মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Morocco accuses Algeria and Polisario of destabilizing the Sahara ...

By Youssef El Kaidi

Morocco World News

Fez, April 30, 2013

It seems that the US withdrawal of its draft resolution to expand the mandate of the MINURSO to monitor human rights in the Sahara was disillusioning and traumatic to the Polisario and Algeria. Following the adoption by the UN Security Council of the resolution on the Moroccan Sahara by consensus?the resolution that makes no mention of a human rights monitoring mechanism in the Moroccan Sahara?the separatists in the southern provinces went into riots in Laayoune and Boujdour to provoke the security forces and instigate violence.

The US withdrawal of its draft resolution, which is perceived as a political victory for Morocco, puts Algeria and Polisario in an embarrassing situation. In response to this political victory, Algeria and Polisario plan to sow the seeds of discord and anarchy in the Moroccan Sahara by ?inciting minors to engage in clashes with Moroccan security forces to promote the claim that Morocco does not respect human rights,? the mayor of Laayoune Khalil Eddakhil said in a press conference on Monday.

The mayor added that there is information indicating that a number of ?young men benefit from training in the Tindouf camps (of Polisario in the Algerian territory) and then infiltrate Morocco?s southern provinces to carry out acts of sabotage.?

The plan to drag the region into instability, of which Morocco is fully aware, is carried out by the separatists in the cities of the Moroccan Sahara. These individuals were not arrested despite the damage that they caused to public property in these cities. ?No one was arrested despite the acts of vandalism and serious damage that occurred to public property, as well as the injury of a number of members of the security forces who were pelted with stones,? says Mr. Khalil Eddakhil who also stressed that ?Morocco is committed to the policy of restraint so as to not give the opponents of its territorial integrity excuses that they later may use against it.?

? Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/04/89065/morocco-accuses-algeria-and-polisario-of-destabilizing-the-sahara/

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Surviving hell in a Bangladesh factory collapse

Merina, a survivor of the garment factory building collapse, is comforted by family members in hospital on Saturday April 27, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Merina was trapped under rubble for three days, surviving with nothing to eat and only a few sips of water. The building collapse was the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh's $20 billion a year garment industry.(AP Photo/Gillian Wong)

Merina, a survivor of the garment factory building collapse, is comforted by family members in hospital on Saturday April 27, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Merina was trapped under rubble for three days, surviving with nothing to eat and only a few sips of water. The building collapse was the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh's $20 billion a year garment industry.(AP Photo/Gillian Wong)

Merina, a survivor of the garment factory building collapse, is comforted by her father in hospital on Saturday April 27, 2013 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Merina was trapped under rubble for three days, surviving with nothing to eat and only a few sips of water. The building collapse was the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh's $20 billion a year garment industry.(AP Photo/Gillian Wong)

Saiful Islam Nasar poses in front of the rubble of a building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh Monday April 2013. Nasar, a mechanical engineer is one of hordes of volunteers who came to Savar to help with the rescue effort. They get no funding, have no training and buy their supplies themselves. They have featured largely in efforts to save those who were crushed in the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh?s $20 billion a year garment industry.(AP Photo/Ismail Ferdous)

Saiful Islam Nasar poses in front of the rubble of a building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh Monday April 29, 2013. Nasar, a mechanical engineer is one of hordes of volunteers who came to Savar to help with the rescue effort. They get no funding, have no training and buy their supplies themselves. They have featured largely in efforts to save those who were crushed in the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh?s $20 billion a year garment industry. (AP Photo/Ismail Ferdous)

A worker leaves the site where a garment factory building collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh Monday, April 29, 2013. Rescue workers in Bangladesh gave up hopes of finding any more survivors in the remains of a building that collapsed five days ago, and began using heavy machinery on Monday to dislodge the rubble and look for bodies - mostly of workers in garment factories there. At least 381 people were killed when the illegally constructed, 8-story Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap on Wednesday morning along with thousands of workers in the five garment factories in the building. (AP Photo/Ismail Ferdous)

(AP) ? Merina was so tired. It had been three days since the garment factory where she worked had collapsed around her, three days since she'd moved more than a few inches. In that time she'd had nothing to eat and just a few sips of water. The cries for help had long since subsided. The moans of the injured had gone silent.

It was fatigue she feared the most. If sleep took her, Merina was certain she would never wake up.

