Saturday, December 24, 2011

darkpoltweeter: New article on darkpolitricks: EXPOSD US Troops Guardd Terrorist Camp in Iraq http://t.co/sD9eMTSz #EXPOSED #Iran #Iraq #MEK #TonyCartalucci

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
New article on darkpolitricks: EXPOSD US Troops Guardd Terrorist Camp in Iraq bit.ly/uwuDWa #EXPOSED #Iran #Iraq #MEK #TonyCartalucci darkpoltweeter

Dark Politricks RT

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/darkpoltweeter/statuses/149663085219680256

target target walmart jcpenney loft old navy cyber monday best deals

Friday, December 23, 2011

ria_novosti: #US, #Japan, S. #Korea boycott General Assembly's #tribute to Kim Jong-il : http://t.co/x137SSPH

  • Passer la navigation
  • Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
  • Passer cette ?tape
  • Connexion
Loader Twitter.com
  • Connexion
#US, #Japan, S. #Korea boycott General Assembly's #tribute to Kim Jong-il : en.rian.ru/world/20111223? ria_novosti

RIA Novosti

Pied de page

Source: http://twitter.com/ria_novosti/statuses/150093350907809792

theo epstein darknet james ray williston nd williston nd mists of pandaria mists of pandaria

Report: Journalists detained in Turkey (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkish police on Tuesday detained some 40 people, including journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels, the country's state-run television said.

The private Dogan news agency said Mustafa Ozer, a photographer working for the French news agency, Agence France Presse, and journalists for Kurdish media organizations were among the detained. Photographs obtained by The Associated Press show Ozer smiling as he is being led by a plain-clothed police officer into a van.

Eric Baradat, editor-in-chief of Agence France Presse's photo department, confirmed that a photographer for the Paris-based agency was detained but could not provide any details, citing agency policy.

Turkish state media said the latest arrests are part of an investigation launched two years ago. Since then hundreds of Kurdish activists, including elected mayors, have been detained on charges of membership in the Union of Kurdistan Communities, a group prosecutors accuse of being an offshoot of the PKK rebel group and of working as its political arm.

The activists say the group is an umbrella organization uniting all Kurds.

The official Anadolu agency said Tuesday's raids were directed against the "press and propaganda" leg of the Union of Kurdistan Communities.

The PKK, branded a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since then.

State-run TRT television said police on Tuesday conducted simultaneous raids in Istanbul and six other Turkish cities, detaining 40 people. They would be questioned by anti-terrorism police in Istanbul, the station said.

The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency said at least 25 people were rounded up and that most of the detained are journalists working for Kurdish media organizations, including the Dicle news agency and the Birgun newspaper.

Journalists working from inside a tent in the city of Van, which was hit by two devastating earthquakes in October and November, were among the suspects, Dogan news agency said. It said police seized computer hard disks and other material.

Tuesday's detentions are likely to further increase concerns over press freedoms in Turkey ? a predominantly Muslim democracy that seeks EU membership ? where dozens of journalists have been jailed, mostly on anti-terror charges. They include journalists accused of aiding a hardline secularist network which prosecutors say plotted to bring down Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.

The United States and the EU have criticized Turkey's press freedoms and there are calls for the country to revise anti-terrorism laws which have led to the arrests of the journalists as well as dozens of student protesters.

A Turkish media rights association representing dozens of journalists groups called for the release of the arrested journalists and for Parliament to change laws. A Kurdish political party denounced the Tuesday's police clampdown, saying it was part of government efforts to silence critics.

"This operation, which targeted the Kurdish media and opposition journalists, is aimed at silencing, suppressing and neutralizing the free media," said Kurdish legislator Hasip Kaplan in a statement. "These operations are illegal and politically-motivated."

Earlier this year, police also arrested an academic and a publisher as well as lawyers acting for the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan in connection with their investigation into the group. No trial date has been set.

Erdogan has called the Union of Kurdistan Communities an effort by the rebels to form "a parallel state" within Turkey that threatens democracy in the country.

__

Associated Press writer Jenny Barchfield in Paris contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_kurds

kc chiefs kc chiefs judy garland duggars kyle orton kyle orton j r martinez

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Russian president wants political system overhaul (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? President Dmitry Medvedev has called for an overhaul of Russia's "exhausted" political system in a sign that street protests and dissatisfaction with Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule are starting to have some impact.

The two men have dismissed the protesters' claims that a December 4 parliamentary election was marred by fraud and ignored calls for a rerun. They also sought to play down the significance of the demonstrations as Putin prepares to return to the presidency in an election next March.

But Putin hinted at some token political concessions in his annual question-and-answer phone-in on Thursday. He said he might change the law to let opposition parties be registered and allow regional governors to be elected, rather than chosen by the president, if their candidacy is approved in advance.

Medvedev, who is junior to Putin under their power-sharing arrangement, went further on Saturday by telling members of the United Russia movement that the political system and the ruling party needed reforms.

