Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
rajon rondo its a wonderful life its a wonderful life rex ryan yule log ham recipes adrian peterson
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Partial results: Congo legislative races close (AP)
KINSHASA, Congo ? Three Cabinet ministers allied to the president have lost their parliament seats, according to partial results from Congo's legislative elections that show the ruling party taking losses but still in the lead.
If the trend holds and the opposition makes substantial gains, it could change the political landscape of Congo, which effectively has been under one-man rule since its independence from Belgium in 1960, with a rubber-stamp parliament in recent years.
Congo's electoral commission also announced Wednesday night that it has restarted the suspended count of legislative ballots in the absence of U.S. and British observers who are supposed to help ensure transparency.
That could further fuel the cases being taken to the commission over the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative balloting that was marred by violence and fraud. Fourteen electoral officers have been arrested for alleged fraud and manipulation of vote counts, the electoral commission said Wednesday.
Incumbent Joseph Kabila was declared the winner by the country's Supreme Court and inaugurated last week despite the fraud condemned by the international community. Observers have said it is not clear who won the vote in this mineral-rich country impoverished by decades of dictatorship and civil war.
Human rights and civil society groups have condemned the international community for not doing more to uphold Congo's young democracy. The European Union has threatened to halt aid if there is no improvement in the counting of the legislative ballots, leading Kabila to invite the U.S. and British experts.
Congolese security forces have shot at and detained people attempting to protest Kabila's re-election. Human Rights Watch said last week that at least 24 people have been killed in such attacks to quell dissent.
The New York-based group said many more may have been killed since security forces appear to be quickly removing bodies to cover up the scale of the killings.
Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi also has declared himself the winner of the presidential election and attempted to hold his own inauguration at a Kinshasa stadium before being stopped by security forces.
Tshisekedi's party said Tuesday that seven more of its supporters were killed by security forces on Friday and 540 detained to prevent the opposition leader holding his inauguration. Tshisekedi later held a ceremony in the back yard of his home.
Police chief Gen. Charles Bisengimana said no one was killed Friday and that police fired only tear gas.
The November elections were the first contested by Tshisekedi, a veteran 79-year-old politician who had opposed Congo's dictatorship since the 1980s and who boycotted the 2006 ballot that was the first democratic election in nearly half a century. That left a bunch of former warlords as the front-runners.
Then, Tshisekedi also urged his supporters not to register to vote, a decision that still haunts the party since parliament seats were allocated according to the number of registered voters, so Tshisekedi strongholds are represented by fewer legislators.
The partial and provisional results announced Wednesday include only 101 of the 500 parliament seats, and none of the major cities in the country that sprawls across Central Africa and covers an area larger than Western Europe. The results have been compiled from only 40 of the 1,469 counting centers. Some 19,000 candidates stood for election.
They gave the presidential party 23 seats to 14 for Tshisekedi's party, with the rest going to small parties.
In the current parliament, Kabila's party holds 111 seats but a coalition of parties supporting him holds another 220. Opposition parties have 170 seats, a third of them belonging to the party of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former warlord and deputy president who awaits charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague.
___
Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Johannesburg.
hot chelle rae guile alton brown weather los angeles caleb hanie nascar bcs standings 2011
NCAA Basketball: Purdue Wins, Indiana Falls In Big Ten Openers
After a solid non-conference season that saw the Hoosiers return to the top 25, Indiana starts Big Ten play tonight with its toughest road trip to date. The No. 15 rated Hoosiers travel to East Lansing tonight for a Big Ten test against No. 17 Michigan State. The Spartans have played their usual difficult schedule in non-conference play, while Indiana's ranking is based mostly on their upset of Kentucky. The Hoosiers are still one of the final unbeaten teams in college basketball, however, and will be without Will Sheehey and Verdell Jones III. Those factors make this a very difficult challenge for IU:
The Spartans steal the ball on 12 percent of possessions and block 15 percent of shot attempts. While Kentucky is a very good defensive team, this game, on the road, will be by far the toughest test for the Hoosiers' high-powered offense so far.
Purdue also begins Big Ten play tonight with a road trip to the place where last season came apart at the seams. When the Boilermakers visited Iowa last season for the final game of the regular season Purdue was in the top 6 and had an outside shot at a No. 1 seed int he NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes upset Purdue 67-65, and the Boilermakers were never the same, losing their Big Ten Tournament game against the Spartans and int he NCAA Tournament against VCU.
This season's Purdue team comes in at 10-3, but only a handful of possessions away from being 12-1. After late blown leads against Xavier and Butler Purdue is need of a confidence building win on the road. their last three games away from Mackey Arena have resulted in a loss, but Robbie Hummel continues to pace them at 17.5 points per game.
Indiana's tipoff comes at 7:30pm on the Big Ten network, with Purdue following at 9:30.
peter marshall zombie boy zombie boy harvard yale the descendants the descendants joe paterno lung cancer
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Roleplay!
Hello everyone
Luna Kasumi here, I am going to be making my first ever rp on this site so be nice please :)
Luna Kasumi here, I am going to be making my first ever rp on this site so be nice please :)
I am going to be hopefully starting an rp based around the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Series although it will be series 3 that I will mostly be covering! Now I know you all won't want to hear very very long explaintion about the rp so I'll keep it sort and if you want any more info about it Pm me! Ok then let's get this show on the road!
The rp can have as many people as we all like, but only one character for your acc I don't want millions of mages running around :)
Here is the basic intro I will post that I will start with then everyone can join in ^_^ (oh and if I use "I" when im IC its just my habbit so dont mind me^^)
Intro Luna walks into the TSAB HQ waiting for the new recurits to arrive and test them, she smiles and takes a quick look around waiting for them to arrive, so they can start with everything. She looks down at Raizaki (Her device) and sighs, then leans against a wall waiting for them...
Well thats it for now post back and see what you think! :)
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/BW16d9jpFBo/viewtopic.php
jill biden jill biden al mvp ama awards 2011 ama awards 2011 uekman uekman
Haywire - Knockout (2011) DVDRip 1Link
Haywire / Knockout (2011) DvD DVDRip xvid-MAX for free 1 link Download
Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive. Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious - and dangerous - trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she???ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.
