রবিবার, ৩১ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Video of Florida girls fighting goes viral, outrages parents

By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

A video of a fight between two young girls in Tampa, Fla., has outraged parents and law enforcement officials.

Viewed thousands of times since it was posted to Facebook,?the video shows a 7-year-old girl knocking a 6-year-old girl off an air conditioning unit, and then beating her on the ground, while being encouraged by her older sister. The date the video was taken is unclear.

Authorities got involved after a woman in Georgia saw the video online and alerted police, NBC affiliate WFLA in Tampa reported.


?I think anybody that would see this would be shocked,? Tampa Police Major Brian Dugan told WFLA.??The behavior of the 7-year-old and the 14-year-old to encourage this, and it?s wrong.?

The two girls are friends, WFLA reported, and they regularly spend the night at each other?s homes, which is why the father of the 7-year-old says he was stunned and angered by the video. ?

?I couldn?t watch no more, especially when I heard the child say leave me alone, stop, stop, stop,? the father told WFLA, adding that he immediately punished his 7-year-old daughter and is still upset at his 14-year-old daughter. ?I am disappointed in her.?She made a mistake. I can't hold it against her ... but to me she made a big mistake to the point I am still mad at her."

The 6-year-old?s mother told the station she didn?t plan to press charges, but the state attorney?s office has taken over the case. The teenage girl does not have a criminal past, and police say she may go through a counseling program as a result of the incident, WFLA reported.?

The father of the girls said he hope hopes his daughters learned a lesson.

"That won't happen again, you can believe that, you can believe that won't happen again, and I apologize to the parent. It just happens it is a messed up situation,? he told WFLA.?

Meanwhile, Tampa police say they don't know who posted the video to Facebook but are trying to figure out how to stop people from viewing the it online, WFLA reported.?

?We have reached out to Facebook and asked them to remove the video,? Dugan said.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a253a57/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C290C175185910Evideo0Eof0Eflorida0Egirls0Efighting0Egoes0Eviral0Eoutrages0Eparents0Dlite/story01.htm

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North Korea says it is in 'a state of war' with South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, noting that the Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for 60 years. But the North's continued threats toward Seoul and Washington, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike, have raised worries that a misjudgment between the sides could lead to a clash.

North Korea's threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang, and to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get it more aid. North Korea's moves are also seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.

On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.

North Korea said in a statement Saturday that it would deal with South Korea according to "wartime regulations" and would retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without notice.

"Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war," said the statement, which was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Provocations "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war," the statement said.

Hours after the statement, Pyongyang threatened to shut down the jointly run Kaesong industrial park, expressing anger over media reports suggesting the complex remained open because it was a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

"If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK even a bit, while speaking of the zone whose operation has been barely maintained, we will shut down the zone without mercy," an identified spokesman for the North's office controlling Kaesong said in comments carried by KCNA.

South Korea's Unification Ministry responded by calling the North Korean threat "unhelpful" to the countries' already frayed relations and vowed to ensure the safety of hundreds of South Korean managers who cross the border to their jobs in Kaesong. It did not elaborate.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said the country's military remains mindful of the possibility that increasing North Korean drills near the border could lead to an actual provocation.

"The series of North Korean threats ? announcing all-out war, scrapping the cease-fire agreement and the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North, cutting the military hotline, entering into combat posture No. 1 and entering a 'state of war' ? are unacceptable and harm the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Kim said.

"We are maintaining full military readiness in order to protect our people's lives and security," he told reporters Saturday.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Naval skirmishes in the disputed waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years.

But on the streets of Seoul on Saturday, South Koreans said they were not worried about an attack from North Korea.

"From other countries' point of view, it may seem like an extremely urgent situation," said Kang Tae-hwan, a private tutor. "But South Koreans don't seem to be that nervous because we've heard these threats from the North before."

The Kaesong industrial park, which is run with North Korean labor and South Korean know-how, has been operating normally, despite Pyongyang shutting down a communications channel typically used to coordinate travel by South Korean workers to and from the park just across the border in North Korea. The rivals are now coordinating the travel indirectly, through an office at Kaesong that has outside lines to South Korea.

North Korea has previously made such threats about Kaesong without acting on them, and recent weeks have seen a torrent of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang. North Korea is angry about the South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month.

Dozens of South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong. Using North Korea's cheap, efficient labor, the Kaesong complex produced $470 million worth of goods last year.

___

Follow Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/samkim_ap.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-says-state-war-skorea-014344604.html

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Kuwait PM says two Kuwaitis among 94 accused in UAE plot trial

RIYADH (Reuters) - Two Kuwaiti citizens are among 94 suspected Muslim Brotherhood members on trial in the United Arab Emirates accused of planning to overthrow the state, Kuwait's prime minister said.

The two are "suspected of involvement in financing this cell", Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said in an interview published by pan-Arab daily Asharaq al-Awsat on Saturday.

The UAE's attorney general was quoted in January as saying the group was linked to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and had sought to infiltrate state institutions with the aim of seizing power. The trial started early this month.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not banned in Kuwait, which has the most open political system in the Gulf, and several opposition politicians are openly affiliated with the group. Political parties are still barred in the country.

The UAE has avoided the unrest that has unseated autocratic Arab rulers elsewhere in the past two years. It has a state-sponsored cradle-to-grave welfare system and has come down hard on any sign of political dissent.

Kuwait and the UAE are both members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-member group of close Gulf Arab allies that also includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kuwait-pm-says-two-kuwaitis-among-94-accused-090550467.html

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শুক্রবার, ২৯ মার্চ, ২০১৩

I want to tell my family... - Empty Closets - A safe online community ...

I've decided that I want to tell my family, I have been considering it for a while but have had mixed feelings about doing so in the past, thinking maybe it was better to wit until I had met someone or that other things happening would make this the wrong time.

But I now think that it would probably be better to tell them now, not to just get it out the way, but I would rather that they hear this from me then someone else, as most of my friends now know and it is a pretty close knit circle of people with my parents family talking to there families.

The trouble is that as a family we don't tend to talk about stuff like this, my brother had been bringing home girls for years by the time he was my age and I have never brought a guy home so I am kind of hoping they at least suspect something, But I really don't know how to bring this up, I have also found it hard to tell even the closest of my friends, once it has been said then I find it fine to talk about it all but finding the first two words to say I'm gay seems really hard.

I want to do it right when I tell my family they mean a lot to me and I know I will only have to do this once, but I want to do it well and make them understand stuff that I struggle to understand myself. Also a couple if my friends have offered to come and help me if I want, but I feel like this is dragging them into something that they shouldn't have to do and I don;t want to make my family feel bad that I choose not to tell them first.