"We are facing a new stage in the development of the political system and we can't close our eyes to it. It has already begun," Medvedev said in a transcript released by the Kremlin and published on the presidency website.

"It didn't begin as a result of some rallies, these are just on the surface, foam if you like. It's a sign of human dissatisfaction," he said. "It started because the old model which has served our state faithfully, truly and well in the last few years, and we all defended it, has largely been exhausted."

Medvedev did not give any details of how United Russia and the political system, largely built around Putin, should change. But evoking the chaos that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution made clear the risks of ignoring the mood of the people could be far-reaching.

"The street, this is the mood of our people and the authorities must say responsibly and directly that this is their mood ... The mood of the people must be respected," he said.

"It's absolutely unacceptable for there to be any delegitimisation of the authorities ... because for our country this means the collapse of the state.

"What is Russia without government? Everyone remembers from the history books. It's 1917."

ALIENATED VOTERS

The hints by Medvedev and Putin that they are ready to tinker with the political system have made little impact on the protesters, who on December 10 staged the biggest opposition rallies since Putin rose to power in 1999.

The protesters remain angry the leaders have ignored their demands for a re-run of the December election, which the opposition says was rigged to help United Russia secure a slim majority in the lower house of parliament.

International monitors also said the vote was slanted to favor United Russia, and the protesters plan another day of rallies across the world's biggest country and energy producer on December 24.

"We want to get at least as many or more people out on the streets next Saturday to show they can't keep on cheating us," said Mila, a 26-year-old Muscovite at an opposition rally attended by about 1,500 people in the capital on Saturday.

Putin, a former KGB spy who won support during his 2000-08 presidency by restoring order after the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, ushered Medvedev into power in 2008 because of a constitutional ban on three successive terms as president.

But an opinion poll last week showed Putin's approval ratings have fallen sharply. Many people feel alienated by a system dominated by the 59-year-old leader, who looks set to win the presidential election on March 4 and rule for at least six more years.

For some, the final straw was an announcement by Medvedev and Putin at a United Russia congress on September 24 that they planned to swap jobs after the March election, a decision widely seen as arrogant and undemocratic.

"We've had enough. Putin was president, then Medvedev, now it'll be Putin again. Who knows, maybe they're planning to bring back Medvedev again later," said Igor Belyakov, 35, during Saturday's protest organized by the liberal Yabloko party.

Putin sought to rebuild support in his long television question-and-answer session on Thursday, at which he discussed the protests and the allegations of electoral fraud.

But when he said he had mistaken the white ribbons worn by protesters for condoms, the comment went down badly. Many young people dismissed him as out of touch on the same social network sites that they have used to summon people to protests.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/wl_nm/us_russia_protests

mumia uss arizona memorial uss arizona memorial d day fun. words with friends words with friends

Zynga dips below IPO price (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Zynga Inc shares opened as much as 10 percent above their offer price on Friday but then rolled back below the IPO price, showing that investors were still concerned about its dependence on Facebook and its growth prospects and that demand for hot tech IPOs may be waning.

In the opening minutes of trading on the Nasdaq the stock rose 10 percent to $11.00. But then they fall back and were down 1 percent at $9.90.

When asked about the price drop, CEO Mark Pincus said in an interview there were "no regrets."

"Our approach has always been to focus on the longterm," Pincus said. "We thought this was the right time to go public."

"We're going to focus on the products and business results we deliver in the next four to eight quarters and hope the stock market values and appreciates that as they see us deliver it," he added.

The company, which competes with Electronic Arts, sold 100 million shares of Class A common stock at $10 per share in the IPO, roughly 11 percent of its shares on a diluted basis, at the top end of the $8.50 to $10 indicative range.

Zynga wants to avoid what happened to Groupon Inc, another closely watched Internet IPO that rose on its first day of trading in November but slumped below its $20 issue price about three weeks later

Zynga's IPO had been highly anticipated because it is seen as a way for investors to get a slice of Facebook's growth before the social network itself goes public. About 95 percent of its revenue comes from Facebook, where it makes money from selling virtual items such as virtual jewelry and poker chips in its games.

Unlike Groupon, Zynga is profitable, but less than 3 percent of its players spend money on items in its free games.

At $1 billion in proceeds, Zynga's IPO would still be the largest from a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc raised $1.9 billion in 2004.

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/wr_nm/us_zynga

kandi burruss occupy portland occupy portland the hunger games neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson bears lions

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Suspect's lawyer describes Minn. courthouse attack (AP)

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. ? In the moments after authorities say a man just convicted in a criminal trial opened fire at a small northern Minnesota courthouse, it was his defense attorney who rushed to the aid of two shooting victims.

John Lillie III described a chaotic scene Thursday just minutes after his client, Daniel Schlienz, was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Authorities have identified Schlienz, 42, as the man who shot the prosecutor who handled his case and another man.