Genre(s): Action/Adventure and Thriller
Release Date: USA 7 November 2011 (AFI Fest)
Status: In Theaters
Production Co: : Irish Film Board, Relativity Media u
Director(s): Steven Soderbergh
Writer(s): Lem Dobbs
Starring: Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Angarano, Bill Paxton, Gina Carano, Mathieu Kassovitz, Eddie J. Fernandez, Anthony Brandon Wong, Tim Connolly, Maximino Arciniega, Aaron Cohen, Natascha Berg
Country of Origin: USA
Official Trailer: Haywire (2011) HD Trailer Exclusive - YouTube
Wiki: Haywire (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DOWLOAD LINK:
Download Haywire 2011.DvD.Full.DvDrip.avi for free via Filesonic.com
.................................................. ..................................
filesonic.com THE BEST
fileserve.com
rapidshare.com
megaufload.com
wupload.com
mediafire.com
hotfile.com
filejungle.com
Haywire / Knockout (2011) ENG DVDRip 1 (Single) Link HQ HD (High Definition) No rar,Rapidshare, Hotfile, Fileserve,filejungle, Wupload, Megaufload,Mediafire, Filesonic links , link, 1link 127 720p 1080p 2008 2009 2010 2011 ac3 angeles battle bdrip big bluray brrip cam class code dead deathly drugs dts dvd dvdrip dvdripengaxxo dvdripxvid dvdripxviddiamond dvdscr eng fast film green hangover harry hdtv hood hornet hot imagine limited line link los m720p max movie multi multi| number part paul pirates potter priest punch readnfo red rio rite single source sucker unrated war x264 xvid xvidarrow xvidimagine xvidunveil xvidvip3r free download
clayton kershaw osu basketball dale sveum jets broncos thursday night football demi moore johnny jolly
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Parade of Time: Glastonbury Underwear
You are here: Home ? Comics ? Art ? The Parade of Time: Glastonbury Underwear
At this time of year it is good to confront our own mortality as shown via drop-butt underwear.
Via sweet juniper!
Source: http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/12/26/the-parade-of-time-glastonbury-underwear/
marine corps marine corps veterans day 2011 veterans day 2011 cnbc debate family circus spanier
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Harold L. Bowling, 81, New London, Ohio
Harold was born on November 23, 1930 and passed away on Friday, December 23, 2011.
Harold was a resident of New London, Ohio at the time of his passing.
He was preceded in death by his wife Edna.
Visitation will be held Monday, December 26 from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. at Eastman Funeral Home, 200 West Main Street, New London where a service will be held Tuesday at 1 p.m. Burial will follow at Grove Street Cemetery.
Memorials in Harolds memory may be given to Stein Hospice, 1200 Sycamore Line, Sandusky, Ohio 44870.
Source: http://newsnet5.tributes.com/show/Harold-L.-Bowling-92978964
patrice tether lana peters lana peters jennifer nettles jennifer nettles giants vs saints
TiPb Asks: So? what iPhone and iPad gifts did you get this year?!
So, what awesome iOS devices — iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, Apple TVs — did you get this year for Christmas, Hanukkah, or just because? What awesome accessories were in your stockings? What amazing apps were gifted your way? Naughty or nice, TiPb Nation, we know you’re ripping the wrapping...
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/vd5mY0ucHzc/story01.htm
fun fun fun fest move your money alabama vs lsu alabama vs lsu robert schuller guy fawkes day jesse ventura
Monday, December 26, 2011
Arab monitors head to Syria, opposition skeptical
A Syrian Kurdish boy carries a banner during a protest outside the Arab League office in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. The protesters said the Arab League was not serious in attempts to stop the Syrian regime crackdown. A man behind the boy was carrying a poster of President Bashar Assad of Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A Syrian Kurdish boy carries a banner during a protest outside the Arab League office in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. The protesters said the Arab League was not serious in attempts to stop the Syrian regime crackdown. A man behind the boy was carrying a poster of President Bashar Assad of Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
BEIRUT (AP) ? The Arab League sent monitors to Syria Monday even though President Bashar Assad's regime has only intensified its crackdown on dissent in the week since agreeing to the Arab plan to stop the bloodshed.
Activists say government forces have killed several hundred civilians in the past week. At least 23 more deaths were reported Monday from intense shelling in the center of the country, just hours before the first 60 monitors were to arrive. The opposition says thousands of government troops have been besieging the Baba Amr district of in the central city of Homs for days and the government is preparing a massive assault on the area.
France expressed strong concerns about the continued deterioration of the situation in Homs. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero demanded Syrian authorities allow the Arab League observers immediate access to the city.
"The repression and unprecedented violence committed by the Damascus regime must cease and everything must be done to stop the drama going on behind closed doors in the city of Homs," the French statement said.
In Cairo, an Arab League official said this monitoring mission was the Syrian regime's "last chance" to reverse course.
"Will they facilitate the mission's work or try and curb its movements? Let's wait and see," the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The Arab League plan agreed to by Assad last Monday requires the government to remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. The monitors are supposed to ensure compliance, but so far there is no sign that Assad is implementing any of the terms, much less letting up on his brutal crackdown.
Although Syria shows no sign of altering its course, the Arab League was sticking to its plan. The team, including Iraqis, Tunisians and Algerians, left Cairo Monday evening and arrived in Damascus, said Arab League official Ali al-Garoush.
Opposition members say the regime's agreement to the Arab plan is a farce.
"I very much doubt the Syrian regime will allow the observers to do their work," said prominent opposition figure Waleed al-Bunni from Cairo. "I expect them to try and hinder their movements by claiming that some areas are not safe, intimidating them or sending them to places other than the ones they should go to."
Some anti-government protesters have even criticized the League's stance to the point of accusing it of complicity in the killings.
Activists said Syrian forces shelled the Baba Amr district of Homs with mortars and sprayed heavy machine gun fire in the most intense assault since the siege began Friday.
Baba Amr has been a center for anti-government protests and army defections and has seen repeated crackdowns by the Syrian regime in recent months. The Syrian conflict is becoming increasingly militarized with growing clashes between army defectors and troops.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, described the attacks in Homs as a kind of "hysteria" as government forces desperately try to get the situation there under control ahead of the monitors' arrival.
"The observers are sitting in their hotel in Damascus while people are dying in Homs," he said.
The Observatory called on the monitors "to head immediately to Baba Amr to be witnesses to the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated by the Syrian regime."
In Cairo, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told reporters after meeting with the monitors that the mission will begin work on Tuesday. Up to 500 monitors are to be eventually deployed and Syria has only agreed for them to stay one month.
Anwar Malek, a member of the monitoring mission, insisted they will have absolute freedom of movement in Syria, adding that the team will travel to flashpoint cities including Homs, Daraa, Idlib and Hama. He and other observers refused to disclose the exact travel itinerary, saying they preferred to maintain some secrecy to ensure the mission's success.
The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership and imposed sanctions on Damascus but is deeply divided on how to respond to the crisis. Gulf countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia have taken a tougher line and are more inclined toward Security Council action on Syria. But other countries, wary of Syria's influence in the region, prefer an Arab solution to the crisis.
