My Two Sense

Maruti Suzuki to introduce global car by 2017

2011-08-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest carmaker is likely to roll out a global car by 2017, as it strengthens the R&D activities. The company will start working on a global car at its new R&D centre at Rohtak. The company will develop the car with some assistance from parent Suzuki Motor Corp, targeting the European and Japanese markets. The global car will be developed mainly by Indian engineers.

The car will be powered by an 800cc engine and will be positioned along with the company's current best seller 'Alto'. MSI is spending up to Rs 1,500 crore to set up a R&D centre at Rohtak, which will be SMC's only such significant centre outside Japan, to scale up its vehicle development programme and become self-reliant.

In the past, MSI engineers had participated in the development of global models, which have been introduced in India, such as Swift and Ritz. MSI is at present working on an indigenously developed small car for the Indian market that is likely to be launched next year.

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Syria unrest: UN says 2,200 killed in protest crackdown

2011-08-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

More than 2,200 people have been killed since the Syrian government's crackdown on protesters began in mid-March, the United Nations says.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay gave the new toll at an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The UN previously put the number of dead at between 1,900 and 2,000.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that his government was in no danger of falling.

And he warned that any foreign military intervention would backfire on those who carry it out.

Navi Pillay opened the session by saying: "The gravity of ongoing violations and brutal attacks against the peaceful protesters in that country demand your continued attention."

She went on: "As of today, over 2,200 people have been killed since mass protests began in mid-March, with more than 350 people reportedly killed across Syria since the beginning of Ramadan.

"The military and security forces continue to employ excessive force, including heavy artillery, to quell peaceful demonstrations and regain control over the residents of various cities."

The meeting of the UN Human Rights Council was called by 24 states, including Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

It followed the publication of a report by UN investigators earlier this month which concluded that Syrian security forces were carrying out widespread human rights violations, which could constitute war crimes. Read More...

Salafist ideological challenge to Hamas in Gaza

2011-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

"Shame on you Obama, Osama is still inside us," was the rhythmic chant of a small group of protesters in Gaza City this week.

Most of them were young men in their 20s. They were small in number, not much more than 50, but strong in voice.

"We came here to show our anger at the murder of Sheikh Osama Bin Laden," said Jihad, a stout man with a thick beard in Islamic traditional dress. He's a Salafist jihadi.

"The Salafist jihadis in Gaza yearn to have acceptance from al-Qaeda," says Nathan Thrall, a Middle East Analyst at the International Crisis Group and an expert on radical Islam in Gaza.

"They are not yet affiliates of al-Qaeda but to say they are inspired by al-Qaeda is accurate," says Mr Thrall.

Salafists practice a very conservative and traditional form of Islam. They take their inspiration from the early generations of Muslims who were close to the Prophet Muhammad and his message.

In Gaza the vast majority are non-violent. Salafist jihadis espouse violence.

They are a tiny minority in Gaza. Nathan Thrall estimates their numbers to be in the tens rather than the hundreds.

They have often been in conflict with the Hamas government in Gaza, which they regard as too moderate and too willing to compromise Islamic principles.

And the Salafist voice is being heard.

'Ideological threat'

Earlier this month, a day after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, the Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh condemned the American operation. Mr Haniyeh called Bin Laden an "Arab and Muslim holy warrior".

Such words were ill-timed for those who hope the recent Palestinian unity deal between Hamas and its secular rivals Fatah might see Hamas moderate its views.

Hamas has since rowed back on the comments, but many believe Mr Haniyeh at least partly had the Salafist constituency in Gaza in mind when he made the remarks.

"The threat posed by the Salafists to Hamas is really an ideological one," says Nathan Thrall.

"It's very difficult for Hamas to defend itself against Islamist challengers who say it is failing to impose Islamic law, fight Israel and liberate the Palestinian people."

But he says the physical threat that the Salafists pose to Hamas is much smaller.

"Hamas has shown in the past that it is able to crush the Salafist jihadis when they cross red lines."

One such red line was the kidnapping and murder of Vittorio Arrigoni by a small Salafist group in Gaza in April.

The Italian pro-Palestinian activist, who was living in Gaza City, was abducted and strangled.

Before he was killed a video showing the 36-year-old beaten and blindfolded was posted - on a Salafist website.

The kidnappers demanded the release of Salafist prisoners being held in Hamas jails.

'Closing the file'

Hamas had largely been credited with reducing the threat of kidnapping in Gaza and Mr Arrigoni's murder was seen as a challenge to its authority. It hit back with force.

A few days after the killing Hamas security forces surrounded a house in central Gaza where the three alleged Salafist kidnappers were holding out.

After a fierce gun battle, two of the Salafists ended up dead. One was captured. It's believed since then a number of other Salafists have been arrested across Gaza.

"I think we succeeded now to end this file," Hamas's Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamed told me.

"This was a small group. Some of them were killed. Some of them were arrested. Everything is under control."

It emerged this week though that an American citizen living in Gaza was advised by Hamas to leave the strip because of threats from Salafist groups and a possible kidnapping plot to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Depending on which way you look at it, the news was either proof that Hamas is one step ahead of the Salafists and is indeed in control of Gaza, or that the Salafist threat is greater than Hamas perhaps likes to make out.

Government and 'resistance'

Hamas does have the means to largely control Gaza. Tens of thousands of people work in the security forces here.

Just a few weeks after Mr Arrigoni's murder Hamas managed to successfully police the first ever Gaza Marathon, a potentially easy target for Salafist jihadis.

Thousands of Hamas police lined the route, which covered Gaza from top to bottom. The event allowed Hamas to show it was in full control.

The military face of Hamas is a familiar one. It sells itself on being a movement of fighters against Israel's occupation. But it also has to govern. That means schools, hospitals and keeping the streets clean.

Maher Sabra, an analyst at al-Ummah University in Gaza, says this has presented Hamas with a challenge.

"It is very difficult to combine the two things, to be in power as a government taking care of people and at the same time working as a resistance movement."

For the past four years, Mr Sabra believes, Hamas has had to become more pragmatic.

"They are in a delicate position. But so far they are surviving," he smiles.

For the small number of Salafist jihadis, though, Hamas has got the balance wrong.

Some Salafists are disgruntled former Hamas members who believe the movement is neglecting its principles.

The fact that a number of Salafists were once linked to Hamas has led some in Israel to accuse the media of playing up the Hamas-Salafist split, suggesting the two are actually closer than is sometimes made out.

But Nathan Thrall from the International Crisis Group rejects this and says the conflict is real.

"Hamas has very little interest in having Islamist challengers question its credentials."

Salafist jihadis are a tiny minority in Gaza. But as the dynamics of Palestinian politics shift in the coming months they maintain a limited potential to make themselves heard, either by launching rocket attacks on Israel to break the relative calm or by trying to challenge Hamas more directly.

Source : BBC.com

Egypt: Suzanne Mubarak detained in corruption probe

2011-05-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Suzanne Mubarak will be held in a Cairo prison, Egypt's Mena news agency says.

Mrs Mubarak, 70, and her husband have been questioned over allegations of "illegal acquisition of wealth".

The former president, who held power for 30 years, stepped down in February after weeks of protests.

He has since been detained by Egypt's Illicit Gains Authority, on charges he abused his position to illegally acquire wealth. He is also accused of involvement in the killings of anti-regime protesters.

The 83-year-old is currently under arrest in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, after suffering heart problems. His detention was extended by 15 days early on Friday morning.

The military council which has been in power since Mr Mubarak stepped down has vowed to bring to justice all those accused of corruption.

The former president, his wife, their two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives have been banned from travel and had their assets frozen by general prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud.

More than 20 ministers and businessmen linked to Mr Mubarak's regime have been detained since his departure from office.

Last week, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly was sentenced to 12 years in jail on charges of money-laundering and profiteering.

Adly also faces separate charges of ordering troops to fire on demonstrators. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Obama: bin Laden had support network

2011-05-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden benefitted from "some sort of support network" inside Pakistan, President Barack Obama said in a Sunday broadcast interview, but he added it is not clear whether government officials knew the terrorist leader was living inside their country when U.S. commandos killed him in a raid last weekend.

"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," Obama said in an interview for CBS ( CBS - news - people )' "60 Minutes."

Bin Laden was living in a high-security compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani city with a strong military presence, when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound in the middle of the night and killed him. The terrorist leader's body was quickly buried at sea.

The president made his comments as top administration officials and lawmakers rebutted calls for a cut-off in American aid to Pakistan, an inconstant ally in the long struggle against terrorists.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because they allow us to have them.

"We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the country."

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Design Trend Seen in Royal Wedding Dress

2011-04-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Prince William and Kate Middleton honor Diana’s memory

2011-04-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

Five months ago, when Prince William first announced to the world he’d given a ring to Kate Middleton, he made it clear that only one other woman mattered as much to him.

"It's my mother's engagement ring,” he told the press of the sapphire and diamond engagement heirloom. “Obviously she's not going to be around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all -- this was my way of keeping her close to it all."

During every step of their path down the aisle, Kate and William have made a point to keep Lady Diana’s memory alive. Today’s wedding was no exception. They recited their vows at the Westminster Abbey, the historic church where Diana’s memorial was held for 3 million mourners in 1997. Then, William was just a teenager, and his solemn march behind his mother’s coffin was in stark contrast to the beaming stride he took down the aisle today.

But the church itself wasn't the only reminder of Diana's parting. Bishop of London Richard Chartres, who also spoke at Diana's memorial, gave the wedding sermon. And during the musical portion of the ceremony, the first hymn sung was "Guide Me Thou, O Great Redeemer," the same song that concluded Di's funeral service and memorial service, 10 years after her death.

The focus wasn't only on Di's absence, but on the memory of her vibrant life. As Kate walked down the aisle in Alexander McQueen , every bit the breathtaking bride her mother-in-law was in 1981, she clutched a bouquet of Sweet William dotted with Lily of the Valley, a staple of Diana's wedding bouquet. And when it was time to say her vows, she again summoned Di’s independent spirit, by omitting the term “obey”. It was the one battle Diana Spencer picked when she agreed to marry Prince Charles. At the time, the break in tradition caused outrage among royal-watchers. Today it’s a testament to Di’s courage and trail-blazing choices.

Perhaps the biggest homage to Di’s legacy has been the subtle nods to lessons she taught both her immediate family and the royalty she’d forever be linked to. Diana’s tragic death, often blamed on a stalking paparazzi, may have influenced the couple and the royal court to keep their guard up with both paps and press during the wedding planning. When Di’s bridal dressmaker was announced, reporters famously rifled through the designer’s dumpsters hunting for information. Lesson learned, Kate kept her dress a secret despite pressure from media outlets and with souvenir factories at a standstill. It helped to have the firm backing of Clarence House, the royal press office, which closely guarded information in accordance to Will and Kate’s wishes. They’ve also accommodated the couple’s desire to have Diana’s favorite fashion photographer, Mario Testino, snap their engagement photo.

For Diana, whose outspoken voice was sometimes muffled by royal etiquette, fashion as a way to communicate with the public. Today, Carole, Kate's mother, stood in solidarity with her fellow mother-in-law. Her sky blue shantung dress was designed for the occasion by the house of Catherine Walker, Di's favorite designer. Walker, who died last year, designed at least 1,000 looks that defined Diana's style in her lifetime, including the black dress she was buried in.

Just skidding off of her teenage years, Diana became a figurehead the instant she said her vows. “At the age of 20 she has renounced forever spontaneity and privacy, freedom and independence, her red Mini Metro and her Chelsea apartment, past friendships and future intimacies other than those deemed appropriate for royal confidences,” a reporter wrote in the New York Times, the day after her July 29 nuptials. Both William and Kate, nearing the end of their 20s, were able to come into their own as individuals before they settle down with children, as they’re swiftly expected to do upon marriage. Their decision to wait, and to forge a 10-year bond, was no doubt a reaction to young Diana’s marital struggles which she claimed in Andrew Morton’s biography, started by “day two.”

For her wedding in 1981 Diana had little say in the guest list. But after her divorce, the people’s princess kept herself surrounded with a close-knit circle, some of them in attendance today, including dear friends Tessa Green and Elton John, who refashioned his song Candle in the Wind in her memory. John, along with over 1,000 other official guests, were asked by the couple to make charitable donations in lieu of gifts. Of all the bricks that built Diana’s legacy, her humanitarian work was a cornerstone.

Nine days ago, while the rest of the world fixated on every last detail of their impending nuptials, Will and Kate took a boat to his mother’s final resting place. The couple spent a quiet day at Lady Di’s remote burial site, and walking the grounds of the nearby arboretum where Will and Harry planted trees alongside their mother as boys. “It was very important for William to take Kate to visit his mum just before their wedding day," a royal insider told the Daily Mirror. “Diana is still a huge part of her boys' everyday life and always will be." This was particularly true today, as William bit his lip nervously, standing at the altar with his bride, just as his mother did on her wedding day. It was a reminder to the millions of viewers who've watched the prince become a man, he's still his mother's son.

for more info: yahoo.com

Royal wedding balcony kiss

2011-04-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

Royal wedding balcony kiss

In pictures: wedding day best dressed

Kate's wedding dress

Royal wedding worst-dressed

Prince William and Kate marry

Royal Family at Westminster Abbey

Pomp and pageantry

Guests arrive at Westminster Abbey

Telegraph photographers

Global celebrations

Royal wedding street parties

Royal wedding: hats and fascinators

Royal guests from around the world

William and Kate's Aston Martin

Royal Wedding: Reconciliation sealed with a ring

2011-04-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

The shared presence on the Buckingham Palace balcony of the Duchess of Cornwall and the engagement ring worn by William’s mother dispels memories of rift and retribution for ever, says Patrick Jephson.

What a day. To see and hear William and Catherine take their vows was a privilege made no less special by sharing it with an extended congregation of a billion or so. As a wedding production, this one surely scored as high marks for technical merit and artistic interpretation as any in Westminster Abbey’s history. With their own eternal beauty, the familiar words reached out to our hearts and in return our hearts reached out to the young couple whom, despite their familiarity, it was as if we now saw anew.

We can see other things anew as well. The enduring strength of the great institutions of Crown and Church, Parliament and the Armed Forces – all now visibly transferring to the care of the rising generation. And who could fail to see anew the debt we owe the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, whose presiding parental role gives a whole new meaning to the idea of growing old gracefully.

Grace was a word and a gift that kept coming to mind, especially when attention moved from the solemnity of the Abbey to the jubilation of the Mall. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Diana, Princess of Wales’s engagement ring returned to the Buckingham Palace balcony. To its lustrous blue eye, the view of cheering crowds must have been reassuringly familiar. Poignant, too, if you recall its first visit to this place. Looking slightly to its right, however, it would have spotted something new and probably – in that location – rather bewildering: the distinctive silhouette of the Duchess of Cornwall, elegant in cream and aqua.

The symbolism is as deafening as the roar of yesterday’s immaculate fly-past. The mother whose name has seldom been heard in polite royal circles for half of William’s lifetime is now back on the approved list. Even more firmly on the approved list, and in a more substantive form, is his stepmother. For those who like their gestures nice and clear, yesterday saw both women publicly reconciled in a way that brings nothing but credit to William and his bride.

A big family occasion is a great opportunity for such healing initiatives. We can guess that few will have been more pleased than the new Duchess of Cambridge. Her experience as a child in a happy family will surely bring sunshine to the sometimes gloomy palace corridors that are now part of her world. The Windsors have a not entirely undeserved reputation for nursing grudges – sometimes even against their in-laws. So if his wife has helped William demonstrate the benefits of reconciliation, then everyone – but mostly he – can be the happier for it.

Of course, reconciliations seldom take root unless the original perceived offence has been purged. An honest acknowledgement of past failings is essential. After all, if bygones really are going to be bygones, it helps to have some agreement about what’s to be sent to life’s great compost heap of expended emotion.

I remember a fraught afternoon in Diana’s cheerfully cluttered, flower-scented sitting room. It was late 1995, more than three years after her formal separation from the Prince of Wales. William and Harry were at boarding school. The matter under discussion was anything but happy.

With a look I had come to dread – partly truculent and partly apprehensive – my boss was waiting for my reaction to the bombshell she had just exploded in my overcrowded brain: she had secretly recorded an interview for Panorama. It was going to clear the air, set the record straight and generally put us on the path to a less complicated future. And I was not to worry.

But I did worry. I also tried to find the right words to persuade her that an olive branch might be a better offering than what I guessed would be a one-sided repetition of past grievances. The moral authority she would have gained from such a self-assured and magnanimous coup would have scored a knock-out in the unedifying contest for public sympathy in which she and her husband seemed permanently trapped.

She was not to be persuaded – or perhaps I just didn’t find the right words. Instead of reconciliation, a conclusive twist was added to the downward spiral of relations with her in-laws. For the remainder of her life, she moved inexorably away from the royal structure which, for all its faults, was always reliably protective.

Protection, we can be sure, is what William wants for his vulnerable new bride. Protection especially from the unhappiness, he must feel, that was so avoidably piled on his mother’s slender shoulders. Since the cornerstone of such protection will be a secure marriage – in which success and failure are experiences to be shared rather than triggers for distrust – much of the responsibility will lie in his hands.

An even-handed and relentlessly polite relationship with the media will be the best protection against the dangerous illusion that the press are an enemy to be bested at every turn. The extent and tone of media coverage of this event should remind us of its power to unite as well as divide.

Protection from physical harm doesn’t need any elaboration, except to remember that Scotland Yard’s finest are better than any alternative – a point well underlined by yesterday’s faultless security operation.

Protection from the loneliness of the royal road and from the corrosive search for “relevance” is best secured through a consistent programme of low-key hard work, with all the job satisfaction that royal status can unlock.

Most important is to find protection from the self-doubt that seems an inevitable by-product of being – even theoretically – always in the right. The adulation that’s just been ramped up 10 notches by the wedding can play havoc with the most seasoned public figure’s sense of proportion. The best protection might often be found in remembering that a moment of royal humility can achieve more than a week of icy royal looks. It really is better to be loved than feared. Without that regular acquaintance with humility, there’s little chance of seizing those all-important reconciliation opportunities.

Even if only in the form of an engagement ring, William’s mother has sealed reconciliation with the woman she had reason to hold responsible for her cruelly dashed marriage expectations. In the words of William and Catherine’s own prayer, there could be little better example of “what is real and important in life” than this evidence of grace. That William has had the courage and wisdom to heal such a wound perhaps promises more for his eventual reign than anything else we saw in the wedding celebrations.

India beat Pakistan, face Sri Lanka in Mumbai on Saturday

2011-03-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

India beat Pakistan by 29 runs on Wednesday to set-up a World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai on Saturday.

Pakistan, chasing 261 for victory, were dismissed for 231 in the face of a disciplined effort by India under the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium floodlights.

India's 260 for nine, after winning the toss, was built around Sachin Tendulkar's 85.

But they might have made considerably less had not the 'Little Master' been dropped four times in an innings that still left him one short of a hundred international hundreds.

Left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz led Pakistan's attack with career-best figures of five for 46.

India's victory meant they'd won all five of their World Cup matches against arch-rivals Pakistan and kept alive the 37-year-old Tendulkar's dream of lifting the trophy for the first time in his illustrious career.

Brief scores

India 260-9 (Sachin Tendulkar 85; Wahab Riaz 5-46) v Pakistan 231 all out in 49.5 overs (Misbah-ul-Haq 56, Mohammad Hafeez 43)

India won by 29 runs

India vs. Sri Lanka world cup 2011 final on Saturday

Cricket World Cup - India beat Pakistan to reach final

2011-03-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 semi-final, Mohali:
India 260-9 (50 overs) bt Pakistan 231 by 29 runs (49.5 overs)

India booked a place against Sri Lanka in Saturday's World Cup final after beating Pakistan by 29 runs in Mohali.

Virender Sehwag (38) hit nine fours and Sachin Tendulkar, reprieved by referral and dropped four times, looked set for his 100th international century.