Any help/suggestions/opinions much appreciated thank you.

Source: http://emptyclosets.com/forum/coming-out-advice/89285-i-want-tell-my-family.html

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Pop-up Gmail compose now default whether you like it or not

Popup Gmail compose now default whether you like it or not

When Google soft launched its new Gmail composer last October, it did so in a preview release that gave users the option to test it out and turn it off. Not so anymore, because starting today that resizable, pop-up window is now the default interface for its web Gmail client. The widespread change was apparently spurred by abundant positive feedback from users that found the new layout bolstered multitasking -- a claim we're not entirely sold on. Regardless of your feelings towards this permanent switch, it's headed your way soon and should finish rolling out "over the next few days." So, turn and face the change, people -- it's not like you have a choice.

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Comments

Source: Official Gmail Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/kkkumzM8_ic/

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Italy's president seeks way out of political deadlock

By James Mackenzie

ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano meets political leaders on Friday in a bid to break a month-old stalemate after an election left no party able to form a government.

Center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who won the biggest share of the vote in the February 25 vote but fell short of a majority, told Napolitano on Thursday he had failed to secure enough support from rival parties to form a government.

The 87-year-old Napolitano, whose own term ends in mid-May, said he would personally meet representatives from the main parties to assess what options remain to prevent an early return to the polls.

The deadlock in Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, comes as the Cyprus banking crisis has revived fears of renewed financial market turmoil that could threaten the stability of the currency bloc.

After five days of talks, Bersani failed to secure a deal with either Berlusconi's center-right bloc, the second-largest force in parliament, or ex-comic Beppe Grillo's 5-Star Movement, which holds the balance of power.

The center-left leader rejected Berlusconi's demand that he be allowed to decide Napolitano's successor as head of state, and Grillo's populist group maintained its refusal to support a government led by any of the big parties it blames for Italy's social and economic crisis.

Napolitano's options now include appointing a figure from outside politics to lead a technocrat government like that of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti or a cross-party alliance backed by the big parties.

Among possible candidates are Fabrizio Saccomanni, the widely respected director general of the Bank of Italy, the head of the constitutional court Franco Gallo or former prime minister Giuliano Amato.

Napolitano meets representatives from former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party at 1000 GMT, before seeing the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and finally Bersani's Democratic Party (PD) in the evening.

CRISIS

The political gridlock has fed growing worries about Italy's ability to confront a prolonged economic crisis that has left it in deep recession for more than a year, with a 2-trillion-euro public debt and record unemployment, especially among the young.

Rumours have been circulating for days that ratings agency Moody's is preparing to cut its rating on Italy's sovereign debt, which is already only two notches above "junk" grade, partly due to the uncertain political outlook.

The immediate pressure from the bond markets has been taken off during the Easter break but failure to make progress in securing an agreement could lead to new turbulence next week after a steady rise in Italy's borrowing costs in recent days.

However the prospects appear slim of appointing the kind of government capable of turning around an economy that has been in decline for more than a decade, with deep-rooted problems ranging from corruption to suffocating bureaucracy.

Napolitano has made clear that he does not want Italy to go back to new elections immediately, not least because the widely criticised election law is likely to lead to a similar inconclusive result.

However even a so-called "president's government" led by a political outsider, would need the backing of parliament, which may be difficult to secure given the deep divisions which remain between the parties.

Many are turning their thoughts towards new elections, with Berlusconi's center-right bloc confident that the momentum created by the 76-year-old billionaire's surge in the final weeks of the last election campaign will continue.

"We're not afraid of going back to vote," Daniela Santanche, one of Berlusconi's most faithful allies told the daily La Repubblica. "The opinion polls are telling us that we'd win and the PD would lose 150 deputies," she said.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-president-seeks-way-political-deadlock-091517168.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৮ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Fewer children mean longer life?

Thursday, March 28, 2013

New research into ageing processes, based on modern genetic techniques, confirms theoretical expectations about the correlation between reproduction and lifespan. Studies of birds reveal that those that have offspring later in life and have fewer broods live longer. And the decisive factor is telomeres, shows research from The University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. The length of telomeres influences how long an individual lives.

Telomeres start off at a certain length, become shorter each time a cell divides, decline as the years pass by until the telomeres can no longer protect the chromosomes, and the cell dies. But the length of telomeres varies significantly among individuals of the same age. This is partly due to the length of the telomeres that has been inherited from the parents, and partly due to the amount of stress an individual is exposed to.

"This is important, not least for our own species, as we are all having to deal with increased stress," says Angela Pauliny, Researcher from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.

Researchers have studied barnacle geese, which are long-lived birds, the oldest in the study being 22 years old. The results show that geese, compared to short-lived bird species, have a better ability to preserve the length of their telomeres. The explanation is probably that species with a longer lifespan invest more in maintaining bodily functions than, for example, reproduction.

"There is a clear correlation between reproduction and ageing in the animal world. Take elephants, which have a long lifespan but few offspring, while mice, for example, live for a short time but produce a lot of offspring each time they try," says Angela Pauliny.

The geese studied by researchers varied in age, from very young birds to extremely old ones. Each bird was measured twice, two years apart. One striking result was that the change in telomere length varied according to gender.

"The study revealed that telomeres were best-preserved in males. Among barnacle geese, the telomeres thus shorten more quickly in females, which in birds is the sex with two different gender chromosomes. Interestingly, it is the exactl opposite in humans," says Angela Pauliny.

###

The journal BMC Evolutionary Biology has classified the research article "Telomere dynamics in a long-lived bird, the barnacle goose" as "Highly Accessed".

Link to the article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/12/257

University of Gothenburg: http://www.gu.se/english

Thanks to University of Gothenburg for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127500/Fewer_children_mean_longer_life_

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Obama gives Secret Service its 1st female director

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday named veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency's first female director, signaling his desire to change the culture at the male-dominated service, which has been marred by scandal.

Pierson, who most recently served as the agency's chief of staff, will take over from Mark Sullivan, who announced his retirement last month. The agency faced intense criticism during Sullivan's tenure for a prostitution scandal during preparations for Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia, last year.

The incident raised questions within the agency - as well as at the White House and on Capitol Hill - about the culture, particularly during foreign travel. In addition to protecting the president, the Secret Service also investigates financial crimes.

"Over her 30 years of experience with the Secret Service, Julia has consistently exemplified the spirit and dedication the men and women of the service demonstrate every day," Obama said in a statement announcing Pierson's appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also praised Obama's "historic decision" to name Pierson as the service's first female director.