Activists say the regime has only stepped up its crackdown on anti-government protesters in the week since it agreed to the Arab plan. At least 275 civilians have been killed by government forces since then, and another 150 people died in clashes between army defectors and regime troops ? most of them defectors.
The stepped up crackdown, including what activists said was a "massacre" in one town where 110 people were mowed down in several hours last week, brought a new round of international condemnation of Syria. Neighboring Turkey said the violence flew in the face of the Arab League deal that Syria signed and raises doubts about the regime's true intentions.
Syria's top opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun, doubtful that the Arab League alone can budge Assad, called Sunday for the League to bring the U.N. Security Council into the effort. The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have been killed since March in the political violence.
Assad stalled for weeks on agreeing to the plan and signed only after the Arab League threatened to turn to the U.N. Security Council to help stop the violence. The opposition believes the authoritarian leader is only trying to buy time and forestall more international sanctions and condemnation.
The U.N.'s most powerful body remains deeply divided over Syria, which has led to its failure to adopt a resolution on and heightened tensions especially among major powers. Western nations and the U.S. are demanding a resolution threatening sanctions if the violence doesn't stop and condemning Assad's crackdown. But Russia and China, which have closer ties to Assad's regime, believe extremist opponents of the government are equally responsible for the bloodshed and oppose any mention of sanctions.
After months of largely peaceful protests that were met with brute force and bullets, some opposition figures have started calling for international military intervention, but that is all but out of the question in Syria, in part because of fears that the move could spread chaos across the Middle East. Syria is a close ally of Iran, borders Israel, and holds sway over the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which now dominates Lebanon's government.
Amateur videos of the violence in Homs were posted by activists on the Internet Monday. The showed gruesome footage of at least four corpses lying in pools of blood in front of a house in Baba Amr, where they reportedly died from mortar shells that struck the neighborhood.
Men could be heard crying for help and women wailing in the video, which also showed several destroyed homes and cars. Other footage showed at least six bodies wrapped in white plastic bags in a home, relatives crying besides them.
A resident of a neighborhood next to Baba Amr said he heard "loud explosions" throughout the night and Monday morning.
"It doesn't stop," he told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network reported at least 23 deaths in intense shelling "targeting homes and anyone who moves" in Baba Amr.
Syrian officials did not comment on the violence in Baba Amr but said armed terrorist groups attacked civilians and security forces in villages in southern Syria. State-run news agency SANA said troops retaliated and killed a number of the gunmen.
___
Additional reporting by Sarah El Deeb in Cairo.
Associated Pressfast times at ridgemont high fast times at ridgemont high andrea bocelli john hughes panasonic lumix dmc lx5 ucla football taylor momsen
Tough choice looms on 9/11 health lawsuits (AP)
NEW YORK ? More than 1,600 people who filed lawsuits claiming that their health was ruined by dust and smoke from the collapsed World Trade Center must decide by Jan. 2 whether to keep fighting in court, or drop the litigation and apply for benefits from a government compensation fund.
For some, the choice is fraught with risk.
Federal lawmakers set aside $2.76 billion last winter for people who developed illnesses after spending time in the ash-choked disaster zone.
But to be considered for a share of the aid, all potential applicants must dismiss any pending lawsuits by the deadline and give up their right to sue forever over 9/11 health problems. Anyone with a lawsuit still pending on Jan. 3 is barred from the program for life.
The government program is attractive because it spares the sick from having to prove that their illness is related to 9/11, and that someone other than the terrorists put them in harm's way. But applicants won't know for months, or even years, how much money they might eventually receive from the program. That means some people may give up their lawsuits and find out later that they only qualify for a modest payment.
Others face a deeper problem. People exposed to trade center dust have blamed it for hundreds of illnesses, but currently the fund only covers a limited number of ailments, including asthma, scarred lungs and other respiratory system problems. That list does not currently include any type of cancer, which scientists have yet to link to trade center toxins.
But the very possibility that cancer could, someday, be covered has led some plaintiffs to drop their lawsuits anyway.
"In a sense, I've weighed my options and rolled the dice believing that the country I helped is not going to let me down," said former New York City police detective John Walcott, who retired after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 2003.
He decided a few days before Christmas to drop his case, saying he had come to believe he would never get anything out of the legal system.
"The court system was set up for attorneys to make a lot of money," he said. He added that at age 47, he is tired of a court fight that had no end in sight. "I'm done with 9/11. I can't go forward with my life and family and live in peace with this hanging over me."
The special master overseeing the compensation fund, Sheila Birnbaum, acknowledged that the deadline would put some people in a tight spot, especially if they have an illness that isn't currently covered by the fund.
"That is one of the dilemmas," she said.
Birnbaum noted, though, that the law gives her no wiggle room. Anyone who has a lawsuit active on Jan. 3 will be disqualified from consideration, she said, even if their illness is later deemed to be covered.
"It's a hard decision that they have to make," she said.
The lengthy application process for the fund began in October, and Birnbaum said she expected thousands to apply. She could not say how many might do so by the time the fund closes years from now.
Lawyers who represent people with pending cases said they have been going over the pros and cons with their clients for several months, to see which option might suit them better.
"It's a complicated analysis," said attorney Gregory Cannata, whose firm represents about 100 people, including laborers brought in to repair damaged buildings and cleaners who swept tons of dust from office suites.
Cannata said that for the most part, his clients have decided to stick with their lawsuits, in part because of the possibility of a larger payout than they might receive under the government program.
Police officers, firefighters and city contractors who cleared away the 9/11 rubble make up only a small slice of the people facing the dilemma. Most of the more than 5,000 city workers who filed lawsuits claiming that the city had failed to protect them from the dust settled their cases in 2010, before the compensation fund was created.
Walcott was one of a few who rejected the deal, worth more than $700 million. Under the law, people who settled previously will be allowed to apply for government benefits. Any award they receive will be reduced by whatever they got from the legal settlement.
The tough decisions won't end Jan. 2.
In addition to people with legal claims already pending, thousands more New Yorkers have become ill because of exposure to the dust. They will have to decide in the coming years whether to sue someone over their illness or try their luck in the government program.
If too many people apply for aid from the compensation fund ? including people with common illnesses that may, or may not, have anything to do with 9/11 toxins ? the nearly $2.8 billion set aside by Congress may get exhausted quickly. Adding just 1,000 people with cancer to the program could eat up $1 billion, said Noah Kushlefsky, an attorney with the firm Kreindler & Kreindler.
"The real question is, how many more cases are there out there?" Kushlefsky said.
