Sunday, March 31, 2013

Renowned music administrators, Stuart Worthington and Keith ...

slide seminar2 Renowned music administrators,  Stuart Worthington and Keith Harris hold music forum in GhanaA seminar on international artist, rights and music management has been held at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT in Accra. The seminar was a collaborative effort between the Musicians Union of Ghana, MUSIGA and the British Council of Ghana.

The seminar had two major speakers in the persons of Stuart Worthington and Keith Harris. Seated with them on the High table were lawyer Mike Ocquaye and DJ Amess, a radio presenter and Artist Manager.

The seminar focused mainly on giving an overview, updating and helping participants to understand today?s music industry, general artist management where skills, roles and responsibilities of artists and managers were discussed. The various existing and new ways of making revenue in the music business as well as teamwork and 3rd?party relationships were also discussed.

Stuart Worthington, a provider of management consultancy, small business information, advice and guidance, professional training & development services for a range of clients and strategic partners and who has worked in most sectors of the cultural & creative / arts & entertainment / media industries spoke about a number of issues affecting musicians, managers and the entire complex situation of handling and sharing monies amongst the various players in the industry.

He entreated that all involved in the business of music should endeavor to gain knowledge and understanding of how money flows so the managers, artists and other stakeholders will know about the financial situations and their entitlement.

There were various issues concerning music sharing, copyright issues and talent management. Keith Harris, Director of Performer Affairs at PPL commented that on the issue of royalty payments, the only way Ghanaian artists can claim their royalties from other countries is when we have good enough systems in place to claim the royalties of artists of other countries.

He also spoke about artists creating good enough images of them and limiting their accessibility to their audience once they hit a certain level. There was a question on when an artist needs a manager to which Keith responded that in a situation where an artist is doing all the work, the very moment the business side of managing the talent begins to interfere with the creativity, someone has to be brought in to handle certain things and this person has to be a manager.

The issues that were disseminated at the seminar were infused with personal and professional experiences of the various speakers. At a point, Lawyer Mike Ocquaye entreated musicians to be serious about registering their music.

Source: http://www.ameyawdebrah.com/renowned-music-administrators-stuart-worthington-and-keith-harris-hold-music-forum-in-ghana/

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Kenya's High Court to Rule Saturday on Presidential Election (Voice Of America)

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Outrage, sadness as Americans barred from adopting Russian children

NBC News

Sonia greets her new parents, Kristina and Rich England.

By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News

BRYANSK, Russia --?Kristi and Rich England of Marshall, Minn., shook with nerves and joy on their fourth and last trip to an orphanage in Bryansk, in?rural Russia. ?

They were finally taking Sonia, a partially blind and hyperactive 3-year-old, home with them.?The tearful Feb. 12 meeting, punctuated by Sonia?s screams of ?mama? and ?dada,? was all the more emotional because the Englands knew that they were the last lucky couple to leave Russia with an adopted child.?

?So many other families have seen their children and have loved their children and can?t bring them home,? said Kristi England, 34, a family doctor. ?It?s so unfair in so many ways.?

Those already undergoing the costly process of adopting a child from Russia found out Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law barring any future adoptions, canceling the ones in progress. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

The process wasn?t easy ? the Englands endured multiple background checks and spent at least $50,000 to ensure that Sonia, now called Sophia, could go home with them.

But the ban signed into law on Dec. 28 barring all U.S. adoptions ? which numbered more than 60,000 over the past two decades ? has marooned hundreds of families in the middle of adopting, and stranded thousands of children in orphanages throughout Russia.??

"We should do all we can so that orphaned children find a family in our country, in Russia," President Vladimir Putin said in defense of the ban.

Fueling the outrage in Russia over the fate of children adopted by Americans, Russian media reported earlier this week that Alexander Abnosov, 18, showed up in the Volga River port town of Cheboksary saying his adoptive family had mistreated him. He had left Russia five years earlier, having been adopted by a family outside Philadelphia, but said he fled after suffering from verbal abuse by his adoptive mother. ?

"She would make any small problem big and always try to find a reason to shout at you," he told Russia?s state-owned Channel 1.

While UNICEF estimates there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, only about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt.?

But while Putin denies any direct connection, Kremlin-watchers say the ban is really about geopolitics and not about protecting kids.

NBC News

Russian child psychologist Valentina Rakova Valentina (left) stands with Kristina and Richard England and newly adopted Sonia in an orphanage in Bryansk, rural Russia.

They say it was retaliation by Moscow for an American law banning any Russian human rights violators from U.S. soil, enacted after the suspicious death in prison of Sergey Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for Heritage Fund, an American private equity firm.?

Russian media didn't hesitate to bolster the official line. ?

Despite the negative reports, child psychologist Valentina Rakova, who has worked in the Bryansk orphanage for 30 years, says the ban is terrible for children.?

?Here in Russia we have many examples of bad parents -- even worse than these American cases -- where kids are just tossed out,? she said as she coiffed Sonia, who requires special medical attention.

?A child like Sonia, no Russian would accept her,? Rakova said. ?Before the ban, orphans were offered to Russian families but no one took them in.??

Rakova's experience confirms the U.N.'s statistics. As far as she has seen, Americans are far more likely to adopt children who are ill or suffer from a disability.

Becky Preece, a housewife from Nampa, Idaho, is one such American. ?

She was finally able to take home 4-year-old Gabe, who has Down syndrome, in February, after years of filling out paperwork and a court battle. ?

Preece, who like the Englands beat the ban by days but was then delayed by red tape, said she saw a complete disconnect between the horrors of Russia?s adoption ban and the kindness and hospitality of the Russians themselves.?

NBC News

Becky Preece from Nampa, Idaho, adopted 4-year-old Gabe just days before the ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans went into force.

?It?s not a matter of the people,? she said while walking with the little boy in the thick Moscow snow.

?It?s politically charged and it?s something that is hard for us to understand because it?s so different from the experience that we?ve had here.?

Preece said she was excited to get Gabe into school back home, and watch him bond with his new brother who also has Down syndrome.?