In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis ( http://bit.ly/satj4y), Lillie said he was speaking to Schlienz's mother when he heard a shot ring out inside the Cook County courthouse.

Lillie said he followed a man's pleas for help and found Gregory Thompson, of Grand Marais, wounded. He dragged Thompson outside, then re-entered the courthouse to warn workers. Lillie said he heard two more shots on the second floor and ran up to find Tim Scannell, the county prosecutor, bleeding from three gunshot wounds.

"I hear screaming, `I've been shot! I need an ambulance!' Just screaming and screaming," Lillie told the newspaper. "The county attorney has crawled 10 feet to the top of the stairwell and can't move. He's been shot in the leg and the stomach."

Lillie said he wrapped Scannell's belt around his leg to stanch the bleeding, while others wrestled with Schlienz.

Scannell was in fair condition Friday and Thompson was in good condition. At least one other person was injured in the attack, but authorities did not disclose the nature of their injuries.

Schlienz was taken into custody, and authorities planned a midday Friday news conference to give more details about their investigation.

Online state court records listed several cases involving Daniel Schlienz in the past two decades, but most were minor traffic cases. More serious charges included fleeing a peace officer and the sexual conduct case, which was first filed in 2006.

Schlienz had made a plea agreement to serve no more than four months in the case, but was sentenced to a year in jail while he underwent sex offender treatment. Schlienz appealed and the state Court of Appeals sided with him, saying he should have been allowed to withdraw his plea once the district court disregarded the plea agreement.

Schlienz's father, Gary Schlienz, told the Duluth News Tribune that his son was down and out and "hated the prosecuting attorney that did this."

"I don't want to make excuses for him, but they prosecuted him pretty bad," the elder Schlienz said. "He had no job, no money, nothing."

The county's two-story courthouse, which has one courtroom, has no metal detectors and visitors aren't searched when they enter the building, Cook County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said.

Grand Marais, home to about 1,300 residents, is about 110 miles northeast of Duluth and sits along the shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota's far northeastern tip.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_us/us_courthouse_shooting_minnesota

matt moore national grid andrew luck andrew luck day light savings time 2011 hocus pocus hocus pocus

Early Morning Open Thread: Lucky (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/174781248?client_source=feed&format=rss

percy harvin best cyber monday deals best cyber monday deals cyber monday grover norquist grover norquist nfl week 12 picks

Friday, December 16, 2011

Tension simmers in blockaded China village after land protest (Reuters)

HONG KONG (Reuters) ? Thousands of residents of a south China village rallied on Wednesday in defiance of police who sealed off the area to contain a long-running feud over land grabs and anger over the death of a village leader in police custody.

The death of Xue Jinbo, 42, fanned tension in the small pocket of export-dependent Guangdong province and came after riot police fired water cannons and tear gas on Sunday to disperse thousands of stone-throwing villagers on the coast of the booming province.

Residents of Wukan village say hundreds of hectares of land have been acquired unfairly by corrupt officials in collusion with developers.

Anger in the village finally boiled over this year after repeated appeals to authorities over recent years to do something.

Relatives of Xue said he was the victim of police brutality and his body showed heavy bruising and other signs of abuse. They have rejected official accounts that he died of a cardiac arrest after being interrogated on December 9 and 10.

"The case is under further investigation," Zheng Yanxiong, the Communist Party boss of Shanwei city, which oversees Wukan village, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

"The government will strive to settle all related problems and hopes that the village will not be instigated into staging further riots."

Human rights group Amnesty International called for an immediate and independent investigation into Xue's death, adding that China was failing to protect citizens from forced eviction.

"Contrary to international human rights law and standards, Chinese citizens rarely have an opportunity for genuine consultation before eviction, rarely receive adequate information on the nature or purpose of the eviction and often receive little or no compensation," the group said in a statement.

The term "Wukan" was blocked on China's Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo on Wednesday.

"SOMETHING TO HIDE"

China's Communist Party leaders face thousands of small protests and riots every year that chip away at its authority at the grassroots. Land disputes are a widespread source of discord.

One expert on unrest, Sun Liping of Beijing's Tsinghua University, estimates there may have been more than 180,000 such "mass incidents" in 2010, nearly double the number often cited by academics and government experts.

According to a witness, villagers at the Wukan rally gathered in front of a poster of Xue and chanted slogans denouncing corrupt officials.

They also pressed for Xue's body to be returned for proper funeral rites, a request that authorities have refused.

"They clearly have something to hide," one resident told Reuters by telephone. "We will continue to fight for justice for Xue's death and we won't back down."

Riot police maintained a tight cordon around the village on Wednesday and barred almost all access to and from the area, while blocking some supplies of food.

Villagers have built makeshift defenses including cooking gas canisters and nail boards on roads leading into the village to guard against what many fear will be another imminent police crack down and wave of arrests.