"I can't fall asleep," the 21-year-old thought to herself, her face inches from a concrete slab that had once been the ceiling above her. She'd spent seven years working beneath that ceiling, sewing T-shirts and pants destined for stores from Paris to Los Angeles. She worked 14 hours a day, six days a week, with her two sisters. She made the equivalent of about $16 a week.

Now she lay on her back in the sweltering heat, worrying for her sisters and herself. And as the bodies of her former coworkers began to rot, the stench filled the darkness.

____

The eight-story, concrete-and-glass Rana Plaza was one of hundreds of similar buildings in the crowded, potholed streets of Savar, an industrial suburb of Bangladesh's capital and the center of the country's $20 billion garment industry. If Bangladesh remains one of the world's poorest nations, it is no longer a complete economic cripple. Instead, it turned its poverty to its advantage, heralding workers who make some of the world's lowest wages and attracting some of the world's leading brands.

But this same economic miracle has plunged Bangladesh into a vicious descending spiral of keeping down costs, as major retailers compete for customers who want ever cheaper clothes. It is the workers who often pay the price in terms of safety and labor conditions.

The trouble at Rana Plaza began Tuesday morning, when workers spotted long cracks in at least one of the building's concrete pillars. The trails of chipped plaster led to a chunk of concrete, about the size of a shoe box, that had broken away. The police were called. Inspectors came to check on the building, which housed shops on the lower floors and five crowded clothing factories on the upper ones.

At 10 a.m., the 3,200 garment workers were told to leave early for lunch. At 2 p.m., they were told to leave for the day. Few of the workers ? mostly migrants from desperately poor villages ? asked why. Some were told the building had unexplained electricity issues.

The best factory buildings are well-constructed and regularly inspected. The workers are trained what to do in case of an emergency.

Rana Plaza was not one of those buildings. The owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, was a feared neighborhood political enforcer who had branched into real estate. In 2010, he was given a permit to build a five-story building on a piece of land that had once been a swamp. He built eight stories.

Rana came quickly after the crack was found. So did the police, some reporters and officials from the country's largest garment industry association.

Rana refused to close the building. "There is nothing serious," he said. The workers were told to return the next morning, as scheduled, at 8 a.m.

____

Merina, a petite woman with a round, girlish face and shoulder-length hair, never saw the crack.

She comes from Biltala, a tiny village in southwest Bangladesh, where there is electricity but little else. Her father is a landless laborer who grows rice and wheat on rented farmland, and, when he can, travels the seven hours by train to Dhaka to sell cucumbers, cauliflower and other vegetables on the street. When she was 15, she moved to Dhaka. Some of her aunts were already working in garment factories, and she quickly had a job.

For millions of Bangladeshis, the garment factories of Dhaka are a dream. Every year, at least 300,000 rural residents ? and perhaps as many as 500,000 ? migrate to the Dhaka area, already one of the most crowded cities on the planet.

Poverty remains the norm across most of rural Bangladesh, where less than 60 percent of adults are literate. To them, the steady wage of a garment factory ? even with minimum wage less than $40 a month ? is enough to start saving up for a scooter, or a dowry, or a better school for the next generation.

Merina's two sisters joined her in Savar, where women make up the vast majority of the factory workers. Here, the poor learn quickly that it is not their role to question orders. And girls learn quickly that nearly all decisions are made by men.

So for a woman like Merina, who like many Bangladeshis goes by one name, there are generations of culture telling her not to question a command to go back to work.

When some factory workers did speak up Wednesday morning, they were reminded that the end of the month ? and their paychecks ? was near. The message was clear: If you don't work, you won't get paid.

"Don't speak bullshit!" a factory manager told a 26-year-old garment worker named Sharma, she said, when she worried about going inside. "There is no problem."

____

Around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, when the factories had been running for 40 minutes or so, the lights suddenly went off in the building. It was nothing unusual. Bangladesh's electricity network is poorly maintained and desperately overburdened. Rana Plaza, like most of the factories in the area, had its own backup generator, sometimes used dozens of times in a single day.

A jolt went through the building when the generator kicked on. Again, this was nothing unusual. Eighteen-year-old Baezid was chatting with a friend as they checked an order of short-sleeved shirts.

He'd come from the countryside with his family ? mother, father and two uncles ? just seven months earlier. Since then, he'd worked seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to midnight. His salary was about $55 a month. But he could more than double that by working so many hours, since overtime pays .37 cents an hour.

Sometime after the generator switched on ? perhaps a few moments later, perhaps a few minutes ? another, far larger, jolt shook the floor violently. The building gave a deafening groan.