He was out for 85 from 115 balls as India compiled 260-9, left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz with a career-best 5-46.

Mohammad Hafeez struck 43 and Misbah-ul-Haq made a defiant 56 but Pakistan were all out for 231 in the final over.

With tickets reportedly exchanging hands for many thousands of rupees, an estimated 28,000 packed into the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium and every possible vantage point outside the ground taken, a match of such magnitude between the fierce rivals deserved to be a classic encounter.

Misbah had played a curiously subdued innings, with his first 27 taking 52 balls, and though he hit two fours and a six in six deliveries 30 were needed from the final over and India justified their decision to field three seamers by defending a relatively modest total.

The start of the India innings after they opted to bat on a pitch showing tinges of green saw Tendulkar overshadowed by the remarkable Sehwag.

With precise clips off his legs and sweetly-struck drives, Sehwag struck five fours in an over from the wayward Umar Gul and had amassed 38 by the end of the fifth over.

But he was lbw trying to turn one from Riaz to leg and as India reached 50, Tendulkar's innings was still in its infancy with eight to his name from only 11 balls faced.

He soon demonstrated some exquisite timing as a defensive flick raced through mid-on for four, before he was given out lbw on 23 to the spin of Saeed Ajmal.

Umpire Ian Gould's decision looked perfectly correct as Tendulkar was hit playing across the line but under review the ball tracking system indicated it was turning down the leg-side sufficiently to miss the stumps, and to the great delight of the vast majority of the crowd the decision was overturned.

There was an appeal for a stumping next ball which was also rejected after a replay, while the first drop occurred with Tendulkar on 27 when Misbah-ul-Haq failed to cling on diving to his right at mid-wicket.

The India 100 came up in the 16th over but Pakistan began to slowly claw their way back, Gautam Gambhir deceived in flight by Mohammad Hafeez and stumped.

Inexplicably Younus Khan spilled a routine chance at extra-cover with Tendulkar on 45 and the opener duly completed his 95th one-day international half century by taking the aerial route safely over the cover fielders for his eighth four.

Left-armer Riaz soon brought Pakistan firmly back in the contest with wickets in successive balls to restrict India to 141-4, Virat Kohli mis-timing straight to point and Yuvraj Singh bowled first ball by a low, late-swinging full toss.

Tendulkar saw a thick edge brush the gloves of Kamran when on 70 to the exasperation of the ever demonstrative Afridi, who went wicketless for the first time in the tournament.

Then on 81 Umar Akmal spurned another opportunity, parrying the chance at mid-on in the style of a goalkeeper pushing the ball over the crossbar, with spinner Hafeez making a few choice observations on the error.

But 15 short of the landmark Tendulkar drove to extra-cover where Afridi made no mistake, and the run-rate soon dropped below five for the first time since the end of the second over.

Dhoni has now gone 13 innings without an ODI fifty and his sedentary 25 from 42 balls bore no resemblance to Sehwag's innings apart from the manner of dismissal, an attempted turn to leg off left-armer Riaz.

Three fours were taken in an over from Gul, whose eight overs cost 69, but Pakistan would surely have expected their required rate to be substantially more than 5.20.

Understandably their openers were not able to match Sehwag's rate of scoring but they utilised the fast outfield and had three boundaries apiece after seven overs before Kamran cut to point.

The crowd had been subdued by Pakistan's assured start but they were revived when Hafeez attempted a reckless 'Dilscoop,' trying to work to leg from well wide of off-stump and feathering a catch to wicketkeeper Dhoni.

Almost seven overs had elapsed without a boundary when Asad Shafiq, having calmly accumulated 30, lost his middle stump trying to cut Yuvraj slow left-armers and with the rate rising above six the match was in the melting pot.

Younus survived a missed stumping in Yuvraj's next over but three balls later drove tamely to extra-cover.

Timing began to look difficult on the slow surface under the numerous low floodlights dotted around the ground but Umar hit a four over cover and a pull for six off Yuvraj, the first boundaries for 12 overs, to reduce the requirement to 131 from 20 overs.

A six over the sightscreen from Umar saw the crowd go quiet again but from the first ball after the drinks break Harbhajan Singh struck a key blow with a quicker ball from around the wicket that straightened and breached his defences.

Dangerman Abdul Razzaq was dismissed cheaply by a cutter from Munaf Patel and though Afridi made a quickfire 19 to leave 77 needed from 50, he sliced a Harbhajan full toss to cover.

Misbah's brief late burst of hitting proved in vain and now attention turns to an enticing final in Mumbai, which will feature Tendulkar on his home ground seeking to record that 100th hundred against Sri Lanka's own talisman, Muttiah Muralitharan.

source:http://news.bbc.co.uk

India vs Pakistan - Odds favour India 58:42

2011-03-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

As the thrill in two countries reached fever pitch and the tension rose to near-paralysing levels, Team India turned for inspiration to the man who has never seen defeat in a World Cup game against Pakistan for close to two decades now.

On the eve of the semifinal in Mohali, India’s mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton took the back seat, and the task of delivering the team talk fell on Sachin Tendulkar.
The veteran of six World Cups during which India have got the better of Pakistan in four games probably sensed it would be counterproductive to dwell for too long on the obvious significance of the match ahead.

Sources close to the team said Sachin Tendulkar’s talk was short but very effective. He essentially asked the boys to be calm and to stick to their natural game.

“He went back to the 2003 group game at Centurion. He spoke about how he had refused to fall into the short ball trap that the Pakistani quicks Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar had laid for him, and instead played his natural game,” said a source. Sachin Tendulkar smashed 98 off 75 balls as India chased down Pakistan’s 273 with six wickets and over four overs to spare.

Japan's quake toll set to exceed 1,000, world offers

2011-03-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

TOKYO (Reuters) - A devastating tsunami triggered by the biggest earthquake on record in Japan looked set to kill at least 1,000 people along the northeastern coast on Friday after a wall of water swept away everything in its path.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from an area around a nuclear plant after radiation levels rose in the reactor, but there was no word on whether there had actually been a leak.

Underscoring grave concerns about the Fukushima plant some 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. air force had delivered coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of the facility's nuclear rods.

The unfolding disaster in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-meter (33-feet) high tsunami prompted offers of help from dozens of countries.

China said rescuers were ready to help with quake relief while President Barack Obama told Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan the United State would assist in any way.

Stunning TV footage showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near the coastal city of Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbor wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

Boats, cars and trucks were tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away. Japanese politicians pushed for an emergency budget to fund relief efforts after Kan asked them to "save the country," Kyodo news agency reported. Japan is already the most heavily indebted major economy in the world, meaning any funding efforts would be closely scrutinized by financial markets.

Domestic media said the death toll was expected to exceed 1,000, most of whom appeared to have drowned.

The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.

Tsunami warnings were issued across the Pacific but were later lifted for some of the most populated countries in the region, including Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand.

Even in a nation accustomed to earthquakes, the devastation was shocking.

"A big area of Sendai city near the coast, is flooded. We are hearing that people who were evacuated are stranded," said Rie Sugimoto, a reporter for NHK television in Sendai.

"About 140 people, including children, were rushed to an elementary school and are on the rooftop but they are surrounded by water and have nowhere else to go."

Japan has prided itself on its speedy tsunami warning system, which has been upgraded several times since its inception in 1952, including after a 7.8 magnitude quake triggered a 30-meter high wave before a warning was given.

The country has also built countless breakwaters and floodgates to protect ports and coastal areas, although experts said they might not have been enough to prevent disasters such as what happened on Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told people to stay in safe places as the cold deepened into the night. "Please help each other and act calmly," he told a news conference.

In Tokyo, residents who had earlier fled swaying buildings jammed the streets trying to make their way home after much of the city's public transportation was halted.

Many subways in Tokyo later resumed operation but trains did not run. People who decided not to walk home slept in office buildings.

"I was unable stay on my feet because of the violent shaking. The aftershocks gave us no reprieve. Then the tsunamis came when we tried to run for cover. It was the strongest quake I experienced," a woman with a baby on her back told television in northern Japan.

FIRES ACROSS THE COAST

The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo said.

Other Japanese nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and one refinery was ablaze. Television footage showed an intense fire in the waterfront area near Sendai.

Auto plants, electronics factories and refineries shut, roads buckled and power to millions of homes and businesses was knocked out. Several airports, including Tokyo's Narita, were closed and rail services halted. All ports were shut.

The central bank said it would cut short a two-day policy review scheduled for next week to one day on Monday and promised to do its utmost to ensure financial market stability.

The disaster occurred as the world's third-largest economy had been showing signs of reviving from an economic contraction in the final quarter of last year. The disaster raised the prospect of major disruptions for many key businesses and a massive repair bill running into tens of billions of dollars.

The tsunami alerts revived memories of the giant waves which struck Asia in 2004.

Warnings were issued for countries to the west of Japan and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru, but the tsunami dissipated as it sped across the ocean and worst fears in the Americas were not realized.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. "It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

The quake surpasses the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. (Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by John Chalmers; Singapore +65 6870 3815)

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Pictures & Videos

2011-03-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

Japan, Today was hit by a massive 8.9 earthquake. It triggered a tsunami which hit the coastal areas. The quake hit the Northeastern part of the country.

Strong tremors shook buildings in the capital Tokyo. Tsunami warnings have been sounded across the Pacific region- New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea,Hawaii, and others.

Major tsunami damage in North Japan after 8.9 quake

2011-03-11T01:05:00.000-08:00

A magnitude 8.9 earthquake slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot (4-meter) tsunami that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland. Fires triggered by the quake burned out of control up and down the coast, including one at an oil refinery.

At least one person was killed and there were reports of several injuries in Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away, where buildings shook violently through the main quake and the wave of massive aftershocks that followed. A tsunami warning was issued for dozens of Pacific countries, as far away as Chile.

Japan's meteorological agency said that within two hours, large tsunamis washed ashore into dozens of cities along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of the country's eastern shore — from the northern island of Hokkaido to central Wakayama prefecture.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the quake caused "major damage in broad areas" but nuclear power plants in the area were not affected. The government prepared to send troops to the quake-hit areas.

"This is a rare major quake, and damages could quickly rise by the minute," said Junichi Sawada, an official with Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

TV footage showed waves of muddy waters sweeping over farmland near the city of Sendai, carrying buildings, some on fire, inland as cars attempted to drive away. Sendai airport, north of Tokyo, was inundated with cars, trucks, buses and thick mud deposited over its runways. Fires spread through a section of the city, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The tsunami also roared over embankments in Sendai city, washing cars, houses and farm equipment inland before reversing directions and carrying them out to sea. Flames shot from some of the houses, probably because of burst gas pipes.

Elsewhere, large fishing boats lay upturned on land, some distance from the sea.

Officials were trying to assess damage, injuries and deaths but had no immediate details. Police said at least one person was killed in a house collapse in Ibaraki prefecture, just northeast of Tokyo.

A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo and was burning out of control with 100-foot (30 meter) -high flames whipping into the sky.

NHK showed footage of a large ship being swept away by the tsunami and ramming directly into a breakwater in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture.

In various locations along the coast, footage showed massive damage from the tsunami, with cars, boats and even buildings being carried along by waters. Partially submerged vehicles were seen bobbing in the water.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 8.9, while Japan's meteorological agency measured it at 8.4. It struck at 2:46 p.m. and was followed by 12 powerful aftershocks, seven of them at least 6.3, the size of the quake that struck New Zealand recently.

A tsunami warning was extended to a number of Pacific, Southeast Asian and Latin American nations, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities said they expect a 3-foot (1-meter) high tsunami.

The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo.

Several nuclear plants along the coast were partially shut down, but there were no reports of any radioactive leakage.

In central Tokyo, trains were stopped and passengers walked along the tracks to platforms. NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.

The ceiling in Kudan Kaikan, a large hall in Tokyo, collapsed, injuring an unknown number of people, NHK said.

Osamu Akiya, 46, was working in Tokyo at his office in a trading company when the quake hit.

It sent bookshelves and computers crashing to the floor, and cracks appeared in the walls.

"I've been through many earthquakes, but I've never felt anything like this," he said. "I don't know if we'll be able to get home tonight."

Footage on NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling around and books and papers crashing from desks. It also showed a glass shelter at a bus stop in Tokyo completely smashed by the quake and a weeping woman nearby being comforted by another woman.

Several quakes had hit the same region in recent days, including a 7.3 magnitude one on Wednesday.

Thirty minutes after the main quake, tall buildings were still swaying in Tokyo and mobile phone networks were not working. Japan's Coast Guard has set up a task force and officials are standing by for emergency contingencies, Coast Guard official Yosuke Oi said.

"I'm afraid we'll soon find out about damages, since the quake was so strong," he said.

In Tokyo, hundreds of people were evacuated from Shinjuku train station, the world's busiest, to a nearby park. Trains were halted.

Tokyo's main airport was closed. A large section of the ceiling at the 1-year-old airport at Ibaraki, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, fell to the floor with a powerful crash.

Dozens of fires were reported in northern prefectures of Fukushima, Sendai, Iwate and Ibaraki. Collapsed homes and landslides were also reported in Miyagi.

Japan's worst previous quake was in 1923 in Canto, which killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. An earthquake in Kobe city in 1996 killed 5,502 people.

Resource: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

Rest of Asia Huge tsunami slams coastal Japan after 8.9 magnitude quake

2011-03-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire, media and witnesses said.

At least one person was killed in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo where four million homes were without power. The 8.9 magnitude quake caused many injuries, public broadcaster NHK said, sparked fires and the wall of water, prompting warnings to people to move to higher ground in coastal areas. Some news agencies have reported three deaths until now.

The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries as far away as Colombia and Peru.

There were several strong aftershocks. In the capital Tokyo, buildings shook violently. An oil refinery near Tokyo was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.

"I was terrified and I'm still frightened," said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka area. "I've never experienced such a big quake before."

TV pictures showed the tsunami carrying the debris and fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. The pictures suggested the death toll was going to rise.

NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.

Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport. The western prefecture of Wakayama ordered 20,000 people to evacuate after further tsunami warnings.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. "It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

Great Kanto Quake

The quake was the biggest in 140 years. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9, killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. Seismologists had said another such quake could strike the city any time. The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

The Tokyo stock market extended losses after the quake. The central bank said it would do everything to ensure financial stability.

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands during the quake. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.

Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo. Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.

Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, "They're still shaking!", "Are they going to fall?"

Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.

"The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo."

The US Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.

A police car drove down Hitotsugi Street, lights flashing, announcing through a bullhorn that there was still a danger of shaking.

Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Japan Earthquake: Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake Hits Japan's Northeastern Coast

2011-03-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit off Japan's northeastern coast Wednesday, shaking buildings hundreds of miles away in Tokyo and triggering a small tsunami. There were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 11:45 a.m. local time and was centered about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the northeastern coast – about 270 miles (440 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo – at a depth of about 5 miles (8 kilometers), Japan's meteorological agency said.

A 24-inch (60-centimeter) tsunami reached the coastal town of Ofunato, in Iwate prefecture, with other towns reporting smaller waves reaching shore about 30 minutes after the quake.

"We have confirmed that small tsunami have come up on the shores, but we have no reports of damage at this point," said Shinobu Nagano, an emergency and disaster response official in Iwate. "We are still trying to determine the impact of the quake."

Some train lines in the area were temporarily stopped after the quake, but they were restarted shortly after noon. Tohoku Electric Power said there was no damage at its nuclear power facility in the region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.

There was a 6.3 magnitude aftershock shortly after the main quake, the meteorological agency said.

In Tokyo, office buildings swayed and creaked for about 30 seconds during the quake.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" – an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

Earthquake hits northeast Japan

2011-03-09T03:42:00.000-08:00

A strong earthquake triggered a small tsunami along Japan's northeastern coast Wednesday and shook buildings hundreds of miles away in Tokyo. There were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.

Some train lines in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate were temporarily stopped after the magnitude 7.3 quake, but they were restarted shortly after. Tohoku Electric Power said there was no damage at its nuclear power facility in the region.

A 24-inch (60-centimeter) tsunami reached the coastal town of Ofunato and other towns reported smaller waves reached shore about 30 minutes after the quake, which occurred at 11:45 a.m.

It was centered about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the northeastern coast at a depth of about five miles (eight kilometers), Japan's meteorological agency said.

"We have confirmed that small tsunami have come up on the shores, but we have no reports of damage at this point," said Shinobu Nagano, an emergency and disaster response official in Iwate. "We are still trying to determine the impact of the quake."

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.

In Tokyo — about 270 miles (440 kilometers) from the epicenter — office buildings swayed and creaked for about 30 seconds.

There was a 6.3 magnitude aftershock shortly after the main quake, the meteorological agency said.

Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

In 1933, about 3,000 people were killed around Ofunato by an earthquake and tsunami that had a maximum wave height of 94 feet (28 meters), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1896, a magnitude 8.5 earthquake generated a tsunami that killed 27,000 people in the area.

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

TRAI:ONLY 100 SMS PER DAY

2011-02-28T03:40:00.000-08:00

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) has issued new SMS guidelines.As per which all telecom service providers are required to remove all SMS packs which provide more than 100 SMS per day.This will come into effect from 1st March 2011.Now those who have the habbit of sending more than 100 SMS per day will have to restrict yourself to 100 SMS or you will have to take new connection and do SMS offer in that for sending the rest for free.Otherwise you will be charged for every SMS you send after the first 100 SMS.In short you will not be allowed to sent more than a 100 SMS each day using SMS offers.TRAI has taken this decision because of the growing number of Unsolicited Commercial Communications ( promotional SMS and Calls).However, in order to curb such messages, TRAI has given direction that no Access Providers shall provide any SMS packages in any form (through voucher, student pack, seasonal pack etc) permitting sending of more than 100 SMS per day per SIM.Any way this decision will be a extremely bad news for heavy texters.

Resource:http://www.worldofgprs.com/2011/01/new-sms-guidelines-only-100-sms-per-day/#more-781

Booker T. Washington

2011-02-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

This 1894 file photo shows Booker T. Washington. The famous ex-slave was a boy when Emancipation came to his Virginia plantation. He had been called only “Booker” until enrolling in school. “When the teacher asked me what my full name was, I calmly told him, ‘Booker Washington,’” he wrote in his autobiography, “Up from Slavery.” George Washington's name is inseparable from America, and not only from the nation's history. It identifies countless streets, buildings, mountains, bridges, monuments, cities — and people. In a puzzling twist, most of these people are black. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name.… Read more

Gadhafi hold whittled away as Libya revolt spreads

2011-02-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

BENGHAZI, Libya – The scope of Moammar Gadhafi's control was whittled away Wednesday as major Libyan cities and towns closer to the capital fell to the rebellion against his rule. In the east, now all but broken away, the opposition vowed to "liberate" Tripoli, where the Libyan leader is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets and tanks guarding the outskirts.

In a further sign of Gadhafi's faltering hold, two air force pilots — one from the leader's own tribe — parachuted out of their warplane and let it crash into the eastern Libyan desert rather than follow orders to bomb an opposition-held city.

International momentum was building for action to punish Gadhafi's regime for the bloody crackdown it has unleashed against the uprising that began Feb. 15.

President Barack Obama said the suffering and bloodshed in Libya "is outrageous and it is unacceptable," and he directed his administration to prepare a full range of options, including possible sanctions that could freeze the assets and ban travel to the U.S. by Libyan officials.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the possibility of the European Union cutting off economic ties.

Another proposal gaining some traction was for the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent it using warplanes to hit protesters. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that if reports of such strikes are confirmed, "there's an immediate need for that level of protection."

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were "credible," although he stressed information about casualties was incomplete. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at nearly 300, according to a partial count.

In Tripoli, Gadhafi's stronghold, protest organizers called for new rallies Thursday and Friday, raising the potential for a more bloody confrontation.