Pierson, 53, has held high-ranking posts throughout the Secret Service, including deputy assistant director of the office of protective operations and assistant director of human resources and training. She has served as chief of staff since 2008.

That same year, Pierson was awarded the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award for superior performance in management throughout her career.

She joined the Secret Service in 1983 as a special agent and previously worked as a police officer in Orlando, Fla.

"Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own," Obama said. "Julia has had an exemplary career, and I know these experiences will guide her as she takes on this new challenge to lead the impressive men and women of this important agency."

Thirteen Secret Service employees were caught up in last year's prostitution scandal. After a night of heavy partying in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, the employees brought women, including prostitutes, to the hotel where they were staying. The incident became public after one agent refused to pay a prostitute and the pair argued about payment in a hotel hallway.

Eight of the employees were forced out of the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and at least two have been fighting to get their jobs back.

The incident took place before Obama arrived in Colombia and the service said the president's safety was never compromised. But news of the scandal broke during his trip, overshadowing the summit and embarrassing the U.S. delegation.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the Secret Service has "lost the trust of many Americans" following the Colombia scandal. Pierson, he said Tuesday, "has a lot of work ahead of her to create a culture that respects the important job the agency is tasked with."

Sullivan issued a new code of conduct that bans employees from drinking within 10 hours of starting a shift or bringing foreign nationals back to their hotel rooms.

Sullivan apologized for the incident last year during testimony before a Senate panel.

___

Associated Press writer Alicia Caldwell contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-gives-secret-1st-female-director-200139194--politics.html

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বুধবার, ২৭ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Britain loses battle over EU bank bonus caps

By Claire Davenport

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain suffered a long-expected political defeat on Wednesday when it failed to stop European Union countries waving through a cap on bankers' bonuses, an EU law that will hit London hardest.

Corporate largesse is under attack across Europe with Switzerland earlier this month voting to impose some of the world's strictest controls on executive remuneration amid public anger at Wall Street-style excess in company boardrooms.

But capping bonuses at the level of base salary represents a setback for Britain - home to the EU's largest financial centre - and, for some, underscores the country's waning influence in the EU.

Earlier this year, Chancellor George Osborne tried to change the new rules but none of his EU counterparts supported him. Britain could not veto the rules on its own.

A spokeswoman for the rotating EU presidency, currently held by Ireland, said ambassadors from member states had reached a qualified majority agreement on the rules.

The bonus caps are one element of new regulations to strengthen banks' balance sheets and prevent a repeat of the taxpayer bailouts that have fuelled public anger at the sector.

Other measures include increasing the level of capital and liquid assets held by banks and are part of the new framework to introduce internationally agreed rules known as Basel III.

Some members of the European Parliament are also seeking to extend bonus curbs to fund managers but these have not yet been agreed.

On Wednesday the cap for banker bonuses received the support of 26 EU countries - all members except Britain - at a meeting of the bloc's ambassadors.

A referendum this month in Switzerland - which is outside the European Union - voted 67.9 percent in favour of allowing shareholders to veto executive pay proposals and banning big rewards for new and departing managers.

Britain's Osborne opposes the bonus caps which he says would weaken rather than strengthen banks by forcing them to raise fixed salaries to retain staff.

While the rules are set to be introduced as early as January 2014, the provisions for bonus limits will impact payouts made only in the following year.

The rules should make it harder to make large payouts such as the bonus worth more than 17 million pounds cashed in this week by Rich Ricci, the head of Barclays' investment bank.

The strict limits have already been slightly eased by allowing bonuses of twice base salary if shareholders agree, but are nonetheless the toughest in the world. They will also apply to the staff of European banks operating outside the region.

Bankers willing to wait longer than five years for some of their payout could slightly exceed the two times salary limit.

Up to a quarter of a banker's bonus can be paid in such long-term instruments as share options, bonds or other non-cash payments which can be cashed in after five years.

The European Parliament is set to formally endorse the new rules in April.

(Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-loses-battle-over-eu-bank-bonus-caps-154142432--sector.html

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Can hard-right ideology win in a 50/50 state?

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Virginia is conducting nothing short of a grand political experiment in 2013, testing whether a tea party favorite can carry a closely divided state with conservative roots. If Ken Cuccinelli wins the race for governor, he will have undercut Republican moderates' claims that hard-right ideologies are hurting the party ? and undoubtedly intensify a debate already roiling the GOP.

Despite its Southern conservative history, Virginia is not Kansas or Oklahoma. President Barack Obama carried it twice after years of Republican dominance, and both U.S. senators are Democrats. Democrats and Republicans have battled fiercely for control of the state Legislature and governorship for years, with Republicans holding the edge lately.

It's hard to find a more 50-50 state where moderate and independent voters loom large in fall general elections.

Cuccinelli, the fiery attorney general running for governor this year, is no garden variety conservative. He once told college leaders they couldn't ban anti-gay discrimination. He advised Catholic clergy to go to jail to protest federal contraceptive coverage mandates. He investigated a former Virginia scientist over his climate change research. All this gave Cuccinelli a national profile few attorneys general attain.

His in-your-face conservatism contrasts with the more measured style of successful Republicans in other toss-up states, including Pat McCrory, North Carolina's first Republican governor in 20 years.

Some Virginia Republicans had hoped to thwart Cuccinelli's nomination, fearing he's too extreme for the swing state. But a conservative takeover of the state party last summer ensured it.

A more moderate Republican recently decided against an independent candidacy, and GOP officials are rallying around Cuccinelli in his Nov. 5 showdown with Terry McAullife. The former national Democratic Party chairman and New York native was a major fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Some GOP strategists nervously point to states where Republicans lost winnable elections in 2010 and 2012 after tea party-backed candidates wrested the nominations from moderates.

Most of those races were for the Senate, however. It's hard to know if similar dynamics will play out in a gubernatorial race in an off-year election, when no federal candidates are on the ballot.

For now, Democrats are optimistic.

"They must be saying, 'Once more the Republicans have given us a gift,'" said Steve Jarding, a veteran Virginia Democratic strategist now teaching at Harvard.

He said Virginia Republicans should view the intraparty tension "sort of like a cancer. You've got to remove it early or you risk killing the party."

Cuccinelli used a high-profile setting this month to make nods toward the political center. Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, he went relatively easy on the red-meat lines that conservatives eat up, and used phrases seldom heard at the often bombastic annual convention.

He called for greater support for the mentally ill and for felons who may have been wrongly convicted. Virginia must "protect our most vulnerable citizens," he said, "at every stage of life." That seemed an indirect reference to opposing abortion, something he usually hits head-on.