"We beg the central government to save us," said another villager by phone. "Everything is black now."

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/wl_nm/us_china_unrest

alcohol poisoning alcohol poisoning mark ingram mark ingram between two ferns joe the plumber weather colorado springs

Preparing for future human exploration, RAD measures radiation on journey to Mars

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2011) ? NASA will launch the Mars Science Laboratory on Nov. 26, 2011, to assess the past and present habitability of the Red Planet's surface. The mission will land Curiosity, a rover equipped with 10 instruments designed to search for evidence of elements needed to support life -- namely, water and carbon-based materials -- and to characterize life-limiting factors, such as the planet's radiation environment.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) led the development of the Radiation Assessment Detector, which will measure, for the first time, the radiation environment on the surface of Mars, measuring all the relevant energetic particle species originating from galactic cosmic rays, the Sun and other sources. Positioned in the left front corner of the rover, RAD is about the size of a coffee can and weighs about three pounds, but has capabilities of an Earth-bound instrument nearly 10 times its size. Its wide-angle telescope detects charged particles arriving from space, and the instrument also measures neutrons and gamma rays coming from Mars' atmosphere above, or the surface material below, the rover.

"RAD is a bridge between the science and exploration sides of NASA," says physicist Don Hassler, RAD principal investigator and science program director at SwRI's Planetary Science Office in Boulder, Colo. "The two objectives are equally exciting. RAD's measurements will help the MSL science team assess whether the site has conditions favorable for life or preserving evidence of life, as well as how deep below the surface we must drill to find potential evidence of life.

"The other primary objective of RAD is to help NASA plan for future human missions to Mars by helping to determine the amount of radiation shielding required to keep astronauts safe on the surface of the planet, as well as during the long journey to get there and back," continued Hassler. "To achieve these objectives, RAD will also characterize the radiation environment during the trip from Earth to Mars, in addition to Mars' surface throughout the rover mission. Understanding radiation levels in interplanetary space is also important to the design of future human missions to Mars, so RAD will be one of the first instruments on Curiosity to send scientific data back to Earth."

Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere shield our planet from most hazardous galactic cosmic rays and "solar particle events." Mars has an extremely thin atmosphere -- about one percent of Earth's -- and lacks a global magnetic field, allowing more radiation to reach its surface and pose a hazard to life.

RAD will monitor galactic cosmic rays, streams of charged particles coming from supernova remnants and other sources outside our solar system. The instrument will also characterize the electrons, protons and heavier ions sporadically released by solar particle events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections on the Sun.

While NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter evaluated the radiation above Mars' atmosphere, the radiation environment on its surface has never been characterized. Current estimates of surface radiation rely on modeling of how the Mars' atmosphere probably affects energetic particles, but these models are unproven. For example, a single energetic particle hitting the top of the atmosphere can break up into a cascade of lower-energy particles that might be more damaging than the single high-energy particle itself.

Radiation levels probably make the surface of modern Mars inhospitable for microbial life and would contribute to the breakdown of any near-surface organic compounds. RAD measurements will help determine the depth a possible future robot on a life-detection mission might need to dig or drill to reach a microbial safe zone. Researchers will combine RAD's measurements with estimates of how the activity of the Sun and the atmosphere of Mars have changed in the past several billion years to provide insight into whether the surface may have been habitable in the past.

Because radiation levels in interplanetary space vary on many time scales, from much longer than a year to shorter than an hour, RAD will record measurements for 15 minutes of every hour throughout the prime mission, on steady watch to catch any rare but vitally important solar particle events. Because the first science data from the mission will be collected by RAD on the journey from Earth to Mars, scientists will correlate these en-route measurements with other spacecraft that monitor solar particle events and galactic cosmic rays in Earth's neighborhood to ultimately yield data about the radiation environment farther from Earth.

Curiosity will arrive at Mars about nine months after launch and collect data for one Mars year, or two Earth years; the mission could be extended to collect data for an entire solar cycle.

SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from the NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center: Deutsches Zentrum f?r Luft- und Raumfahrt.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. United Launch Alliance, Denver, is supplying the launch vehicle and launch services. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Southwest Research Institute.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/MRojcXelVQs/111213190202.htm

zuccotti park leymah gbowee will rogers gabby giffords gabby giffords hunger games trailer hunger games trailer

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Britney Spears' Femme Fatale: My Favorite 2011 Album

Spears reinforced her bad-girl persona with an ode to nightclubs and hot boys.
By Jocelyn Vena


Britney Spears' <i>Femme Fatale</i>
Photo: Jive

To say that 2011 was an outstanding year for pop is a bit of an understatement. Rihanna wanted her fans to Talk That Talk, Lady Gaga was Born This Way, Demi Lovato declared herself Unbroken, and Beyoncé and Adele pledged their allegiance to the numbers 4 and 21.