AP/Lefteris Poitarakis

Militiamen and Gadhafi supporters — a mix of Libyans and foreign African fighters bused in — roamed the capital's main streets, called up Tuesday night by the Libyan leader in a fist-pounding speech in which he vowed to fight to the death. The gunmen fired weapons in the air, chanting "Long live Gadhafi," and waved green flags. With a steady rain, streets were largely empty, residents said.

In many neighborhoods, residents set up watch groups to keep militiamen out, barricading streets with concrete blocks, metal and rocks, and searching those trying to enter, a Tripoli activist said.

Gadhafi's residence at Tripoli's Aziziya Gates was guarded by loyalists along with a line of armed militiamen in vehicles, some masked, he said. The radio station building downtown was also heavily fortified. In one western neighborhood, security forces stormed several homes and arrested three or four people, a witness said, while tanks were deployed on the eastern outskirts, witnesses in at least one neighborhood said.

"Mercenaries are everywhere with weapons. You can't open a window or door. Snipers hunt people," said another resident, who said she had spent the night in her home awake hearing gunfire outside. "We are under siege, at the mercy of a man who is not a Muslim."

But below the surface, protesters were organizing, said the activist. At night, they fan out and spray-paint anti-Gadhafi graffiti or set fires near police stations, chanting, "The people want the ouster of the regime," before running at the approach of militiamen, he said. The Tripoli residents, like other witnesses around the country, spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation.

In opposition-controlled Benghazi, the eastern city where the uprising began, residents held a mass rally outside the city's main courthouse, vowing to support protests in the capital, said Farag al-Warfali, a banker. They also called a one-day fast in solidarity with them. Afterward, young men went into the courthouse to register to obtain weapons, which had been looted from police stations and military bases and then turned over to the city's new rulers, he said.

The idea is to "take their weapons and march toward Tripoli," al-Warfali said, although Benghazi lies 580 miles (940 kilometers) east of the capital, and territory still loyal to Gadhafi lies between them.

There were similar calls in Misrata — several hours' drive from Tripoli, the closest major city to the capital to fall to anti-government forces. A mosque called residents to come to "jihad," or holy war, in support of the anti-Gadhafi camp, said one resident, Iman.

"We are going to join forces with our brothers in Tripoli," she said.

The extent of Gadhafi's control over the country he has ruled for 41 years had been reduced to the western coastal region around Tripoli, the deserts to the south and parts of the center.

After Gadhafi's speech Tuesday night, militiamen flooded into Sabratha, a town west of Tripoli famed for nearby ancient Roman ruins, and battled government opponents who had taken over, said one resident. Around 5,000 militiamen from neighboring towns, backed by army and police units, clashed with the rival group and drove them from the streets, he said.

But his territory was being eroded.

The opposition said Wednesday it had taken over Misrata, Libya's third-largest city.

Residents honked horns in celebration and raised the pre-Gadhafi flags of the Libyan monarchy after several days of fighting that drove militiamen from the city, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli, said Faraj al-Misrati, a local doctor. He said six people had been killed and 200 wounded in clashes that began Feb. 18.

Residents had formed committees to clean the streets, protect the city and treat the wounded, he said. "The solidarity among the people here is amazing, even the disabled are helping out."

An audio statement posted on the Internet reportedly from armed forces officers in Misrata proclaimed "our total support" for the anti-Gadhafi movement.

New videos posted by Libya's opposition on Facebook also showed scores of anti-government protesters raising the pre-Gadhafi flag on a building in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli. The city is located near a key oil port and refineries on the Mediterranean. The footage couldn't be independently confirmed.

Government opponents were also in control in Zwara, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Tunisian border in the west, after local army units sided with them and police fled, said one resident, a 25-year-old unemployed university graduate. "This man (Gadhafi) has reached the point that he's saying he will bring armies from Africa. That means he is isolated," he said.

Gadhafi long kept his army weak and divided for fear of challenge, so in the fierce crackdown his regime has waged on the uprising, he has relied on militia groups, beefed up by fighters hired abroad. Meanwhile, army units in many places have sided with the rebellion.

On Wednesday, two air force pilots jumped from parachutes from their Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet and let it crash, rather than carry out orders to bomb opposition-held Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, the website Qureyna reported, citing an unidentified officer in the air force control room.

One of the pilots — identified by the report as Ali Omar Gadhafi — was from Gadhafi's tribe, the Gadhadhfa, said Farag al-Maghrabi, who saw the pilots and the wreckage of the jet, which crashed in the desert outside the key oil port of Breqa, about 440 miles (710 kilometers) east of Tripoli.

The anti-Gadhafi forces and the mutinous army units that have joined them were consolidating their hold on nearly the entire eastern half of the 1,000-mile Mediterranean coastline, stretching from the Egyptian border to Ajdabiya, about 480 miles (800 kilometers) east of Tripoli, encroaching on key oil fields around the Gulf of Sidra.

Across their territory, they have been setting up their own administrations. In many places, committees organized by residents, tribes and mutinous army officers were governing, often collecting weapons looted from pro-Gadhafi troops to prevent chaos.

"There is now an operating room for the militaries of all the liberated cities and they are trying to convince the others to join them," said Lt. Col. Omar Hamza, an army officer who had allied with the rebels in Tobruk. "They are trying to help the people in Tripoli to capture Gadhafi."

At the Egyptian border, guards had fled, and local tribal elders have formed local committees to take their place. "Welcome to the new Libya," proclaimed graffiti spray-painted at the crossing. Fawzy Ignashy, a former soldier now in civilian clothes at the border, said that early in the uprising, some commanders ordered troops to fire on protesters, but tribal leaders stepped in and ordered them to stop.

"They did because they were from here. So the officers fled," he said.

A defense committee of residents was even guarding one of Gadhafi's once highly secretive anti-aircraft missile bases outside Tobruk. "This is the first time I've seen missiles like these up close," said Abdelsalam al-Gedani, one of the guards, dressed in an overcoat and carrying a Kalashnikov rifle.

International alarm has risen over the crisis, and is sending oil prices soaring and European and other countries scrambling to get their citizens out of Libya. Oil prices hit $100 per barrel for the first time since 2008. Libya is the world's 15th largest exporter of crude, accounting for 2 percent of global daily output. Traders are worried the revolt could threaten Libya's oil production and spread to other countries in the region.

Passengers arriving in Malta, a short flight away from Libya, described chaos and violence at Tripoli's airport, with desperate people pushing and shoving to get onto the few flights taking off Wednesday.

"One of my fellow passengers was actually beaten up quite heavily and kicked on," said Steffan Arnersten, a 42-year-old Swede who works as a managing director at a technical consulting company.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting that ended with a statement condemning the crackdown, expressing "grave concern" and calling for an "immediate end to the violence" and steps to address the legitimate demands of the Libyan people.

After a meeting of EU ambassadors, the bloc did not announce sanctions, but EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU stood "ready to take further measures" beyond suspending talks on a bilateral deal.

The precise measures were still being negotiated, a senior EU official said, adding that there were up to 10,000 EU citizens in Libya, sparking worries about getting them out of the North African country safely. The official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

"The continuing brutal and bloody repression against the Libyan civilian population is revolting," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement. "The international community cannot remain a spectator to these massive violations of human rights."

Resource from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_libya

Iraqi: I'm proud my WMD lies led to war in Iraq

2011-02-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

LONDON – An Iraqi man whose testimony the United States used as a key evidence to build a case for war in Iraq says he is proud that he lied about his country developing mobile biological warfare labs.

The Guardian newspaper published an interview Wednesday with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who has been identified as the informer called "Curveball," whose claims about weapon labs formed part of then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council in 2003, shortly before the war began.

The Guardian quoted al-Janabi as saying: "I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that."

Although some intelligence agents were skeptical of Curveball's story, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee reported in 2004 that the Central Intelligence Agency "withheld important information about Curveball's reliability" from analysts dealing with the case.

The Guardian interviewed al-Janabi in Karlsruhe, Germany in a mixture of Arabic and German. The U.S. Senate panel's report said Curveball spoke in English and Arabic when he was interrogated by intelligence officers.

Asked about his feeling's about the deaths and destruction during the war and in the years following, The Guardian said al-Janabi said there was no other way.

"I tell you something when I hear anybody not just in Iraq but in any war (is) killed, I am very sad. But give me another solution. Can you give me another solution?" the newspaper quoted him as saying.

"Saddam did not (allow) freedom in our land," the Iraqi said. "There are no other political parties. You have to believe what Saddam says, and do what Saddam wants. And I don't accept that. I have to do something for my country. So I did this and I am satisfied, because there is no dictator in Iraq any more."

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_iraq_curveball

'Egypt is Free' chants Tahrir after Mubarak quits

2011-02-15T01:07:00.000-08:00

Cries of "Egypt is free" rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium Friday after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.

Ecstatic protesters in Cairo's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square hoisted soldiers onto their shoulders and families posed for pictures in front of tanks in streets flooded with people streaming out to celebrate. Strangers hugged each other, some fell to kiss the ground, and others stood stunned in disbelief.

Chants of "Hold your heads high, you're Egyptian" roared with each burst of fireworks overhead.

"I'm 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free," an ebullient Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square.

An astonishing day in which hundreds of thousands marched on Mubarak's palaces in Cairo and Alexandria and besieged state TV was capped by the military effectively carrying out a coup at the pleas of protesters. After Mubarak's fall, the military, which pledged to shepherd reforms for greater democracy, told the nation it would announce the next steps soon. Those could include the dissolving of parliament and creation of a transitional government.

Mubarak's downfall at the hands of the biggest popular uprising in the modern history of the Arab world had stunning implications for the United States and the West, Israel, and the region, unsettling rulers across the Mideast.

The 82-year-old leader epitomized the complex trade-off the United States was locked into in the Middle East for decades: Support for autocratic leaders in return for stability, a bulwark against Islamic militants, a safeguard of economic interests with the oil-rich Gulf states and peace — or at least an effort at peace — with Israel.

The question for Washington now was whether that same arrangement will hold as the Arab world's most populous state makes a potentially rocky transition to democracy, with no guarantee of the results.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said "Egyptians have inspired us." He noted the important questions that lay ahead, but said, "I'm confident the people of Egypt can find the answers."

The United States at times seemed overwhelmed during the upheaval, fumbling to juggle its advocacy of democracy and the right to protest, its loyalty to longtime ally Mubarak and its fears the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood — or more radical groups — could gain a foothold. Mubarak's fall came 32 years to the day after the collapse of the shah's government in Iran, the prime example of a revolution that turned to Islamic militancy.

In Egypt, persecuted democracy activists frequently denounced the U.S. government for not coming down harder on Mubarak's rights abuses. Washington's mixed messages during the crisis frustrated the young protesters. They argued that while the powerful Brotherhood will have to be allowed to play a future political role, its popularity would be diminished in an open system where other ideologies are freed to outweigh it.

Neighboring Israel watched with the crisis with unease, worried that their 1979 peace treaty could be in danger. It quickly demanded on Friday that post-Mubarak Egypt continue to adhere to it.

Any break seems unlikely in the near term. The military leadership supports the treaty. Anti-Israeli feeling is strong among Egyptians, and a more democratic government may take a tougher line toward Israel in the chronically broken-down peace process. But few call for outright abrogating a treaty that has kept peace after three wars in the past half-century.

From the oil-rich Gulf states in the east to Morocco in the west, regimes both pro- and anti-U.S. could not help but worry they could see a similar upheaval. Several of the region's rulers have made pre-emptive gestures of democratic reform to avert their own protest movements.

The lesson many took: If it could happen in only three weeks in Egypt, where Mubarak's lock on power appeared unshakable, it could happen anywhere. Only a month earlier, Tunisia's president was forced to step down in the face of protests.

"This is the greatest day of my life.", Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young supporters were among the organizers of the protest movement, told The Associated Press.

"The country has been liberated after decades of repression," he said adding that he expects a "beautiful" transition of power.

Perhaps most surprising was the genesis of the force that overthrew Mubarak.

The protests were started by a small core of secular, liberal youth activists organizing on the Internet who only a few months earlier struggled to gather more than 100 demonstrators at a time. But their work through Facebook and other social network sites over the past few years built greater awareness and bitterness among Egyptians over issues like police abuse and corruption.

"Facebook brought down the regime," said Sally Toma, one of the main protest organizers.

When the online activists called the first major protest, on Jan. 25, they tapped into a public inspired by Tunisia's revolt and thousands turned out, beyond even the organizers' expectations. From there, protests swelled, drawing hundreds of thousands. The Muslim Brotherhood joined in. But far from hijacking the protests as many feared, it often seemed co-opted by the protesters, forced to set aside its hard-line ideology at least for now to adhere to democratic demands.

About 300 people were killed in the course of the turmoil. Police attacked the first protests with water cannons and gunfire and then a force of regime supporters _believed to be paid thugs — assaulted Tahrir trying to dislodge the protesters, only to be beaten back in two days of pitched battles.

Wael Ghonim, a Google Inc. executive who earlier this year secretly created a Facebook page that became a crucial protester organizing forum, said he "went mad" when he heard the news of Mubarak's ouster.

"I expect a bright future. I trust in 80 million Egyptians," Ghonim, who was arrested immediately after the protests began and held for 12 days, told The Associated Press.

Mubarak, a former air force commander came to power after the 1981 assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat by Islamic radicals. Throughout his rule, he showed a near obsession with stability, ensuring control through rigged elections, a constitution his regime wrote, a ruling party that monopolized the levers of state, and a hated police force accused of widespread torture.

He resisted calls for reform even as public bitterness grew over corruption, deteriorating infrastructure and rampant poverty in a country where 40 percent live below or near the poverty line.

Throughout the crisis, Mubarak backpedaled with concessions, replacing his government, purging his ruling party and moving to prosecute some of its most unpopular figures. But the moves did nothing to diminish the regime's power — and did not satisfy the steadily swelling protests.

Up to the last hours, Mubarak sought to cling to power, handing some of his authorities to his newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman while keeping his title.

But an explosion of protests Friday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely.

Hundreds of thousands flooded the main squares of cities around the nation. Soldiers stood by, even threw cookies and biscuits to protesters who massed in front of Mubarak's palaces in Cairo and Alexandria, chanting for him to go. Others blockaded the towering State Television and Radio Building overlooking the Nile River in Cairo, blocking employees from entering.

Ahmed Kassam, an engineer, said he marched with crowds for two hours across Cairo from Tahrir to the Oruba palace. "We were shouting at people standing in their balconies and they came down and joined us. We have thousands behind us," he said. "Today I feel that something is going to change. I feel very, very powerful."

Protesters stormed the main security headquarters in southern Egypt's main city Assiut, and two were killed by police opening fire before the province's governor was forced to flee, escorted to safety by the army.

The ousted Mubarak himself flew to his isolated palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles from the turmoil in Cairo.

Suleiman — who appears to have lost his vice president's post as well in the military takeover — appeared grim as he delivered the short announcement on state TV Friday night that Mubarak was stepping down.

"In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic," he said. "He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor."

The question now turned to what happens next. Protesters on Friday had overtly pleaded for the army to oust Mubarak. The country is now ruled by the Armed Forces Supreme Council, consisting of the military's top generals and headed by Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi

After Mubarak's resignation, a military spokesman appeared on state TV and promised the army would not act as a substitute for a government based on the "legitimacy of the people."

He said the military was preparing the next steps needed "to acheive the ambitions of our great nation" and would announce them soon. He praised Mubarak for his contributions to the country. Pointedly, he did not salute his former commander-in-chief. Instead he stood at attention and raised his hand to his cap in a salute to protesters killed in the unrest.

Abdel-Rahman Samir, one of the protest organizers, said the movement would now open negotiations with the military over democratic reforms but vowed protests would continue to ensure change is carried out.

"We still don't have any guarantees yet — if we end the whole situation now, then it's like we haven't done anything," he said. "So we need to keep sitting in Tahrir until we get all our demands."

But, he added, "I feel fantastic. .... I feel like we have worked so hard, we planted a seed for a year and a half and now we are now finally sowing the fruits."

For the moment, concerns over the next step were overwhelmed by the wave of joy and disbelief — and an overwhelming pride that they had waged a peaceful campaign crowned with success.

In Tahrir Square, the crowds of several hundred thousand watched and listed to Suleiman's speech on televisions and on mobile-phone radios. When he finished, they burst into wild cheers, waving flags and chanting "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great" and "the people have brought down the regime."

Spontaneous lines of dancers threaded through the packed mass of people. One man kissed the ground and thanked God while others screamed, "Hosni is gone, Hosni is gone." Around the capital of 18 million, cars honked their horns in celebration.

"I am 42 years old and my children can finally live in free," said Mahmoud Ghandem, who joined the Tahrir protests five days ago from his Nile Delta town of Kafr el-Sheikh.

Outside the Oruba presidential palace, one man sprawled on the grass in shock amid the cheers. Others handed out sweets and waved their hands in V-for-victory signs. The crowd then began to march in a sea of Egyptian flags back to the protest's heart, Tahrir.

Throughout the night, Tahrir Square and the surrounding downtown streets were transformed into a massive party. Thousands streamed in from across the city, jamming bridges over the Nile. Army checkpoints surrounding the square for days melted away as some soldiers threw themselves into the throngs. In the streets, parents took pictures of their children posing with Egyptian flags.

State television, a bastion of unwavering support for Mubarak, had an almost instant change of tone. After disparaging the protesters as foreign-backed troublemakers for days, it began reporting the celebrations as a victory for freedom. Egyptians, one reporter outside Oruba palace proclaimed, "are able to move the waters that have been still for 30 years."

Ala Moussa, a 24-year-old from Alexandria who came Friday to join the Cairo protests, took off his glasses to wipe away tears. He had been shot by a rubber bullet during earlier protests in his hometown.

"For 50 years, it was a police state and we adapted ourselves to it," he said. "The question now is, can we take another route. I hope so."

Resource from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt

'Safe to drive': No flaws found in Toyota electronics

2011-02-09T10:22:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON — A 10-month investigation found no flaws in Toyota (TM) vehicles' electronic systems that might cause unintended acceleration, but federal officials say they will propose new safety rules for all cars based on the engineers' findings.

"Toyota vehicles are safe to drive," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday after recounting that he had advised his daughter last fall it was OK to buy a Toyota SUV.

The report confirmed an earlier Department of Transportation study of vehicle data recorders that found no electrical cause for Toyota acceleration incidents. Toyota has recalled nearly 12 million vehicles worldwide for mechanical defects — sticking gas pedals or floor mats that could jam pedals — that could lead to unintended acceleration.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, however, will propose rules this year to standardize keyless ignitions and require all new vehicles to have onboard data recorders and brake override systems that would stop the car if the brake and gas pedals are pressed at the same time.

"We believe this rigorous scientific analysis by some of America's foremost engineers should further reinforce confidence in the safety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles," said Steve St. Angelo, chief quality officer. He said he hoped this would end speculation about the safety of Toyota's "well-tested and well-designed" electronic throttle controls.

In the latest study, DOT safety officers and NASA engineers examined 280,000 lines of computer code, bombarded Toyotas with electromagnetic radiation and tested components of nine vehicles that were subjects of complaints to determine what, if any, conditions could trigger acceleration.

"Our detailed study cannot say it's impossible," but engineers find no electronic malfunction that led to acceleration, said Michael Kirsch, principal engineer at NASA's Engineering and Safety Center.

In many incidents, investigators found drivers hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Ronald Medford, adding that there will be research on safer pedal placement.

The National Academy of Sciences is investigating sudden acceleration among all auto brands, and results are expected this fall.

Reports of unintended acceleration by Toyota vehicles soared after a crash that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members near San Diego in August 2009. In a 911 call before the crash, a passenger said the Lexus sedan could not be stopped.

That crash was blamed on an incorrect and unattached floor mat. Toyota later concluded that floor mats in some of its models could jam the gas pedal and recalled 5.3 million vehicles.

In January 2010, Toyota also recalled 2.3 million vehicles to replace gas pedal assemblies that could stick.