?They need the infrastructure, they need the kind of support that we get at home for our children,? she said.?

But for the hundreds of American families who missed the cut and are now unable to bring their adoptive children home, the future could mean months -- even years -- of waiting and praying that the two superpower rivals find common ground before more of society?s most vulnerable pay the price.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jim Maceda is a London-based correspondent who has covered the Soviet Union and Russia since the 1980s.?

Related:

Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

Thousands march in Moscow to protest Russian adoption ban

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a273b3e/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C30A0C1750A4450A0Eoutrage0Esadness0Eas0Eamericans0Ebarred0Efrom0Eadopting0Erussian0Echildren0Dlite/story01.htm

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Authors Guild head blasts Amazon buy of Goodreads

NEW YORK (AP) ? Authors Guild president and best-selling novelist Scott Turow is condemning Amazon.com's purchase of Goodreads, a leading book recommendation website.

In a statement posted Friday on the Guild home page, Turow called the acquisition a "textbook example" of how a monopoly is built. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. announced Thursday that it had bought Goodreads, a favorite Internet stop for readers to review and discuss books. Founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco, Goodreads has 16 million subscribers.

Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler is defending the sale, which has set off a debate about Amazon's market power. In a blog posting Thursday on Goodreads, Chandler said that Goodreads would continue to operate independently and that Amazon's resources would help his company reach more readers.

___

Online:

www.authorsguild.org

www.goodreads.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authors-guild-head-blasts-amazon-buy-goodreads-214458275.html

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Amazon to buy Goodreads for undisclosed sum

(AP) ? Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest online retailer that got its start in bookselling, has agreed to buy book recommendations site Goodreads.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Amazon said Thursday that it "shares a passion for reinventing reading," with Goodreads.

"Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content for Amazon. "In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike."

In addition to recommending books to read based on other books people have liked, Goodreads also serves as a social network for bookworms. It has 16 million members and was founded in 2007.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. says Goodreads headquarters will remain in San Francisco.

"Goodreads is a place for all readers no matter what books they read or how they read them, and we expect to keep it that way," said Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall in a statement, citing Zappos and the movie information website IMDb as examples. Amazon owns both but has kept them as stand-alone businesses.

Shares of Seattle-based Amazon closed up $1.19 at $266.49.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-29-US-Amazon-Acquisition/id-9d9aa1564e3440e8a5ebcd996129064f

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Business, labor close on deal for immigration bill

(AP) ? Business and labor groups moved close Friday to resolving a dispute over a new low-skilled worker program that had threatened to stall negotiations on a sweeping immigration bill in the Senate, officials said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who's been brokering talks between the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that negotiators are "very close, closer than we have ever been, and we are very optimistic." He said there were still a few issues remaining.

The talks stalled late last week amid a dispute over wages for workers in the new program, and senators left town for a two-week recess with the issue in limbo. Finger-pointing erupted between the AFL and the chamber, with each side accusing the other of trying to sink immigration reform, leaving prospects for a resolution unclear.

But talks resumed this week, and now officials from both sides indicate the wage issue has been largely resolved. An agreement would likely clear the way for a bipartisan group of senators to unveil legislation the week of April 8 to dramatically overhaul the U.S. immigration system, strengthening the border and cracking down on employers as well as remaking the legal immigration system and providing a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

"We're feeling very optimistic on immigration: Aspiring Americans will receive the road map to citizenship they deserve and we can modernize 'future flow' without reducing wages for any local workers, regardless of what papers they carry," AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Hauser said in a statement. "Future flow" refers to future arrivals of legal immigrants.

The new visa program would bring up to 200,000 lower-skilled workers a year to the country. The number of visas would fluctuate according to demand, and the workers would be able to change jobs and could seek permanent residency. Under current temporary worker programs workers can't move from employer to employer and have no path to permanent U.S. residence and citizenship.

The new visas would cover dozens of professions such as long-term care workers and hotel and hospitality employees. Currently there's no good way for employers to bring many such workers to the U.S.; an existing visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers is capped at 66,000 per year and is supposed to apply only to seasonal or temporary jobs.

Officials with the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce said there's an agreement for workers to get paid prevailing wages for the industry they're working in. The labor organization had accused the chamber of trying to pay workers in the new program poverty-level wages, something the chamber disputed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-29-Immigration/id-97eaf0e45ae449849cfe2427e6757668

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Friday, March 29, 2013

littleBits Starter Kit, Extended Kit, and Holiday Kit review

Science and engineering are cool, right? ?That’s a matter of opinion, but there is an increasing need in our country for students to study the STEM subjects–Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.? And with more information showing a link between technological innovation and creativity, why not foster both in your kids at the same time? ?Describing [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/29/littlebits-starter-kit-extended-kit-and-holiday-kit-review/

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IMF ups I.Coast 2013 growth forecast to 8 pct

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund sees economic growth in top cocoa grower Ivory Coast reaching 8 percent in 2013, up from a previous forecast of 7 percent, a senior Fund official said on Wednesday.

The West African state is in the midst of an economic revival after a brief civil war in 2011 that closed the book on a decade of political turmoil that hobbled growth.

"In 2013 our (growth) figure is 8 percent," Michel Lazare, who headed a two-week evaluation mission to the nation, told a news conference in the commercial capital Abidjan.

"The macro-economic perspectives for 2013 are favourable, with a growth rate that will remain vigorous and inflation under control. With substantial external financial support, public investment will top 7 percent of GDP in accordance with the national development plan for 2012-2015," he said.

The revised growth projection outstrips analyst expectations. The median from a Reuters poll of 11 analysts taken earlier this month forecast gross domestic product growth of 7.5 percent in 2013.

Both the IMF and Ivory Coast also revised higher their estimates for economic growth recorded in 2012, pegging it at 9.8 percent.

"The GDP growth rate was 9.8 percent, compared to a previous estimate of 8.6 percent in September 2012," Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan, who also holds the economy and finance portfolios, told the news conference.