Enough, it seems, to keep both the courts and the 9/11 fund administrators busy for some time yet.
bo jackson ibogaine michigan football michigan football weather houston weather houston small business saturday
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Auburn basketball: Coach Tony Barbee calls offense 'anemic' after Tigers lose to Long Beach State in semifinals of Diamond Head Classic
HONOLULU -- Long Beach State already has played a difficult non-conference schedule, and the 49ers hope that Friday?s easy victory over Auburn is more proof they can compete against teams from major conferences.
Larry Anderson scored 16 points, and Eugene Phelps and Casper Ware added 13 each as Long Beach State beat Auburn 64-43 on Friday night in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic.
The 49ers (7-5) of the Big West Conference put the game away with a 16-0 run for a 62-38 lead with 3:26 remaining. Ware scored eight points during the spurt, including a pair of 3-pointers. Auburn (8-2) went more than nine minutes between field goals.
?For a mid-major in these tournaments, it?s just such a ... I don?t want to say honor, but it?s such an opportunity for a mid-major to play a BCS school on a neutral court, and I?m just pleased right now that our guys are taking advantage of that opportunity,? Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said.
Long Beach State was battle-tested entering the game, having played five AP Top 25 teams this season.
The 49ers won at Pittsburgh and beat Xavier in Thursday?s opening-round game. They lost at Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina, with the defeats coming by an average of nine points.
Long Beach State will play Kansas State in today?s final. Auburn will play UTEP in the third-place game.
?We?re not here to just play in a championship,? Monson said. ?Our goal is to come over here and win this tournament and we still have an opportunity to do that.?
T.J. Robinson grabbed nine rebounds and Phelps had eight as the 49ers held a 43-25 advantage on the boards.
?I thought we rebounded pretty well,? Monson said. ?I don?t have a lot of complaints, it wasn?t perfect, but it?s not going to be. You?re not going to come over here and play a perfect game.?
Auburn shot 15 of 57 from the field. The Tigers? only threat was Frankie Sullivan, who finished with 22 points on 8 of 16 shooting.
?Offensively, we were anemic tonight,? Auburn coach Tony Barbee said. ?Hopefully, we can chalk it up to being an off night. More of a concern was we didn?t have guys make plays when they had an opportunity to make plays.?
In the first half, Long Beach State went on a 14-2 run for a 23-10 lead with 6:09 left. The Tigers went more than seven minutes without a field goal.
The 49ers? rally forced Auburn to switch from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone. The Tigers stayed in the zone for much of the second half.
Anderson and Phelps each scored nine first-half points as Long Beach State took a 32-22 halftime lead.
Sullivan was the only Auburn player to make a field goal during the first 18:30 of the first half.
He finished the half with 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting from the field, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. His teammates finished the half 1 of 16.
LONG BEACH ST. (7-5)
Phelps 5-8 3-4 13, Ennis 1-5 3-4 6, Robinson 2-7 2-2 6, Anderson 5-6 4-5 16, Ware 2-10 7-9 13, Caffey 3-3 0-1 6, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Dervisevic 2-5 0-0 4, Vantrimpont 0-1 0-0 0, Starkey 0-1 0-0 0, Shepherd 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-47 19-25 64.
AUBURN (8-2)
Langford 1-2 0-0 2, Ward 1-7 2-2 4, Gabriel 2-11 2-2 7, Sullivan 8-16 0-0 22, Chubb 1-8 2-2 4, Denson 0-1 0-0 0, McAfee 0-3 0-0 0, Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Neysmith 0-3 0-0 0, Johnson 1-4 0-0 2, Forbes 1-2 0-0 2, Kouassi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-57 6-6 43.
Halftime--Long Beach St. 32-22. 3-Point Goals--Long Beach St. 5-15 (Anderson 2-2, Ware 2-8, Ennis 1-3, Dervisevic 0-1, Starkey 0-1), Auburn 7-21 (Sullivan 6-9, Gabriel 1-6, Langford 0-1, McAfee 0-1, Johnson 0-2, Ward 0-2). Fouled Out--Chubb. Rebounds--Long Beach St. 43 (Robinson 9), Auburn 25 (Sullivan 6). Assists--Long Beach St. 8 (Ware 3), Auburn 6 (Langford 3). Total Fouls--Long Beach St. 10, Auburn 19. A--NA.
Source: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2011/12/24/1869939/auburn-basketball-coach-tony-barbee.html
nor easter st.louis cardinals st.louis cardinals drag me to hell alot alot are you afraid of the dark
New model to design better flu shots proposed
ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2011) ? The flu shot, typically the first line of defense against seasonal influenza, could better treat the U.S. population, thanks to University of Pittsburgh researchers.
New research that focuses on the composition and timing of the shot design was published in the September-October issue of Operations Research by Pitt Swanson School of Engineering faculty members Oleg Prokopyev, an assistant professor, and Professor Andrew Schaefer, both in the Department of Industrial Engineering, and coauthors Osman Ozaltin and Mark Roberts, professor and chair in Pitt's Department of Health Policy and Management. Ozaltin, who is now an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, did his research for the study as a Pitt graduate student in the Swanson School; he earned his Pitt PhD degree in industrial engineering earlier this year.
The exact composition of the flu shot is decided every year by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the decision is complicated.
"The flu's high rate of transmission requires frequent changes to the shot," said Prokopyev. "Different strains can also cocirculate in one season, which gives us another challenge for figuring out the composition."
The Pitt researchers used powerful optimization methods from engineering to examine whether they could improve the yearly decisions made regarding what strains of influenza should be included in the current year's vaccine. The strains of flu that will be most likely to appear in the regular flu season are not known with certainty, but waiting longer to finalize the composition of the vaccine and observing what strains are occurring in other parts of the world improves the accuracy of the selection. However, the longer the FDA waits to make the decision, the more likely it is that there will be insufficient vaccine produced by the start of flu season. The model developed by the Pitt researchers balances these two important characteristics of the flu selection decision and integrates the composition and timing decisions of the flu shot design.
The model allows examination of the effect of many changes to the design and production of the vaccine, such as how many strains to include in the shot, when to make the final decision, how many times the FDA should meet to re-examine the current information concerning strains in other parts of the world, and the potential benefits from improved production methods.
"With this model, several policy questions can be addressed," said Schaefer. "For example, incorporating more than three strains might increase the societal benefit substantially, particularly under more severe flu seasons."
"The strains in the flu shot are now chosen at least six months before the actual flu season," added Schaefer. "This leaves a lot of uncertainty because we're really not sure which strain will emerge. Our models provide insights into a better flu shot."
The Pitt study focused solely on the United States, where the FDA makes the final decision about the flu shot composition soon after recommendations from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. The current flu shot contains inactivated strains of two influenza A subtypes and one influenza B lineage. The flu shot production is also limited by the scarcest strain, as the three strains are combined together to compose the shot.