Protesters keep up momentum in Egypt

2011-02-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Momentum held up on the 16th day of protests in Egypt as massive crowds once again jammed Cairo's Tahrir Square Wednesday, spilling over into a nearby compound housing government buildings.

The expanded protests forced the government to move parliament to another building, state television said.

Fueled by anger at the regime's incremental concessions and a denunciation of demands for President Hosni Mubarak's immediate exit, the rowdy demonstrations again drew thousands, many even from other cities and towns.

"The word 'departure,' which is repeated by some of the protesters, is against the ethics of the Egyptians because Egyptians respect their elders and their president," Vice President Omar Suleiman told a group of newspaper editors, according to a state-run news agency.

"It is also an insulting word not only to the president but for the people of Egypt as a whole," he said.

But the protesters chanted: "Mubarak is a thief." Mubarak, meanwhile, went about business as usual Wednesday, meeting with his foreign minister and Russia's deputy foreign minister, state-run television showed.

There were signs that the unrest had spread to other parts of Egypt.

Two people were killed and others were wounded in clashes with police in southern Egypt, state TV reported. A journalist said the hostilities stemmed from complaints about a member of the police force in Kharga.

In the northern town of Port Said, protesters attacked the governor's building over a land and housing dispute, state TV said.

The protesters returned in full force Wednesday, galvanized the day before by the tears and words of a Google executive who was seized by security forces and released Monday.

Perhaps the reluctant face of the movement, Wael Ghonim, told CNN Wednesday that "this is no longer the time to negotiate" with the Egyptian government -- not after hundreds of lives have been lost over the last two weeks.

Human Rights Watch has been able to document 302 deaths so far since protests erupted on January 25.

Ghonim, a Dubai-based marketing executive, is the administrator of a Facebook page called "We are all Khaled Said," named after an Alexandria activist who was allegedly beaten to death by police. The page is widely credited with triggering the first protest January 25.

Monday evening, Ghonim's tearful interview on an Egyptian television channel struck a chord with protesters. The next day, he addressed the crowds at Tahrir Square, inspiring Egyptians to keep up the fight.

"This country, I have said for a long time, this country is our country, and everyone has a right to this country," he said. "You have a voice in this country. This is not the time for conflicting ideas, or factions, or ideologies. This is the time for us to say one thing only, 'Egypt is above all else.'"

Another Facebook page created to authorize Ghonim to speak on behalf of the protesters has 150,000 fans.

Mubarak's regime said Tuesday that it had discussed a number of reforms with leaders of various opposition groups and appointed a panel to look into amending the constitution, But Wednesday, it again sought to portray the strongman's immediate exit as a recipe for chaos.

Suleiman said that "dialogue and mutual understanding are the first way to achieve stability" and that a coup would "mean miscalculated and rushed steps" and would lead to more "irrationality."

His words prompted a public show of frustration from the Obama administration.

A short White House statement on U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's telephone conversation with Suleiman used the word "immediate" or "immediately" four times.

Biden "urged that the transition produce immediate, irreversible progress that responds to the aspirations of the Egyptian people."

The statement also hinted the White House harbors doubts as to whether the Egyptian government is seriously committed to reforms, referring to the regime's statements as "what the government is saying it is prepared to accept."

Political Punch

2011-02-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

First Lady Michelle Obama said she is not going to the Royal Wedding, just simply because she has not been invited.

“No, no I’m not going to go,” she said in an interview on Live With Regis and Kelly this morning, “I wasn’t invited.”

She added though if invited, she’ll go to the April 29th nuptials between Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.

“Marriage is a personal private thing, they should invite who they want to invite,” Mrs. Obama said, “And if I get invited, I’ll go.”

There is some past precedent for American presidents being invited to Royal weddings. In 1981 Prince Charles and Princess Diana invited President Reagan and his wife Nancy. Mrs. Regan attended on behalf of the couple.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama first met Queen Elizabeth in April of 2009 during their visit to Buckingham Palace, but have not met Prince William or Ms. Middleton.

However, they passed on congratulations to the couple during an interview in November with ABC”s Barbara Walters.

“Congratulations and, hopefully, you will be as happy, as happily married as Barack and I,” Mrs. Obama said.

Mrs. Obama appeared on The Today Show, in addition to Live With Regis and Kelly coordinated with the one-year anniversary of her Let’sMove! campaign to combat childhood obesity.

U.S. terror threat at highest since 9/11: Napolitano

2011-02-09T09:15:00.000-08:00

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Wednesday that the threat of terrorism against the United States was in some ways "at its most heightened state" since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In addition to the threats by al Qaeda, the militant group behind the attacks nearly a decade ago, Napolitano said the country faces new threats from those inspired by the group and those already inside the United States.

"The threat continues to evolve and in some ways the threat today may be at its most heightened state since the attacks nearly 10 years ago," Napolitano told the U.S. House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee.

She also said in her testimony to lawmakers that U.S. officials believed there may be individuals who want to carry out attacks already in the country and that "they could carry out acts of violence with little or no warning."

Individuals associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban have tried to carry out several attacks against the United States, including by a Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a U.S. airliner with a bomb hidden in his underwear and another individual who plotted to attack the New York subway system.

"As I have said before, we cannot guarantee that there will never be another terrorist attack, and we cannot seal our country under a glass dome," Napolitano said. "However, we continue to do everything we can to reduce the risk of terrorism in our nation."

The head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, told the committee that the al Qaeda off-shoot based in Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), at the moment represented the biggest threat to the United States.

Leiter said that the parent al Qaeda group, believed to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, was probably at its weakest point since the September 11, 2001 attacks but remained a "very determined enemy."

"I actually consider al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with (Anwar) al-Awlaki as a leader within that organization probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland," Leiter told the committee, noting that it has a large Internet following.

Al-Awlaki, a Muslim cleric who is U.S. citizen but left the country in 2001 and joined al Qaeda in Yemen, has been tied to plots against the United States over the last two years.

The group has claimed responsibility for the 2009 Christmas Day thwarted attack aboard a U.S. airliner and a more recent attempt to blow up two U.S.-bound cargo planes with toner cartridges packed with explosives.

Al-Awlaki also communicated with a U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan who in November 2009 allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 and wounded 32. Leiter said that it appeared to be more "inspiration rather than direction."

Hundreds of Afghan fighters to lay down arms: NATO

2011-02-07T10:05:00.001-08:00

(Reuters) - As many as 900 Afghan fighters have agreed to lay down their arms, a senior NATO official said on Monday, but it is too soon to say if a drive to bring in low-level fighters can be decisive in curbing bloodshed.

Major General Philip Jones, who leads NATO support of the Afghan government's efforts to broker peace with various militant factions, said reintegration of local fighters had begun in earnest three or four months ago.

"The pace of people coming into the program has picked up ... but the initial steps are the first in a very long process of trying to build peace," Jones told reporters in Kabul.

"It's a tough and complicated and very human process at all levels, but of course it would be after 20 years of war and 10 years of insurgency."

Yet many thousands more full- or part-time fighters from the Taliban and other militant groups will need to halt their hostilities if Afghanistan is to emerge from bloodshed.

Violence reached its highest level last year in nearly a decade of fighting after the Taliban government was overthrown, as U.S. President Barack Obama sent some 30,000 extra soldiers to take on Taliban militants dug in across southern Afghanistan.

After heavy fighting last year, parts of the southern Taliban heartland are more secure and Afghan and Western officials are hoping to rout the Taliban's spring offensive.

But the Taliban, the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, and other groups remain well-armed and determined and bloodshed has intensified in eastern Afghanistan and spread to once-secure areas of the country's north and west.

RISK VS REWARD

Central to any lasting improvement will be support from Pakistanin reining in militants along the Afghan border and better governance in Afghanistan, where corrupt officials have driven many villagers into the arms of the insurgency.

President Hamid Karzai sees reconciliation with Taliban leaders as the key to ending the war but there are few signs of traction despite more than a year of support for high-level talks.

At the other end of the militant spectrum, Jones said at least 45 armed groups or possibly more were in talks with the government on lower-level or local reintegration.

Those who want to sign up must stop fighting, cut ties with other militants and embrace the Afghan constitution. They provide the government biometric information and surrender heavy weapons but are allowed to keep arms deemed essential for self-defense.

In return, they are promised some level of protection from militant retribution and may get limited assistance and aid projects for their communities.

Yet at least a dozen fighters who signed up with reintegration programs have been attacked or killed and the Taliban have made it clear that "anyone who steps into this process has a death sentence over their head", Jones said.

As foreign forces begin to withdraw gradually from July this year, an end to hostilities at the local level may be as important as decisions from Taliban leaders.

"It's not to say that peace in

our time is around the corner," Jones said. "But there is a huge sense of war weariness."

Egypt crisis shows little signs of ending even after talks

2011-02-07T10:05:00.000-08:00

Opposition activist Mohammad ElBaradei, who was not invited at the meeting yesterday too slammed the negotiations, saying they were "opaque", and "nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage".The reforms committee has basically been tasked to suggest amendments in the constituion to put a term limit on the number of tenures of a president and on defining who can contest for the presidency. But, Vice President Omar Suleiman did not agree to an opposition proposal that the President''s powers be transferred to him in line with a constitutional provision.Obama played down the prospect of Muslim Brotherhood emerging as the main force in Egypt in a post-Mubarak era, and said the group is only one faction in a country which has a large number of secular groups as well."What Egypt needs is a peaceful and orderly transition," he said.The developments came even as tens of thousands of Egyptians observed a ''Day of Martyrs'' yesterday in remembrance of their countrymen killed in the uprising. While the regime has said that Mubarak, as president till September, would preside over a peaceful transition to a more representative government, the protesters have insisted that Mubarak should go now. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq meanwhile told CNN that Mubarak has no immediate plans to quit his position and that he intends to stay on till the end of his term in September.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton too said that Mubarak might not be able to relinquish office as early as demanded by the protesters as the transition would take time.The talks followed a major shake-up in the ruling National Democratic Party, with resignations of most of its leaders including the president''s son Gamal Mubarak. PTI

Julian Assange extradition hearing opens in London

2011-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

LONDON - The extradition trial of Julian Assange, the mastermind behind the WikiLeaks Web site, opened on Monday with the 39-year old Australian placidly watching from the plaintiff's bench as his lawyers argued against sending him to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

With his celebrity supporters present in the courtroom, including Bianca Jagger and the socialite Jemima Khan, Assange, wearing a dark suit and purple tie, scribbled down notes and settled in for what is set to be the two-day hearing.

British lawyers representing Swedish prosecutors argued for Assange's extradition over allegations of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion lodged by two women who entered into brief relationships with Assange in Sweden last August.

Assange has denied said any wrongdoing, insisting he had consensual sex with both women.

Geoffrey Robertson, one of Assange's lead attorneys, argued that Assange could not receive a fair trial in Sweden in part because rape cases there are heard in private. Conducting such a case in secret, without press and the public present, he argued, "risks a flagrant denial of justice."

Given the broad laws governing extradition between European Union nations - which are structured to allow expedited extraditions -- experts say Assange faces a hard-fought case. His lawyers, however, were challenging the Swedish petition on multiple grounds.

They argued that Sweden should not have requested Assange's extradition because prosecutors there have not yet officially filed criminal charges against their client, instead issuing a warrant based on their desire to question Assange in connection with the allegations.

They have also suggested that the case is politically motivated, one of the rare justifications for refusing inter-European extradition requests. The defense asserts that the allegations against Assange amount to a conspiracy that would end with Assange being extradited to the United States to face charges for the leaking of secret State Department documents on the Internet.

The lawyers acting on behalf of Swedish prosecutors dismiss the conspiracy theory as false and unfounded.

Though the hearing is set to conclude on Tuesday, most analysts believe the judge will not issue a written verdict in a week or two. After that decision comes down, both parties will have the right to appeal to Britain's high court in a process that could drag on for months.

On Monday, about a dozen Assange backers gathered outside the Belmarsh high-security prison, where the court is being held. Some were wearing orange Guantanamo Bay prison outfits, while others wielded placards reading "don't shoot the messenger," and "the truth has been raped."

Bill Gates: Vaccine-autism link 'an absolute lie'

2011-02-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

Davos, Switzerland (CNN) -- Microsoft founder Bill Gates sat down recently with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta in Davos, Switzerland. The billionaire philanthropist was attending the World Economic Forum to push his mission of eradicating polio by 2012. Gates, through his foundation, also pledged $10 billion to provide vaccinations to children around the world within a decade.

Gupta asked Gates for his thoughts about the alleged autism-vaccine connection. He also asked: Who holds ultimate accountability for the billions of dollars being spent on aid? Is a certain amount of corruption and fraud expected? Below is an excerpt of their conversation.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Ten billion dollars [pledged] over the next 10 years to make it "the year of the vaccines." What does that mean exactly?

Bill Gates: Over this decade, we believe unbelievable progress can be made, in both inventing new vaccines and making sure they get out to all the children who need them. We could cut the number of children who die every year from about 9 million to half of that, if we have success on it. We have to do three things in parallel: Eradicate the few that fit that profile -- ringworm and polio; get the coverage up for the vaccines we have; and then invent the vaccines -- and we only need about six or seven more -- and then you would have all the tools to reduce childhood death, reduce population growth, and everything -- the stability, the environment -- benefits from that.

Gupta: There has been a lot of scrutiny of vaccines recently -- specifically childhood vaccines. There has been a lot of news about is there a connection with autism, for example. What do you make of all that? Dr. [Andrew] Wakefield wrote a paper about this [in The Lancet in 1998] saying he thought there was a connection. And there were lower vaccination rates over a period of time as a result in Britain, then the United States. What are your thoughts?

Gates: Well, Dr. Wakefield has been shown to have used absolutely fraudulent data. He had a financial interest in some lawsuits, he created a fake paper, the journal allowed it to run. All the other studies were done, showed no connection whatsoever again and again and again. So it's an absolute lie that has killed thousands of kids. Because the mothers who heard that lie, many of them didn't have their kids take either pertussis or measles vaccine, and their children are dead today. And so the people who go and engage in those anti-vaccine efforts -- you know, they, they kill children. It's a very sad thing, because these vaccines are important.

Gupta: Developing the vaccine. The scientific research that goes into that, obviously, is one thing, and then distributing things, even after they've been created, [is another]. Someone said to me once that even if the cure for HIV/AIDS came in the form of a clean glass of water, we still wouldn't get rid of AIDS in the world because of actually distributing some of these things. How do you address a challenge like that, no matter the money?

Gates: Well, there are fantastic ways of getting vaccines out -- a system that has been built up over the years. In the case of smallpox, they just used the vaccine and they eradicated the disease all the way back in 1979. We cover about 75% of the world's children with the vaccines. Vaccination is pretty special because you can do a vaccination campaign anywhere in the world. All you are doing is gathering women from the villages, getting them the vaccines and asking them to go around and find the children. And then you pay other people who are independent to come in, look at the children, survey, and see what the coverage rate is. You also have clear indicators. Measles will always show you if someone isn't doing a good job on vaccinations. Kids will start dying of measles. So we know, when we spend money, that the group we asked to do that vaccination, they've delivered.

Gupta: You talk about smallpox being a little bit of a model in terms of proof of principle that it can be done. D.A. Henderson -- Donald Henderson -- who was with the World Health Organization at the time this was done, has said look, when you talk about polio, is this more of a movement rather than a public health initiative using objective evidence. And I think what he was saying is that, should this be more about annual immunizations rather than trying to find this moment in time?

Gates: Well, when you talk to mothers whose children who are paralyzed, I think, no matter what you label it, it should be about getting rid of this evil disease. I don't think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing. The world has been very careful to pick very few diseases for eradication, because it is very tough. After smallpox got finished, the lesson from that was the miracle of vaccines, not that we should immediately take on other diseases.

Gupta: You have talked about Afghanistan, Pakistan and the polio vaccine, and you've said that doing this, the vaccination campaign, can help stabilize a war-torn region like this.

Gates: What you are seeing is that the density in the poor areas is greater than they can grow the food, greater than they can educate, greater than they can provide jobs. So you create these hot spots of instability. So even if all you care about is national security, these health things are a very cheap way to make sure you are not going to have turmoil that would eventually affect the whole world.

Gupta: Is there a diplomatic part of this? The fact that your foundation, others organizations and partnerships are doing this. Is that part of it?

Gates: The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important. That your sense of justice says, why should rich kids -- who barely get these diseases and almost never die of them -- why should they get the vaccines, when poor kids, who actually do die from these diseases, don't get those things? It's an unbelievable inequity that there isn't that access. It's been 15 years, usually, between when rich kids get vaccines and poor kids do.

Gupta: There was an article about concerns of corruption and fraud with regard to the Global Fund. Do you expect just to have a certain amount of corruption and fraud -- just say you know what, to do the work that we do, we have to expect and accept a certain amount of that?

Gates: Well the Global Fund does a fantastic job. [It has seen about 3% or 4% of the money it spends not be applied properly.] And they had a few grantees where the percentage was high enough that they cut them off and switched away from the government to another form of delivery. Because you don't want patients to die. You just have to find someone that does the honest delivery. So yes, you are going to have some. It's fine.

This is saving lives for well less than 1% of what you would spend in the rich world. And if you think lives are created equal -- this at least says well, are they at least worth 1%. And that's ignoring the sickness you avoid.

There was a survey recently that showed half the kids in Africa, because of infectious disease, have IQs of 80 or lower. That's cerebral malaria, that's malnutrition because their brain doesn't fully develop. And if you want them to be stable and on their own, you have got to make sure that terrible sickness, that permanently hurts them their entire life, is not there.

By and large, it is the one health intervention that can get to everyone. In fact, it is so simple, people often forget what a big deal this is. The 2 million people that would have died from smallpox now don't think, "Wow, I'm alive today because of vaccinations," but that's the case.

Pipeline Attacked Near Israel-Egypt Border

2011-02-06T03:13:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce Knowles & Katy Perry topped the charts (in that order) in the 16th annual Sally Beauty Best Tressed Survey. The survey polled results from 1,000 American women on the best and worst celebrity hair styles of the year.

Long layered haircuts have clearly been the trend in celebrity hair styles for the last year and more. This poll is another indication that long hair styles are here to stay for a while longer. These long hair styles have varied mostly with the cutting in of bangs or no bangs. Side swept bangs, blunt bangs, wispy bangs or choppy bangs all contribute to changing the overall look of long hair styles, so find out if bangs are right for you.

This poll also included some questions on personal hair care that had some surprising results, check it out below.

EL-ARISH, Egypt - An explosion rocked a gas terminal in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, setting off a massive fire that was contained after officials shut off the flow of gas to neighboring Jordan and Egypt, officials said.

There were no reports of casualties from the blast at a gas terminal in the Sinai town of El-Arish. The explosion sent a pillar of flames leaping into the sky, but was a safe distance from the nearest homes, said regional governor Abdel Wahab Mabrouk.

The cause of the explosion was not clear. Mabrouk told Egyptian media he suspected "sabotage," but did not explain further.

The blast came as a popular uprising engulfed Egypt, where anti-government protesters have been demanding the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak for the past two weeks. The Sinai Peninsula, home to Bedouin tribesmen, has been the scene of clashes between residents and security forces. It borders both Israel and the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas.

The pipeline transports gas from Egypt's Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to Israel, Syria and Jordan.

Mabrouk told Egypt's Nile News TV that the fire was brought under control by mid-morning, after valves allowing the flow of gas from the terminal into pipelines were shut off.

Egyptian authorities expect gas to remain shut off for a week, until repairs are completed, Maabrah said.

Egypt has potential natural gas reserves of 62 trillion cubic feet, the 18th largest in the world.

Neighboring Israel relies on the gas pipeline to meet its energy needs and spends billions to bring natural gas from Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that it's not clear whether damage was caused to the pipeline leading to Israel. "But as a security precaution, Israel temporarily stopped, by its own initiative, the transfer of gas as procedure dictates," the statement said. Israel has alternative energy sources and is not likely to experience power shortages, the statement said.