Last July, the Ivorian government predicted growth of 8.2 percent in 2012 and 9 percent in 2013 before reaching double digits the following year.

Once the economic motor of French-speaking West Africa, Ivory Coast's government is pushing for heavy investment to renew crumbling infrastructure and boost power production.

It is also seeking to profit from mineral reserves left unexploited for decades as the country concentrated on developing agricultural commodities.

The IMF's Lazare praised Ivory Coast for regularising its debt and for keeping consumer price increases in check.

"Ivory Coast regularised its external debt for the first time in nearly 30 years with the HIPC completion point and agreements with its commercial lenders."

"The macro-economic perspectives in 2012 were better than expected with a GDP growth rate of 9.8 percent. Inflation was 1.3 percent in 2013," he said.

Ivory Coast defaulted on a 2032 Eurobond in early 2011, during the civil war. That bond was itself composed of restructured defaulted debt dating back to 2000.

It then received more than $4 billion in debt relief last June under the IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) scheme, enabling it to resume paying coupons on the defaulted bond.

Ivory Coast has since announced plans to issue $1.2 billion worth of domestic debt in 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/imf-ups-coast-2013-growth-forecast-8-pct-063229391--business.html

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Rick Ross Responds To 'U.O.E.N.O' Backlash: I 'Don't Condone Rape'

'There was a misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation,' Rick Ross tells Q 93.3 in New Orleans amid controversy.
By Rob Markman


Rick Ross
Photo: Alexander Tamargo

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704537/rick-ross-does-not-condone-rape.jhtml

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10 Things to Know for Thursday

Plaintiff Edith Windsor of New York waves to supporters in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the second day of gay marriage cases, turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the federal law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Plaintiff Edith Windsor of New York waves to supporters in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the second day of gay marriage cases, turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the federal law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S. Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack on Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshal's Office, File)

Pope Francis kisses a baby handed to him as he is driven through the crowd during his general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:

1. MARRIAGE: NEVER WITHOUT ARGUMENTS

The Supreme Court signals it could boost same-sex marriage by invalidating part of a federal law that limits benefits to gay spouses.

2. ONLINE, A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Millions of social media users ? and celebs from Beyonce to George Takei ? are sharing a simple red logo in support of gay marriage.

3. HOW CYPRIOTS WILL BE KEPT IN CHECK

When the nation's banks re-open Thursday, account holders will be allowed to withdraw only about $380 each day.

4. THE MIND OF A KILLER

In newly released documents, Loughner's father describes the 24-year-old as "lost" and delusional before the shooting rampage in Arizona that wounded ex-Rep. Giffords.

5. REBELS BEING ARMED ON THE SLY

Aided by the U.S., Mideast powers unfriendly to Assad have dramatically ? and covertly ? increased weapons shipments to the Syrian opposition.

6. WHICH REPUBLICANS ARE BUILDING BUZZ

It's still early, but Rand Paul and Marco Rubio look like the front-runners as the GOP heads toward the 2016 presidential race.

7. ONE OF THESE POPES IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

Francis' belief that a pope's job is to serve the lowliest will be demonstrated on Holy Thursday when he washes the feet of young inmates.

8. WHY YOUR INTERNET MAY SEEM SLUGGISH

A massive cyberattack targeting an anti-spam group is rippling across the Web.

9. NBC TO LAUER: YOUR SEAT IS SAFE

An exec responds to reports that the network has approached CNN's Anderson Cooper about taking over at "Today."

10. MORE MADNESS

Top-seeded Indiana takes on No. 4 Syracuse, a rematch of the 1987 national title game, as the NCAA tourney ramps up again Thursday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-27-10-Things-to-Know-Thursday/id-56be71da6eb54de8b176a2422faa73cd

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Russia seeks to underpin Afghan security after NATO pullout

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia wants play a role in keeping Afghanistan stable after the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops by maintaining government military hardware on Afghan soil, a senior military official said on Wednesday.

In a meeting with foreign military attaches in Moscow, Sergei Koshelev underscored that Russia is worried about threats to its security after the pullout of most foreign forces from Afghanistan, which borders ex-Soviet states in Central Asia.

"We cannot fail to be concerned by the danger of the restoration of a regime on Afghan territory that would foster the spread of terrorism, drug trafficking and instability," said Koshelev, the Russian military's point man for foreign ties.

Russia, mindful of the 1980s war of occupation that killed thousands of its soldiers and contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, has rule out sending troops to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

But it has supported U.S. and NATO operations since then by allowing transit across its territory and contributed small arms and ammunition to Afghan security forces, as well as selling helicopters and training Afghans to maintain them.

NATO is set to wrap up its combat mission in Afghanistan and most members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are to withdraw by the end of 2104.

"With the withdrawal of ISAF, keeping the weapons and equipment of the Afghan national security forces in repair and working condition will be of major importance," Koshelev said.

He indicated that at a conference it plans to host in late May on European security, Russia would like to discuss "the creation of repair facilities on the territory of Afghanistan to keep their military equipment in working condition."

He also said Russia wants closer cooperation between its security alliance with Central Asia and other ex-Soviet states on the one hand and NATO on the other in combating threats that could emerge from Afghanistan.

"I am not talking about political dialogue but about the possibility of determining concrete projects the militaries would be responsible for," he said, without proposing any specific projects.

(Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-seeks-underpin-afghan-security-nato-pullout-172222520--sector.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

GAME prices OUYA at ?99, opens up pre-orders

GAME prices OUYA at 99, opens up preorders

American gamers already know where they'll be able to pick up an OUYA. Our friends across the Atlantic, however, only knew that they'd be able order it online direct from the company. Well, brick-and-mortar stalwart GAME appears to be in line to stock the console in the UK (or at least it thinks it is) and has opened up pre-orders for the Android-based machine. What's more, it's been slapped with a £99 price tag -- a predictable, but unfortunately higher price than Americans will be paying. The release date is still listed as TBD, though retail availability is scheduled for sometime in June. If you'd like to help keep GAME afloat you can reserve your OUYA at the source.

