the tolerance, empathy and non-confrontational style to the mother and the years in Indonesia. Is this pop-psychology? Perhaps, but can we deny the science in genetic predispositions?

Obama has referred to himself as his 'mother's experiment'. A commentator has remarked tartly that Obama had perhaps meant that his mother was more in love with the idea of having a child from a black man, than in love with the black man or the child. This is cruel. Whatever the facts are, the experiment has already proved to be a success in transforming US presidential history and in validating the notion that in a democracy change is possible and that, 'yes, we can'.

B S Prakash is India's Ambassador in Brazil and can be reached at ambassador@indianembassy.org.br

The international language of business

2011-06-18T22:56:00.001-07:00

Via Voxy.

Full Meltdown: Fukushima Called the 'Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind'

2011-06-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

By Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 18, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151328/full_meltdown%3A_fukushima_called_the_%27biggest_industrial_catastrophe_in_the_history_of_mankind%27

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.

"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"
Even though the plant is now shut down, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.

"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."

Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.

"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."

Radiation monitors for children
Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters finally admitted earlier this month that reactors 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima plant experienced full meltdowns.

TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst nuclear accident on record.
Meanwhile, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported that about 966 square kilometres near the power station - an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan - is now likely uninhabitable.

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.

"There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.

Dr Ramana explained that he believes the primary radiation threat continues to be mostly for residents living within 50km of the plant, but added: "There are going to be areas outside of the Japanese government's 20km mandatory evacuation zone where radiation is higher. So that could mean evacuation zones in those areas as well."

Gundersen points out that far more radiation has been released than has been reported.
"They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is really not talking about this," he said. "The new calculations show that within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days."

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles".

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April."

Blame the US?
In reaction to the Fukushima catastrophe, Germany is phasing out all of its nuclear reactors over the next decade. In a referendum vote this Monday, 95 per cent of Italians voted in favour of blocking a nuclear power revival in their country. A recent newspaper poll in Japan shows nearly three-quarters of respondents favour a phase-out of nuclear power in Japan.

Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US?
Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.

Dr Shoji Sawada is a theoretical particle physicist and Professor Emeritus at Nagoya University in Japan.

He is concerned about the types of nuclear plants in his country, and the fact that most of them are of US design.

"Most of the reactors in Japan were designed by US companies who did not care for the effects of earthquakes," Dr Sawada told Al Jazeera. "I think this problem applies to all nuclear power stations across Japan."

Using nuclear power to produce electricity in Japan is a product of the nuclear policy of the US, something Dr Sawada feels is also a large component of the problem.
"Most of the Japanese scientists at that time, the mid-1950s, considered that the technology of nuclear energy was under development or not established enough, and that it was too early to be put to practical use," he explained. "The Japan Scientists Council recommended the Japanese government not use this technology yet, but the government accepted to use enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power stations, and was thus subjected to US government policy."

As a 13-year-old, Dr Sawada experienced the US nuclear attack against Japan from his home, situated just 1400 metres from the hypocentre of the Hiroshima bomb.
"I think the Fukushima accident has caused the Japanese people to abandon the myth that nuclear power stations are safe," he said. "Now the opinions of the Japanese people have rapidly changed. Well beyond half the population believes Japan should move towards natural electricity."

A problem of infinite proportions
Dr Ramana expects the plant reactors and fuel cores to be cooled enough for a shutdown within two years.

"But it is going to take a very long time before the fuel can be removed from the reactor," he added. "Dealing with the cracking and compromised structure and dealing with radiation in the area will take several years, there's no question about that."

Dr Sawada is not as clear about how long a cold shutdown could take, and said the problem will be "the effects from caesium-137 that remains in the soil and the polluted water around the power station and underground. It will take a year, or more time, to deal with this".

Gundersen pointed out that the units are still leaking radiation.

"They are still emitting radioactive gases and an enormous amount of radioactive liquid," he said. "It will be at least a year before it stops boiling, and until it stops boiling, it's going to be cranking out radioactive steam and liquids."

Gundersen worries about more earthquake aftershocks, as well as how to cool two of the units.

"Unit four is the most dangerous, it could topple," he said. "After the earthquake in Sumatra there was an 8.6 [aftershock] about 90 days later, so we are not out of the woods yet. And you're at a point where, if that happens, there is no science for this, no one has ever imagined having hot nuclear fuel lying outside the fuel pool. They've not figured out how to cool units three and four."