The blast also halted the gas supply to Jordan, which depends on Egyptian gas to generate 80 percent of its electricity.

Jordan's National Electric Power Company is resorting to heavy fuel and diesel to keep national power plants running, said the company's director-general, Ghalib Maabrah. He said Jordan has heavy fuel and diesel reserves to generate electricity for three weeks, adding that the shift will cost Jordan $4.2 million a day.

The SITE intelligence group, which monitors Islamist websites, reported that jihadists had issued online posts urging Sinai Bedouin tribes to launch attacks against the pipeline. SITE quoted one Islamist website author who wrote: "To our brothers, the Bedouins of Sinai, the heroes of Islam, strike with an iron fist, because this is a chance to stop the supply to the Israelites."

Egypt began providing Israel with natural gas in February 2008 under a deal by which it will sell Israel 60 billion cubic feet a year for 15 years.

The deal raised controversy at home, with some in the Egyptian opposition saying the gas was being sold at below-market rates. Others resent Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and say Egypt shouldn't supply energy to Israel.

"The deal (to sell gas) was a blow to the pride of Egyptians and a betrayal," former diplomat Ibrahim Yousri told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Yousri led a high court challenge to try halt Egypt's sale of gas to Israel. Although the high court ruled in his favor in February 2010, the ruling was widely ignored by the government.

The Sinai gas pipelines have come under attack in the past. Bedouin tribesmen attempted to blow up the pipeline last July as tensions intensified between them and the Egyptian government, which they accuse of discrimination and of ignoring their plight.

Sudan shootout kills 20, army warns of more clashes

2011-02-05T04:36:00.000-08:00

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - At least 20 people died in a shootout between Sudanese soldiers in a southern town, the military said, warning there was a risk of more clashes as the country divided its forces before the south becomes independent.

Fighting with mortars and heavy machineguns broke out in Malakal on Thursday and again on Friday when part of a military unit refused to redeploy with its weapons to the north -- part of a separation of forces before the secession of south Sudan.

An overwhelming majority of people from the oil-producing south voted to split from the north in a referendum in January, according to preliminary results released this week.

The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended a decades-long civil war between north and south that also set southern tribe against southern tribe, in internal conflicts that have left deep scars.

Northern and southern leaders still have to finalise how they will share out military hardware and security forces -- as well as oil revenues and debts -- before the south's departure, expected on July 9. Many fear tensions could re-emerge during the negotiations.

"This morning the number of dead (in Malakal) has risen to 20, and this could change at any moment. Searches are continuing and many are wounded ... Both sides were firing mortars and heavy machineguns," said southern army spokesman Philip Aguer.

The dead included two children and a Sudanese driver for the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR, officials said on Friday.

Malakal is currently patrolled by a combined military unit made up of the north's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a force the U.N. said was in the process of splitting up before the south's independence

"SAF are supposed to go north, SPLA stay in the south," said Aguer.

The situation was complicated by the fact that the SAF unit included many southern soldiers drawn from a militia that fought alongside the north during the civil war.

Aguer said it was those southern soldiers in the SAF unit who resisted the redeployment north and began exchanging fire with other members of the same SAF unit.

"This fighting could happen anywhere where SAF has employed former militia. They are not real soldiers and don't understand the arrangement," he told Reuters.

He said the SPLA set up a buffer zone between the two sides and one SPLA soldier died after being caught in the crossfire.

UNHCR staff held a minute's silence in tribute to driver John James Okwath, 26, who died in hospital on Friday after being shot in the chest, the agency said in a statement.

Than Shwe Confounds Gamblers

2011-02-05T03:52:00.002-08:00

Much as the presidential elections in Burma's new parliament have been stage-managed by junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe, many local political observers and businessmen did not anticipate his choice of Thein Sein for president and, as a result, lost money betting on Than Shwe or junta No.3 ex-Gen Shwe Mann for president.

“Burmese usually love to bet on European football matches or the last two numbers on Thailand’s daily stock exchange,” said a businessman in Rangoon. “But this time, a lot of people were betting on who would be the new president.
“A well-known businessman who runs a private journal lost 10 million kyat (about US $10,000) to his friend after betting on Than Shwe,” he said.

Before the weekend, a majority of government officials, journalists, businessmen and INGO staffers said they assumed Than Shwe would either assume the presidential position or hand it to one of his closest aides, such as Shwe Mann.

“We [my friends and I] predicted that the senior general would taken the presidency since—under the 2008 constitution—the Head of State is the President,” said an automobile dealer in Rangoon. “I certainly had my money on him. Others bet on U Shwe Mann.”

Expectations were running high among many gamblers that Shwe Mann would “win” because Than Shwe reportedly introduced him to Chinese counterparts in September during a state visit to Beijing.

However, it is an open secret that Than Shwe likes to keep everyone guessing. Not even his closest allies pretend to know his next move.

Shwe Mann was not only considered a safe bet by several pundits, but he was also backed by some executives of a well-known NGO in Rangoon. Many said they believed the 63-year-old general could bring about some positive developments.

Leaked information from Naypyidaw at the weekend and on Monday suggested Than Shwe was going to nominate Prime Minister Thein Sein, not himself or Shwe Mann.

This came true on Friday when Parliament announced the appointment of Thein Sein as President and another top junta official, ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, as Vice President alongside Sai Mauk Kham, a Shan MP from the junta’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Shwe Mann was elected by the Lower House as its speaker on Monday.

But although political observers and gamblers were interested in who would become President, most Burmese citizens were not.

“Whoever becomes the president, everything will be the same,” said a 53-year-old schoolteacher from Rangoon. “We Burmese will be still under the military rule of Snr-Gen Than Shwe. It is unimportant who is appointed President.”

China to impose green tax on heavy polluter

2011-02-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

China is to impose an environmental tax on heavy polluters under an ambitious cleanup strategy being finalised in Beijing, according to experts familiar with the programme.

The tax will be included alongside the world's most ambitious renewable energy scheme and fresh efforts to fight smog when the government unveils the biggest, greenest five-year plan in China's modern history next month.

After three decades of filthy growth, the measures are designed to pull the country from the environmental mire and make it a leader in the low-carbon economy. But sceptics question whether the policy will have any more success than previous failed efforts to overcome the nexus of corrupt officials and rule-dodging factory bosses.

The environmental tax – which will levy fees according to discharges of sulphur dioxide, sewage and other contaminants – is intended as a disincentive for polluting industries, many of which have flocked to China to take advantage of low costs and weak regulations. Officials and academics have been studying the options for several years, but government advisers have told the Guardian the policy is certain to be adopted.

"The environment tax is going to happen. This is evident in the proposals for the next five year plan," said Ma Zhong, director of the School of Environment and National Resources at Renmin University in Beijing. "It is likely to be levied nationwide, but there is also a possibility that it will initially be introduced in selected regions."

Jiangxi, a south-eastern province, has applied to host a pilot project. Domestic media predict the tax could come into force in 2013. "Our pollution situation is very serious. In order to deal with this, we need an environmental tax system. We will do it step by step," said Zhang Jianping, a senior economist at the Institute for International Economic Research in the National Development and Reform Commission.

Carbon dioxide, a key concern given China's status as the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, may be included in the system at a later stage, though the issue is being debated. "Some want to put them together, but I think a carbon tax should be different and at a higher level and from the environmental tax," said Zhang.

The revenues would go to the central government, prompting calls for them to fund the restoration of badly damaged ecosystems or to compensate victims of industrial contamination. But the main aim of the new system is act as a disincentive to polluters.

"In the early phase, the objective of this tax is to change behaviour rather than to raise money," Ma said. The main impact is likely to be felt by the energy sector as well as emission-intensive industries, such as steel, chemicals and cement.

China has pollution charges, but they are low and poorly enforced by weak environment bureaus. Tax officials are likely to be in a stronger position, though their impact depends on how high the rates are set and whether monitoring and accountability systems are improved.

The government has also announced plans to raise and widen resource and property taxes to discourage real estate speculation and excessive exploitation of energy, water and mineral supplies. A mandatory carbon trading system – on a regional or sectoral level – is also expected to be included in the next five-year plan, which will be announced in March.

The use of financial and market-based tools represents a departure for the communist government from previous five-year plans, which have tended to rely on top-down administrative orders.

Environmental groups welcomed the initiative, but said the government had to do more in terms of transparency, implementation and burden sharing.

"The launch of the environmental tax will mark China's first real effort to use financial mechanisms to curb pollution," said Wang Xiaojun of Greenpeace. "It's a good sign that the 'money talk' has begun, but there is still a long way to go to really charge polluters what they owe the environment and the people who rely on it."

Steps towards a greener China

It is too early to proclaim the emergence of the world's first green superpower, but March's five-year plan will outline several new steps in that direction:

• Energy efficiency and environmental services to be declared "priority industries" for first time.

• Three trillion yuan (£284bn) to be spent on environmental protection over the period – double the amount from 2006-2010

• A carbon intensity target – the ratio of GHG emissions relative to GDP – to be set, likely at about 16%.

• A new environmental tax on heavy polluters to levy fees on discharges of sulphur dioxide, sewage and other contaminants.

More radical steps are also under discussion including:

• A cap on energy use.

• A shift from GDP-based performance evaluation.

Establishing long-term mental health care in flood-affected areas in Brazil

2011-02-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

It was great to see the local and national mobilization to respond quickly to this type of emergency. But it is crucial that mental health care is integrated into the response early on to reduce the risk of other reactions such as post traumatic stress disorders at a later stage.

Dr. Sérgio Cabral, who coordinated MSF’s activities in the region north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after recent floods, explains the scope of MSF activity during the natural disaster. After training over 150 psychologists in four towns, MSF is preparing to leave the area knowing the work will be continued.

Why has MSF decided to respond to the floods in Brazil?
“We came soon after the floods to do an assessment and were shocked by the extent of the disaster. I was also impressed by the volume of aid arriving in some towns, resulting from a massive mobilization by the population, other organizations and the state itself. However, in more isolated place, the population was stranded and their access to basic medical care was limited. In those places, like Sao Jose do Vale do Rio Preto, aid was much slower to arrive.”

What has MSF done?
“We have sent two additional teams with doctors, psychologists and a nurse to provide medical and psychological care in the most affected areas. But the volume of aid increased quickly, even in the isolated places. Unfortunately, mental health care was virtually non-existent so that is where we decided to focus.”

How have you done it?
“There were many skilled psychologists but most had never worked in a context of natural disaster, so they felt unable to help the survivors. Many had also been affected by the floods or mudslides and were extremely shaken by the disaster, and that initially hampered their ability to provide mental health care to those who had gone through the same experiences. We started by meeting groups of psychologists who were working in the area and, together with them, we decided that the best thing to do was to provide training on how to deal with survivors of this type of disaster. These psychologists were working for other organizations or for the public health system. And they will remain in the area after MSF leaves.”

How big is the team now?
“We have three psychologists with previous experience in other natural disasters – like the Haiti earthquake or another flood response in Brazil. When you work with other psychologists, the impact of your work multiplies. We have also seen an increased interest in the training. At the first meeting in Friburgo there were 20 people. On the second day, the number doubled. In total, more than 150 psychologists have participated in the training sessions we provided.”

Is this a usual strategy for MSF?
“In this case, where there were very skilled local workers and a large number of committed volunteers who are able to respond quickly, it was an appropriate strategy to adopt. MSF also works on capacity building.”

What has been the main lesson learnt?
“It was great to see the local and national mobilization to respond quickly to this type of emergency. But it is crucial that mental health care is integrated into the response early on to reduce the risk of other reactions such as post traumatic stress disorders at a later stage.”

Cyclone Yasi likely to have ravaged Great Barrier Reef

2011-02-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

Cyclone Yasi hit the Great Barrier Reef as it was recovering from devastation caused by coral bleaching and crown-of-thorns starfish. Photograph: Grant Faint/Getty Images

On its way to ravaging cities and towns in north Queensland, severe tropical cyclone Yasi will almost certainly have left a swath of destruction on the Great Barrier Reef off Townsville.

Early last month, as floods struck southern Queensland, I accompanied a team of divers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science on an expedition to a 300-mile part of the reef – a fifth of the 1,400-mile-long World Heritage Area.

The researchers dived 13 reefs – from Myrmidon, which is 75 miles out to sea, to areas around the inshore Palm Island group, just off the mainland. Much of what we saw was spectacular and showed the reef recovering from a decade of devastation caused by coral bleaching and crown-of-thorns starfish, both of which have been responsible for large areas of coral mortality.

It may be weeks or months before scientists can fully survey and assess the damage from cyclone Yasi but, based on the effect of previous large cyclones, they will not be optimistic. Tropical cyclones generate huge waves, which pulverise coral reefs into rubble.

In March 2009, category four tropical cyclone Hamish travelled in an unusual path from north to south, tracking parallel to the coast and not making landfall. It is estimated to have affected a quarter of the Great Barrier Reef.

A year later I was able to dive in one of the areas hit by cyclone Hamish, also with scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Much of what we saw at the Swains, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, was denuded of life. Numerous coral bommies, many the size of big cars, had been lifted up on to the reef flat by the force of the storm. It can take years, or even decades, for such a coral ecosystem to recover fully.

Scientists fear that as climate change tightens its grip devastating storms such as cyclones Yasi and Hamish will become more frequent and intense. However, it is not just the direct impacts of these storms that can damage the reef.

In the wake of the Queensland flooding, a coral ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Dr Katharina Fabricius, warned that floodwaters carrying high nutrient loads from agricultural and urban catchments could lead to outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish. The starfish feed on coral, quickly denuding entire reefs.

Last year Fabricius and her colleagues published new evidence that nutrients in floodwaters provide food to the starfish larvae, increasing their survivability.

These are nervous days for the marine biologists who study the Great Barrier Reef and the authorities responsible for its good health.

Black money funds political parties: Rahul Bajaj

2011-02-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

"Where does the political party gets its funds from? Come on, I've been in Parliament for four years. Its not cheques, its not by small members. All money comes in through black money. Black money doesn't come from heaven," Bajaj Auto Chairman said addressing a CII conference here.

However, he maintained that the Bajaj family does not fund parties in cash and pays only through cheques to ensure accountability.

He further hinted that promoters of companies also indulge in diverting some of the company's money illegally turning it into black money in the economy.

"Corporates do take it out from the company. Most of us know some of the ways of taking that money out ... taking out black money from a company is cheating minority shareholders," he said.

Bajaj's comments come even as a debate rages nationally over black money of Indians stashed in Swiss Bank accounts, with demands being made to get the money--quantum of which is unknown but speculated to be huge--back to India.

Bajaj said principles of corporate governance cannot help if the top management of a company, including its promoters, chairmen and CEOs, is corrupt and further expressed regret that nobody likes to talk about this facet.

The ex-president of industry body CII also made public his reservations clear about the role of industry associations, naming CII and FICCI. He said they take no action against its members indulging in corruption and do not even censure the wrongdoers.

However, he also spoke against the prevailing "presumption" in Government to see every promoter as a "crook" and asked for better legislative systems to boost the economic climate.

"One bad egg should not mean that you shackle the entire corporate sector. The 95 per cent who do business well should not suffer," he said, pointing out to the Satyam case involving R Raju and the company's external auditors PricewaterHouse Coopers.

"Raju shamed us, PwC shamed the auditing fraternity. That (PwC's misdoings) was either corruption or downright incompetence," he added.

On independent directors, he said, many-a-time, they are cronies appointed by the promoters themselves. Independent directors should decide whether "to be led or to lead", he said.

Google receives 75,000 CVs in one week

2011-02-04T07:15:00.001-08:00

Google has received more than 75,000 job applications in just one week, a record for the search engine giant.

The web company received the flood of CVs after last week announcing that it would hire 6,000 employees this year.

Google is looking to increase its prescence in mobile services, display advertising and Internet applications. It also faces tougher competition from Facebook and Apple for users and engineering talent.

“We’re looking for top talent,” Alan Eustace, senior vice-president of engineering and research, said last week in a blog. “We’ll hire as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science: like building a web-based operating system from scratch, instantly searching an index of more than 100m gigabytes and even developing cars that drive themselves.”

The number of job applications tops Google's previous high by 15pc, set in May 2007.

Google unveils Android Market website

2011-02-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Whether it’s a game or a lifestyle app calculating users’ calorie intake, the Android Market is a bustling place full of diverse content. Chipping in to create an enriching mobile experience, it now boasts of over 100,000 apps, games and widgets. According to a post on the official Google Mobile blog, the company has crafted the Android Market website for enabling users to download apps and other offerings directly from a web browser.

This newly developed website not only rolls out content on a wider and brighter interface but also allows users to wirelessly send applications on their handsets. Android phone owners can browse through the website while reading reviews about various apps and games.

The website makes it possible for visitors to create their personal Market account, allowing them to manage their already downloaded apps. Through this account, they will have the power to organize and classify this content. Besides, it has been engineered for rendering social connectivity as its Twitter integration enables customers to share apps with their dear ones.

Android users can now log into the website even while surfing through computing systems for administering apps, games and other content on their handset.

Immigrants must know English: Cameron

2011-02-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

London: Britain is planning to introduce tougher rules to ensure that immigrants specially from the Indian sub-continent have a "reasonable standard" of English, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

"Migrant families have an obligation to teach their children English before they start school. We will bring forward tougher rules to ensure those arriving in the UK have a reasonable standard of English," Cameron told the House of Commons.

According to a report, one in six children do not speak English as their first language. Ministers believe that children brought up in London stand a better chance of succeeding if their parents have a good grasp of the language.

Cameron spoke out after a Commons exchange with Yorkshire Tory MP Kris Hopkins, who said: "Sadly in Keighley, too many children start school and don't speak English."

He then asked Cameron: "Do you agree with me that there is a responsibility and an obligation upon parents to make sure their children speak English?"

Cameron replied: "I completely agree with you. The fact is, in too many cases this isn't happening.

"The last government did make some progress on making sure people learned English when they came to our country. I think we need to go further. If you look at the figures for the number of people who are brought over as husbands and wives, particularly from the Indian sub-continent, we should be putting in place and we will be putting in place tougher rules to make sure they do learn English so when they come, if they come, they can be more integrated into our country."

A recent study by MigrationWatch found that children who speak English as their first language are in a minority in some inner-city London schools.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Birmingham, Bradford and Leicester all have more than 40 per cent of pupils in primary schools who do not have English as a first language.

To date, the government's policies have focused upon marriage visas. Since September, those coming to Britain to marry UK citizens have been forced to sit pre-entry tests proving a basic level of English.

Lawyers argue that the tests, which apply only to those from non-English-speaking countries, are discriminatory, and breach human rights law. But Immigration Minister Damian Green argued that the English language requirement would allow for a "more cohesive society".

US welcomes India's role in Asia Pacific region

2011-02-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

The US welcomes India's greater involvement in East Asia and is committed to working with New Delhi as it increases ties with US allies in Southeast Asia and Japan, a senior US official has said.

"Ultimately, we think that India's role in the Asian-Pacific region stands to be one of the most important new developments over the course of the next decade," Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kurt Campbell told reporters on Wednesday.

Offering to help India and China improve their relations, he said: "We also, frankly, support an improvement in dialogue between India and China, and we would seek to take steps to facilitate that as we move forward." Back in November 2009, India had expressed deep concern over a joint statement issued after President Barack Obama's China visit acknowledging Beijing's role in South Asia. Among other things, it "welcomed all efforts conducive to peace, stability and development in South Asia".

It also supported "the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan" and expressed readiness "to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and development in that region". However, after Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington last month, the joint statement made no reference to South Asia apparently in response to New Delhi's sensitivities.

Downplaying the absence of a reference to Beijing's role in South Asia in the latest US-China joint statement, Washington said it did not necessarily reflect a change in policy.Though the joint statement issued here after Obama's talks with Hu made no direct reference to South Asia it clearly stated, "The presidents further reaffirmed their commitment to the November 2009 US - China Joint Statement."