Cuccinelli needn't look far to see the challenges for a conservative champion trying to moderate his record. In fact, he has complicated similar efforts by Virginia's current GOP governor, Bob McDonnell, who is seen as having presidential ambitions.

A tea party group aired ads in Iowa and New Hampshire attacking McDonnell for bipartisan legislation to reshape Virginia's failing transportation funding system, which includes some new taxes. In a twist, Cuccinelli vigorously opposed and nearly scuttled the transportation deal. But McAuliffe backed it.

The Iowa ad, narrated by Virginia Tea Party Federation past chairman Jamie Radtke, said McDonnell's transportation deal broke a 2009 campaign promise never to raise taxes. "Remember, you can't believe a word he says," it concluded.

McDonnell, a top Mitt Romney liaison with conservatives just a few months ago, was not invited to speak at CPAC. "You stick to your conservative principles but you focus on results and not just on rhetoric," McDonnell said of the snub.

Veteran GOP strategist Charlie Black said Cuccinelli is in trouble if he can't unify his party and expand his image beyond social conservatism.

"Yes, he's a strong social conservative, but he's not leading with that in the campaign," Black said. "I think he'll be prepared with answers for all of that."

In a new Quinnipiac University poll, 32 percent of Virginia voters said Cuccinelli's political philosophy is "about right," while 29 percent said he is too conservative and 5 percent said he is too liberal. One-third of voters had no opinion. The poll found that neither Cuccinelli nor McAuliffe is well-known among state voters.

McDonnell isn't the only socially conservative governor who has drawn fire from the right for pivoting toward the center on fiscal issues.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott, a former hospital corporation executive whose loathing of Obama's health care law fueled his candidacy, was excoriated by tea partyers for last month's about-face to expand Medicaid in Florida.

Similar criticisms have fallen on Republican governors John Kasich of Ohio, Jan Brewer of Arizona and Rick Snyder of Michigan for agreeing to Medicaid expansions under "Obamacare."

Cuccinelli's success or failure in Virginia will cause ripples across the country.

"What we're seeing is the outgrowth of the divide we've seen coming in the Republican Party for quite some time," said Virginia Beach tea party activist Karen Miner Hurd. "In the Republican Party organization nationally, you're seeing this play out."

Asked what the GOP will look like in four of five years, Hurd replied, "That depends on whether the Republican Party survives."

___

Babington reported from Washington.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hard-ideology-win-50-50-state-070955613--election.html

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Coaches survive show-cause orders

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2009, file photo, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl yells to his team during the second half of Tennessee's basketball game against Austin Peay in Knoxville, Tenn. A three-year, show-cause order from the NCAA in August 2011 for lying to NCAA investigators about improperly hosting recruits at his home didn't keep Pearl from joining ESPN as a college basketball analyst little more than a year later. That was after a stint at Sirius Radio. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2009, file photo, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl yells to his team during the second half of Tennessee's basketball game against Austin Peay in Knoxville, Tenn. A three-year, show-cause order from the NCAA in August 2011 for lying to NCAA investigators about improperly hosting recruits at his home didn't keep Pearl from joining ESPN as a college basketball analyst little more than a year later. That was after a stint at Sirius Radio. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)

In this Nov. 10, 2012, photo, Houston Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson talks to players during their NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in Houston. The NCAA hit Sampson with a five-year "show-cause" order after Sampson was a college coach at Oklahoma and Indiana, for improper calls to recruits. Sampson resigned at Indiana. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

(AP) ? Few words are less welcome to college basketball coaches than "show cause," shorthand for the NCAA penalty designed to keep those sanctioned for misconduct at one school from quickly jumping to another campus.

Yet an Associated Press review of infractions cases since 2000 found that show-cause orders tend to have a sharply uneven impact.

Of the 44 former men's basketball coaches given show-cause orders since 2000, at least 25 found other basketball jobs, usually after the orders expired. Some remained involved with big-time programs, while others labored in obscurity at junior colleges, high schools or AAU programs. A few have found second acts in the NBA or as TV analysts.

Head coaches hit with show-cause orders tend to fare far better than the assistants deemed complicit in their misdeeds, the AP found.

Take former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. A three-year, show-cause order in August 2011 for lying to NCAA investigators about improperly hosting recruits at his home didn't keep him from joining ESPN as a college basketball analyst little more than a year later. That was after a stint at Sirius Radio.

Former Pearl assistant Steve Forbes, who was handed a one-year order, is head coach at Northwest Florida State College. His top assistant is Jason Shay, who also left Tennessee with a one-year show cause. Tony Jones, a third Pearl assistant who received a one-year order, is a preps coach in Alcoa, Tenn.

Washington State assistant Ray Lopes joined the Cougars in May 2012 after a pair of show-cause orders given to him for making hundreds of impermissible recruiting phone calls ? first at Oklahoma from 1995 to 2002 under Kelvin Sampson, and then again as Fresno State's head coach several years later.

"Many, many doors were shut on me out of fear, because of the show-cause tag on my resume," said Lopes, who started his climb back to the college ranks as an associate coach in the NBA D-League. "I was basically not worth taking a chance on, even though I had developed a pretty good reputation. None of that seemed to matter ... I almost gave up hope."

Under the penalty, schools that want to hire coaches with active show-cause orders essentially must prove to the NCAA that the rule-breaker has made amends. If not, any broader sanctions levied against the offender's former school can carry over to the new employer.

Former New Mexico State assistant Fletcher Cockrell left coaching for law school after receiving a 10-year order in 2001. The NCAA found that former Aggies coach Neil McCarthy agreed to hire Cockrell from Jones County Community College in Mississippi if he steered two of his JUCO players to Las Cruces. The NCAA also found Cockrell guilty of academic fraud by providing test answers to the two players.

"I'm doing quite well," said Cockrell, now a Houston attorney. "I'm OK, trust me."

So is Sampson, who is now an NBA assistant with the Houston Rockets following previous jobs with the Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs. He declined to comment for this story.

The punishment has a long history. According to the NCAA, the University of Nebraska-Omaha received the first show-cause penalty in April 1963 ? an institutional penalty after the football team played in an unsanctioned postseason game. A decade later, the NCAA handed down what appears to be its first show-cause penalty against an individual, when the athletic director at what was then known as Bloomsburg State College in Pennsylvania was found to have improperly raised scholarship money from outside boosters.

Show-cause orders are more prevalent now, with the NCAA issuing more than 100 overall since 2000, covering sports from football and basketball to baseball, soccer, track, swimming, golf, rugby and rowing. Ten such orders were handed down in three of the past five years, with the penalties' duration ranging from two months to 10 years.