Gundersen's assessment of solving this crisis is grim.

"Units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted core, that has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Somehow, robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor, there is no solution available now for picking that up from the floor."

Dr Sawada says that the creation of nuclear fission generates radioactive materials for which there is simply no knowledge informing us how to dispose of the radioactive waste safely.

"Until we know how to safely dispose of the radioactive materials generated by nuclear plants, we should postpone these activities so as not to cause further harm to future generations," he explained. "To do otherwise is simply an immoral act, and that is my belief, both as a scientist and as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing."

Gundersen believes it will take experts at least ten years to design and implement the plan.

"So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water," Gundersen said. "We are already seeing Strontium [at] 250 times the allowable limits in the water table at Fukushima. Contaminated water tables are incredibly difficult to clean. So I think we will have a contaminated aquifer in the area of the Fukushima site for a long, long time to come."

Unfortunately, the history of nuclear disasters appears to back Gundersen's assessment.

"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started," he said, "But they never end."

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, and The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight In Iraq and Afghanistan.

First photos of Gabrielle Giffords since shooting

2011-06-13T07:46:00.001-07:00

Gabrielle Giffords’ official Facebook page posted two pictures of the congresswoman Sunday morning, the first photographs released publicly since the January 8 shooting spree that took six lives and left Giffords with a gunshot wound to her head.
The photographs also included a quote from Arizona State Senator and friend of Giffords, Linda Lopez:

“Wow! I saw her at the very end of March, and even then, Gabby was all there, her smile, her personality. And she looks even better now.

I think people are going to be very happy to see how great she looks. For someone who’s undergone what she’s endured, it’s really something. I feel relieved. She looks beautiful.”

Via Facebook.

The 10 Hottest ESPN News Reporters

2011-06-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

I know that hot news reporters is such a big subject these days. In fact I think I may have been one of the first on the subject over 5 years ago on my first (and very crappy) blog. And while all the attention may go to women like Erin Andrews (as it should) there are others out there.
And there are more hotties on ESPN than you think. Some you may know, and some you’ll be thankful I brought to your attention.
I did not put these in order because there would be way too much debate, but here are (in my eyes) the 10 Hottest ESPN News Reporters (one formally worked for ESPN so give me a break).

Jaime Little

Jaime is the ESPN Pit reporter. If there’s any way she could give me a tune up I’d surely appreciate it. Here are some more pictures as well as her website.

Alex Flanagan

She does a lot of the sideline reporting for Notre Dame Football games on NBC. She also hosts NFL Total Access when Rich Eisen isn’t in. I hope Eisen gets sick a lot.
Laura Lane

Laura quoted this site in one of her articles. That’s all I have to say. Plus, she’s hot.
Bonnie Bernstein

Bonnie is a debate amongst many people in making it on this list. But here’s the debate finisher. At some point, a male, in his life, has had a few beers, watched Bonnie on TV, and thought to himself, “Yup, I’d definitely do it.” Case closed.
Heidi Watney

There are numerous mentions of Heidi Watney across the board. And rightfully so. She’s got that All-American smile. While Heidi technically is an NESN reporter, she was also was a host for a sports radio talk show on the ESPN affiliate 1430 KFIG. So that counts in my book.
Michelle Tafoya

Michelle Tafoya falls in the Bonnie Bernstein category. Read it again.
Erin Andrews

The Queen. Andrews may never be dethroned.
Suzy Kolber

Hey if Joe Namath loves her, then so do I.
Rachel Nichols

The only redhead to make it into the group. Nichols has a huge following of fans and athletes alike.
Molly Qerim

Perhaps the least known of the bunch, I personally think that if Qerim is sent out into the field more, and she wears low cut blouses then Andrews may have a run for her money. She’s keeping her talent very hidden with that outfit.
Bonus:
Ashley Russell

A quick shout out to Rivals.com announcer Ashley Russell. Let’s hope she makes it to ESPN.