"The three strains in the current flu shot are grown separately in chicken eggs and combined together to produce a single dose," said Ozaltin. "Our model considers all three strains simultaneously, because unanticipated difficulties in growing a strain might result in reductions in the overall flu shot supply."
The Pitt researchers note that currently only six manufacturers provide the flu shot for the U.S. market. Once the strains are selected by an FDA advisory committee, manufacturers move forward in making their own plans to maximize profits.
"We're suggesting a policy that includes more frequent committee meetings," said Prokopyev. "That could provide additional gains in the annual societal benefit of the flu shot."
For the future, the results suggest a substantial potential benefit from improved manufacturing techniques. With more research in this area, a more appropriate flu shot could be produced annually, saving Americans millions of dollars and preventing substantial influenza complications.
"This is another excellent example of the benefits of collaborative, multidisciplinary research that the University of Pittsburgh is famous for," notes Roberts. "Our group has been applying methods developed in engineering and designed for industry to very real problems in health and disease, and finding that they can provide insights not previously observed using traditional clinical research methods."
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 University of Pittsburgh.
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: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/MSUXWMANQTg/111222152021.htm
current time earthquake today earthquake today droid razr oklahoma news atomic clock earthquake map
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Candidate Ron Paul speaks in Washington
By David Hotle | Dec 22, 2011
When presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul spoke to a crowd of about 300 people at the Washington Public Library Wednesday afternoon, his speech included liberty, a balanced budget and sound economic policies.
Paul, a Republican, said that his concerns with the U.S. economy began in 1974 when he first decided to run for Congress. He said that he was concerned about the future because, he said, ?We as a country decided money could just be paper and if the government needed it, they could print it.? He said that it has since turned out to be a dangerous thing to do. He spoke of the Federal Reserve Bank that prints dollars and the need to audit it.
?In the last four years there seems to have been an explosion of interest,? he said. ?In the last campaign we did well, but something really significant happened in 2008.?
He said that after the recession of 2008, he found more people were willing to listen to his message.
Paul spoke of the war being fought in Afghanistan.
?It is an insult to us all when we have unnecessary wars,? he said. ?They are fought, undeclared and seem to go on forever.?
He said that with the country?s economic needs, such wars shouldn?t be fought. He also said that more diplomatic means should be used to solve problems with other countries. Paul also objected to having to get approval from the United Nations to go to war. He promised that if he were elected, he would only declare war under the proper authority and then they would be over quickly.
Paul said that he is concerned that the United States will help bail out Europe financially. He said the country should solve its own financial problems by cutting money from foreign aid spending.
He said that he has a plan to cut $1 trillion from the United States budget during the first year if he is elected president.
?There are a lot of programs we have had over the last 60 or 70 years, since the depression, that are broke,? he said. ?Even Social Security has no money in the bank, which is why we have to do something. If we continue to do what we do, we?ll continue running up the debt, keep borrowing money, keep taxing and keep printing money until the money loses all its value.?
Paul said that his foreign policy was based on the foreign policy of the founding fathers. He said that it is based on not getting involved in the affairs of foreign countries.
?We are supposed to have a strong national defense, but we aren?t supposed to tell other people how to live,? he said. ?At one time this was the Republican foreign policy.?
Paul spoke of time he served in the military in 1962. He talked about the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He said the way the crisis was averted was that President John F. Kennedy had diplomats from both countries talk to each other. They agreed to remove missiles.
?We need more of that than we need threats and intimidation,? Paul said. ?We have almost 12,000 diplomats in the state department. I think it?s time we started using them.?
He also spoke of trying to take over Afghanistan as ?the final nail in the coffin? of the Soviet Union?s economy. He said U.S. had won the Cold War because ?their system was more flawed than ours,? but that he sees the United States taking the same path. Paul said the economic crisis is a bigger threat to the U.S. than any foreign country attempting to invade.
He also talked about the need to protect individual freedoms in the United States. Paul said during the last week congress had approved the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 which allows the government to use U.S. troops against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism and hold them indefinitely without trial.
?Maybe we can get them (the government) to pay attention to the Constitution again ? wouldn?t that be nice,? he said. ?We would look into that Federal Reserve, audit the Federal Reserve and maybe curtail the Federal Reserve.?
He said that he believes the United States would suffer the consequences of having liberties undermined. He said that the oath taken by legislators says they should ?defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.?
Paul summed up his message saying that the United States needs to cut spending overseas, obey the Constitution and understand what Liberty means.
?We need to have more confidence in freedom,? he said. ?Freedom really does work.?
papelbon papelbon anita hill penn state football schedule carrier classic j edgar hoover j edgar hoover
Gingrich condemns Ron Paul for abandoning Israel
Less than two weeks before the first official Republican poll of the
presidential primary season, right-wing front-runner Newt Gingrich slammed Iowa
candidate-to-beat Ron Paul Thursday for abandoning Israel to Iran?s
mercies.
presidential primary season, right-wing front-runner Newt Gingrich slammed Iowa
candidate-to-beat Ron Paul Thursday for abandoning Israel to Iran?s
mercies.
Paul, said Gingrich, ?dismisses the danger of an Iranian nuclear weapon and seems to be indifferent to the idea that Israel could be wiped out.?
RELATED:
Gingrich calls Palestinians an 'invented' people
GOP hopefuls face off on ?Palestinian? comments
Speaking on a conservative radio talk show Thursday morning, Gingrich accused Paul of being ?a guy who basically says, if the United States were only nice, it wouldn?t have had 9/11. He doesn?t want to blame the bad guys.?
?I think the key to his volunteer base is people who want to legalize drugs,? said the former speaker of the House, and recent Republican front-runner.
During foreign-policy discussions, Paul has said that he would not attack or impose sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear aspirations, but that he would allow Israel to fend for itself.
?When they want to have peace treaties, we tell them what they can do because we buy their allegiance and they sacrifice their sovereignty to us. And then they decide they want to bomb something, that?s their business, but they should, you know, suffer the consequences,? Paul said during a debate among Republican candidates in November.
Paul, an avowed American civil libertarian and isolationist from Texas, emerged this week as the front-runner in the January 3 Iowa caucus, polling at over 20 percent, in a field of seven main candidates.Paul was the only leading GOP candidate who was not invited to the Republican Jewish Coalition?s candidates? forum earlier this month, a decision that the Paul camp said that they only learned about through the media.
Paul has stressed that in advocating cutting financial support for Israel, he is supporting Zionism?s founding values of independence. He has also argued that Arab states receive seven times the amount of aid as Israel, and that that aid too would be cut. Paul?s supporters also cite the congressman?s defense of Israel?s 1981 bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak.