The pillars fell first, and one slammed against Baezid's back. He was knocked to the floor, and found himself pinned from the waist down, unable to move.

He heard coworkers crying in the darkness. One coworker trapped nearby had a mobile phone, and the seven or eight people nearby took turns to call their families.

Baezid wept into the phone. "'Rescue me!'" he begged them.

Like a young boy, he kept thinking of his mother. He wanted to see her again.

____

In Bangladesh, people in need of help rarely think first of the police, or firefighters, or anyone else official.

Baezid called his family. So did many other people. The state is so dysfunctional here, so riven by corruption and bad pay and incompetence, that ordinary people know they have a better chance of finding help by reaching out to their families. Often, they simply call out for the help of whoever will come.

Until Monday, when there was no hope left for survivors and heavy equipment was brought in to move tons of concrete, many of the rescuers working inside the rubble were volunteers. They were garment workers, or relatives of the missing. Or, in the case of Saiful Islam Nasar, they were just a guy from a small town who heard people needed help.

Nasar, a lanky mechanical engineer from a town about 300 kilometers (185 miles) away, runs a small volunteer association. They get no funding and have no training. They buy their supplies themselves. For the most part, the group offers first aid to people who have been in car accidents. During the monsoon rains, they help whoever they can as the waters rise around the town.

When he saw the news, Nasar gathered 50 men, jumped on a train and reached Rana Plaza about 11 hours after the collapse.

He made his way into the rubble with a hammer and a hacksaw, by the light of his mobile phone. In six days, he says he has rescued six people, and helped carry out dozens of bodies.

That first night, he slept on the roof of the collapsed building. Then for two nights he slept in a field, and now he has a tent. But he can't sleep much anyway, because the images of all the corpses keep running through his head.

Told that he was a hero, he looked back silently.

Then he wept.

____

Merina was sitting at her knitting machine on the fourth floor, in the Phantom TAC factory, when the world seemed to explode.

She jumped to her feet and tried to run for the door, but pieces of the ceiling slammed down on her. She crawled in search of a place to hide, and found one: a section of the upstairs floor had crashed onto two toppled pillars, creating a small protected area. About 10 other men and women had the same idea, including Sabina, a close friend. The two women clutched hands and wept, thinking their lives would end in a concrete tomb. "We're going to die, we're going to die," they said to each other.

The group could barely move in the tiny space. Merina's yellow salwar kameez was drenched with sweat. The air was putrid with the smell of death.

As time passed, desperately thirsty survivors began drinking their own urine. One person found a fallen drum of water used for ironing and passed around what was left in a bottle cap. Merina sipped gratefully.

She kept thinking of her sisters, who shared a single bed with her in a corrugated tin-roofed room near the factory.

Her sisters, though, had been luckier.

Merina's older sister, Sharina, ran out just in time. She turned around to watch the building she had toiled in for years fold onto itself in an instant.

"I must be no longer on this earth," she thought, her hands covering her ears from the deafening boom. After a frantic search, she found 16-year-old Shewli, who had also escaped. But where was Merina? She borrowed a cell phone and called her father in their village. "I managed to escape, but Merina is still trapped," she told him.

Their parents booked tickets on the next train to Dhaka.

They arrived Thursday morning, joining hundreds of other relatives who had thronged to the scene. Merina's mother prayed hard, promising God a devotional offering ? a valuable gift from this rural family ? if Merina got out alive.

"If you save the life of my daughter, I will sacrifice a goat for you," she promised.

____

On Friday, Merina finally began to hear the sounds of rescuers cutting through the slab above her with concrete saws.

"Save us! Save us!" she and Sabina yelled together. But by the time the rescuers reached her Saturday morning, she was disoriented and barely conscious. She was put in an ambulance and people surrounded her. "Where are you taking me?" she asked them. "What happened?"

"Don't be afraid, you're going to the hospital," someone told her.

Merina was taken to the Enam Medical College Hospital, a bare-bones facility with aged, rusted beds, dirty tile floors and bare concrete walls. After everything that happened, she had emerged with just bumps on her head and a sore back from lying in the same constrained position for so long. Baezid woke up in the same hospital, relatively unhurt except for a huge bruise from the pillar, which had turned his back almost black.

At least 384 people died, and the toll is climbing. Building owner Rana has been arrested.