Hillary Clinton, World Bank President? Secretary Of State Seeks Position: Sources

2011-06-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

*''Hillary Clinton wants the job,'' source says
*Timing of move would be 2012 when Zoellick's term ends
*Clinton would be first woman head of World Bank
By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about leaving her job next year to become head of the World Bank, sources familiar with the discussions said on Thursday.
The former first lady and onetime political rival to President Barack Obama quickly became one of the most influential members of his cabinet after she began her tenure at State in early 2009.
She has said publicly she did not plan to stay on at the State Department for more than four years. Associates say Clinton has expressed interest in having the World Bank job should the Bank's current president, Robert Zoellick, leave at the end of his term, in the middle of 2012.
"Hillary Clinton wants the job,'' said one source who knows the secretary well.
A second source also said Clinton wants the position.
A third source said Obama has already expressed support for the change in her role. It is unclear whether Obama has formally agreed to nominate her for the post, which would require approval by the 187 member countries of the World Bank.
The White House declined to comment.
A spokesman for Clinton, Philippe Reines, denied she wanted the job or had conversations with the White House about it.
Revelations of these discussions could hurt Clinton's efforts as America's top diplomat if she is seen as a lame duck in the job at a time of great foreign policy challenges for the Obama administration.
However, the timing of the discussions is not unusual given that the United States is considering whether to support another European as head of the World Bank's sister organization, the IMF.
The head of the IMF has always been a European and the World Bank presidency has always been held by an American.
That unwritten gentleman's agreement between Europe and the United States, is now being aggressively challenged by fast-growing emerging market economies that have been shut out of the process.
The United States has not publicly supported the European candidate for the IMF, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, although Washington's support is expected.
Neither institution has ever been headed by a woman.
If Clinton were to leave State, John Kerry, a close Obama ally who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is among those who could be considered as a possible replacement for her.
Clinton's star power and work ethic were seen by Obama as crucial qualities for her role as the nation's top diplomat, even though she did not arrive in the job with an extensive foreign policy background.
She has embraced the globe-trotting aspects of the job, logging many hours on plane trips to nurture alliances with countries like Japan and Great Britain and to visit hot spots like Afghanistan and countries in the Middle East.
She has long been vocal on global development issues, especially the need for economic empowerment of women and girls in developing countries. She has made that part of her focus at State. Her husband, Bill Clinton, has also been involved in these issues through his philanthropic work at the Clinton Global Initiative.
The World Bank provides billions of dollars in development funds to the poorest countries and is also at the center of issues such as climate change, rebuilding countries emerging from conflict and recently the transitions to democracy in Tunisia and Egypt. (Editing by Kristin Roberts and David Storey)

Palin can beat Obama, says McCain

2011-05-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Washington: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has the potential to beat Barack Obama in 2012 presidential elections, top Republican leader Senator John Mccain has said.
"Of course, she can. She can. Now, whether she will or not, whether she'll even run or not, I don't know," McCain told the Fox news in an interview.
Palin was McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential elections. McCain lost to Obama. While she has not made any formal announcement yet, Palin is widely expected to seek Republican candidacy to fight against Obama in the 2012 elections.

"A lot of things happen in campaigns. You remember, I was written off a couple of times and were able to come back. So, there's going to be a roller coaster ride for all of them before we finally arrive at our nominee," he noted.
"But she certainly is a major factor. And I believe that she can be very competitive," McCain said.
"That's what campaigns are all about. I've never seen anyone as mercilessly and relentlessly attacked as I have seen Sarah Palin in the last couple of years. But she also inspires great passion, particularly among Republican faithful," McCain added.

Boat would sail on Saturn moon's sea

2011-05-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

Scientists are working on a mission to send a robotic boat to explore an extraterrestrial ocean in hopes of learning about how the building blocks of life began to assemble. The destination: Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and its methane oceans.
"We have no expectation of finding living things," Johns Hopkins University planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz told Discovery News. "But we think the complexity of the organics (on Titan) can lead us to the steps toward life."
Full story at Discovery News.

Woman Strips Naked on Delta Flight

2011-05-10T09:02:00.001-07:00

Talk about in-flight entertainment. Passengers on a Delta flight Saturday got a "show" when a woman stripped naked and began to make a scene during their flight.
Flight 6562, en route from Chicago to New York, was descending to Kennedy Airport when the "emotionally disturbed" woman removed her clothes, reports USA TODAY.
A Newsday manager who was also on the flight said flight attendants tried to cover the woman with a blanket, but she yelled "No! No! No!"
The woman, reportedly in her late 20s, was taken into custody by local law enforcement. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, she was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens.
No criminal charges are expected, according to NBC New York.
There have been a slew of disruptions on flights recently. An American Airlines passenger was arrested after pounding on the cockpit door on a San Francisco-bound flight over the weekend. And on Sunday, a Delta flight was diverted after a mysterious "security concern".