But Democrats, including
the National Jewish Democratic Council?s President David A. Harris, have
tied Paul?s position on funding to other policies that they claim are
anti-Israel, including what Harris described as ?trying to empathize with Iran?s
pursuit of nuclear weapons.?
Source: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=250624&R=R1
zynga ipo zynga ipo joe arpaio sam hurd arrested presidential debate atlanta falcons roddy white
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
#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
tracy mcgrady tracy mcgrady mash alec baldwin kicked off plane alec baldwin kicked off plane mumia mumia
5 die when small plane crashes on major NJ highway
A piece of a small plane hangs from a tree located between Hilltop Circle and James Street near Interstate 287 where the plane crashed forcing the police to close all lanes of the highway to conduct their investigation, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 in Harding Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
A piece of a small plane hangs from a tree located between Hilltop Circle and James Street near Interstate 287 where the plane crashed forcing the police to close all lanes of the highway to conduct their investigation, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 in Harding Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
A State Police helicopter lands on the southbound lanes of route 287 in Harding Township, N.J., where a small plane headed for Georgia crashed, raining debris down on the highway and local streets Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. The plane spiraled out of control and lost a section of the aircraft before hitting the wooded median strip, skidding into the roadway and exploding. All five people aboard were killed but no one on the ground was injured. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
A firefighter walks along the northbound lanes of Interstate 287 looking for pieces of a small plane that crashed Tuesday morning, Dec. 20, 2011 on Interstate 287 in Harding, N.J. Two New York City investment bankers are among the five dead in the small plane crash, which left debris on the highway and local streets, forcing the police to close the highway to conduct their investigation. The FAA says the plane departed Teterboro Airport for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta Tuesday when there was a garbled transmission and it disappeared from the radar. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
A piece of a small plane that crashed Tuesday morning can be seen on James Street near Interstate 287, Tuesday Dec. 20, 2011 in Harding Township, N.J. Two New York City investment bankers are among the five dead in the small plane crash, which left debris on the highway and local streets, forcing the police to close the highway to conduct their investigation. The FAA says the plane departed Teterboro Airport for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta Tuesday when there was a garbled transmission and it disappeared from the radar. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
This undated photo provided by Greenhill & Co., shows Rakesh Chawla, 36, who was aboard a small plane that crashed Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 on a highway in Harding, N.J., killing all five people aboard. Greenhill & Co., the New York investment banking firm where Chawla was a managing director, said Chawla, another managing director, Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, Buckalew's wife, Corinne, and the couple's two children, Jackson and Meriwether, were traveling together. (AP Photo/Greenhill & Co.)
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) ? A small plane heading for Georgia crashed Tuesday morning on a major New York-area highway, spiraling out of control, hitting a wooded median and scattering wreckage across the road. All five people aboard were killed, but no one on the ground was injured.
The pilot had discussed icy conditions with controllers just before the plane went down, but investigators were unsure what role, if any, icing played in the crash.
The New York investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. said two of its managing directors, Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, and Rakesh Chawla, 36, as well as Buckalew's wife and two children, were on the plane that crashed on Interstate 287.
Buckalew was the registered owner of the single-engine plane and had a pilot's license.
Wreckage was scattered over at least a half mile, with a section found lodged in a tree of a home about a quarter-mile away, near a highway entrance ramp. The crash closed both sides of the busy highway for hours, though several lanes were open again in time for the evening rush hour.
Chris Covello of Rockaway Township said he saw the plane spin out of control from the car dealership where he works in Morristown, near the site of the crash.
"It was like the plane was doing tricks or something, twirling and flipping. It started going straight down. I thought any second they were going to pull up. But then the wing came off and they went straight down," he said.
The high-performance Socata TBM-700 turboprop had departed from nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and crashed about 14 minutes into its flight. It was headed for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta.
The pilot had a seven-second call with a controller about icing shortly before the crash, said Robert Gretz, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, told a late-day news conference.
Gretz said he did not know whether the pilot was reporting icing had occurred or was questioning the location of possible icing conditions. He said he was unaware of any icing on the ground that would have required deicing.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had requested clearance to a higher altitude shortly before the plane dropped off radar. The NTSB said the plane had climbed to 17,500 feet.
Ice can form on airplanes when temperatures are near freezing and there is visible moisture, such as clouds or rain. The ice adds weight to an aircraft, and rough accumulations known as rime interrupt the flow of air over wings.
In extreme cases, a plane can lose so much lift that it falls out of the sky.
Icing played a role in crashes in 2009 involving a Colgan Air flight outside Buffalo and an Air France flight off the coast of Brazil. In both cases the pilots sent their airplanes into uncontrolled spins while trying to deal with accumulations of ice.
Most versions of the TBM-700 have deicing systems. But recordings available online show that even airliners with powerful deicing equipment were having trouble clearing the ice Tuesday. The pilot of a commuter jetliner headed to nearby LaGuardia Airport asked a controller for an immediate climb into drier conditions.
The pilot of the TBM-700 was told to maintain an altitude of 10,000 feet as he headed southwest over northern New Jersey. A controller warned him about the conditions in the clouds above.
"There are reports of moderate rime. ... If it gets worse let me know and when center takes your handoff I'll climb you and maybe get you higher," the controller said.
The pilot responds: "We'll let you know what happens when we get in there. And yeah, if we could go straight through it, that's no problem for us."
David Williamson, 19, was doing maintenance at a golf course in Morristown when he spotted a plane in trouble, with smoke coming off both sides of the wings.
"It was really scary," he said.
When the plane crashed, he said, it sent up a "huge plume of thick black smoke."
The plane just missed a pickup truck on the southbound lanes before crashing into the median, Gretz said.
Charred wreckage was left across the median and highway, a heavily used route that wraps around the northern and western edges of the New York City area. A huge ball of charred metal sat in the middle of the northbound lanes.
The occupants of the plane were headed to Georgia for both personal and business reasons, Gretz said.
Greenhill & Co. said Buckalew's wife, Corinne, and the couple's two children, Jackson and Meriwether, were traveling with him.
"The firm is in deep mourning over the tragic and untimely death of two of its esteemed colleagues and members of Jeff's family," the company said in a written statement.
A resident at Chawla's Upper East Side apartment building remembered him as being constantly on the go, leaving early and getting home late.
Arthur Yellin, 68, said that Chawla and his family were "wonderful people" and that the banker doted on his three children.
Authorities said a dog aboard the plane was also killed.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Shawn Marsh and Beth DeFalco in Trenton, David Porter in Newark, Christopher Hawley and Cristian Salazar in New York, and Leonard Pallats in Atlanta.