But no album was as booty-shakingly fun as Britney Spears' Femme Fatale. The first time I heard the album, I was hooked. It reminded me why I fell in love with Britney and her music over a decade ago.

Quite possibly the best work of her career, Femme Fatale — which dropped in March — is a cohesive, sonically unwavering piece of dance pop. It makes no grandiose political statements, except Spears' pro stance on hot guys and dance clubs, and it certainly makes no apologies for just being a really, really good time.

It's thumping, sassy, loud and sexy. It's Britney Spears doing what she does best: cooing about dancing and boys over club beats and synths. She rounded up the best of the best on the production end of things (Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Claude Kelly and will.i.am, to name a few) and proved she still has what it takes to kill it from beginning to end. It's heavy on club anthems full of mind-bending beats and samples that add flair but never make it too busy.

At times, it's even self-referential. On "Inside Out," Spears drops lyrics from some of her biggest hits like " ... Baby One More Time" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy." There aren't many relevant artists with a catalogue deep enough or beloved enough to pull that off.

On "I Wanna Go," Spears reminds us that even though everyone is waiting for her to burst, she still wants to cut loose every once in a while. She's one of those people who can poke fun at her public image and be completely endearing while doing it.

You never count out a femme fatale; they're mysterious and wily, foxy and sexy. And 2011 confirmed the lesson pop culture can't seem to learn: You never count out Britney Spears. She is pop's ultimate femme fatale. Now go dance your butt off — it's what Britney would want.

What's your favorite album of 2011? Share your picks in the comments below!

MTV will reveal the best artists, songs and movies of the year. Come to MTV News each day to see more big reveals and check out more of MTV's Best of 2011 music, TV, movies and news coverage.

Related Videos Related Photos

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675474/britney-spears-femme-fatale-favorite-album.jhtml

weather phoenix dippin dots triumph the insult comic dog tucson weather tucson weather peyton hillis cl p

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Recount ordered in Egyptian elections

Update at 6 a.m. EST: Egypt's High Election Commission has ordered a to recount all votes in the first round of the country's election, NBC News reported. The votes were counted in General Counting Stations under the supervision of local Egyptian observers, but the HEC now also wants each individual polling station to carry out it own counting as well.

  1. Only on msnbc.com

    1. Inside the drug tunnels
    2. 84-year-old woman: I was strip searched at JFK
    3. Gingrich accepts Trump debate invitation
    4. A jazzy life
    5. Holiday calendar: Santa's shrinking domain
    6. Next 'Occupy' targets: foreclosed homes, vacant lots
    7. Top beefs against credit card issuers listed

Story at 3:20 a.m. EST:

CAIRO ? Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, emerging as the biggest winner in the first round of parliamentary elections, is seeking to reassure Egyptians that it will not sacrifice personal freedoms in promoting Islamic law.

The deputy head of the Brotherhood's new political party, Essam el-Erian, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday that the group is not interested in imposing Islamic values on Egypt, home to a sizable Christian minority and others who object to being subject to strict Islamic codes.

"We represent a moderate and fair party," el-Erian said of his Freedom and Justice Party. "We want to apply the basics of Shariah law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights," he said, referring to Islamic law.

The comments were the clearest indication that the Brotherhood was distancing itself from the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party, which appears to have won the second-largest share of votes in the election's first phase.

According to media reports, preliminary results leaked to the press showed the Muslim Brotherhood as getting 40 percent of the vote; the conservative Salafi al-Nour party getting 20 percent of the vote; the liberal and secular al-Kutla and al-Masriya parties getting 15 percent.

Other moderate, secular and progressive parties followed with smaller percentages of the vote, the reportedly leaked results showed, NBC News said.The results could not be independently confirmed.

'We respect all people'
The Nour Party espouses a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving.

The Brotherhood recently denied in a statement that it seeks to form an alliance with the Nour Party in parliament, calling it "premature and mere media speculation."

On Saturday, el-Erian made it clear that the Brotherhood does not share Nour's more hard-line aspirations to strictly enforce Islamic codes in Egyptians' daily lives.

"We respect all people in their choice of religion and life," he said.

Another major check on such an agenda is the council of generals who have run the country since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February.

Muslim Brotherhood bends rules to win big in Egypt

The military council, accused by Egypt's protest movement of stalling a transition to civilian and democratic rule, is seeking to limit the powers of the next parliament and maintain close oversight over the drafting of a new constitution.

Egypt already uses Shariah law as the basis for legislation, however Egyptian laws remain largely secular as Shariah does not cover all aspects of modern life.

On its English-language Twitter account, the Brotherhood said that its priorities were to fix Egypt's economy and improve the lives of ordinary Egyptians, "not to change (the) face of Egypt into (an) Islamic state."

Call to accept democracy
El-Erian urged the Brotherhood's political rivals to accept the election results.