And coaches aren't the only ones hit. Recent show-cause orders have been issued against tutors, volunteer coaches, graduate assistants, secretaries, athletic directors, compliance officers, faculty athletic representatives and directors of operations.

The NCAA was unable to provide more detailed statistics that could further help assess the impact of show-cause orders, including the number of times its Committee on Infractions has heard requests from show-cause coaches to work elsewhere ? as well as the number of times such requests were allowed or denied.

Rod Uphoff, a member of the infractions committee since 2009, said NCAA punishments tend to mirror the criminal justice system, where judges consider a range of penalties depending on the severity of the violation and the history of the offender.

"Sometimes, with youthful assistant coaches who seem to be operating under the (influence) of a head coach, the committee may be more sympathetic than with an assistant coach who's been around for 20 years and ought to know the rules better," he said.

Uphoff, a University of Missouri law professor, said the committee employs show-cause orders not to run off unscrupulous coaches, but to put future employers on notice.

"They need to ensure that there are safeguards in place so that this person won't be tempted to violate the rules in the future," he said. Uphoff added that he couldn't recall a single case during his tenure of a show-cause employee or a prospective new boss petitioning the committee for another chance.

Of course, programs outside NCAA oversight don't need to seek such permission. Former Radford coach Brad Greenberg got a job in June 2012 leading Maccabi Haifa, a pro basketball team in Israel, mere months after receiving a five-year show cause order for misleading NCAA investigators looking into improper benefits for athletes.

Two Greenberg assistants coach high school teams in Virginia and Florida. His former director of basketball operations coaches at a Virginia military academy. Each received two-year orders.

Others, however, struggle to recover from show-cause orders, years after the penalties expire.

Twelve years after receiving a three-year order for reportedly watching recruits during a pickup game, former Buffalo coach Tim Cohane is suing the NCAA in federal court over what he calls a botched investigation in which his former players were threatened with losing their scholarships if they didn't incriminate their former coach.

Cohane is now associate head coach at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, a Division III school. He's also an adjunct law professor whose online faculty bio says he attended law school to "be able to represent student-athletes and coaches against the (NCAA)."

Kent State coach Rob Senderoff, a former Sampson assistant at Indiana, successfully petitioned the infractions committee in November 2008 to allow his hiring as an assistant at the school where he had previously spent four years despite a three-year show cause order for his role in the impermissible phone calls case.

Former Kent State athletic director Laing Kennedy, now retired, joined Senderoff at the committee hearing in a show of support. Kennedy's successor then hired Senderoff as head coach in 2011.

Like Lopes, Senderoff acknowledged his mistakes ? though both pointed out that the NCAA in January agreed to allow coaches to make unlimited calls and send as many text messages as they want to recruits who have completed their sophomore year of high school. The association now plans to reconsider those changes in response to a swift backlash from some football coaches and athletic directors, including those in the Big Ten.

"I certainly am in the minority," Senderoff said. "I do think you can survive and bounce back from it. I don't know if I would have been able to go to another place. I'm more than grateful. I understand how fortunate I am."

___

Alan Scher Zagier can be reached at http://twitter.com/azagier

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-27-NCAA-Show%20Cause/id-a511f0c840ba4e7e8bd8662aa87cafca

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রবিবার, ২৪ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Four Pets Dead After Fire | WNEP.com

fire

MILTON ? A fire left four animals dead in Northumberland County.

Firefighters said that the fire started at a home on Dougal Street, just before 8:30, Friday night.

Officials said Crews had the flames under control in 20 minutes, but it was too late to save the house, two dogs, and two cats from the fire.

According to investigators, the fire was caused by an electrical surge protector.

The home owners will be staying with family, and assisted by the Red Cross.

Source: http://wnep.com/2013/03/23/four-pets-dead-after-fire/

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২১ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Singaporean Ad-Matching Platform AdzCentral Gets $3.2M Series A

adzcentral logoAdzCentral, an ad-matching platform from Singapore, has received $3.2 million (S$4 million) in funding from Electric Sheep Capital and Digital Media Partners . The company provides an engine to advertisers that serves up ads based on targeted audience demographics. Companies spell out the parameters of their intended audience and AdzCentral’s ads are displayed to people based on what sites they’ve visited (tracked through cookies) or other information shared by partner sites. Some companies call it “programmatic buying”, or “smart media buying”, or other permutations of the word “intelligent”, really, but it’s basically ad-matching. These providers are also responsible for the ads that seem to chase you around different websites pushing information that seems to be all-too-appropriate, such as previously browsed shop items. The company’s founder and CEO, Reza Behnam said he industry estimates peg the U.S. market for ad-matching to be worth about $6 billion in 2015, making up about 25 percent of digital display ads in that year. This is up from 13 percent last year, representing some impressive growth, if it happens. And in Asia, digital ad spend is about $25 billion, with only 3 percent of that based on ad-matching. That will become 20 percent in 2015, he said, citing other analyst estimates. It’s the Asia angle that he’s counting on. AdzCentral competes with U.S. giants like Rocket Fuel and Acceleration (acquired by WPP), but being in Asia allows it to serve advertisers or Asian subsidiaries of MNCs, said Behnam. It counts brands like SingTel, Standard Chartered, Hyundai and 3M as clients, and has served about 1,000 companies over a base of 100 clients in its three years of operations. The company isn’t profitable yet, he said, but is planning to spend its Series A money in Southeast Asian expansion efforts. It has “quietly launched” in Thailand and Malaysia so far, with people on the ground. It hasn’t set up offices in those countries, but it is looking to, he said. Vietnam and the Philippines will come later, and it has some advertising partners in India and the Middle East, he said. There are about twenty employees on the ground right now. AdzCentral started in 2010, and won “seven-digit” seed funding in August that year from a group of angels that included the Singapore government’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and Joichi Ito-fronted Neoteny Labs. Behnam was formerly the managing director of Yahoo for Southeast Asia in 2004,

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zk70YPzFs6Q/

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মঙ্গলবার, ১৯ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Israel's Netanyahu says he's willing to make concessions for 'real peace'

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's prime minister said Monday that his new government was extending its hand in peace to the Palestinians, declaring that he is ready to make a "historic compromise" if they return to the negotiating table with good will.

Laying out the agenda for his new term, Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes to rejuvenate peace efforts, which remained frozen throughout Netanyahu's just-completed four-year term.