Associated Presslionfish conjoined twins justin bieber paternity justin bieber paternity denver news kym johnson how old is justin bieber
Thursday, December 22, 2011
IBM: Mind-Reading Machines Will Change Our Lives (Mashable)
In five years, we'll simply be able to think something, and a computer will respond. That's the vision from IBM, which just published its "5 in 5" forecast, which attempts to predict five technologies that have the potential to significantly change our lives in the next five years. One of the more surprising candidates: machines that will read our thoughts. Well, not exactly, IBM Senior Inventor Kevin Brown told Mashable. The idea is a little more down-to-earth -- and less scary -- than the science-fiction scenarios of mind-reading robots that the description evokes. IBM's vision is this: a person wears a headset (shown above, worn by Brown) that can detect general electrical signals from the brain, and sends them to a computer. Sophisticated software interprets those signals and, in turn, tells a machine what to do.
[More from Mashable: IBM Says We?ll Have Mind-Reading Computers Within Five Years]
"One of the common misconceptions is that this headset is reading your thoughts," says Brown. "It's not. It's just reading a level of excitement. It's not understanding."
The technology behind the idea has existed for a while. The headset, which costs just $299 and is made by a company called Emotiv, is able to detect electrical signals in the brain (via electroencephalography, or EEG) as well as muscular movements (electromyography, or EMG), both well known in the medical community.
[More from Mashable: IBM Names Virginia Rometty First Female CEO]
Once you have those signals, Brown says the real magic begins, which is the ability to map signals to different actions. By doing so, the user is effectively teaching the machine how to read a specific mind. In much the same way speech-recognition software gets tailored to an individual's accent, inflections, and pronunciation, the mind-reading software can adapt to a person's unique "thoughts."
The next step is mapping specific thoughts to specific actions, analogous to programming a universal remote control. The key here is that the thought and action don't necessarily have to be the same. For example, if you want to use the headset to, say, turn on a TV, you might program the headset to perform that action when you think about kittens.
"Any device can take that [headset] data and do something with it," says Brown, "So you might have a fan come on or you might have a room light change color based on certain excitement level."
The idea of walking around your house wearing an elaborate headset (you can see it here) has unfortunate echoes of another technology that was supposed to change our lives but flopped: 3D. However, the tech has already come a long way from the hospital-level EEG devices, which needed gels applied to the skin and hard-wire connections. An Emotiv competitor, NeuroSky, has a sleeker (though less capable) headset. Brown is confident progress could make it even more compact.
"At the moment there's a little bit of trade-off between technology looks," Brown admits. "But one of the key things is finding a really use that actually makes people want to wear it."
Brown's alluding to the mind-reading tech finding a "killer app." As far as what that could be, he says it's only limited by what you could connect the headset to, and -- if the tech is cultivated into a full-fledged platform with developers, apps and iterative updates -- that could be a lot. Thinking big, Brown suggests large-scale data about how people are feeling could become a tool for marketers and sociologists.
"If you also think about smarter cities," Brown writes in a blog post. "If everyone is wearing the device and open to sharing their thoughts, city heat maps could be created to see how people are feeling to create a picture of the mental health of a city. Or musicians could create elaborate pieces based on what they are thinking about."
What are your thoughts on reading thoughts? Would you wear a headset to control things with your mind? And what about sharing your real-time feelings in some kind of public network? Let us know in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
veterans day 2011 cnbc debate family circus spanier jorge posada walmart black friday ad walmart black friday ad
Monday, December 19, 2011
Germany may pay full ESM contribution in 2012: report (Reuters)
BERLIN (Reuters) ? Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the country may pay its full contribution to the euro zone's permanent rescue fund in 2012, a regional German paper wrote.
"It is clear that the sooner and the more paid-in capital the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) has, the more it gains trust on the financial markets," he was quoted as saying by the Rheinische Post Duesseldorf, in an interview to appear in Monday's print edition. "My priority is to create trust."
The Finance Ministry was unavailable to comment.
European leaders agreed in Brussels last week to accelerate the launch of the ESM by a year to mid-2012, as part of measures aimed at putting an end to a devastating debt crisis.
The ESM, which will replace the temporary EFSF bailout fund, will have an effective lending capacity of 500 billion euros ($651.9 billion) and total subscribed capital of 700 billion euros, of which 80 billion euros will be paid-in capital from euro zone countries.
EU leaders agreed earlier this year that the paid-in capital will be channeled into the fund over five years in five equal installments.
Germany's total contribution to the paid-in capital is set for 21.5 billion euros, paid in instalments of 4.3 billion euros. Earlier this year, it was reticent to pay up its contribution at a faster pace, due to concerns about sticking to its debt brake and consolidating its own budget.
Schaeuble was cited earlier this week by a newspaper as saying Germany would fund its contribution to the ESM with a supplementary budget.
A government source told Reuters earlier this week that Germany's first instalment could be much higher than previously planned "because people want the ESM to be able to act soon."
The statement of rating agency Fitch on Friday that a comprehensive solution to the euro zone crisis was beyond the region's reach has heightened pressure on leaders to get to grips with the turmoil.
The chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Wednesday he would like all paid-in capital for the ESM to be contributed during its first year of operation, to ensure it had the firepower to deter speculation.
Schaeuble was also cited as saying the new fiscal compact for all European Union member states except Britain - which last week vetoed it - should be implemented by March 2012, and the new treaty for a stability union should be linked to the ESM treaty.
"It would make sense for the new pact to be linked with the new ESM treaty," he said. "That would mean that solidarity is inseparable from solidity."
"Markets want to see actions," he said.
The 'fiscal compact' is meant to allow closer scrutiny of countries' spending to stop a similar debt crisis recurring and potentially making it more palatable for the European Central Bank to step up its purchases of distressed euro zone debt to hold down borrowing costs.
(Reporting By Sarah Marsh and Axel Hildebrandt)
herman cain accuser election day kawasaki disease joe frazier where do i vote wheel of fortune today show
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Inquiry: Thousands abused in Catholic institutions
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? Thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions, and church officials failed to adequately address the abuse or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigation released Friday.
The report by the an independent commission said Catholic officials failed to tackle the widespread abuse "to prevent scandals."
Based on a survey among more than 34,000 people, the commission estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of abuse. The number doubled to 20 percent of children who spent some of their youth in a Catholic institution.
The commission said it received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages and that the institutions suffered from "a failure of oversight."
The commission was set up last year under the leadership of former government minister Wim Deetman to investigate allegations of abuse dating from 1945.
The investigation followed allegations of repeated incidents of abuse at one cloister that quickly spread to claims from Catholic institutions across the country, echoing similar scandals around the world.
The Dutch branch of the Catholic church agreed last month to launch a compensation system that clears the way for victims of abuse by priests and other church workers to receive payments.
The new compensation system has a scale starting at ?5,000 ($6,500) and rising to a maximum of ?100,000 ($130,000) depending on the nature of the abuse.