The Slippery Story of the bin Laden Kill

2011-05-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

The early narrative of the assault on Osama bin Laden had him using his wife as a human shield and firing from behind her. Now we learn he wasn't armed.
The White House Tuesday blamed "the fog of war" for conflicting statements in its recounting of the events surrounding the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, but the history of misstatements from U.S. government officials about various combat operations raises questions about whether briefers also were subjecting us to a counterterrorism strategy and not just completely confused in their initial statements.
Consider the narrative put forward by John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, in a televised briefing the Associated Press described as an "uncharacteristically candid exchange with reporters."
"Thinking about that from a visual perspective, here is bin Laden, who has been calling for these attacks, living in this million dollar-plus compound, living in an area that is far removed from the front, hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield," Brennan told the world from the White House podium Monday. "I think it really just speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years."
There was a firefight and the al-Qaeda leader was "killed in that firefight," Brennan said. There was a woman who was used "to shield bin Laden from the incoming fire." The woman killed in the raid was bin Laden's wife, Brennan said: "She was positioned in a way that indicated that she was being used as a shield."
And bin Laden was killed because he resisted capture. "If we had the opportunity to take him alive, we would have done that," Brennan told reporters at the briefing.
"Looking at what bin Laden was doing hiding there while he's putting other people out there to carry out attacks again just speaks to, I think, the nature of the individual he was," Brennan said.
And that's the message our counterterrorism officials would, I expect, like the world -- and especially any potential followers of al-Qaeda's anti-American ideology -- to get about our newly vanquished enemy, responsible to the single deadliest attack on American soil. The leader of the terrorist group was soft, a coward in the end who hid behind a woman's skirts like a little girl, having grown accustomed to living in luxury in a mansion. Almost everything about this narrative seemed calculated to diminish any possible perception of strength or masculinity in bin Laden's reaction to the raid by an elite team of U.S. Navy Seals -- men who are in contrast among the most mythic and valorized in our armed forces, known for slogans like "pain is just weakness leaving the body."
It wasn't just Brennan, either. Politico's Josh Gerstein reports:

At a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day, a senior defense official said bin Laden used a woman as a human shield so he could fire shots. "He was firing behind her," the official said. In another background briefing early Monday morning, a senior administration official also said bin Laden put up a fight. "He did resist the assault force. And he was killed in a firefight," the official said.

By end of day, that narrative -- much like the narrative of Jessica Lynch's heroism in 2003 -- was being picked apart. Reported Politico:

"A different guy's wife was killed," a different official familiar with the briefing for TV reporters said Monday night. Bin Laden's wife was "injured but not killed," the official said. Another official familiar with the operation said it did not appear that any woman was used as a human shield, but that the woman killed and the one injured were hurt in the crossfire. The official said he believed Brennan had mixed up the episode involving bin Laden's wife with another encounter elsewhere in the compound.
"Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up," said the U.S. official. "This is hours old and the full facts are still being ascertained as those involved are debriefed."

Whether bin Laden was armed when he was shot also was initially unclear:

...during a background, off-camera briefing for television reporters later Monday, a senior White House official said bin Laden was not armed when he was killed, apparently by the U.S. raid team. Another White House official familiar with the TV briefing confirmed the change to POLITICO, adding, "I'm not aware of him having a weapon."

As for the claim that bin Laden was living in a mansion, as opposed to just a big house, all that's needed to debunk that description is some pictures of the house. A Wall Street Journal reporter went to the scene and gave this eye-witness account, concluding there was nothing mansion-like about it:

The size and fortress-like nature of the compound stood out in the area, though many of the houses in Abbottabad, built by ex-servicemen and business people, also have high walls. Homes are separated by empty plots where people grow crops like potatoes and wheat. The top two floors of bin Laden's three-story house are visible above the high perimeter walls. The house, built in 2005, appears run-down. Grass grows off a ledge below the roof. The outside walls are scarred with damp and mold. A hand-painted advertisement for Jamia Girls College, in Urdu and English, decorates one of the outside walls of the compound.
One of the awnings on an outdoor window hung down at an angle, perhaps after being damaged during the attack. Otherwise, the house stood intact, with few signs a major firefight only two days earlier.
There were no visible airconditioning units to keep residents cool through the Pakistan summer. At the back of the house was a small, private triangular garden with a towering fir tree, where bin Laden could have gotten air without being seen by outsiders.