Netanyahu spoke before a ceremony to install his new coalition government, stitched together after nearly six weeks of negotiations following Israel's Jan. 23 parliamentary election. The new team, made up of hard-liners and moderates, appears to be focused more on domestic issues than peacemaking.

Netanyahu struck the conciliatory tone on the eve of the arrival of President Barack Obama, who will hold separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. But he spoke only in generalities and gave no details on any concrete concessions he has in mind.

"We extend our hand in peace to the Palestinians," Netanyahu said. "Israel has proven time and again it is ready for concessions in exchange for real peace, and the situation today is no different."

"With a Palestinian partner that is willing to hold negotiations in good will, Israel will be ready for a historic compromise that will end the conflict with the Palestinians once and for all," he said.

Recognizing the deep gaps between the sides, the White House has already said Obama will not bring any bold new peace initiatives with him, but will instead send Secretary of State John Kerry back to the region in the near future to see if progress can be made.

The Palestinians refused to negotiate with Netanyahu in his last term while Israel continued to build homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians say construction in the areas, which Israel captured in 1967 and where they hope to establish a state, is a sign of bad faith. More than 500,000 Israelis now live in the two areas.

Netanyahu has refused to halt settlement construction, saying negotiations should resume without any preconditions. But the international community has shown growing impatience with the Israelis.

Since winning re-election, Netanyahu has said he would make peace efforts a priority in his new term. But during weeks of coalition negotiations, he gave little indication of what he would do. Monday's speech was also devoid of specifics.

Ahead of Netanyahu's speech, one of his key partners, Avigdor Lieberman, said anyone who thinks peace can be reached is "delusional." Lieberman also said he would fight any attempts to freeze settlement construction.

Considering this recipe for deadlock, the Palestinians have shown no optimism over the new Israeli government.

The Israeli election focused heavily on domestic issues, such as the high cost of living and calls to end a contentious system that has allowed ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students to be exempt from compulsory military service.

Netanyahu played down these issues in his speech. He said that while there is a "golden moment" to deal with them, his first concern was to protect Israel. He listed a number of security threats to Israel, including Iran's suspect nuclear program, instability in neighboring Egypt, the civil war to Israel's north in Syria and the threat of sophisticated weapons reaching the hands of violent anti-Israel groups.

"That is why the first priority in the course of the new government will be the protection of the state and its citizens," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israels-netanyahu-says-government-wants-peace-140102469.html

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Federal Aid

Posted on Mar 18th 2013. Tags: Federal

Federal Aid

www.weber.edu/GetIntoWeber/./apply_for_federal_aid.html - CachedApplying for financial can be an involved process especially if you are www.actstudent.org/finaid/federal.html - Cached - SimilarThe government requires students to complete the U.S. Department of usgovinfo.about.com/./federalbenefitprograms/./Are-You-Eligible-For-Government-Benefits.htm - Cached - SimilarHow can the government help me? A new Web site from the U.S. Department of www.ggu.edu/enrollment/financial-aid/federal-aid - CachedThe US Department of Education provides to citizens of the US to pursue https://www.dot.ny.gov/./locally-administered-federal-aid-projects - CachedThe Procedures for Locally Administered Projects manual (PLAFAP) www.apu.apus.edu/tuition-and-finance/federal.aid/index.htm - CachedWorking your way through the application process for Student can www.fema.gov/news./federal-aid-programs-state-ohio-declaration - CachedJan 3, 2013. Following is a summary of key disaster programs that can be made www.fema.gov/./federal-aid-programs-state-new-york-disaster-recovery - CachedOct 30, 2012. Following is a summary of key disaster programs that can be made www.enmu.edu/services/financialaid/fa_types.shtml - CachedThe Department of Education student programs are the largest www.wsac.wa.gov/./FinancialAidPrograms/FederalAid - CachedFederal Student Programs. Through the U.S. Dept. of Education, the www.fafsa.ed.gov/ - Cached - SimilarElectronically submit the Free Application for Student (FAFSA). All topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/./f/federal_aid./index.html - Cached - SimilarNews about United States Commentary and archival information studentaid.ed.gov/eligibility - CachedStudents are eligible to receive student if they have a high school www.forbes.com/./gop-congressmen-who-begged-for-federal-aid-in-disasters-striking-home-districts-vote-against-sandy-aid/ - CachedJan 4, 2013. The first piece of the bill to assist victims of Super Storm Sandy passed the www.kendall.edu/.aid/changes-to-federal-aid-programs-for-2012-13 - CachedFederal Financial Changes for 20122013.

The Office of Financial would www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/ranks/rank22.html - Cachedrankings of states for to state and local governments per capita. www.usa.gov/./federal/federal-student-aid-information-center.shtml - CachedMar 7, 2013. Directory listing for Student Information Center. www.huffingtonpost.com/./for-profit-colleges-lose-federal-aid-90-10_n_1920190.html - CachedSep 28, 2012. For-profit colleges collected $32 billion from the government in the 2010- www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/federal-aid/ - Cached - SimilarFederal student financial is an integral part of many students' plans for paying www.columbia.edu/cu/sfs/docs/Grad_Fin_Aid/Federal/index.html - SimilarTo be considered for financial you must be a U.S. citizen or an en.wikipedia.org/./Administration_of_federal_assistance_in_the_United_States - Cached - SimilarIn the United States, assistance, also known as financialaid.uc.edu/eligibility/recalculation/R2T4.html - CachedNOTE: Students who partially withdraw from courses for the term are not subject taxfoundation.org/blog/federal-aid-states-rising-despite-sequester - Cached6 days ago. Every speech I give, every panel I'm on, every trends piece I write nowadays www.michigan.gov/./0,4616,7-151-9622_11033_11155--,00.html - CachedMichigan Department of Transportation - National Functional Classification (NFC) www.fhwa.dot.gov/federalaid/ - Cached - SimilarSkip to content United States Department of Transportation - Highway www.youtube.com/user/FederalStudentAid - Cached - SimilarFederal Student an Office of the U.S. Dept. of Education, helps make a studentaid.ed.gov/redirects/federal-student-aid-ed-gov - CachedGet links to content and information that was available previously on the chronicle.com/article/Share-of-Students-Receiving/132016/ - CachedMay 24, 2012. Eighty-five percent of students over all receive financial At for-profit www.excelsior.edu/overview-of-federal-aid - Cached - SimilarFederal financial funds are offered primarily on the basis of financial need.