"We all believe that our success as Egyptians toward democracy is a real success and we want everyone to accept this democratic system. This is the guarantee for stability," he said.

Video: Egypt votes nearly a year after revolution (on this page)

For decades, Mubarak's regime suppressed the Brotherhood, which was politically banned but managed to establish a vast network of activists and charities offering free food and medical services throughout the country's impoverished neighborhoods and villages.

It is the best organized of Egypt's post-Mubarak political forces.

PhotoBlog: 'Massive' turnout in Egyptian elections

The vote for parliament's lower house is taking place over three stages, with 18 provinces in Egypt yet to vote.

Meanwhile, the swearing-in of a new temporary Cabinet was delayed on Saturday due to disagreements over key posts, including over who will lead the ministry in charge of internal security.

An official in the Interior Ministry said several high-ranking security officials have been named as possible replacements but that some have turned down the offer.

Protesters have also strongly objected to the nominations put forward by newly appointed Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, who served in the same position under ousted President Hosni Mubarak from 1996 to 1999.

Elections finish in March
The country's ruling military general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, appointed el-Ganzouri as a new interim prime minister last month after the previous premier's government resigned in the wake of a police crackdown on protesters that killed over 40 people.

The interim Cabinet will serve until after the parliamentary elections finish in March. A new government is to be formed after the legislature is seated.

Slideshow: Elections in Egypt (on this page)

Activist Hussein Hammouda, a retired police brigadier, is among those opposed to the names being considered for the Interior Minister post and says someone from outside the police force should be chosen instead.

Protesters in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's protests, released a statement saying they would continue their sit-in while allowing traffic to resume normally in the area.

There were tens of thousands of protesters in the square in the days leading up to the elections, but numbers have dwindled to several hundred since then.

Protesters demanding el-Ganzouri be replaced as prime minister said they will keep up another sit-in outside the Cabinet headquarters.

NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45540682/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

chanukah 11 11 11 meaning miracle berry billy crystal veterans day thank you veterans day thank you nigel tufnel day

Did 'The X Factor' Judges Receive Death Threats?

Talk about taking reality television obsession to the next level. X Factor judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger apparently voted the wrong contestant off their show Thursday night -- and are now reportedly receiving death threats.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/x-factor-judges-paula-abdul-nicole-scherzinger-receive-death-threats/1-a-408031?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ax-factor-judges-paula-abdul-nicole-scherzinger-receive-death-threats-408031

blackberry outage blackberry outage seal beach ca seal beach seal beach bhutan zip code finder

Monday, December 5, 2011

China's thin margin for error in property policies (AP)

SHANGHAI ? China's attempts to deflate its property bubble come at a perilous time.

Fears that the euro might collapse, unleashing a tsunami of financial and economic disruptions around the globe, have added urgency to concerns that China's campaign to cool overheated housing prices may go too far.

As economic growth wanes, Beijing has begun easing tight credit policies meant to cool inflation but China's leaders are insisting there is no leeway for loosening curbs on the housing sector.

"The decision has been made that there will be no more property bubble," said Andy Xie, an independent economist based in Shanghai.

Measures to control the market ? such as limits on home purchases and high downpayments to qualify for mortgages ? are at a "critical period," Vice Premier Li Keqiang said last month, stressing a need for more progress on controlling prices.

Stalled transactions and falling prices in major cities such as Shanghai have many in China wondering how long the deep-freeze will last. The impact of China's property chill could stretch far beyond its crowded cities. With growth heavily dependent on construction and related industries, the slowdown already is sapping demand for domestic and imported products and materials and dampening Chinese investors' interest in buying properties overseas.

Since companies have invested borrowed funds in property projects, troubles in real estate will put added stress on banks, said Charlene Chu, an analyst with Fitch Ratings. "This has pushed the developers into a very tight position," she said. "We need to worry about some significant asset deterioration."

Nobody is predicting a meltdown akin to those that led to the global crisis: most Chinese homeowners hold relatively modest mortgages, and demand in the long run will be sustained by demand for better, more spacious housing among increasingly affluent families.

Apart from the global risks, deflating the property bubble is a tricky gamble for the communist leadership given its reliance on rising living standards for its claim to power.

Homeowners whose life savings are in property are seeing the gains they once took for granted evaporate as developers are offering steep discounts on new apartments.

Outraged buyers who recently bought at higher prices are protesting, in one case smashing fixtures at a major developer's offices to vent their anger. Those owners of not-yet-built apartments argue they are being cheated. The property companies say they are just abiding by market conditions.

"It is just unfair," said a 29-year-old software developer. He would only give his last name, Li, because he was involved in some of the protests after prices were cut by 20 percent since he handed over a chunk of his and his parent's savings for an apartment in August. He won't even be able to move in until next year.

"Why do those of us who really need the housing have to be hurt?" Li said.

Those wanting to buy homes, meanwhile, are waiting for prices to drop still further.