White House spokesman Jay Carney at Tuesday's briefing provided a fresh official "narrative" of the assault, noting "What is true is that we provided a great deal of information in great haste" yesterday "and obviously some of the information came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated." As the U.S. assault team entered the room where bin Laden was with his wife, she rushed the "assaulter" and was shot in the leg, Carney said. Bin Laden was also shot as he resisted the "assaulter." He "was not armed" but "resistance does not require a firearm," Carney said.
"It was a highly volatile firefight. He resisted. The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism," Carney said.
The special forces involved in the attack work under the aegis of the Joint Special Operations Command, which does not routinely provide accurate public information about its activities or "secret warriors," according to National Journal's Marc Ambinder. He reported Monday:

Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story -- generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That's the code.

The new "narrative" laid out by Tuesday was written by the Department of Defense, Carney said. I don't imagine that many Americans will care whether bin Laden was armed or not when he resisted the individual who confronted him in Abbottabad. His "nature" was revealed to us long ago.
But the "narrative" of his death remains of significance to those who might seek to follow in his foot-steps. That's why its worth looking at these early reports with a skeptical eye.
Image credit: Alexis Madrigal

Obama Zings Fox News

2011-05-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

President Obama zinged Fox News and NPR during his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday.
Obama joked about his birth certificate by showing what he dubbed his "birth video." The video was a clip from the opening scene of "The Lion King."
"I want to make clear to the Fox News table--that was a joke," Obama said.
He then turned to NPR, referencing the GOP's attempt to cut the network's funding. "You guys are still here," he said. "...Personally, I was looking forward to new programming like 'No Things Considered' and 'Wait Wait, Don't Fund Me.'"
Click here for more.

Which Countries No Longer Have A Free Press?

2011-05-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

By BARRY SCHWEID
WASHINGTON -- Mexico can no longer be considered to have a free press because of the threats and violence associated with drug trafficking, but an eight-year decline in press freedom around the world appears to have begun leveling off in 2010, an independent advocacy group reported. In its annual accounting of press freedoms, Freedom House said the Middle East and North Africa showed a dramatic deterioration in 2010. The assessment of 196 countries and territories will be released Monday.
Among the results: Egypt was downgraded to "not free," while Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia continued to rank among the worst countries in the world for media independence and press freedom. Only Saudi Arabia, among those five countries, was not swept early this year by uprisings and appeals for freedom.
"In 2010, we saw how readily governments in the Middle East turned to repression of the media," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, managing editor of the Freedom House study. Gains have to be implemented quickly or "this window of opportunity will be lost," she said.
"The openings that have taken place early in 2011 give us hope that gains in the Middle East may lead the way to improvements in the global level of press freedom," she said in an interview. But recent moves by the army in Egypt to restrict news coverage are worrying, she said.
The decline in Mexico's ranking to "not free"' was described as a surprise and attributed to violence related to drug trafficking. Attacks on journalists, self-censorship and a climate of fear were among the results.
Around the world, one in six people live in countries with a free press, Freedom House said, and those with access to a free and independent media declined to the lowest level in over a decade. Besides Egypt and Mexico, significant declines occurred in Honduras, Hungary, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
Over the past five years, countries with significant declines have outnumbered countries with similar gains by a more than 2-to-1 margin. However, the report said, the global trend of declines seems to have leveled off in 2010. It is not clear whether there will be an overall improvement this year, the report said.
The 10 worst-rated countries are Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
"In these states, independent media are either nonexistent or barely able to operate," the report said. "The press acts as a mouthpiece for the region, citizens' access to unbiased information is severely limited, and dissent is crushed through imprisonment, torture and other forms of repression."

Gleeful Palin Zings Exiting Katie Couric

2011-04-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeah, I read about that somewhere, says still-angry Sarah

CORRECTS CITY Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arrives to the Western Wall tunnels in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, March 20, 2011. Palin is in Israel on a trip that has raised speculation she is honing... (AP Photo/Daniel Bar On)
Not one to forgive and forget, Sarah Palin took the opportunity yesterday to kick Katie Couric now that she's down—and exiting as CBS News anchor.

Couric famously put Palin on the spot in an interview during the presidential campaign when Palin was unable to name a single publication she reads regularly.