Filed under:

Comments

Via: The Next Web

Source: GAME

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/game-prices-ouya-at-99-opens-up-pre-orders/

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

NASA to restore Apollo engines found on ocean floor

The recovery of the Apollo 11 rocket engines by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is a historic find, say NASA officials, who say the agency plans to restore the engines.

By Nancy Atkinson,?Universe Today / March 22, 2013

The thrust chamber of one of five first stage F-1 rocket engines used to launch one of NASA's mighty Saturn V rocket on a historic Apollo moon mission is seen on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in this Bezos Expeditions image.

Bezos Expeditions

Enlarge

Last year, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos announced that he had located some of the Apollo F-1 rocket engines and planned to recover them. He and his Bezos Expedition team were successful in recovering engines that helped power Apollo astronauts to the Moon and have now brought ?a couple of your F-1s home,? Bezos said in a message to NASA. On the Bezos Expedition website, Bezos called the recovery ?an incredible adventure.?

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NASA was happy about the recovery as well.

?This is a historic find and I congratulate the team for its determination and perseverance in the recovery of these important artifacts of our first efforts to send humans beyond Earth orbit,? said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden in a statement. ?We look forward to the restoration of these engines by the Bezos team and applaud Jeff?s desire to make these historic artifacts available for public display.?

There is no indication so far from Bezos of which flight these engines were from. Last year when Bezos made his announcement, he said they had found the engines from Apollo 11, but it may be been difficult to determine exactly which flight the ones found were from. In total, NASA launched 65 F-1 engines, five per flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters between 1967 and 1973. Supposedly there would be serial numbers to make the identification of which flight these engines were from. Bezos indicated on his blog they were still on the ship, so perhaps the identification will come later.

Five F-1 engines were used in the 138-foot-tall S-IC, or first stage, of each Saturn V, which depended on the five-engine cluster for the 7.5 million pounds of thrust needed to lift it from the launch pad. Each of the engines stands 19 feet tall by 12 feet wide and weigh over 18,000 pounds.

Bezos and his team spent three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. ?We found so much,? Bezos wrote. ?We?ve seen an underwater wonderland ? an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible.?
See more images and descriptions at the Bezos Expeditions website.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/bouK2n0cLKk/NASA-to-restore-Apollo-engines-found-on-ocean-floor

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Curve Appeal: Do Men Know Something About Women's Bodies ...

Curve Appeal: Do Men Know Something About Women's Bodies That Women Do Not?I?ll be the first to admit it: I am sort of a sucker for consumer-friendly psychology magazines. Publications like Psychology Today are full of articles I either enjoy reading or using as fire kindling. Or, when I am really irritated by the content, writing articles on the topic. Like this one.

The article, published in Psychology Today, is titled ?Ahead of the Curves? and the brilliant tagline? ?Men know something vital about women?s body shapes that women don?t. Plus: How big hips make wise women.?

It is six pages long and features illustrations of women who look more like playmates than the women who have the aforementioned ?big hips? and are ?wise? because of it. One of the illustrations boasts a sexy blonde wearing a pastel-pretty bra and tight briefs. She is pursing her red lips ? ready to kiss! She is rather revolting and her hips, well, they certainly are not wise.

That alone is irritating but this is the part that really makes me question my taste in literature: This lengthy article is written by two men.

Their respective names and impressive education are listed in very small font. I wondered: How can these two men possibly educate and enlighten women on their sex appeal and bodies? Well, they certainly gave it a good shot. But not good enough.

The first paragraph states that ?American males, it has been calculated, spend some $3 billion a year to gaze at women with hourglass figures, those whose small waists blossom into sinuously curvy hips.?

My first thought? Where does this ?calculation? come from? Furthermore, how does gazing at women connect to ?$3 billion a year?? They don?t explain this. Maybe men take time off work to gawk at women? Unlikely.

I have to give credit where credit is due: They do include research done by the late Deborah Sing ? 20 years ago. This is the only mention of a female contribution to the piece and does not extend past one measly paragraph which tells the eager reader: ?. . .Men all around the world. . .Prefer a similar shape.?

We are then told that when men view a curvy woman their brains respond in a similar fashion to cocaine and heroin. Hmm. That?s a strange statement with no research provided to the reader.

Even so, the following paragraph takes the cake:

Even a thin woman carries an astonishing amount of fat in her legs and hips?about a third of her body weight. Men everywhere admire the fat located here. . .Only bears ready to hibernate, penguins facing a sunless winter without food, or whales swimming in the arctic waters have fat percentages that approach those in normal, healthy, trim young women.

Well, that?s lovely! Female readers have now been compared to bears, penguins and whales. Furthermore, the word ?astonishing? used in relation to our apparent ?fat? probably does not make us smile. I am currently grimacing.

For diversity?s sake (or perhaps the editor was concerned about backlash from readers) a few paragraphs are devoted to explaining that American women are in dire need of more omega-3s.

Unfortunately, I believe more women have read this article than men. The pages are laced with bright pink script. I kid you not. Literature like this confuses both genders and, in my humble and currently sarcastic opinion, the size of my hips does not make me ?wise.? And neither did reading this article.

Reference

Lassek, W. & Gaulin, S. (2012, August). Ahead of the curves. Psychology Today, 45(4), 74-77.

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Natalie Jeanne Champagne is the author of The Third Sunrise: A Memoir of Madness. You can learn about Natalie and the book on her website at www.thethirdsunrise.com

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Champagne, N. (2013). Curve Appeal: Do Men Know Something About Women?s Bodies That Women Do Not?. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 26, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/25/curve-appeal-do-men-know-something-about-womens-bodies-that-women-do-not/

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/25/curve-appeal-do-men-know-something-about-womens-bodies-that-women-do-not/

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US Labor Department announces new online resources to help ...

WASHINGTON?- The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the launch of the Business Center, a suite of online resources for employers looking to recruit, train and retain a skilled work force through the department?s CareerOneStop Web site.