Like many in China, Xu Zhengjuan has mixed feelings. The 48-year-old barber shop owner plans to buy an apartment for her son, who soon will be graduated from university.

"It could be a bargain to buy it now, since I need to buy one anyway," said Xu. "But I am also worrying about what I'll do if the prices keep falling after I buy it."

"I'm still watching to see how it will go," she said.

The market seems to have reached a turning point, at least in the biggest cities. New home prices fell in the 10 biggest Chinese cities in November, according to a monthly index compiled by the China Index Academy.

In Shanghai, the decline was 0.5 percent from the month before.

Still, prices have not fallen much overall, with the average decline only 0.3 percent in the 100 biggest cities, to 8,832 yuan ($1,400) per square meter. In the top 10 cities, average prices fell only 0.4 percent, to 15,663 yuan ($2,472) per square meter.

The curbs are just beginning to let some air out of the property bubble, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily proclaimed in a recent commentary that warned the "time for making easy money is over."

"It is now winter in the real estate market, and 20 percent off or even 50 percent off eventually may be seen in the big cities," it said.

In a recent report, Barclays Capital forecast that prices could drop by 30 percent before stabilizing once the government begins to ease the curbs it used to bring the market under control as prices shot out of reach of many city dwellers.

China's residential property market was only launched in the mid-1990s, as state-owned companies and government agencies began allowing employees to buy housing assigned to them at subsidized rates.

Thanks to those reforms, over two-thirds of urban families own their own homes, and many have bought more apartments as investments, expecting to earn much higher returns from property than from the paltry interest rates paid on bank deposits.

But many younger Chinese have been priced out of the market as their incomes, though mostly rising, haven't kept pace with soaring costs for housing and other necessities.

Having prices fall too far, or too fast, angers many others ? and may undermine the finances of businesses and local governments that are heavily invested in property projects.

In the meantime, real estate developers are giving up land parcels they can no longer afford to develop, and in some cases, selling out to larger property companies, or "cutting off their arms to survive" as industry insiders put it.

Some of the slack in demand left from the weakening in commercial property is being absorbed by the push to speed up construction of what the government calls "affordable" housing ? in contrast to the expensive high-end apartments and villas that most developers have concentrated on due to their relatively high returns.

The easing in property market controls, when it does come, will likely be piecemeal and low-key, as is the case for most Chinese economic policy changes, says UBS economist Jonathan Anderson.

Despite its relatively short history, China's property market has been through several booms and busts, the most recent in 2008, before a multibillion dollar burst of recession-fighting stimulus spending set off the biggest construction spree so far.

Dai Qi, a foreign trade company employee living with his parents who owns two apartments, is taking the long-term perspective.

"I'm not worried if prices go up or down. If it goes up, that's great because it will be more valuable. If it falls, I won't lose money since my parents bought the apartments in 2001, when they were much cheaper," he said.

___

Researcher Fu Ting contributed to this report.

___

Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ekurtenbachsh

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_property_peril

neverland occupy dc trisomy 18 kennedy center honors capital one bowl bcs championship ncaa bowl schedule

Saturday, December 3, 2011

'Oz' memorabilia set to roar at auction

By Randee Dawn

Don't be afraid! Well, be afraid for your wallet, if you've got a hankering for one of the two known Cowardly Lion costumes from "The Wizard of Oz." The lion costume will be joining one pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers (as previously reported) from the film in an auction later this month, according to The Daily Mail. Each piece is expected to fetch up to $3 million.

MGM

The sale of Dorothy's red slippers and the Cowardly Lion's costume would fund a lot of round trips from Oz to Kansas.

The Cowardly Lion costume -- which is made from real lion hide -- was being preserved at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and is seen in the movie when the Lion meets Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road and actor Bert Lahr sings, "If I Only Had the Nerve" and "If I Were King of the Forest."

Meanwhile the sparkly shoes, which were used by Judy Garland in the 1939 film when Dorothy clicked her heels three times to return to Kansas, are getting a private showing in New York City on Dec. 5 at the Plaza Ath?n?e before winging their way west for the auction.

The auction, to be held at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Dec. 15 and 16, is being coordinated by Joe Maddalena, who owns memorabilia auction house Profiles in History and who stars in the reality show "Hollywood Treasures."

Both costume and shoes will be part of a larger sale of memorabilia that will include Bela Lugosi's cape from "Dracula," the DeLorean from "Back to the Future III," Marilyn Monroe's wedding ring from her marriage to Joe DiMaggio and a Marilyn Monroe nude painting by Earl Moran.

What one piece of Hollywood memorabilia would you most like to have? Let us know in the comments.

Related content:

Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9163865-wizard-of-oz-memorabilia-set-to-roar-at-los-angeles-auction

st. louis cardinals gaddafi bodyguards gaddafi bodyguards muammar gaddafi muammar gaddafi lord monckton lord monckton

Arsenic In Apple Juice: FDA Considers Tightening Restrictions

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration is considering tightening restrictions for the levels of arsenic allowed in apple juice after consumer groups pushed the agency to crack down on the contaminant.