Asked on Fox News about Couric's departure, Palin quipped: "Yeah I read something about that in a newspaper." She also mocked Couric's comment that the anchor was leaving her job to explore "multi-dimensional" story telling, notes Fox News.
"Yeah, I hear that she wants to now engage in more 'multi-dimensional story telling' versus, I guess, just the 'straight on, read into the, that teleprompter screen story telling,'" Palin said. "More power to her.

I wish her well in her 'multi-dimensional story telling.'" Palin has spoken often about her anger over Couric's question about her reading habits, calling it disrespectful and proof-positive that the liberal media is out to get her.

Tim Hetherington, 'Restrepo' Director, And Chris Hondros, Photojournalist, Killed In Libya

2011-04-21T03:08:00.001-07:00

Tim Hetherington, photographer reportedly killed in Libya
Two highly acclaimed journalists have been killed in Libya.
Tim Hetherington, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and photographer, and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer, were killed in the city of Misrata after being hit by mortar fire during fighting between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels. Two other photographers, Guy Martin and Chris Brown, were also injured.
Andre Liohn, a fellow photographer in Libya, was the first to report the news of Hetherington's death on his Facebook page.
Hetherington was a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair, and co-directed the Afghan War film "Restrepo" with author Sebastian Junger. That film was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary in 2011.
The last tweet on his Twitter account reads, "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
Hondros' work appeared in many major news outlets, including the front pages of many papers on the day he died. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004. In 2006, he won the Robert Capa Gold Medal, a coveted honor for international photojournalism.
There were initially conflicting accounts of his death. Liohn wrote on his wall soon after reporting Hetherington's death, "Chris Hondros died now." Liohn later told the New York Times that Hondros had slipped into a coma, having suffered a serious brain injury. It was actually not until later in the day that Hondros succumbed to his injuries.
A reporter for the News and Observer newspaper was at Hondros' family's house in North Carolina when a representative for Getty, the agency Hondros was working for in Libya, called to report his death.
Brown and Martin, the two other photographers, are recovering.
Leila Fadel, a Washington Post reporter, was also at the hospital and described what happened to the paper:

Hetherington appeared to be bleeding heavily from his leg and was very pale, she said. About 15 minutes after his arrival, doctors in the tent pronounced him dead...about 10 minutes later, another ambulance brought Hondros and other photographers to the hospital. Hondros had suffered a severe head injury. As doctors paused to examine a scan of Hondros’s brain, they told Fadel that shrapnel had hit the photographer in the forehead and passed through the back of his head. They asked her to hold his helmet.

Hetherington's family released a statement to Vanity Fair on Wednesday. It read, in part, "It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, was killed today...he will be forever missed."
Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, also issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon. The statement was released before news of Hondros' death had been confirmed:

We were saddened to learn of the death of film director and photographer Tim Hetherington while working in Misrata, and we are deeply concerned about the well being of other journalists who were wounded alongside him. Journalists across the globe risk their lives each day to keep us informed, demand accountability from world leaders, and give a voice to those who would not otherwise be heard. The Libyan government and all governments across the world must take steps to protect journalists doing this vital work. The United States will work to do everything possible to assist those who were injured in getting the care they need. Our thoughts are with these brave journalists and their loved ones.

Carney released a statement about Hondros' death on Wednesday night:

We were deeply saddened to hear that journalist Chris Hondros has died as the result of injuries sustained while covering the conflict in Misrata. Chris's tragic death underscores the need to protect journalists as they cover conflicts across the globe. Our thoughts are with Chris's family and loved ones.

The war in Libya has been intensely dangerous for journalists. Beyond the multiple kidnappings and abuses reporters have suffered, Hetherington and Hondros' deaths bring the number of journalists killed to at least four.
On Wednesday, Getty posted photos taken just before Hondros was fatally injured. They show just how close he was to the fighting and to the destruction it was causing.
Photos by Chris Hondros (all images taken on 4/20 for Getty):