According to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics, 29 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million identified themselves as Catholics in 2008, making it the largest religion in the country.
Associated Presswhite witch occupy san francisco occupy san francisco top chef just desserts jamarcus russell sister wives st louis weather
Verizon Galaxy Nexus retail price: $649
If you're looking to buy the Verizon Galaxy Nexus off-contract, get ready to fork over some bills. It's $299 on contract (and you can find it some places for less), it'll run you $649 if you pay full retail. That's actually a tad less than the quad-band GSM version that's still available for importing.
More: Verizon Galaxy Nexus forums
| |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9oKWDYzh__s/story01.htm
robert schuller guy fawkes day jesse ventura stevie williams steve williams mike wallace mike wallace
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Russian customs seize Iran-bound radioactive metal
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia's customs agency said Friday that it seized radioactive metal from the luggage of an Iranian passenger bound for Tehran.
Spokeswoman Kseniya Grebenkina told The Associated Press that the luggage had been seized some time ago, but could not specify when. The Iranian hasn't been detained, she said.
The Federal Customs Service said in a statement that its agents found 18 pieces of metal at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after a radiation alert went on. It says the gauges showed that radiation levels were 20 times higher than normal.
It was not immediately clear if the substance could have any use in Iran's controversial nuclear program.
The pieces contained Sodium-22, she said, a radioactive isotope of sodium that could be produced in a particle accelerator. Sodium-22 is a positron-emitting isotope that has medical uses, including in nuclear medicine imaging.
Grebenkina said prosecutors have launched a probe into the incident.
Sergei Novikov, spokesman for the Rosatom nuclear agency, told the AP that the pieces are highly unlikely to have come from Rosatom and said the isotope is produced by particle accelerators, not by nuclear reactors.
In Russia, universities, research institutes and big medical centers have the technology to produce it, he said.
"There is an extremely slim chance that it could have come from Rosatom," he said.
Novikov said that Rosatom has never sold Sodium-22 to Iran, but it has supplied it with other types of medical isotopes.
Grebenkina of the Customs Service insisted that the material seized is not highly radioactive.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed harsher sanctions against Iran aimed at derailing its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
Earlier this year, Atomstroiexport, a Rosatom subsidiary, launched Iran's first nuclear reactor in Bushehr.
Russian officials have insisted that the deal with Iran is in line with international agreements and will oblige Tehran to ship all the spent fuel from the plant back to Russia for reprocessing to avoid a possibility of it being used in a covert weapons program.
Associated Pressnflx john mccarthy john mccarthy lumpectomy robin williams blaine gabbert netflix stock
iTunes Match rolls out to international community, makes music lovers flinch
iTunes Match rolls out to international community, makes music lovers flinch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
TUAW, Apple Insider | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/16/itunes-match-rolls-out-to-international-community-makes-music-l/
alex smith christine christine redskins oyster festival oyster festival hopkins
Friday, December 16, 2011
Europe's economic and debt woes touch Asia (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? The pace of decline in the euro zone private sector eased unexpectedly in December, but the global toll of the region's sovereign debt crisis became clearer on Thursday with news of falling investment and factory activity in China.
While a recession has almost certainly started in the euro zone, Markit's flash composite purchasing managers' index (PMI), which corresponds closely with economic growth, raised some hope it might not be as deep as first feared.
"(It) reinforces the notion that the euro zone economy is slipping into a mild recession rather than falling off a cliff," said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING.
Even so, the survey compilers warned against viewing its latest gauge of euro zone business as a turning point, especially since there is still a strong risk the euro zone sovereign debt crisis could spiral out of control.
EU leaders last week took a historic step towards fiscal union last week, but pressure is building on reluctant euro zone paymaster Germany to take immediate, radical steps to solve the crisis.
Indeed, there is growing evidence the debt crisis has already damaged the global economy, impeding the fervent growth of emerging economies like China that are so dependent on European export markets.
China saw its first year-on-year drop in foreign direct investment in 28 months in November, while PMIs there showed factory activity slowed for a second month.
The United States has perhaps been the only major economy that has enjoyed a run of good news recently, which could extend into a glut of jobs and industry data due at 1330 GMT.
EURO PERIPHERY STILL STRUGGLES
Most economists gave a cautious welcome to the euro zone PMI data, which measures changes in the activities of thousands of businesses across the euro zone.
"All in all, despite the further pick-up in December, the PMI data still suggest that euro zone real GDP saw a marked contraction in the fourth quarter," said ING's van Vliet.
The Markit Eurozone Composite PMI, which looks at both the manufacturing and services sectors, rose unexpectedly in December to 47.9 from 47.0 last month.
But it has now lingered below the 50 line that divides growth from contraction for four months.
Furthermore, only France and Germany were responsible for the upturn in the index, while the euro zone's peripheral economies continued to struggle.
Markit said its data pointed to a quarterly economic decline of 0.6 percent in the euro zone in the final quarter of this year.
That would be twice as deep as the contraction expected by economists in a Reuters poll on Wednesday, which also forecast a 0.2 percent fall in the first three months of the new year.
An escalation of the debt crisis could cause a far steeper contraction next year -- a scenario the Swiss National Bank warned on Thursday could not be ruled out, after holding its exchange rate cap on the franc against the euro for now.
There was one bright note on Thursday. The risk premium on benchmark Spanish bonds fell following a well-received bond auction that raised more than the government had targeted.
CHINESE CHILLS
Fresh signs that China's economic growth is slowing emerged on Thursday with the first year-on-year drop in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 28 months, while a fresh fall in new orders signaled a further contraction in factory activity.
November's $8.8 billion of commitments were down 9.8 percent on November 2010, the first fall since July 2009's 35.7 percent year-on-year collapse to $5.4 billion.
A sharp drop in inflows from the United States was a particular drag, slowing year-to-date growth in FDI flows to 13.2 percent from 15.9 percent in October's data.
"The overall trade environment next year for China will be complicated, partly due to the economic uncertainties in the European countries, and I should say that the export situation in the first quarter of next year will be very severe," Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a news conference at the release of the FDI data.
The European Union is China's largest export partner, meaning the debt crisis has had a harsh impact on China's vast manufacturing economy.
The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers' index, the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, rose modestly to 49.0 in December from 47.7 but pointing to a monthly contraction in activity nonetheless.
"With inflation quickly shifting to disinflation, the Chinese government can and should make more aggressive easing on both fiscal and monetary fronts to stabilize growth and jobs," said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC.
(Additional reporting by Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing in Beijing, Editing by Ross Finley and Hugh Lawson)
lenny dykstra top chef texas stanley tucci stanley tucci x factor voting “do a barrel roll†oakland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)