Studies show that apple juice has generally low levels of arsenic, and the government says it is safe to drink. But consumer advocates say the FDA is allowing too much of the chemical ? which is sometimes natural, sometimes man made ? into apple juices favored by thirsty kids.

There is little consensus on whether these low levels could eventually be harmful, especially to children. Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods, said Wednesday the agency has already stepped up testing and research on arsenic in apple and other juices and is seriously considering lowering the FDA's so-called "level of concern" for the contaminant.

"We continue to think that apple juice is generally safe based on the fact that the vast majority of samples are very low," Taylor said. "But we want to minimize these exposures as much as we possibly can."

Arsenic is naturally present in water, air, food and soil in the two forms ? organic and inorganic. According to the FDA, organic arsenic passes through the body quickly and is essentially harmless. Inorganic arsenic ? the type found in pesticides ? can be toxic and may pose a cancer risk if consumed at high levels or over a long period.

The FDA uses 23 parts per billion as a guide to judge whether apple juice is contaminated. The agency has the authority to seize apple juice that exceeds those levels, though it has never done so.

Consumer groups say the FDA's level is too high and isn't enforced with enough urgency. Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, released a study on Wednesday calling for the levels to be as low as 3 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency has set levels for drinking water ? it's consumed at much greater quantities than apple juice ? at 10 parts per billion.

The Consumer Reports study showed that nine of 88 samples of apple juice taken from grocery stores had more arsenic than the EPA's standard for drinking water. But none of the samples exceeded the FDA's standards for inorganic, or man-made, arsenic.

Urvashi Rangan of the Consumers Union says the group has been in talks with the FDA on the issue and is encouraged by the discussion. Another advocacy group, Food and Water Watch, has lobbied the agency on the issue, and Dr. Mehmet Oz has highlighted the issue on his nationally syndicated daytime show.

"We look at apple and grape juice as a poster child for arsenic in the food supply in general," Rangan said. "Chronic low-level exposure of carcinogen is something we should be concerned about."

Molly Kile, a professor at Oregon State University who has studied arsenic for a decade, says more research is needed to determine whether arsenic levels in juice are a problem.

"It is unclear at this point whether or not the arsenic found in apple juice is safe or unsafe," she said. "And really the question is what do these low levels exposure of arsenic mean in terms of health and children's health?"

So what is the parent of a juice-drinking toddler to do?

All of the experts ? including the government and the consumer advocates ? agree that drinking small amounts of apple juice isn't harmful. The concern is over the effects of drinking large amounts of juice over long periods of time. Parents with a real concern about arsenic should try to diversify the brands of juice they buy in case one brand tends to have more chemical exposure, Consumers Union says.

Another point of agreement is that children under 6 shouldn't be drinking much juice anyway because it's high in calories. Health experts say children under 6 shouldn't drink any more than 6 ounces of juice a day ? about the size of a juice box. Infants under 6 months shouldn't drink any juice at all.

Gail Charnley of the Juice Products Association says the industry regularly tests arsenic levels and will follow the FDA's lead.

"Of course parents have concerns but they should know that the juice producers are committed to safety," she said. "Producers have children who drink juice too."

Oz has said he would still serve juice to his own children, though he strongly believes the government isn't doing enough.

"The absolute safest level for arsenic in your food is zero," he said Wednesday while acknowledging "that is impossible to achieve."

___

'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/arsenic-apple-juice_n_1122979.html

dallas cowboys ct news hemlock hemlock mark rothko mark rothko wiccan

Friday, December 2, 2011

Marie Curie, Theater, and Science Communication: An Interview with Alan Alda

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

John de Lancie and Anna Gunn in the world premiere of Alan Alda's "Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie" at the Geffen Playhouse.

I grew up watching M*A*S*H reruns with my dad, so even early in life, Alan Alda, who played Dr. Hawkeye Pierce throughout the show’s eleven seasons, was a familiar name and face. You might also recognize him from TV shows like The West Wing or movies like Murder at 1600 .

[More]

Add to digg Add to StumbleUpon Add to Reddit Add to Facebook Add to del.icio.us Email this Article

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a9aa6665c2d029e520f87246cc76230c

the brothers grimm penn state football weather boston grimm fairy tales grimm fairy tales gold rush gold rush

Video: Is Iran becoming a pressing foreign policy issue?

U.S. to world: Dude, where's my vacation?

There?s good news and bad news on the American vacation front courtesy of a just-released survey from Expedia.com. Released on Wednesday, the Vacation Deprivation Study revealed that U.S. workers let two days of vacation go unused this year, down from three days last year.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45483892#45483892

fred shuttlesworth grammy nominations newt gingrich john carter vince young vince young