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- CachedImproving college access and afford- ability is key to giving more Americans a www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_63.pdf - CachedNo. 63 February 2011. Aid-to-State Programs Top 1,100 by Chris financialaid.byuh.edu/?q=node/8 - Cached - SimilarFederal Financial Programs. New for 2011-2012 Academic year. Elimination www.geauga.kent.edu/admissions/financialaid/federal-aid.cfm - CachedFederal - Campus Based Programs Some of the financial www.usnews.com/./look-out-for-these-federal-aid-changes-in-2012 - CachedJan 25, 2012. New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college. www.ecsu.edu/administration/./financialaid/./federalstudentaidglance.pdf - CachedDO YOU NEED MONEY FOR COLLEGE? Student at a Glance 2012 studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/federal-vs-private - CachedFederal student loans offer advantages many private loans don't: low fixed www.stonybrook.edu/finaid/applying/federal.shtml - Cached - SimilarApplying for In order to be considered for financial from the www.byui.edu/financial-aid/transfer-students/federal-aid - CachedA FAFSA is a Free Application for Student FAFSA determines a

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Pocket Tanks: classic arcade tank battles

Pocket Tanks

Games like Pocket Tanks have been around in some form or another for decades, on who knows how many platforms. Pocket Tanks itself has been around since 2001, and is now bringing a little slice of nostalgia to Android. The game certainly looks like it is over 10 years old but plays smoothly like a game that was made today -- and best of all is free to play.

Jump into our time machine after the break and check out Pocket Tanks for Android.

read more



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Y7TT5r5UM9Q/story01.htm

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রবিবার, ১৭ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Drone documents case: federal appeals court rules against CIA

Judge rejects CIA argument that it had no 'interest' in lethal drone strikes. He called the CIA argument neither logical nor plausible, since US officials have acknowledged involvement.

By Warren Richey,?Staff writer / March 15, 2013

Pakistani villagers rally in Islamabad, Pakistan, to condemn US drone attacks along the Afghanistan border in this Dec. 10, 2010 file photo. The head of a U.N. team investigating casualties from US drone strikes declared on Friday that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty. Also on Friday, a US court of appeals ruled against the CIA over drones documents.

B.K. Bangash/AP/File

Enlarge

A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to the use of drone aircraft in targeted killings overseas.

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The CIA had initially responded to the Jan. 2010 FOIA request by stating that it would neither confirm not deny the existence of any documents at the agency related to the secret program.

A federal judge accepted the argument and dismissed the FOIA request in Sept. 2011.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the request, appealed.

The appeals court decision sends the case back to federal court where the CIA will be required to present a list of documents potentially relevant to the ACLU?s request.?

The decision doesn?t mean the ACLU will necessarily gain access to any or all documents.

But the decision is significant in a broader way.

?This is an important victory. It requires the government to retire the absurd claim that the CIA?s interest in the targeted killing program is a secret, and it will make it more difficult for the government to deflect questions about the program?s scope and legal basis,? ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, in statement.

?It also means that the CIA will have to explain what records it is withholding, and on what grounds it is withholding them,? Mr. Jaffer said.

The ACLU request for information was made in an effort to shed light on America?s lethal drone program. The lawyers want the agency to reveal when and where drones are being used, and who is being targeted.

They are also seeking information about how the government is guaranteeing compliance with international law against extrajudicial killings.

In its decision on Friday, the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the CIA?s argument that it was under no obligation to reveal the existence of drone-related documents at the agency.

Government lawyers had said that since no CIA or executive branch official had disclosed whether the CIA ?has an interest in drone strikes,? there was no basis for the agency to respond in any way to the FOIA request. The agency maintained that any response ? either confirming or denying ? would reveal sensitive information.

Writing for the panel, Chief Judge Merrick Garland dismissed the CIA?s position as ?neither logical nor plausible.?

He noted that President Obama, then-counter terrorism adviser John Brennan, and then-CIA Director Leon Panetta had all given public statements acknowledging the drone program.

?Given these official acknowledgments that the United States has participated in drone strikes, it is neither logical nor plausible for the CIA to maintain that it would reveal anything not already in the public domain to say that the Agency at least has an intelligence interest in such strikes,? Judge Garland wrote.

?The defendant is, after all, the Central Intelligence Agency. And it strains credulity to suggest that an agency charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an ?intelligence interest? in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself,? the judge said.

Officials at the ACLU praised the decision.

?We hope that this ruling will encourage the Obama administration to fundamentally reconsider the secrecy surrounding the targeted killing program,? Jaffer said. ?The program has already been responsible for the deaths of more than 4,000 people in an unknown number of countries. The public surely has a right to know who the government is killing, and why, and in which countries, and on whose orders,? he said.

?The Obama administration, which has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of government transparency, should give the public the information it needs in order to fully evaluate the wisdom and lawfulness of the government?s policies,? Jaffer said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/mdBuLfq9Qkk/Drone-documents-case-federal-appeals-court-rules-against-CIA

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শনিবার, ৯ মার্চ, ২০১৩

Hiring speeding up? Not so fast, businesses say

The holiday shopping season was so busy at Balliets, a clothing store in Oklahoma City, that owner Bob Benham had to ask his sales staff to work extra hours to keep up with the pickup in foot traffic.

But with business now softening again in the new year, he?s not convinced it?s time to start hiring more full time workers yet.

?Our customers are cautious,? he said. ?And that makes me cautious. I?m keeping my inventories just about at year-ago levels. And in terms of my fall buying, which we?re in the middle of now, I?m planning flat.?

That kind of restraint is reflected in the government?s latest employment report data. Employers added some 265,000 workers last month, stronger than forecasters had expected and an encouraging sign that the job market has healed well enough to provide a steady supply of new jobs.

But the increased pace of hiring is still well below levels normally seen more than three years into an economic recovery.

With roughly 150,000 new jobs needed every month just to keep up with population growth, last month?s relatively solid gains clipped the unemployment rate by another two tenths of a point. But at 7.7 percent, that?s still painfully high.

Related: Jobless rate for post-9/11 vets running heavy

?The strong showing in February is welcome,? said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. ?But given the jobs deficit of 8.9 million jobs (from the 2007 recession), even at February?s growth rate we wouldn?t get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate until 2017.?

Despite the relatively slow pace of hiring, employers like Benham have been able to maintain, or even expand, profits by keeping payrolls tight. As long as workers are willing to pick up the added hours to keep up with the occasional uptick in demand, employers have been able to keep their costs in check.

Benham?s uncertainty about businesses prospects this year is a direct reflection of the level of circumspection he sees among his customers

?I think people are just not sure of the future at this point, he said. ?They?re just kind of waiting and seeing what?s going to happen next.?

It?s not hard to see why.