Pipe Bomb and Propane Tanks Discovered at Mall Near Columbine

2011-04-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

Photo: Jeff Haynes/Getty Images
On Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the deadly Columbine High School shooting, firefighters found two propane tanks and a pipe bomb at a mall located just miles from the high high school. The Southwest Plaza Mall was evacuated shortly after a fire broke out in the food court around noon and investigators discovered the tanks and bomb shortly after. Officials called the location and timing of the incident "disturbing." "The fact that has happened on April 20, 12 years later, near the school and with similar devices is very disturbing," said Jefferson County sheriff's spokesperson Jacki Kelley. "If it's kids, they're crazy not to know what this means in this town," Margie Hecht, told the The Denver Post. "I remember that day and they wouldn't think this is funny if they did." Around 25 schools were on lockout in response to the incident; classes at Columbine High School were canceled in remembrance of those killed. [AP]

Palestinians annoyed by Subaru spoof ad

2011-04-21T02:24:00.001-07:00

THE Palestinian Authority has called on the Israeli branch of carmaker Subaru to take action after an apparent parody advertisement showed one of their cars hitting Palestinian youths.
The supposed advertisement, which appeared on several websites, showed a well-known picture of an Israeli settler leader running over stone-throwing boys in east Jerusalem last year in a vehicle made by the Japanese carmaker.
Imposed over the scene was the Hebrew slogan: "See who will stand in your way..."
"It is not clear whether this is a genuine advertisement or whether someone is making use of the Subaru logo," a Palestinian government statement said.
Nevertheless, they said they had written to Subaru, urging them to take action against this "horrible use of a picture".
"We urge you to take all necessary steps to stop the circulation of this despicable and disgraceful ad and condemn it," the letter said.
In a statement to AFP, Subaru's Tel Aviv office said: "We have nothing to do with this incident and we strongly protest those who would harm our good reputation."
The picture used in the advert comes from an October 2010 incident in which settler leader David Beeri hit and lightly injured two masked stone-throwing boys, aged 10 and 11, in the flashpoint Silwan neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.
The incident was recorded by photographers and journalists who were there to cover the unrest that often follows Friday prayers.

In the driving seat? Rupert Murdoch's News Corp lines up Formula One takeover bid

2011-04-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

By Rob Cooper
Company in talks with world's richest man over forming a consortium
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in the early stages of talks to acquire control of Formula One motor racing, according to reports.
The company is in discussions with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and a major car manufacturer about forming a consortium to take over F1.
It would be the first time that the media giants have taken over a whole sport and any bid is likely to face huge regulatory hurdles.

Takeover? Formula One is currently majority owned by private equity firm CVC. Here Lewis Hamilton crosses the line to win the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday
Sky News - which is 39 per cent owned by News Corp - revealed the company is beginning the confidential discussions.
However, the company has not yet approached CVC, the private equity firm which has a majority shareholding.

But Bernie Ecclestone, the 80-year-old chief executive of Formula One, last night dismissed the report.
'It's rubbish. The sport is not for sale,' he told the Daily Telegraph. He effectively is able to veto any bid.
The BBC currently has the rights to broadcast the sport until the end of 2014 on a £40million-a-year deal.

Discussions: Rupert Murdoch, left, is in talks with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim over launching a takeover bid for Formula One
Formula One is not on the list of events that has to be shown on either the BBC or ITV - although Sky has never had the rights to it.
Car manufacturers could oppose a Rupert Murdoch-driven takeover of F1 because current deals maximise their media exposure.
A News Corp spokesman declined to comment on the report.

No deal: Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 chief executive, has said the sport is 'not for sale'
It is believed any bid is unlikely to be made before the end of the Concorde Agreement which states the terms the teams compete on next year.
A source told The Guardian: 'News Corp going into this transaction now is premature. They are thinking about F1 and options they could take but that is all it is at this stage.
'They will do nothing until after the next Concorde meeting, there is no way to possibly value or plan until after that.'
CVC bought F1 holding company SLEC in 2006 with Ecclestone remaining hands-on control of the business.
A number of smaller companies also have shareholdings in the sport.
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim - the world's richest man - already has a relationship with the sport via the Telmex-backed Sauber team through his eldest son Carlos Slim Domit.
Telmex is the Slim-owned leading fixed-line provider in Mexico.
A spokesman for Slim's group of companies declined to comment.
Participating in a consortium to try to buy F1 is only one of several options that News Corp is looking at in relation to the sport, according to Sky.
News Corp is currently attempting to buy out the remaining 61 per cent of satellite broadcaster BSkyB that it does not own.
Last month, News Corp took a huge step towards securing the deal when the Government accepted its proposals to ease competition concerns.

Winner: German Sebastien Vettel, who has taken the chequered flag in two out of the first three races of the season, is the reigning world champion