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The site includes tips about how to recruit qualified candidates through local American Job Centers and provides employment projections. Additionally, the site offers access to local training and educational institutions, a catalog of occupational certifications and a tool to help employers translate the military training and skills of returning service members into specific civilian occupations. The CareerOneStop Business Center is available online at?http://www.careeronestop.org/business.

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?These resources will help educate employers about our nation?s work force development system and put the resources they need to find and hire qualified workers right at their fingertips,? said Jane Oates, assistant secretary of labor for employment and training.

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The new Business Center page builds on existing resources available through CareerOneStop, which also has information to help job seekers find education and training providers, conduct a job search and access local labor market information.

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Employment and Training Administration staff will have a webinar on March 27 at 2 p.m. EDT to highlight the Business Center?s tools. A webinar is a seminar conducted over the Internet. For more information and to participate in the webinar, visit?https://www.workforce3one.org/view/5001307743087754858/info.

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Short URL: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/?p=312837

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Source: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/us-labor-department-announces-new-online-resources-to-help-businesses-recruit-train-and-retain-a-skilled-work-force/123

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Lesbian cousin of Chief Justice to attend U.S. Supreme Court ...

?As a Californian, I want nothing more than to marry my wonderful girlfriend. And as a tax-paying citizen, I seek basic fairness.?

Read More: chief justice, DOMA, gay family, Prop 8

Photo:?Jean Podrasky via ?Facebook

The lesbian cousin of?U.S. Supreme Court?Chief Justice John Roberts will be among the invited guests at Tuesday?s historic hearing on the constitutionality ofProposition 8,?California?s ban on?same-sex marriage.

Jean Podrasky, 48, an accountant from?San Francisco?and the first cousin of the chief justice on his mother?s side, will be seated in a section of the court room reserved for family members and guests of the justices,?reported the?Los Angeles Times.

Podrasky obtained the highly coveted courtroom seats by emailing Roberts? sister, Peggy Roberts, and then going through his secretary. Roberts knows she is attending, she said. She, her partner, her sister and her niece will attend Tuesday?s arguments on Proposition 8.

On Wednesday, her father will take her niece?s place for the hearing on the challenge to the?Defense of Marriage Act.

Although Podrasky says she has no personal knowledge of Roberts? views on same-sex marriage, she hopes the court will overturn the 2008 ballot initiative, leaving her free to marry her partner of four years, Grace Fasano.

?Everyone in this country has a family member who is part of the lesbian, gay,bisexual, and?transgender?community?,? Podrasky wrote in a column for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, that will be emailed to members on Monday.

?As a Californian, I want nothing more than to marry my wonderful girlfriend. And as a tax-paying citizen, I seek basic fairness.?

Source: http://www.gayrva.com/news-views/lesbian-cousin-of-chief-justice-to-attend-u-s-supreme-court-hearing-on-prop-8/

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Knox awaits verdict from Italy's highest court

ROME (AP) ? Amanda Knox was "very anxious" as Italy's top criminal court heard arguments Monday from prosecutors appealing her acquittal in the murder of her roommate, her lawyer said.

"She's carefully paying attention to what will come out," attorney Luciano Ghirga said as he arrived at Italy's Court of Cassation. "This is a fundamental stage. The trial is very complex."

Prosecutors are asking the high court to throw out the acquittals of American Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend in the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, and order a new trial.

Knox, now 25, and Raffaele Sollecito were arrested in 2007, shortly after Kercher's body was found in a pool of blood in her bedroom in the rented apartment she shared with Knox and others in the university town of Perugia, where they were exchange students. Her throat had been slashed.

Knox and Sollecito were initially convicted and given long prison sentences: 26 years for Knox, 25 for Sollecito. But in 2011 the appeals court acquitted them, criticizing virtually the entire case mounted by prosecutors in the first trial. The appellate court noted that the murder weapon was never found, said that DNA tests were faulty and added that Knox and Sollecito had no motive to kill Kercher.

After nearly four years behind bars, Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle and Sollecito resumed his computer science studies.

In the second and final level of appeal, prosecutors are now seeking to overturn the acquittals, while defense attorneys say they should stand.

"We're here to defend that sentence," said Sollecito's attorney, Giulia Bongiorno, who called the entire case "an absurd judicial process."

Monday's hearing began with one of the judges reading a summary of the gruesome case, including how Kercher essentially choked on her own blood from the stab wound. Neither Knox nor Sollecito was in court, though Sollecito's father attended.

If the court does throw out the acquittal and orders a retrial, Knox wouldn't have to return to Italy, as there is no requirement for defendants to be in court.

Defense attorneys said they were confident the acquittals would be upheld. "We know Raffaele Sollecito is innocent," Bongiorno said.

A verdict could come later Monday.

Knox and Sollecito have both maintained their innocence, though they said that smoking marijuana the night Kercher was killed had clouded their recollections.

Prosecutors have alleged that Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sexual assault.

A young drifter from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in separate proceedings and is serving a 16-year sentence. Kercher's family has resisted theories that Guede acted alone.

The lawyer for the Kercher family, Francesco Maresca, was in court Monday.

The court is also hearing Knox's appeal against a slander conviction for having accused a local pub owner of carrying out the killing. The man was held for two weeks based on her allegations, but was then released for lack of evidence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/knox-awaits-verdict-italys-highest-court-102712317.html

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5 jailed in UK for inventing movie in tax scam

(AP) ? Five people were jailed Monday in Britain for pretending to make a Hollywood movie in a scam to defraud tax authorities of millions of pounds.

The fraudsters were convicted earlier this month of attempting to bilk the government of 2.8 million pounds ($4.2 million) in a plot reminiscent of the Academy Award-winning hit "Argo" ? but without that movie's heroic hostage rescue.

Bashar Al-Issa, described as the leader of the fraud, was jailed for six and a half years on Monday. The four others in the group were sentenced to about four years each.

Prosecutors said the fraudsters claimed to be producing a made-in-Britain movie with unnamed A-list actors and a budget of 19 million pounds.