For one thing, the November election seems to have done little to break the ongoing political gridlock over the federal budget that has seized the government for more than two years. Consumers are just now absorbing the combined impact of payroll tax hikes and looming cuts to the federal budget

They?re also still repairing the damage to their own household budgets, and still recovering from the aftershock of the twin collapse five years ago of the housing and stock markets. For the next two years, American households watched in horror as more than $16 trillion in household wealth, along with nine million jobs, were wiped away.

Now, two years after hitting bottom, households have gone a long way to rebuilding their savings and paying down debt according to the latest quarterly report card on household wealth by the Federal Reserve. Credit card debt has fallen to levels last seen in 2006, before the bubble burst. Moreover, credit card debt outstanding has been flat for the past two years, as consumers have apparently put away their cards and avoided taking on new debt.

Helped by record low mortgage rates, households have paid down their mortgages by about $1 trillion since the 2007 peak. Rising home prices, meanwhile, have help boost home equity by $1.6 billion since the 2009 trough. (That?s still only about a quarter of what was lost after the bubble burst.)

And the 20 percent gain in stock prices since last summer has further boosted household wealth.

But the damage to consumer confidence lingers, according to a recent survey of consumers' attitudes by Absolute Strategy Research, which advises institutional investors.

Despite the improved wealth and signs the recovery is picking up momentum, consumers have gotten even more cautious about their personal finances in the last six months, said ABS research analyst Sarah Franks.

?Here were are two years out and housing is great and the Dow is up,? she said. ?But we still have so many people that are very, very concerned about their debt levels ? and in increasing numbers.?

That concern is reflected in the Fed?s latest report on household wealth. While households' financial strength continues to improve, consumers are stashing more of their savings in safe havens like cash or Treasury bonds.

?The fact that they have a lot of cash is a reflection of their concerns about jobs prospects and the economy,? said Paul Edelstein, an economist with IHS Global Insight. ?People are spending. But except for a couple of big-ticket items, they?re generally spending out of their income. They don?t want to run up a lot of credit card debt.?

That kind of frugality may be prudent in an uncertain economy. But the widespread, lingering caution from consumers and employers alike, more than three years after the Great Recession officially ended, is now one of the biggest hurdles to a more robust recovery.

Employers can?t hire until consumers ? who account for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy ? begin to feel better about spending. But that won?t happen until employers pick up the pace of hiring to create millions of new paychecks and pay higher wages for those who already have one.

Until then, the slow, steady recovery will likely be limited largely to deeply-depressed sectors such as cars and housing.

?Housing is going to be a crucial driver of the recovery but what worries us is that it?s being called upon to do the heavy lifting,? said Franks. ?We?re not seeing this broaden out, and we're not seeing incomes rise.?

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Fenugreek Chapatis | Lisa's Kitchen | Vegetarian Recipes | Cooking ...


Most cooks and diners with even a rudimentary knowledge of Indian cuisine are familiar with chapatis, a soft whole wheat, slightly puffy unleavened flatbread that is pan fried in a dry skillet or griddle. A staple for many meals served throughout the day in Indian households, chapatis pretty much go with any sort of Indian ? or non-traditional Indian for that matter ? meal that you can imagine. I adore them ? the accompaniment possibilities are endless and they are an ideal way to fill out and dress up your meals. Here I have spiced up the basic batter with some fenugreek and seasoning for some extra flair.

Needless to say, these chapatis go well with any soup or dal curry, may be served much the same way you would a corn or wheat tortilla stuffed with your choice of fillings, are great for scooping up your favorite dips and chutneys, and are an excellent choice as a mini flatbread to showcase a mouthwatering array of toppings.

You may wish to mix in some yogurt to replace some of the water for a slightly softer bread and, if you like, brush the cooked breads with some melted ghee, butter or oil. I recently enjoyed these with some avocado chickpea hummus, then the leftovers with tarka dal. They do keep for a few days if well-sealed and wrapped, so make up a larger batch because they also freeze well if you find yourself with a few too many, though I didn't have that problem. There is a reason that these delightful breads are a staple on so many tables and I'm tempted to make another batch, just now, as I am about to publish this recipe.


Fenugreek ChapatisFenugreek Chapatis
Recipe by Lisa Turner
Cuisine: Indian
Published on March 7, 2013

Soft, delicious and seasoned griddle-fried Indian whole wheat flatbreads ? a staple in Indian households

Print this recipePrint this recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup spelt flour or unbleached soft white flour
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup crumbled dried fenugreek leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • pinch of chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
  • 2/3 to 1 cup warm water (or yogurt and warm water)
Instructions:
  • Begin by sifting the flours into a large bowl. Mix in the fenugreek leaves, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.

  • Pour in the water or yogurt and water, stirring as you add it. Add just enough liquid to get a kneadable dough. Knead for about 5 minutes with lightly floured hands, adding more water or flour as necessary to form a smooth ball. Leave in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 to 3 hours.

  • When ready to cook the chapatis, knead the dough for another 30 seconds or so. Divide into 12 rounded balls, transfer to a plate, and cover with a damp towel.

  • Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat until hot.

  • At the same time, heat an element over high heat and have a wire cooling rack ready and a towel-lined basket or plate on hand for the cooked breads. (Note: the heated element and wire rack are not necessary, but toasting the breads on the wire rack above the element helps to puff out the breads even further after frying.)

  • Dust a work surface with some flour, flatten out a ball of dough into a small disc, dust each side with a bit of flour, and roll out into a roughly 6-inch round. If you are rolling them out a few at a time, take care to keep them covered with the damp towel until you are ready to fry them so they don't dry out.

  • Slap a rolled out disc into the heated skillet and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the bottom begins to lift from the pan and small bubbles begin to form. Flip, and cook for another minute or so.

  • Transfer to the wire rack and hold about 3 inches above the pre-heated element until the chapati begins to puff out and brown specks appear ? this should only take 15 to 30 seconds. Turn the bread, hold over the heat for another 15 seconds, and transfer to the towel-lined basket or plate.

  • Repeat with the remaining dough. Keep the cooked chapatis covered with the towel so they stay moist and warm.

  • Serve hot or warm and brushed with melted ghee, butter or oil if desired. They will keep for a few days if well-wrapped. Reheat in foil wrap on a low temperature in the oven to refresh the breads.

Makes 10 to 12 chapatis

More prized Indian flatbreads recommended from Lisa's Kitchen:
Besan Roti
Paratha Stuffed with Sweet Potato and Potato
Rice Flour Pancakes
Savory Rice and Urad Dal Pancakes

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Source: http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2013/03/fenugreek-chapatis.html

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