Cyclone Yasi batters northern Australia

2011-02-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

Melbourne: The most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in generations has affected over 170,000 people in flood-ravaged northern Queensland province, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs and cutting electricity.

Cyclone Yasi was the worst cyclone that hit the country since 1918. Over 170,000 residents in the affected region were without power and for many it would take a month to get back electricity, according to latest media reports.

Ergon Energy spokesman John Stock said that early reports indicated damage was worse than experienced during Cyclone Larry in 2006. There have been hundreds of reports of fallen power poles and damaged power lines. Witnesses reported roofs being ripped off, buildings shaking and trees flattened under the power of the winds.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported. Amid the chaos and devastation of cyclone Yasi, a baby girl was also born at one of the Cairns evacuation centres at 6:09 am (local time). The damage was severe across Tully, Mission Beach and Cardwell. Early reports suggest the communities of Mission Beach, where the category 5 cyclone made landfall about midnight, nearby Tully and Innisfail, 50 km north of ground zero were the worst hit.

The Cyclone Yasi brought 340 mm of rain in some areas with the stretch between Ingham and Mission Beach getting 200-230 mm. Queenslanders were now assessing how destructive Yasi was after a terrifying night.

"It's a great relief this morning to be able to say at this time we have no report of casualties, serious injuries or any fatalities," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said. She said the picture in the region would become clearer as reports will come from smaller and isolated communities.

Meanwhile, immediate threat to coastal communities from a second storm surge still loomed but was reduced this morning and residents were now being allowed to return back to some affected areas. Flood alerts remained in place in some areas as river levels continue to rise.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard also asked north Queenslanders to not let their guard down in the wake of Cyclone Yasi, saying the storm was still dangerous.

Gillard said people needed to stay alert and listen to the advice of emergency services workers."Surging tides, powerlines that are down, flooding danger and there are some parts of Queensland that are bracing for the cyclone to come across land and to still hit," she said in Canberra.

Ayurvedic medicines face EU ban from May 1

2011-02-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

A ban on the sale of Ayurvedic and other herbal medicines will take effect across Europe from May 1 following a European Union directive introduced as a response to growing concern over adverse effects of such
alternative medicines.

Users and promoters of such medicines have called the EU directive called The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, 2004/24/EC, "discriminatory and disproportionate".

Ayurvedic and traditional herbal medicines will need to licensed to comply with the EU directive passed in 2004, which takes effect from May 1.

Official sources said those ayurvedic products marketed before the legislation came into force in 2004 can continue to market their product until April 30, 2011, under the transitional measures.

Once this time limit has expired, all herbal medicinal products must have prior authorisation before they can be marketed in the EU. Ayurvedic medicines such as "ashwagandha" will not be available for sale across Europe from May 1.

The directive aims to protect users from any damaging side-effects that can arise from taking unsuitable medicines.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued more than a dozen safety alerts in the past two years, including one over aristolochia, a banned toxic plant derivative, which reportedly caused kidney failure in two women.

After the ban comes into effect, only high quality, long-established and scientifically safe herbal medicines will be sold over the counter, official sources here said.

Herbal practitioners say it is impossible for most herbal medicines to meet the licensing requirements for safety and quality, which are intended to be similar to those for pharmaceutical drugs, because of the cost of testing.

According to the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), which represents herbal practitioners, not a single product used in traditional Chinese medicine or ayurvedic medicine has been licensed.

Producers and independent health store owners allege that the directive draconian and favours large European manufacturers, but smaller firms will be in danger of being squeezed out of the market.

Under EU law, statutorily regulated herbal practitioners will be permitted to continue prescribing unlicensed products, but the government in Britain has delayed plans to introduce a statutory herbal practitioner register.

Egypt: CNN-IBN journo's ID card, tapes burnt

2011-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

CNN-IBN video journalist Rajesh Bhardwaj was taken into preventive custody in Cairo on Thursday and his identity card and tapes burnt. Bhardwaj along with some other media personnel was reportedly taken into custody by the Egyptian Army but released after some time. Bhardwaj was shooting the anti-Hosni Mubarak protests at Tahrir Square in Cairo when the Army took him into custody.

However, Bhardwaj said after his release that those who took him into custody were not in army uniform.

"They asked me from where I was. When I replied that I was an Indian they took me near some Army tanks and asked for my identity card. My identity card was torn and burnt. My tapes were taken away and burnt them. They even took away my camera but returned it after removing the tapes from it. Those who burnt my identity card and tapes were not in army uniform," he said.

He also said that some Army personnel opened fire at anti-government protestors in Tahrir Square.

BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was arrested, handcuffed, blindfolded and interrogated. Wingfield-Hayes was arrested shortly after interviewing the advisor to Mubarak.

Passports of several journalists were also taken away by Egyptian authorities.

Indian Ambassador to Egypt, RS Swaminathan, told CNN-IBN that the Embassy had not been contacted so far by the Indian journalists present in Egypt. But he promised to get any Indian journalist under custody in Egypt released.

The Ministry of External Affairs has also decided to issue an advisory asking all Indian journalists to avoid troubled spots in Egypt. The Ministry also got in touch with the Egyptian government to get Bhardwaj released immediately after the news came out

Earlier, Army used tanks to separate supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from the anti-government protestors. The Army stepped in after fresh clashes erupted in Cairo ahead of a Friday deadline for Mubarak to quit.

The violence started again just a few hours after Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologised for earlier violence and promised to hold an investigation into the deadly clashes that left at least six people dead and several others injured.

Supporters of President Mubarak targeted anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square reportedly from assault rifles.

The Word Is Cancer - Means

2011-02-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

Words have different effects with different people, but one word evokes the same reaction no matter the sex, no matter the ethnic background, and no matter the economic status.

That word is cancer.

Many of us would like to blame our over processed diets, our love of the sun, or indulgence with tobacco as main causes of cancer…..and they would be right, however cancer has been around for a long, long time.

During his lifetime between 460 BC and 370 BC, Hippocrates described cancer he saw on the bodies of people describing the lesions as having veins stretched out on all sides similar to a crab’s feet. He made drawings of tumors that could be seen outside the body on the skin, nose, and breasts. More than likely cancer existed internally as well during ancient times, but it was not the Greek practice to open bodies.

Prior to Hippocrates Egyptian records dating back to 1600 BC describe cancer treatments including cauterization with a tool called “the fire drill”, but that ultimately there was no cure for the disease.

The Greeks treated cancer through diet, blood-letting, and/or laxatives. It wasn’t until after the year 1,000 AD where records indicate treatment included removing diseased tissue. Avicenna describes amputations and cauterizations in The Canon of Medicine.

Once microscopes and the discovery of cells occurred cancer treatments become more radical and invasive with success with many types of cancer, but we still have a long way to go.

Early detection is still one of the best methods of treatment.

Go schedule your screenings today……..Go on. Go call now.

I'll wait.

Then you can ponder these cancer statistics:

Egypt forced Vodafone to send pro-govt SMSes

2011-02-03T09:14:00.001-08:00

Egyptian authorities forced Vodafone to broadcast government-scripted text messages during the protests that have rocked the North African nation, the UK-based mobile company said Thursday.

Micro-blogging site Twitter has been buzzing with screen grabs from Vodafone's Egyptian customers showing pro-government text messages sent to them in the run-up to the violent clashes in central Cairo that broke out on Wednesday.

Vodafone Group PLC said in a statement that Egyptian authorities had been using the country's emergency laws to script text messages to its customers since the beginning of the unrest. The company said it had no ability to change the content of the messages.

"Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," the statement said. "We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator."

Vodafone has already come under fire for its role in the Internet blackout that cut Egypt off from the online world for several days. The company said the order to pull the plug on its Egyptian customers could not be ignored as it was legal under local law.

The company noted in its statement that the Egyptian government also has the power to compel other mobile operators, including Egypt's Mobinil and Etisalat, to send pre-scripted text messages.

It was not clear whether those companies were also involved. Vodafone did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the exact nature of the government messages, although Twitter users described them as carrying patriotic messages as well as attacks on "traitors".

Facebook post that sparked Egypt revolution

2011-02-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

A 26-year-old woman worried about the state of her country wrote on Facebook: "People, I am going to Tahrir Square". The message was soon to snowball into a movement to oust Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The Facebook appeal by Asmaa Mahfouz led to popular protests that saw tens of thousands congregating at Tahrir Square to demand an end to Mubarak's unbridled 30-year rule. Mubarak has said he is ready to step down at the end of his term in September, but has refused to quit immediately now.

Violent clashes during the protests have left six dead and over 800 injured.

Asmaa Mahfouz told Al-Mihwar TV (Egypt) that the first activity was on Facebook.

"Yes. I was angry that everybody was saying that we had to take action, but nobody was doing anything. So I wrote on Facebook: 'People, I am going to Tahrir Square today'. This was a week before January 25."

"I wrote that I was going to demand the...rights of my country. I wrote that I was 26 years old...," the Middle East Media Research Institute quoted her as saying in a report Thursday.

Referring to the uprising, Asmaa said: "Whenever we talked to the people and told them to express their views, they would say: 'Who can we talk to? We will be thrown in prison and tortured.' When they saw what happened in Tunisia, the people realized that there was an Arab people that revolted and demanded its rights."

"We began to tell people that we must take action, that we must revolt and demand our rights."

"...People began to set fire to themselves, one after the other, and the response of the officials was that these people were mentally ill. The people's blood began to boil."

She recounted: "The number of people setting fire to themselves gradually rose, and in response, people began to say, on the streets and in Facebook: 'How come nobody is doing anything? Why aren't you taking action? Everybody says that something must be done, but the streets are empty'."

Asmaa said she wrote on Facebook that whoever is worried about Egypt should accompany her to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.

The gutsy woman said she also wrote, "Anyone who is worried about me or thinks that I am mentally ill should come in order to protect me...If the police wants to burn me - fine, I will be at Tahrir Square in half an hour."

"There were lots of messages saying: Wait until January 25. I said: There is no reason to wait for the 25th. I went to Tahrir Square and raised a sign," she recounted.

"I began to shout at the top of my lungs in Tahrir Sqare: 'Egyptians, four people set themselves on fire out of humiliation and poverty. Egyptians, four people set fire to themselves because they were afraid of the security agencies, not of the fire. Four people set fire to themselves in order to tell you to awaken - we are setting ourselves on fire so that you will take action. Four people set themselves on fire in order to say to the regime: Wake up. We are fed up. We are setting ourselves on fire in order to convey a message'."

Then she began to talk about 30 years of corruption.

"People began to gather to listen, and filmed me with their cell phones. All of a sudden, I saw four vehicles of the Central Security Agency arriving, and the square was suddenly filled with hundreds of agents and officers...They tried to push us into the entrance of a building. People began to shout: 'Leave them alone, leave them alone'."

"When they got us into the building entrance, the officers began to say: We are as fed up as you, but why didn't you inform us of your demonstration? I said: What are you talking about? Four people set themselves on fire, and you are asking why we didn't announce the demonstrations?"

"You should be asking yourselves why they set themselves on fire. Because of the poverty and the corruption. One of them couldn't feed his daughter. Yet, you still continue this oppression. I am not going to remain silent. If you want to set me on fire - go ahead. I am not budging from Tahrir Square," Asmaa recounted.

That snowballed into the unrest which has rocked Egypt for the past 10 days.

Mubarak's son won't seek presidency: Vice Prez

2011-02-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Cairo: Egypt's state television has reported that the vice president has said President Hosni Mubarak's son will not seek to succeed his father in elections later this year, the latest concession to anti-government protesters.

It was widely believed that Mubarak was grooming his son Gamal, 46, to succeed him despite significant public opposition.

Egypt's state news agency has also reported that the prosecutor-general has banned travel and frozen the bank accounts of three former ministers of the government that was sacked over the weekend, including the interior minister who was responsible for police.

The prosecutor-general said he ordered the same restrictions against a senior ruling party official until security is restored in the country.

Journalists beaten by Mubarak supporters

2011-02-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

Cairo: Amid the political turmoil and chaos in Egypt, foreign journalists have become targets of rampaging mobs, mostly aligned with embattled President Hosni Mubarak.

Journalists became targets, beaten, bloodied, harassed and detained by raging men, most all in some way aligned with President Mubarak, CNN, ABC News and other media outlets reported.

They said members of their staffs had been attacked, most on the streets of Cairo on Wednesday, a day after the 82-year-old Mubarak refused to step down to end his 30-year reign.

In several cases, news personnel were accused of being "foreign spies," seized and whisked away, and often assaulted, the report said.

"It was pandemonium. There was no control. Suddenly a man would come up to you and punch you in the face," said CNN's Anderson Cooper, describing being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators with two colleagues outside of Tahrir Square, the hub of Wednesday's bloody confrontations.

Mubarak's supporters turned up on the streets on Wednesday in significant numbers for the first time and some were hostile to journalists and foreigners.

CNN's Hala Gorani, who got caught in a stampede of demonstrators, some of whom were riding on camels and horses, said: "I got slammed against the gates and was threatened by one of the pro-Mubarak protesters who was ... Telling me to 'get out, get out."

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news network was among the worst hit, its office damaged and several of its staff targeted.

Two Associated Press correspondents were also roughed up in Cairo. State TV had reported that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy organisation, detailed about a dozen incidents, accusing men, most of them described as pro-Mubarak demonstrators, of perpetrating attacks on reporters.

The group laid the blame for this violence squarely on President Mubarak's administration, accusing it of scheming to suppress and stifle news coverage.

In a statement, Jean-Francois Juillard, secretary- general of the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said "the use of violence against media personnel is especially shocking."

"We urge the international community to react strongly to these excesses. And we remind the Egyptian government that it has a duty to apply the law and to urgently restore security for everyone, including media personnel."

‘Down with Mubarak’ slogans echo across Egypt

2011-02-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

More than 200,000 people flooded into the heart of Cairo on Tuesday, filling the city’s main square as a call for a million protesters was answered by the largest demonstration in a week of unceasing demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.

Protesters streamed into Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, among them people defying a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces in the Nile Delta. The crowd was jammed in shoulder to shoulder — schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.

They sang nationalist songs and chanted the anti-Mubarak “Leave! Leave! Leave!” as military helicopters buzzed overhead.

Soldiers at checkpoints set up the entrances of the square did nothing to stop the crowds from entering.

Protesters also gathered in at least five other cities across Egypt.

The military promised on state TV on Monday night that it would not fire on protesters, a sign that the Army support for Mr. Mubarak may be unravelling as momentum builds for an extraordinary eruption of discontent and demands for democracy in the United States’ most important Arab ally.

Protesters said they wanted Mr. Mubarak out of power by Friday.

“This is the end for him. It’s time,” said Musab Galal, a 23-year-old unemployed university graduate who came by minibus with his friends from the Nile Delta city of Menoufiya.

Mr. Mubarak, 82, would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular uprising in the history of the modern Middle East.

The loosely organised and disparate movement to drive him out is fuelled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant. After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the overthrow of Tunisia’s President last month took to the streets on January 25 and mounted a relentless and once unimaginable series of protests across this nation of 80 million people — the region’s most populous country and the center of Arabic-language film-making, music and literature.

Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stood at the roads leading into Tahrir Square, a plaza overlooked by the headquarters of the Arab League, the campus of the American University in Cairo, the famed Egyptian Museum and the Mugammma, an enormous winged building housing dozens of departments of the country’s notoriously corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.

Working-class men in scuffed shoes and worn cloth pants stood alongside women in full-face veils who chanted, “The people want to bring down the regime!”

For days, Army tanks and troops have surrounded the square, keeping the protests confined but doing nothing to stop people from joining. The guns of many of the tanks pointed out from the square.

Military spokesman Ismail Etman said the military “has not and will not use force against the public” and underlined that “the freedom of peaceful expression is guaranteed for everyone.”

He added the caveats that protesters should not commit “any act that destabilizes security of the country” or damage property.

The protests appeared to be better organised on Tuesday. Volunteers wearing tags reading “Security of the People” said they were watching for government infiltrators who might try to instigate violence.

“We will throw out anyone who tries to create trouble,” one announced over a loudspeaker.

Authorities shut down all roads and public transportation to Cairo, security officials said. Train services nationwide were suspended for a second day and all bus services between cities were halted.

All roads in and out of the flashpoint cities of Alexandria, Suez, Masnoura and Fayoum were also closed.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Normally bustling, Cairo’s streets outside Tahrir Square had a fraction of their normal weekday traffic.

Banks, schools and the stock market in Cairo were closed for the third working day, making cash tight. Long lines formed outside bakeries as people tried to replenish their stores of bread, for which prices were spiraling.

An unprecedented shutdown of the Internet was in its fifth day after the last of the service providers abruptly stopped shuttling Internet traffic into and out of the country.

Cairo’s international airport remained a scene of chaos as thousands of foreigners sought to flee.

The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, but reports from witnesses across the country indicated the actual toll was far higher.

The protesters — and the Obama administration — roundly rejected Mr. Mubarak’s announcement of a new government on Monday that dropped his highly unpopular interior minister, who heads police forces and has been widely denounced by the protesters.

Abdel Rahman Fathi, 25, said that his friends from the provinces were taking private cars to the square.

“The goal is to oust the regime,” he said. “Every day we try to increase the number.”

Two stuffed dummies representing Mr. Mubarak were hung from traffic lights at the square. On their chests was written: “We want to put the murderous President on trial.”

The faces of the dummies were covered with the Star of David, an allusion to many protesters’ accusation that Mr. Mubarak is a friend of Israel, which continues to be seen by most Egyptians as their country’s archenemy more than 30 years after the two nations signed a peace treaty.

Govt. offer for dialogue

Hours after the Army said it would not use force on the protesters, Vice-President Omar Suleiman — appointed by Mr. Mubarak only two days earlier in what could be a sucession plan — went on state TV to announce the offer of a dialogue with “political forces” for constitutional and legislative reforms.

Mr. Suleiman did not say what the changes would entail or which groups the government would speak with. Opposition forces have long demanded the lifting of restrictions on who is eligible to run for president to allow a real challenge to the ruling party, as well as measures to ensure elections are fair. A presidential election is scheduled for September.

The U.S. State Department said that a retired senior diplomat — former ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner — was now on the ground in Cairo and will meet Egyptian officials to urge them to embrace broad economic and political changes that can pave the way for free and fair elections.

Around 30 representatives from various opposition groups were meeting on Tuesday to produce a set of joint demands and decide whether to make prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei spokesman for the protesters, said Abu’l-Ela Madi, a spokesman of one of the participating groups, al-Wasat, a moderate breakaway faction from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Unity is far from certain among the array of movements involved in the protests, with sometimes conflicting agendas — including students, online activists, grass-roots organisers, old-school opposition politicians and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, along with everyday citizens drawn by the exhilaration of marching against the government.

The various protesters have little in common beyond the demand that Mr. Mubarak go. Perhaps the most significant tensions among them is between young secular activists and the Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to form an Islamist state in the Arab world’s largest nation. The more secular are deeply suspicious the Brotherhood aims to co-opt what they contend is a spontaneous, popular movement. American officials have suggested they have similar fears.

Mr. ElBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate and former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, invigorated anti-Mubarak feeling with his return to Egypt last year, but the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood remains Egypt’s largest opposition movement.

In a nod to the suspicions, Brotherhood figures insist they are not seeking a leadership role.

Still, Brotherhood members appeared to be joining the protest in greater numbers and more openly. During the first few days of protests, the crowd in Tahrir Square was composed of mostly young men in jeans and T-shirts.

On Monday, many of the volunteers handing out food and water to protesters were men in long traditional dress with the trademark Brotherhood appearance — a closely cropped haircut and bushy beards.

Pakistan Earthquake 2011: Magnitude 7.4 Quake

2011-01-31T08:51:00.000-08:00

An extremely strong earthquake which measured a 7.2 on the Richter scale rocked southwest Pakistan which is located just over thirty miles west of Dalbandin.