But officials say the project was a sham to claim almost 1.5 million pounds in goods and services tax for work that had not been done, as well as 1.3 million pounds under a government program that allows filmmakers to claim back up to 25 percent of their expenditures as tax relief.

Britain's tax agency said the filmmakers had submitted paperwork and received 1.7 million pounds when research revealed "that the work had not been done and most of the so-called suppliers and film studios had never heard of the gang."

When the scam was detected, the gang hastily made a film called "A Landscape Of Lies" on a shoestring budget in a bid to cover it up. The movie was released straight to DVD in Britain in 2011. But that did not deter tax authorities.

Judge Juliet May said innocent actors were roped into the bogus project, never suspecting they were used to create a "realistic background" for the fraud.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-25-EU-Britain-Fake-Movie/id-84dff711de104137b0f4c965e192fcd6

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'Amazing': Obama turns tourist in ancient city of Petra

Larry Downing / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama ended his Middle East trip with a visit to the ancient city of Petra, Jordan, Saturday.

By Steve Holland, Reuters

PETRA, Jordan -- President Barack Obama marveled at the sights of Jordan's ancient city of Petra on Saturday as he wrapped up a four-day Middle East tour by setting aside weighty diplomatic matters and playing tourist for a day.

The visit followed a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories that was capped by Obama's brokering of a rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, but which offered little more than symbolic gestures toward Middle East peacemaking.

Before heading to Petra, Obama used his stop in Jordan to ratchet up criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but he stopped short of promising military aid to Syrian rebels to help end a two-year-old civil war that has claimed 70,000 lives.

President Obama receives applause from a crowd in Jerusalem Thursday by challenging groups that reject Israel.

U.S. officials privately voiced satisfaction with the results of Obama's first foreign trip of his second term, but the president's aides had set expectations so low that it was not hard to proclaim it a mission accomplished.

Shifting into sightseeing mode on Saturday, Obama flew by helicopter to Petra and took a walking tour of the restored ruins of a city more than 2,000 years old which is half-carved into sandstone cliffs.

Ordinary tourists had been cleared out for the president's visit, and guards with assault weapons dogged his every step.

"This is pretty spectacular," the president, wearing sunglasses, khaki trousers and a dark jacket, said as he craned his neck to look up at the Treasury, a towering rose-red fa?ade cut into a mountain. "It's amazing."

The U.S. president arrived in Jordan on Friday after an unexpected diplomatic triumph in Israel, where he announced a breakthrough in relations between Israel and Turkey after a telephone conversation between the countries' prime ministers.

President Barack Obama on Thursday urged the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of Palestinians and recognize their "right to self-determination, their right to justice." NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on behalf of his country for the killing of nine Turkish citizens in a 2010 naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, and the two feuding U.S. allies agreed to normalize ties.

The 30-minute call was made in a runway trailer at Tel Aviv airport, where Obama and Netanyahu huddled before the president boarded Air Force One for a flight to Jordan.

The rapprochement could help Washington marshal regional efforts to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program.

Larry Downing / Reuters

Obama, left, looks at the Treasury while he receives a tour of the ancient historic and archaeological site of Petra on Saturday.

During his visit, Obama appeared to have made some headway in easing Israelis' suspicions of him, calming their concerns about his commitment to confronting Iran and soothing his relationship with the hawkish Netanyahu.

Obama attempted to show Palestinians he had not forgotten their aspirations for statehood but he left many disappointed that he had backtracked from his previous demands for a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

The president offered no new peace proposals but he promised his administration would stay engaged while putting the onus on the two sides to set aside mutual distrust and restart long-dormant negotiations - a step the president failed to bring about in his first term.

Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

Members of the U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault Team survey a path after Obama walked through it during his tour of the ancient historic and archaeological site of Petra on Saturday.

After visiting both Israel and the West Bank, President Obama met with King Abdullah of Jordan, a country facing some very turbulent times of its own, post Arab Spring. But there may be no stronger Arab ally to the U.S. and Israel than Jordan. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

As Obama's critics were complaining that his Middle East trip was heavy on symbolism and lacking in substance, the last-minute move toward Israeli-Turkish reconciliation gave his aides a chance to tout a tangible achievement.

On the last leg of his trip, Obama promised further humanitarian aid in talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, a close ally, as the economically strapped country grapples with a refugee crisis caused by Syria's civil war.

Obama also used the opportunity to underscore U.S. wariness about arming rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, despite pressure from Republican critics at home and from some European allies to do more.

He warned that a post-Assad Syria could become an "enclave" for Islamist extremism and insisted it was vital to help organize the Syrian opposition to avoid that, but he stopped short of announcing any new concrete steps.

Related:

Obama lays stone from MLK memorial on grave of Israeli PM slain for trying to make peace

Obama appeals to Israelis: Give justice to the Palestinians

Obama: 'Still time' for diplomatic solution to Iran nuke dispute

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Cyprus weighs big bank levy; bailout goes down to wire

By Michele Kambas and Costas Pitas

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus said on Saturday it was looking at seizing a quarter of the value of big deposits at its largest bank as it races to raise the funds for a bailout from the European Union and avert financial collapse.

Finance Minister Michael Sarris said "significant progress" had been made in talks in Nicosia with officials from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

He confirmed discussions were centered on a possible levy of around 25 percent on holdings of over 100,000 euros at Bank of Cyprus, and expressed hope that a package could be ready by the end of the day for approval by parliament.

Cyprus faces a Monday deadline to clinch a bailout deal with the EU or the European Central Bank says it will cut off emergency cash to the island's over-sized and stricken banks, spelling certain collapse and a potential exit from Europe's single currency.

Amid signs of momentum, Cypriot and EU officials said Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades was expected in Brussels on Sunday to meet EU leaders including Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso, as well as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the head of the ECB, Mario Draghi.

Van Rompuy and Barroso canceled a planned EU-Japan summit in Tokyo to tend to the Cyprus saga and euro zone officials told Reuters that the bloc's 17 finance ministers would meet on Sunday afternoon.

"Significant progress has been made in the direction of getting a deal, at least at the troika level," Sarris told reporters.

He said a number of issues were still outstanding, but that a package could be ready "late this afternoon or early evening" for approval by parliament.

Arriving at the troika talks, Andreas Artemi, chairman of Bank of Cyprus, was asked if a 25 percent haircut was being considered on uninsured deposits. He replied: "I don't know that yet."

A senior lawmaker told Reuters earlier on Saturday that parliament was not expected to convene until after the meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Sunday afternoon, taking the crisis right down to the wire.

The same legislature on Tuesday angrily threw out a proposed levy on bank deposits, designed to raise the 5.8 billion euros the EU wants in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.

The tax is unprecedented in Europe's handling of a debt crisis that has spread from Greece, to Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. It is by no means certain the tiny legislature will accept the measure this time around.

RUSSIAN REBUFF

The turnaround came after Russia rebuffed Cypriot entreaties to help its banks, where Russian citizens and other foreigners have billions of euros at stake.

Significantly, the latest proposal would spare small depositors, who were outraged by the original plan to hit small holdings as well as large accounts, many of them held by rich foreigners including Russians.

Cypriot leaders fear the damage the levy would do to the country's offshore banking industry. The tottering banks hold 68 billion euros in deposits, including 38 billion in accounts of more than 100,000 euros - enormous sums for an island of 1.1 million people which could never sustain such a big financial system on its own.

But much of the banks' capital was wiped out by investments in Greece, the epicenter of the euro zone debt crisis.

Racing to placate its European partners, Cypriot lawmakers voted in late-night session on Friday to nationalize state pensions and split failing lenders into good and bad banks.

They also gave the government powers to impose capital controls on banks, anticipating a flood of money from the island when banks are due to reopen on Tuesday after more than a week of lockdown.

The plan to nationalize semi-state pension funds has, however, met with resistance, particularly from Germany which made clear that tapping pensions could be even more painful for ordinary Cypriots than a deposit levy.

"EDGE OF AN ABYSS"

Taking a first step toward financial consolidation, Cyprus arranged on Friday for the takeover of big Greek units of its two biggest banks by a Greek competitor.

Lawmakers then gave the government the power to potentially split the good and bad assets of Bank of Cyprus and No. 2 lender Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and to protect deposits that enjoy a state guarantee of up to 100,000 euros.

"With the process of consolidation, the depositors over 100,000 euros will wait for several years to see how much of their deposits they will collect," said Averof Neophytou, deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Rally party.

"At the same time, this political decision to support this harsh law safeguards 100 percent of the deposits of 361,000 depositors in Laiki Bank," he added, referring to depositors with up to 100,000 euros.

The pace of the unfolding drama has stunned Cypriots, who have besieged bank cash machines since the levy was first mooted a week ago.

"Our so-called friends and partners sold us out," said Marios Panayides, 65, a protester at the parliament. "They have completely abandoned us on the edge of an abyss."

Retailers, facing cash-on-delivery demands from suppliers, warned stocks were running low.

"At the moment, supplies will last another two or three days," said Adamos Hadijadamou, head of Cyprus's Association of Supermarkets. "We'll have a problem if this is not resolved by next week."

($1 = 0.7694 euros)

(Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Luke Baker in Brussels, Costas Pitas in Nicosia,; Writing by Matt Robinson, editing by Mike Peacock)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-closes-eu-bailout-u-turn-levy-011411731--business.html

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France, Britain fail to win easing of Syria arms ban

By Adrian Croft and Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) - France and Britain failed to persuade the European Union to back their call to lift an arms embargo on Syrian rebels on Friday despite warning that President Bashar al-Assad could resort to using chemical weapons.

Paris and London want to exempt Assad's opponents from an EU arms embargo, a step they believe would raise pressure on Assad to negotiate after two years of a civil war that has claimed 70,000 lives.

But they won little support from other EU member states at a foreign ministers' meeting in Dublin, diplomats said, despite raising concerns about chemical weapons to bolster their case.

"I insisted that very close attention must be paid to the possible use by Assad of chemical weapons ... There are indications that he might have used them or that he might use them," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at the close of Friday's talks.

Assad's supporters and opponents accused each other of using chemical weapons after 26 people were killed in a rocket attack near the northern city of Aleppo this week.

In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton setting out their case, Fabius and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were "increasingly concerned about the regime's willingness to use chemical weapons".

Countries such as Germany and Austria remain opposed to lifting the arms embargo for the rebels. They fear it could lead to weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants, fuel regional conflict and encourage Assad's backers, Iran and Russia, to step up arms supplies to him.

"We are reluctant about lifting the embargo ... We have to avoid that weapons could come into the wrong hands and that terrorists, jihadists, extremists would misuse these weapons," Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters.

COMPROMISE

The EU has until June 1 to decide whether to renew or amend its sanctions on Syria and discussions on what to do about the arms embargo will continue in EU working groups.

Changing the arms ban needs the backing of all 27 EU states. Without agreement, all EU measures against Syria, including asset freezes and travel bans, would collapse on June 1.

Hague and Fabius signaled their readiness to compromise by saying in their letter that they would accept "some very serious amendment" of the arms embargo, short of its complete lifting.

The embargo was previously amended in February to allow non-lethal assistance for the opposition.

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said he could not see any reason for a compromise. "We are totally against so I can't see where there could be a compromise," he said.

If the arms embargo were to be lifted, Spindelegger said it would make it very difficult for Austria to leave several hundred troops on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force, because the EU would be perceived as taking sides in the Syria conflict.

Some opponents of lifting the arms embargo are ready to look at easing economic sanctions on rebel-held areas of Syria to try to strengthen the opposition.

One option would be to ease a ban on EU oil imports from Syria to permit opposition groups to sell oil to Europe, EU diplomats said.

"We must look at how we can increase assistance to the moderate Syrian opposition, in particular through political and economic support," Ashton said in a statement.