The initial area where the quake hit was very remote, so at first nobody thought that it would be so far-reaching, affecting thousands of miles of land in South Asia, spreading through a number of cities and causing untold damage.

Tremors lasted around 20 seconds and they were felt as far as Dubai as well as New Delhi, India’s capital city.

British troops also reported feeling the affects of the earthquake in Afghanistan where they are stationed, describing it as a “very noticeable” occurrence. One of the soldiers said on Twitter that it felt like they were on a ship that had hit choppy seas.

It is certainly not unusual to feel quakes in this area, as it happens quite often and in 2005 there were 80,000 people who were killed in the northwest part of Pakistan as well as in Kashmir, leaving three million people homeless and out on the streets as a result of the disaster.

Another very severe earthquake also rattled the city of Zehedan in 2003, claiming a number of lives and leaving many others injured.

FBI charges Ohio man with possessing toxin

2011-01-31T08:43:00.002-08:00

Federal law enforcement officials on Friday announced the arrest of an Ohio man for possessing a toxin that can be used as a biological weapon.

FBI officers arrested Jeffrey B. Levenderis, 54, after tests showed that a substance removed from the Coventry Township man's home was ricin. Ricin is a poison manufactured from castor beans.

Levenderis was charged with one count of unlawful possession of a biological agent. However, authorities do not believe the substance was to be used in a terrorist act.

The arrest took place three days after federal and local authorities searched Levenderis' former home near Akron. The residence is in foreclosure, according to Cleveland FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson.

Tests conducted at the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland confirmed that the substance was ricin, Wilson said.

"Ricin is a very poisonous toxin that certainly can be fatal if it's injected or you breathe it in or you eat it," Wilson said. "They're still doing a second search of the residence to make sure there aren't any other hazardous materials in the house."

Burma's parliament opens new session

2011-01-31T08:43:00.001-08:00

The new parliament in Burma has convened for the first time since elections were held last November.

The poll was widely criticised by western governments and by democracy activists within Burma.

The first sitting of the bicameral national parliament brings into effect a new constitution and officially ends nearly 50 years of military rule.

But critics say the real power in Burma will still be in the hands of a few key generals.

A quarter of seats in parliament are reserved for serving members of the armed forces.

In Burma's remote jungle capital, Naypyitaw, newly-elected politicians and their newly-appointed military equivalents opened their session in a newly-built parliament at 0855 (0225 GMT), a time chosen for its auspiciousness.

The vast majority of the seats are occupied by members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) which is backed by the current military government.

The USDP won almost 77% of the vote in November's election. Critics say this thumping majority was achieved partly through intimidation and fraud, and partly because the pro-democracy party led by Aung San Sui Kyi decided to boycott.

Although there are some independent politicians in parliament, the USDP's dominance, backed by the military caucus, appears to tilt it in favour of the status quo.

One of the first duties of the new parliament is to form an electoral college to nominate candidates for president and vice president.

Only then will it become clear who will hold the reigns of power in the new-look Burma.

Egypt standoff continues as protesters defy curfew

2011-01-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

Police have been ordered back on to the streets of Cairo and the curfew has been extended, as Egypt's president tries to re-assert control.

But anti-government demonstrators remained camped out in central Cairo overnight and they have called for a general strike on Monday.

Protesters want President Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power.

The president has ordered his new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to push through political reforms.

Egyptian state television read out a letter he had sent to Mr Shafiq, in which the president speaks of the need to make progress towards constitutional and legislative reform through a dialogue with political parties.

He also calls for economic policies that give the highest concern to people's suffering and bring down unemployment by creating new jobs.

Correspondents say all the signs continue to suggest that the only change the protesters will settle for is Mr Mubarak's removal from office.

'Protest of millions'

As demonstrations enter their seventh day, there are already plans for a "protest of the millions" march on Tuesday.

On Sunday, most of the crowd in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square were unfazed by low-flying visits from air force jets and a helicopter.

"Change is coming" promised the leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei when he addressed the crowds.

Thousands rallied in Alexandria and there were also sizeable demonstrations in Mansoura, Damanhour and Suez.

Police were noticeable by their absence so the protests were not marked by the sort of clashes which have left at least 100 people dead since rallies began on Tuesday.

But with continued reports of looting, the Interior Minister Habib al-Adly announced on Sunday that police would be back on the streets to restore order.

Economic impact

The unrest is having an impact on the Egyptian economy, beyond the closure of shops and businesses and the call for a general strike.

On Monday, New Zealand joined a growing list of countries warning their nationals not to travel to Egypt if they can avoid it and the US, Japan and China are among states preparing to evacuate their citizens.

Tourism is a vital sector in the Egyptian economy, accounting for about 5 to 6% of GDP.

Meanwhile, Japanese car maker Nissan has announced that it is halting production at its Egypt plant for a week, and it has urged non-Egyptian employees to leave the country.

Global markets are also likely to react. The Nikkei fell in early trading in Tokyo as the Egyptian unrest prompted investors to shun riskier assets.

'Orderly transition'

International pressure is growing for some kind of resolution.

In the strongest language yet, both US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the need for an "orderly transition" to a democratic future for Egypt.

The White House says US President Barack Obama made a number of calls about the situation over the weekend to foreign leaders including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The protests in Egypt are top of the agenda of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

China, meanwhile, has called for a return to order.

"Egypt is a friend of China's, and we hope social stability and order will return to Egypt as soon as possible," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

The unrest in Egypt follows the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago after 23 years in power.

Correctional officer in Washington prison is found dead

2011-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

A female correctional officer at a Washington state prison was fatally strangled and an inmate who told officers he had planned to escape is under investigation, authorities said Sunday.

Jayme Biendl, 34, was discovered late Saturday night after workers at the Monroe Correctional Complex noticed her keys and radio were missing, according to a statement from the Washington State Department of Corrections. Staff at the prison immediately went to where she worked and found her unresponsive, it said.

Emergency responders declared Biendl dead at the scene shortly before 11 p.m. PT, the department said.

She had been strangled, according to Chad Lewis, a department spokesman.

Also Saturday night, a prison inmate was reported missing during a routine count, the department said. He was later found in the chapel lobby and told officers he had planned to escape, but changed his mind.

The inmate, who Lewis identified as Byron Scherf, has since been taken to a segregation unit. The entire complex was on lockdown Sunday as officers investigate the incident, the statement said.

Police are interviewing Scherf as a suspect in the officer's death, Lewis said.

Biendl had worked with the corrections department since 2002.

U.S. scientists work to grow meat in lab

2011-01-31T08:39:00.001-08:00

In a small laboratory on an upper floor of the basic science building at the Medical University of South Carolina, Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., has been working for a decade to grow meat.

A developmental biologist and tissue engineer, Dr. Mironov, 56, is one of only a few scientists worldwide involved in bioengineering "cultured" meat.

It's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises resulting from shrinking amounts of land available for growing meat the old-fashioned way ... on the hoof.

Growth of "in-vitro" or cultured meat is also under way in the Netherlands, Mironov told Reuters in an interview, but in the United States, it is science in search of funding and demand.

The new National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, won't fund it, the National Institutes of Health won't fund it, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded it only briefly, Mironov said.

"It's classic disruptive technology," Mironov said. "Bringing any new technology on the market, average, costs $1 billion. We don't even have $1 million."

Director of the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Center in the Department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology at the medical university, Mironov now primarily conducts research on tissue engineering, or growing, of human organs.

"There's a yuck factor when people find out meat is grown in a lab. They don't like to associate technology with food," said Nicholas Genovese, 32, a visiting scholar in cancer cell biology working under a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals three-year grant to run Dr. Mironov's meat-growing lab.

"But there are a lot of products that we eat today that are considered natural that are produced in a similar manner," Genovese said.

"There's yogurt, which is cultured yeast. You have wine production and beer production. These were not produced in laboratories. Society has accepted these products."

If wine is produced in winery, beer in a brewery and bread in a bakery, where are you going to grow cultured meat?

In a "carnery," if Mironov has his way. That is the name he has given future production facilities.

He envisions football field-sized buildings filled with large bioreactors, or bioreactors the size of a coffee machine in grocery stores, to manufacture what he calls "charlem" — "Charleston engineered meat."

"It will be functional, natural, designed food," Mironov said. "How do you want it to taste? You want a little bit of fat, you want pork, you want lamb? We design exactly what you want. We can design texture.

"I believe we can do it without genes. But there is no evidence that if you add genes the quality of food will somehow suffer. Genetically modified food is already normal practice and nobody dies."

Dr. Mironov has taken myoblasts — embryonic cells that develop into muscle tissue — from turkey and bathed them in a nutrient bath of bovine serum on a scaffold made of chitosan (a common polymer found in nature) to grow animal skeletal muscle tissue. But how do you get that juicy, meaty quality?

Genovese said scientists want to add fat. And adding a vascular system so that interior cells can receive oxygen will enable the growth of steak, say, instead of just thin strips of muscle tissue.

Cultured meat could eventually become cheaper than what Genovese called the heavily subsidized production of farm meat, he said, and if the public accepts cultured meat, the future holds benefits.

"Thirty percent of the earth's land surface area is associated with producing animal protein on farms," Genovese said.

"Animals require between 3 and 8 pounds of nutrient to make 1 pound of meat. It's fairly inefficient. Animals consume food and produce waste. Cultured meat doesn't have a digestive system.

"Further out, if we have interplanetary exploration, people will need to produce food in space and you can't take a cow with you.

"We have to look to these ideas in order to progress. Otherwise, we stay static. I mean, 15 years ago who could have imagined the iPhone?"

Obama Faces Tricky Task in Building 2012 Campaign Platform

2011-01-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine, it's 2012. Unemployment is above 8 percent. The deficit is once again above $1 trillion. Troops are still in Afghanistan. And the post-debate over the health care law drags on, only its most popular provisions have not yet gone into effect.

For President Obama, it's a tough room to play. But that could easily be the environment he runs in to seek a second term. There's a reason so many top advisers are fleeing the White House for Chicago to start brainstorming their 2012 strategy -- they have to figure out a way, and soon, to make his controversial accomplishments palatable and re-establish trust with both moderates and the Democratic base.

Coming off his State of the Union address, the president has plenty of themes and achievements on which to run. But they all have strings attached.

"Right now I think he's in survival mode," said Brad Blakeman, a past adviser to former President George W. Bush.

Strategists say the president started to delicately craft his message Tuesday night, using his address to the nation to accentuate the positives, make a few gestures to the center and offer an upbeat vision for the future. They say he'll make the economy an inevitable cornerstone of his 2012 campaign. But how he does it, and how effective that will be, much depends on the course of the next two years -- especially since the "stimulus" of the last two years has become somewhat of a dirty word among Democrats.

"I think it's going to be contingent probably on the state of the economy," said David Lewis, political science professor at Vanderbilt University. "If the economy turns around, then his record looks a lot different, and it'll be easier to pin his re-election on his stewardship."

Otherwise, Lewis said, the president harkens back to talking about infrastructure and energy investments, while highlighting broadly popular items like government reform and, if he gets to it, the kind of tax code simplification he addressed in the State of the Union.

That could be a less compelling sell, but one his team may already be contemplating.

Congressional Budget Office projections released this week showed unemployment hovering above 8 percent on Election Day. White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley argued with aides before the State of the Union that Obama can't do much to significantly change that rate, a Democratic source told Fox News. Rather, Daley said, according to the source, that the president should adopt a more business-friendly, forward-looking tone, focusing on the value of innovation in the private sector with a helping hand from the government.

Obama may try to preserve that tone in honing his campaign's economic message.

"It's not going to be the full-out hope of 2008," said Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, an assistant political science professor at Northwestern University. But she said the message will probably be focused on "light at the end of the tunnel." She said if the economy improves, Obama will be "riding that wave hard and fast." If it doesn't, he's back to talking about how he kept things from getting worse than they are, "which is a tough one."

However, the economic component that drove Tea Party voters to the polls in November -- concern about the national debt -- has proved tough for the president to tackle. CBO pegged this year's deficit at $1.5 trillion, thanks in part to the tax-cut package pushed by Republicans and agreed-to by Obama, and warned that national debt could reach 100 percent of GDP by the end of the decade. Obama this week called for freezing some discretionary spending for five years, a proposal projected to save $400 billion over 10 years. But Republicans want to see savings in the trillions, noting that $400 billion doesn't begin to whittle away at the $14 trillion national debt.

Though Obama's fiscal commission was unable to force a floor vote last year on its recommendations to Congress, Democratic strategist Peter Fenn said Obama will probably build his fiscal message in the months ahead by picking and choosing some of those recommendations to promote -- sending a message that he's serious about the deficit.

Fenn also argued that Obama already has more economic accomplishments under his belt than some give him credit for.

"The economy isn't in freefall, it's coming back," he said, adding: "All the talk about how horrendous it was to put money into the car companies -- we saved America's manufacturing base. They're turning a profit."

And then there's health care. As Obama quipped Tuesday night, "I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law."

As a campaign issue, it will be unavoidable. Many Republicans want to repeal it, stirring a largely symbolic debate on Capitol Hill that's poised to fuel the political debate during the GOP primaries.

"This isn't going away," said Blakeman, noting that state attorneys general across the country continue to litigate it while Congress debates it.

Blakeman said Obama can try to get the upper hand in the debate by warning that, despite the flaws in the law, a Republican president in 2013 would help Republicans in Congress realize their dream of nullifying it. That jeopardizes provisions like guaranteed insurance coverage and a ban on benefits caps.

But as the town hall frenzy of late 2009 demonstrated, the health care law can be a doozy to defend and to explain. A Fox News poll released last week showed 56 percent of voters want the law repealed, compared with 39 percent who want it kept in place.

As with any campaign, several other issues are bound to creep in. Obama signaled in his State of the Union address that a push for government investment in clean-energy technology will be a priority in the second half of this term. And with public uprisings against entrenched regimes fueling a tenser-than-usual environment in the Middle East, foreign policy could emerge as a wild-card factor next year.

Plus there's the threat of $5-a-gallon gas.

If nothing else, Obama will have the option of going negative, running against the GOP nominee and warning about the monopoly Republicans could once again have on Washington if his opponent prevails.

DeFrancesco Soto said he'll surely play off the divisions that emerge during the primary, a process he'll be spared from barring an insurgent challenge from within.

But Obama's not an outsider anymore. Blakeman warned that any incumbent president has to defend his record.

"He's not going to have the luxury of having anybody to blame in 2012," Blakeman said.

2011 Oscar Nominations List

2011-01-28T01:45:00.000-08:00

Here are the list of nominees for the 2011 Academy Awards:

Best motion picture of the year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful” (Roadside Attractions)
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit” (Paramount)
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)
James Franco in “127 Hours” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions)
Jeremy Renner in “The Town” (Warner Bros.)
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features)
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features)
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” (Lionsgate)
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions)
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” (Fox Searchlight)
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine” (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit” (Paramount)
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best animated feature film of the year
How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist (Sony Pictures Classics) Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Lee Unkrich

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney), Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O’Hara (Set Decoration)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.), Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
Inception (Warner Bros.), Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
The King’s Speech (Paramount), Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
True Grit (Paramount), Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)

Achievement in Cinematography
Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Matthew Libatique
Inception (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Danny Cohen
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit (Paramount) Roger Deakins

Achievement in costume design
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Colleen Atwood
I Am Love (Magnolia Pictures) Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Jenny Beavan
The Tempest (Miramax) Sandy Powell
True Grit (Paramount) Mary Zophres

Achievement in directing
Black Swan (Fox Searchlight), Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter (Paramount), David O. Russell
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company), Tom Hooper
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), David Fincher
True Grit (Paramount), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Best Documentary Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop (Producers Distribution Agency) Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz A Paranoid Pictures Production
Gasland Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic A Gasland Production
Inside Job (Sony Pictures Classics) Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs A Representational Pictures Production
Restrepo (National Geographic Entertainment) Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger An Outpost Films Production
Waste Land Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley (Arthouse Films) An Almega Projects Production

Best documentary short subject
Killing in the Name Nominees to be determined A Moxie Firecracker Films Production
Poster Girl Nominees to be determined A Portrayal Films Production
Strangers No More Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production
Sun Come Up Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger A Sun Come Up Production
The Warriors of Qiugang Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon A Thomas Lennon Films Production

Achievement in film editing
Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter Paramount Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Tariq Anwar
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Jon Harris
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Best foreign language film of the year
Biutiful Mexico
Dogtooth Greece
In a Better World Denmark
Incendies Canada
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) Algeria

Achievement in makeup
Achievement in makeup (Sony Pictures Classics) Adrien Morot
The Way Back (Newmarket Films in association with Wrekin Hill Entertainment and Image Entertainment) Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman (Universal) Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) John Powell
Inception (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
Coming Home from Country Strong (Sony Pictures Releasing (Screen Gems)) Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light from Tangled (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best animated short film
Day & Night (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo A Magic Light Pictures Production Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute A Geefwee Boedoe Production Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment) A Passion Pictures Australia Production Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) A Sacrebleu Production Bastien Dubois

Best live action short film
The Confession (National Film and Television School) A National Film and Television School Production Tanel Toom
The Crush (Network Ireland Television) A Purdy Pictures Production Michael Creagh
God of Love A Luke Matheny Production Luke Matheny
Na Wewe (Premium Films) A CUT! Production Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in sound editing
Inception (Warner Bros.) Richard King
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy (Walt Disney) Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable (20th Century Fox) Mark P. Stoeckinger

Achievement in sound mixing
Inception (Warner Bros.) Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
Salt (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Achievement in visual effects
Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.) Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter (Warner Bros.) Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception (Warner Bros.) Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2 (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment, Distributed by Paramount) Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Adapted screenplay
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Original screenplay
Another Year (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler

Snowfall in Jammu Hills

2011-01-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

Snowfall in Mata Vaishno Devi strike

witnessed the first snowfall at the world famous Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine on the Trikuta hills near Katra, even as the entire region continued to reel under intense cold wave.
"There were heavy rains at the Shrine last evening before it started snowing on the upper reaches. Bhairon Ghati is covered with snow", said a police official at the Bhawan.
While the upper reaches experienced snowfall, the lower areas of the region witnessed heavy rains since yesterday, thereby bringing the day temperature down to 17.2 degrees Celsius, 6.1 degrees below normal, according to the Met sources.
Although people here preferred to stay indoors, there was, however, not much difference in the number of pilgrims reaching the holy cave Shrine to pay obeisance, they added.
Reports said, famous hill resort of Patnitop also witnessed season's first snowfall.

From the daily KASHMIR TIMES

Another Winter Storm Wallops the Northeast

2011-01-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK – A storm that had been predicted for days caught much of the East Coast off guard with its ferocity, tearing through with lightning, thunder and mounds of wet snow, leaving nearly 300,000 customers around the nation's capital without power Thursday and forcing people to shovel out their cars and doorsteps all over again.

The forecast had called for up to a foot of snow in parts of the region but the storm brought far more in spots. New York got 19 inches, Philadelphia 17. Public schools closed for a second day Thursday, including the nation's largest system in New York City, and motorists were warned to stay off slick roads.

Snow totals in the Washington area ranged from about 3 inches to nearly 7.

"What a mess," said Andy Kolstad, a 65-year-old federal statistician from Silver Spring, Md., who had to walk half an hour uphill to his local Metro subway station to travel to Washington because there was no bus service. "There was no point in staying home because I couldn't have breakfast in the dark," he said.

Tens of thousands of residents in other parts of the region also lost power.

The region has already been pummeled by winter not even halfway into the season. Nineteen inches of snow fell on New York City atop the 36 inches it had already seen so far this winter; the city typically sees just 21 inches for the whole season.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was the snowiest January since the city started keeping records, besting 27.4 inches set in 1925. The accumulation was about twice the amount that had been predicted, he said.

Virginia Sforza, 61, shoveling her sidewalk in Pelham, in New York's northern suburb said, "My biggest fear is if it continues like this all winter, we won't have a place to put it and we'll never get our cars out and we won't even be able to go to the stores."

"The prospect of this continuing is disgusting," she added.

At his home in Gap, Pa., 45-year-old Chuck DeSeantis lamented what lay ahead of him after a treacherous commute Thursday: shoveling cars out of snow at the Nissan dealership where he's a sales manager.

"Normally it is a 15-minute commute; now it will probably take an hour to hour and a half to get there," he said. "I'll dig out my three cars here, and then I'll dig out 350 cars at the dealership."

In Massachusetts, travel was made trickier with high winds. Gusts of 46 mph were reported in Hyannis, 45 mph in Rockport and 49 mph on Nantucket early Thursday. In Lynn, Mass., heavy snow collapsed a garage roof and briefly trapped two men inside before they were rescued safely. Some other workers escaped.

New York declared a weather emergency for the second time since the Dec. 26 storm, which trapped hundreds of buses and ambulances and caused a political crisis for the mayor. An emergency declaration means any car blocking roads or impeding snowplows can be towed at the owner's expense.

The city shuttered schools and some government offices, and federal courts in Manhattan and the United Nations headquarters closed. Even the Statue of Liberty shut down for snow removal. New York's Long Island Rail Road, the nation's largest commuter rail line, operated on a reduced schedule. Amtrak restored normal service between Boston and New York late Thursday morning after cancellations, delays and schedule changes caused by the storm.

Two major New York-area airports, Newark and Kennedy, closed for snow removal but began taking flights at 10 a.m. Hundreds of flights were canceled at both airports. LaGuardia Airport had 168 cancellations. About 1,500 passengers were stranded overnight at Philadelphia International Airport, according to spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.

Flights also resumed at airports in the Washington region after overnight runway closures and flight cancelations that left hundreds of travelers stranded.

Northeast of New York in New Canaan, Conn., a Metro-North commuter train ran off the tracks, suspending service. Its two passengers and crew members were not injured.

A New York Waterway commuter ferry carrying 20 passengers across the Hudson was shut down briefly when ice jammed a water intake.

Residents hunkered down as the storm brought snow, sleet, and then more snow, accompanied by lightning and thunder in a phenomenon called "thundersnow."

But others found the weather provided a creative outlet.

In Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the winter scene was so picture-postcard beautiful Thursday morning that the sidewalks were full of amateur shutterbugs taking photos of snow-laden trees.

"It's so pretty," said Chris Baptiste, pointing his Olympus at a 20-foot evergreen before he turned his attention to the birches across the street. "It's shaped like a Christmas tree."

The Philadelphia area's transit agency, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, suspended nearly all bus service, and road crews worked through the night to gets tons of snow off major arteries.

Nine passengers spent the night on board a bus that got stranded in the city's West Oak Lane neighborhood, spokeswoman Heather Redfern said.

"I imagine they thought they were better off staying on the warm bus rather than getting off, since they didn't have a place to stay," Redfern said. The passengers had all disembarked by 7:30 a.m.

More than 15,000 people lost power in the Philadelphia area, with thousands more in the dark in New Jersey and the New York area. Over 80,000 were without power in parts of Maryland.

Crashed, spun-out or disabled cars littered highways. More than 250 cars were disabled on New Jersey highways since Wednesday. Officials in the mid-Atlantic region worked to remove dozens of cars and tractor-trailers abandoned by motorists at the height of the storm.

Maryland State Highway Administration spokeswoman Kim Frum said crews plowed around abandoned vehicles and got tow trucks to move them. Firefighters in the Washington area warned that the heavy snow was bringing down power lines.

After arriving in Washington from Manitowoc, Wis., President Barack Obama couldn't fly on the helicopter that normally takes him home to the White House from a nearby military base. Instead, a motorcade had to snake through Wednesday evening rush hour traffic already slowed by snow and ice.

One person died after a tree fell on a pickup truck in Washington. Several others in the truck were injured. On New York's Long Island, there were two weather-related fatalities. One woman was killed when a plow truck backed into her in a parking lot. In the other incident, a motorist slid into oncoming lanes of traffic, slamming into two vehicles before hitting a snowbank. The other two drivers were treated for injuries.

In Delaware, state police were investigating the death of a woman who was struck and killed Thursday by a state Department of Transportation snowplow.

In Somers, Conn., a horse had to be euthanized after part of a barn collapsed under the weight of snow. Two other horses that got trapped were freed.

Since Dec. 14, snow has fallen eight times on the New York region -- or an average of about once every five days. Much of the Northeast is in a similar boat, resigned to repeated storms as a weather phenomenon off the coast called the North Atlantic Oscillation creates older air and drops more snow than usual.

"I just want the snow to stop. I want the sun again. I want to feel just a little bit of warmth," commuter Elliott Self said after leaving an elevated train in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

He might have to wait, though. Forecasts called for more snow in the region -- although supposedly just a few inches -- later in the week.

First Thoughts: External affairs

2011-01-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg *** External affairs:

Just when the Obama White House feels it can focus on selling its State of the Union message -- just note how many times Obama talked about “winning the future” in Wisconsin (on top of the 10 references in the SOTU itself) -- comes another reminder that external events always have the potential of interrupting those plans. That reminder: the political unrest in the Middle East. “The Egyptian government intensified efforts to crush a fresh wave of protests on Wednesday, banning public gatherings, detaining hundreds of people and sending police officers to scatter protesters who defied the ban and demanded an end to the government of President Hosni Mubarak,” the New York Times writes. Egypt has yet to become an all-consuming story (the way the BP spill was, for example), but it easily could. There might not be a more important Arab ally to the U.S. and to Israel. And of course, if Mubarak falls, then who's next? The King of Jordan? The King of Saudi Arabia? Bottom line: This is a reminder how events always have the potential to change the story, and knock the White House off its planned focus on the economy.

*** Obama’s actual YouTube moment:

Two days after his State of the Union address, President Obama will surely try to advance his winning-the-future message when he participates in a YouTube interview at 2:30 pm ET. And with the Dow flirting with 12,000, it should give him something to use to sell the idea that we're in a more stable position for Phase 2 of the recovery. Vice President Biden will be participating in a similar interview with Yahoo that will air tomorrow. Earlier in the day, at 11:00 am, Obama and Biden will hold their monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan. By the way, we could have a new White House press secretary (along with a handful of final senior staff announcements) announced today, though due to the weather issues in D.C., that announcement could be delayed until tomorrow.

*** The Reagan role model:

It’s always been clear that Barack Obama has admired Ronald Reagan’s presidency -- though not necessarily his policies -- whether it was during his primary battle against Hillary Clinton, with him reading a Reagan biography over Christmas, or even Tuesday’s “shining city on a hill”-like State of the Union. And the latest issue of Time magazine picks up on this theme. “At a glance, it's hard to imagine a President who had less in common with Reagan than the Ivy League lawyer from Hawaii who seeks larger federal investments, a bigger social safety net and new regulations for Wall Street and Big Oil. But under the surface, there is no mistaking Obama's increasing reliance on his predecessor's career as a helpful template for his own.”

*** Changing the trajectory in American politics:

Beyond wanting to follow Reagan’s political script -- the president, during high unemployment, takes a beating in the midterm but then wins re-election as the economy improves -- Obama has been interested in the way in which Reagan’s presidency changed American politics. "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama said during his primary campaign. Writes Time: “No one was unclear about Reagan's guiding philosophy: ‘Government is the problem,’ he declared on his Inauguration Day, and by then he had been saying it for nearly 20 years. Obama's is more complex. He wants to reset the public's attitude toward government, reverse 30 years of skepticism and mistrust and usher in a new era in which government solutions are again seen as part of the answer to the nation's ills.” So far, though, that push hasn’t been successful.

*** Bachmann’s near “You lie” moment at the State of the Union? Bloomberg News:

"It wasn’t exactly a 'you lie' moment, though on a night designed to showcase bipartisan civility Representative Michele Bachmann had a few choice words for President Barack Obama. 'He’s absolutely shameless,' the Minnesota Republican could be seen saying to her seatmate, Representative Jean Schmidt, an Ohio Republican, according to a video taken in the U.S. House chamber during Obama’s State of the Union address two nights ago. Bachmann, 54, who later gave a televised response to the president on behalf of the Tea Party Express, turned back to face Obama and repeated, 'Absolutely shameless!' She spoke as the president was saying the government should balance its budget more like average American families."

*** Romney blasts Obama on FOX:

Turning to the emerging 2012 presidential race, Mitt Romney last night took a shot at Obama on FOX. “He’s trying awfully hard,” Romney said of the president, per the Boston Globe. “The problem is, he just doesn’t know what to do.” Romney also said “it was important for the field to have a businessman,’ the Globe continues. “’I don’t know who all is going to get in the race, but I do believe that it would be helpful if at least one of the people who’s running in the Republican field had extensive experience in the private sector – in small business, in big business,’ he said.”

*** Daniels picks college hoops over the State of the Union:

As we’ve written before, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has given many mixed signals about his White House intentions. On the one hand, he’s made it clear that his family isn’t interested with the scrutiny that comes with a presidential campaign. On the other hand, Daniels has worked to increase his national profile. Well, file this under the he-probably-won’t-run column: While touring a middle school yesterday, Daniels admitted to a reporter that he hadn’t watched President Obama give the State of the Union address, opting rather to watch the Purdue-Ohio State basketball game. “You caught me. I didn’t watch it. I was watching the Purdue game as long as it was watchable,” he said.

Countdown Chicago’s mayoral election: 26 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 285 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 375 days

First Dog Bo Obama

2011-01-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

Bo sits by a larger-than-life holiday decoration of himself in the East Garden Room of the White House on November 30, 2010. Some 80 volunteers helped create the 4-foot statue, which is made of 40,000 pipe cleaners.

Putin Promises Revenge in Moscow Bombing

2011-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised revenge for the bombing of Moscow's Domodedovo airport Monday that left at least 35 people dead. "This was an abominable crime in both its senselessness and its cruelty," said Putin at a meeting in Moscow. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blamed airport officials for what he saw as a security breach and said, "Everything must be done to find, expose and bring the bandits who committed this crime to court." Both leaders have been visiting victims of the attack in the hospital. Over 100 people were injured in the suicide bombing.

Obama's State of the Union Gets Positive Reactions

2011-01-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

The president focused on job creation and innovation

Republicans and Democrats reached across the aisle last night to sit with one another at President Obama's State of the Union address, a speech that focused on job creation and innovation. The president acknowledged this show of unity but cautioned, "What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow." Obama also introduced plans for increased access to high speed technology and expressed his commitment to education reform. More than halfway in to his address, Obama spoke about foreign policy, the Iraq war and Afghanistan. In his speech last year to the joint session of Congress, the president urged the legislature to pass healthcare reform. This year, Obama displayed a more centrist tone on the issue of healthcare, acknowledging that "anything can be improved." He encouraged both sides to bring to the table their ideas about making healthcare better or more affordable. Initial reaction to the address was positive. A CBS News poll conducted just after the speech found 91 percent approved of the president's performance.

Snow blankets Northeast, NY vows to improve clean-up

2011-01-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Northeast dug out of yet another winter storm on Thursday that pummeled the region with unexpectedly heavy snowfall, making January the snowiest month in New York in more than 85 years.
In Central Park, 19 inches of snow fell overnight in the storm that forced airports and schools to close. The wet snow fell at dizzying speeds during the height of the storm, as much as three inches per hour, said Weather Channel meteorologists.
New York officials vowed to keep the city running after Mayor Michael Bloomberg, agency heads and municipal workers came under heavy criticism for the slow response to the Christmas weekend blizzard that brought services to a halt.
"We learn," said Bloomberg at a City Hall news conference on Thursday. "We asked the questions of what didn't work last time and whether there's anything we could do differently."
The city suspended bus service shortly after midnight, he noted. In the Christmas blizzard, 600 city buses became stranded but with this suspension, almost no buses were stranded on Thursday, the mayor said.
Bus service was gradually being restored at midday.
Some 1,700 plows were working as of mid-morning in New York, the mayor said. About 1,500 day laborers were shoveling out bus stops as well.
"Our expectation is that by tomorrow morning's rush hour all of the city streets and roadways will have been plowed," Bloomberg said.
The storm, which dropped twice as much snow as had been predicted, brought the city's January total accumulation to 36 inches, breaking a record from 1925, the mayor said.
"This is so much worse than I think we all expected," said Julia Scharf, 27, a dental technician who commuted to New York from Bethpage, Long Island.
"I had to clean about 15 or so inches off my car before I could drive to the train station."
Commuter train and bus service from some suburbs, including Long Island, was limited or suspended. New York City schools were closed, only the ninth time since 1978 that schools were closed due to snow, the mayor said.
Flight delays of more than two hours were reported at Newark International and John F. Kennedy International airports, which had been closed due to the storm but reopened on Thursday morning, authorities said.
Delays were reported at Philadelphia International Airport where hundreds of flights were canceled due to snowfall that ranged from 12 to 17 inches in the city. About 1,500 passengers were stranded overnight, authorities said.
Nine people spent nine hours on a bus stuck in the snow in Philadelphia, said Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
Most passengers got off the bus but those nine and the driver chose to remain rather than brave the elements, she said. The bus was heated, she noted.
"Their only choice was to stay on the bus," she said.
About 15,000 households south and west of Philadelphia lost power as tree limbs broke under the weight of wet snow and fell on power lines, according to the utility Peco.
In the Washington, D.C., area some commuters were stranded for several hours in massive traffic jams on Wednesday that stretched well into the night. Adding to the chaos were hundreds of cars abandoned on the roads by their drivers.
Although traffic improved in the morning, tens of thousands were without power in parts of the city and surrounding suburbs, mostly due to snow-laden trees downing utility lines. Many schools were closed throughout the area.
A second runway at Boston's Logan International Airport was closed, said spokesman Phil Orlandella.
The 9.9 inches of snow recorded at the Boston airport during the storm contributed to nearly 200 inbound and outbound flight cancellations, he said.
The National Weather Service said 19 inches of snow fell in Central Park, nearly 19 inches at Newark Airport and 18 inches in suburban New Canaan, Connecticut.
The snowfall was just shy of the Christmas blizzard that dropped 20 inches on New York City.
Amtrak suspended trains between New York and Boston but was resuming service, with delays likely, it said.
North of Boston, snow accumulation contributed to a partial roof collapse that trapped two people in a vehicle parked inside a building in Lynn, Mass., officials said. Initial reports showed the two had no serious injuries.
In weather-related deaths, a woman was struck and killed by a snowplow on Wednesday in Center Moriches, New York.
Police said the 64-year-old woman was walking in a parking lot mid-afternoon when she was hit by a truck clearing snow.
(Additional reporting by Lauren Keiper in Boston, Jon Hurdle in Philadelphia, and Bernd Debusmann Jr. and Daniel Trotta in New York; Editing by Jerry Norton)

2012 Presidential Election

2011-01-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

Running for president in 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on change. But in the 2012 presidential elections, voters could be looking for a different kind of change. The Obama administration has scored several landmark achievements, the 2009 stimulus package, the healthcare overhaul, and financial reform bills for example. But the nation’s high unemployment and increasing federal debt may still have voters worried about the future. If so, Obama could face a tough reelection bid. With his approval ratings sinking to the low 40s, beltway buzz is already building for potential 2012 Republican candidates. Those mentioned include South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune, who made headlines in 2004 by defeating incumbent and then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. Thune is up for reelection in 2010 but doesn’t have a challenger, though he has still raised over $11.5 million. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has already said he is considering a presidential run and will make a decision early in 2011.

There are also several sitting and former governors in the mix. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will leave the governor’s mansion when his term ends this year and could be eyeing the presidency. He was rumored to be on John McCain’s short list of running mates in 2008. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal may also be eyeing the spot. He’s benefited from national name recognition due to his leadership during Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, as has Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels appeals to many as a budget cutter uninterested in social issues. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who both ran for the Republican nomination in 2008, are expected to contend again in 2012. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is also mentioned regularly. And former Alaska governor turned Fox News pundit Sarah Palin can’t be ruled out as a potential 2012 contender. She’s become the darling of the Tea Party movement that has gained momentum this year. But with plenty of time until 2012, other presidential candidates still have some time to come out of the woodwork.

Gore Endoses Obama

2008-01-18T22:36:00.000-08:00

Al Gore, who should have been President in 2000, endorsed Barack Obama today :

"I present to you the next president of the United States, Barack Obama!" Gore said in a brief introduction of Obama at a Detroit fundraiser. He planned a later appearance with Obama at a 20,000-person rally at the Joe Louis Arena.

In a letter to be e-mailed to Obama supporters, the former vice president and Nobel Prize winner wrote, "From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected president of the United States."

Once Obama wins, I hope he chooses Al Gore for an important position in the cabinet or some kind of ambassador to the world. It will take a long time for the country and the world to recover from the Bush regime, but that would be a pretty good start.

Is Hillary Finished?

2008-01-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that Hillary Clinton's campaign is pretty much over. She is breaking down on the campaign trail, Bill is messing up again and again, she is way behind in the polls, and its not looking good. She stacked the primaries and made them all closer together so she could run away with it, but it looks like she has been hoist on her own petard.

Obama is a runaway train at this point, I don't see how she can stop him short of some kind of miracle. It's rather amazing that it wasnt that long ago that Hillary was inevitable and had no chance of losing. Now its almost like she has no chance of winning.

I couldn't be happier. Hillary would have been a disaster both as a nominee, and if she somehow managed to win (highly unlikely) a horrible President. I'm glad shes going down in flames, and although I was hoping that it would be Edwards as the nominee, I can support Obama a lot easier then I could Hillary. Obama has some problems with me though, for example talking about "striking" Pakistan, and his stance on a few other issues are troubling. Hopefully he will see the light on those issues and we can have a President to be proud of once again.

151,000 Iraqis killed In First Three Years Of War

2008-01-09T22:25:00.000-08:00

The number of Iraqis that have been killed since Bush invaded their country is 151,000 according to a new study. And that only counts March 2003-June 2006, before the "surge" and the violence soared in Iraq. Therefore the number is probably MUCH higher.

About 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the three years after the United States invaded, concludes the best effort yet to count deaths — one that still may not settle the fierce debate over the war's true toll on civilians and others.

The estimate comes from projections by the World Health Organization and the Iraqi government, based on door-to-door surveys of nearly 10,000 households. Experts called it the largest and most scientific study of the Iraqi death toll since the war began.

Its bottom line is far lower than the 600,000 deaths reported in an earlier study but higher than numbers from other groups tracking the count.

The new estimate covers a period from the start of the war in March 2003 through June 2006. It closely mirrors the tally Iraq's health minister gave in late 2006, based on 100 bodies a day arriving at morgues and hospitals. His number shocked people in and outside Iraq, because it was so much higher than previously accepted estimates.

As the U.S. military has said time and again "We dont do body counts" so theres no way to get a real number, but imagine this. If the number is correct, then 151,000 Iraqis have been killed in the first three years of the Iraq war. The population of Iraq is around 26 million give or take. If the same percentage of people had been killed in America, the number would be over 1.2 million. Imagine China invading us and killing over a million Americans in 3 years. That is what George Bush and the neo-cons have done to Iraq.

Republicans Are Stupid

2008-01-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

Well, thats a standing headline, however this really shocked me. John McCain is a lot of things, but anti-war is not one of them. Yet somehow the Republicans who voted in the NH primary last night who said they were not in favor of the Iraq War voted for John McCain!

Exit polls found 64 percent of Tuesday’s Republican voters still support the conflict — and Romney, whose criticism of Bush’s management of the war has been muted, led McCain among those voters. But among the 34 percent who said they disapproved of the war, McCain had a wide advantage over the GOP field — even over Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the sole advocate of a U.S. withdrawal in the Republican field.

Wow. Republicans against the war (the few of them there are) have a true anti-war candidate, Ron Paul, and they chose pro-war John McCain. McCain even said he doesnt mind if we are there for 50, 100, or even 10,000 years. It's pretty clear that the Republican party is truly in chaos, and I couldn't be happier.