Ministers would look at "all options" to help bring about a political solution in Syria, she said.

(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-britain-fail-win-easing-syria-arms-ban-225613863.html

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Amanda Bynes' Family: Worried About Her!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/amanda-bynes-family-worried-about-her/

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Cyprus leader says EU bailout deal could come in 'next few hours'

Protesters in Cyprus gather outside parliament as government officials try to strike a bailout deal with the European Union. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Michele Kambas and Lidia Kelly, Reuters

A solution to Cyprus' bailout crisis within the framework set down by the European Union may be possible within "the next few hours," the deputy leader of the island's ruling Democratic Rally party said on Friday.

"There is cautious optimism that in the next few hours we may be able to reach an agreed platform so parliament can approve these specific measures which will be consistent with the approach, the framework and the targets agreed at the last Eurogroup," Averof Neophytou told reporters.?

The lines at bank cash machines in Cyprus are growing longer and in some cases angrier. The European Central Bank has given the island's government until Monday to find its six billion euro share of the bailout or - it says - it'll pull the plug on the rest of the cash and banks will face collapse. The banks themselves remain closed. Faisal Islam of Channel Four Europe reports.

The news came hours after the Cypriot finance minister left Moscow empty-handed when Russia turned down appeals for aid, leaving the island to strike a bailout deal with the EU before Tuesday or face the collapse of its financial system.

The rebuff left Cyprus looking increasingly isolated, with the deadline looming to find billions of euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro ($12.93 billion) bailout.

Without it, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday it would cut off emergency funds to the country's teetering banks, potentially pushing Cyprus out of Europe's single currency.

"The talks have ended as far as the Russian side is concerned," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters after two days of crisis talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Michael Sarris.

Having angrily rejected a proposed levy on tax deposits in exchange for the EU bailout, Nicosia had turned to the Kremlin to renegotiate a loan deal, win more financing and lure Russian investors to cut-price Cypriot banks and gas reserves.

Wealthy Russians have billions of euros at stake in Cyprus's outsized and now crippled banking sector.

Banks are closed on Cyprus but the ATM's are still dispensing cash as the government tries to avert a financial crisis. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

But Siluanov said Russian investors were not interested in Cypriot gas and that the talks had ended without result.

Sarris was due to fly home, where lawmakers were preparing to debate measures proposed by the government to raise at least some of the 5.8 billion euros ($7.48 billion) required to clinch the EU bailout.

They included a "solidarity fund" bundling state assets, including future gas revenues and nationalized pension funds, as the basis for an emergency bond issue and likened by JP Morgan to "a national fire sale".

They were also considering a bank restructuring bill that officials said would see the country's second largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank, split into good and bad assets, and a government call for the power to impose capital controls to stem a flood of funds leaving the island when banks reopen on Tuesday after a week-long shutdown.

'Playing with fire'
There was no silver bullet, however, and Cyprus's partners in the 17-nation currency bloc were growing increasingly unimpressed.

To help pay for the $13 billion European bailout, the government plans to take up to 10 percent from all savings accounts, angering those who say they aren't responsible for the economic crisis. CNBC's Sue Herera reports.

"I still believe we will get a settlement, but Cyprus is playing with fire," Volker Kauder, a leading conservative ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told public television ARD.

There were long lines at ATMs on Thursday and angry scenes outside parliament, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered after rumors spread that Popular Bank would be closed down and its staff laid off.

"We have children studying abroad, and next month we need to send them money," protester Stalou Christodoulido said through tears. "We'll lose what money we had and saved for so many years if the bank goes down."

Cypriots have been stunned by the pace of the unfolding drama, having elected conservative President Nicos Anastasiades barely a month ago on a mandate to secure a bailout. News that the deal would involve a levy on bank deposits, even for smaller savers, outraged Cypriots, who raided cash machines last weekend.

Related:

EU to Cypriots: Let us raid your savings or no bailout

Cyprus bailout backlash poses little wider risk - for now

Full business coverage from NBC News

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Japanese online retailer Rakuten expects to defy European gloom

By Alice Baghdjian

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of Japanese online retailer Rakuten Inc is used to defying convention, having quit the safety of a job at the Industrial Bank of Japan at the age of 31 and insisting employees at his new business spoke English at work.

Now Hiroshi Mikitani, or Mickey as he is known by his staff and on his business card, is trying to buck another trend -growing his brand of online "shopping mall" in Europe's recession-hit retail sector.

"We're very confident we'll be able to grow in any kind of (economic) circumstance," Mikitani told Reuters in an interview.

At Rakuten's websites, merchants from egg sellers to jewelers can create online shopfronts and post blogs and photos to communicate with customers, something which Mikitani hopes will give the firm an edge over rivals like e-Bay and Amazon.com, and tempt European consumers to spend.

"Of course we'll be price competitive and very efficient but more than that we'd like to create a very unique shopping experience through which we'd like to differentiate ourselves," said Mikitani, who has an MBA from Harvard.

Largely unknown outside Asia, Rakuten is hoping to tap into a shift in shopping habits in Europe as time-pressed consumers increasingly spend online rather than in bricks-and-mortar stores.

But the group will also have to wrestle a flagging economy, with nearly 19 million people out of work across the euro zone, where retail sales fell in January year-on-year.

Rakuten, which also owns the Kobo brand of e-reader, has been ramping up global expansion as Japan's shrinking population and weak consumer spending has forced it to seek new markets.

The company, which operates in more than a dozen countries, owns several shopping websites in Europe, including France's PriceMinister, Germany's Rakuten.de, and Britain's Play.com.

After a painful restructuring of Play.com, which contributed to overall one-off costs of 28.5 billion yen ($300 million) in 2012, Mikitani said the website is showing "healthy" growth in annual sales, though he did not give exact figures.

The company, with a market capitalization of about $13 billion, reported record 2012 net sales of 443.4 billion yen.

($1 = 95.0550 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-online-retailer-rakuten-expects-defy-european-gloom-131128667--sector.html

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