On Saturday, as Merina lay on her side resting, her mother stroked her hair, fed her and rubbed her back. Tears rolled down Merina's face, and she squeezed her father's hand.

That night, Merina slept fitfully, replaying the ordeal in her mind. She woke with a new conviction. "God has given me a second life," Marina said later, speaking from her hospital bed. "When I've recovered, I will return home and I will never work in a garment factory again." Baezid said the same thing: He'd never go back to the garment factories.

Many survivors, though, will return. The choices are just too few.

____

Baezid's two uncles also worked in Rana Plaza. The three went to the factories together last Wednesday.

The two uncles have not been seen since. They are presumed dead.

____

Sullivan reported from New Delhi, India.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-29-Bangladesh-Destruction%20and%20Survival/id-014683e76be24fc08a64b937f4ca4c81

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1st female Iraq war resister to be court-martialed

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) ? A court-martial got underway Monday for the first female U.S. Army soldier to flee to Canada to avoid a second tour of duty in the Iraq war.

Army Pfc. Kimberly Rivera is charged with desertion and could face up to five years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/12wpci6 ).

Rivera, 30, was a wheeled-vehicle driver in Fort Carson's 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and served in Iraq in 2006. She has said that, while there, she became disillusioned with the U.S. mission in Iraq.

During a two-week leave in the U.S. in 2007, Rivera crossed the Canadian border after she was ordered to serve another tour in Iraq. She applied for refugee status but was denied.

Rivera then applied for permanent residency, but Canadian immigration officials rejected that application, too. Authorities also rejected her requests to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Rivera was first ordered to leave Canada or face deportation in 2009, but she appealed that decision. The mother of four faced another deportation order issued in 2012.

She was arrested at the U.S. border and taken into military custody.

Roughly 19,000 people signed an online petition in Canada protesting Rivera's deportation order, and rallies were held in a number of Canadian cities calling on the government to let her stay in the country.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the U.S. veterans organization Veterans for Peace also protested the deportation order.

In 2012, the War Resisters Support Campaign, a Canadian activist group, estimated there were about 200 Iraq war resisters in Canada. It said two other Iraq war resisters who were deported, Robin Long and Clifford Cornell, faced lengthy jail sentences upon their return.

Long was given a dishonorable discharge in 2008 and sentenced to 15 months in a military prison after pleading guilty to charges of desertion.

The lower house of Canada's Parliament passed a motion in 2009 in favor of allowing U.S. military deserters to stay, but the Conservative Party government was not persuaded.

During the Vietnam War, as many as 90,000 Americans won refuge in Canada, most of them to avoid the military draft. Many were given permanent residence status that led to Canadian citizenship, but the majority went home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in the late 1970s.

Many Canadian politicians say the situation is different now because Iraq war deserters like Rivera enlisted in the U.S. military voluntarily.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1st-female-iraq-war-resister-court-martialed-172614435.html

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সোমবার, ২৯ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Lack of Sleep May Harm Men's Sperm

Not getting enough sleep may harm men?s sperm, a new study from Denmark says.

Men who slept poorly had lower sperm counts and fewer sperm that had formed correctly, compared with men who slept better.

"Given the facts that approximately 20 percent of all young men may have reduced semen quality, and that sleep disturbances are common and increasing in industrialized countries, the results of this study may have important public health implications," the researchers wrote in their article.

Future studies should look at whether interventions aimed at improving sleep might also improve semen quality, they said.

The researchers used data from 953 young men who were mostly in their late teens and early 20s. They asked the men how well they had slept in the previous four weeks, conducted blood tests to measure their hormone levels and analyzed their semen.

The researchers found that 15 percent of the men said they had found it difficult to fall asleep, and 13 percent of the men reported sleeping restlessly.

In general, the worse that men slept, the poorer the quality of their semen was. For instance, the men who had slept the poorest had a 25 percent reduction in sperm count, and had 1.6 percent fewer sperm that were morphologically normal, compared with men who reported low levels of sleep disturbances. The researchers accounted for factors that could affect the results, such as men's alcohol consumption, smoking and age.

There were no differences in hormone levels across the groups, the researchers said.

The study found an association, and does not prove that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between sleep quality and sperm counts.

However, there are plausible ways to explain the link, the researchers said. It may be that sleep disturbances alter nighttime testosterone rhythms, without affecting overall testosterone levels, the researchers said. However, lifestyle factors not accounted for in the study could explain both the poor sleep and lowered semen quality, they noted.

The study was published online April 7 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Pass it on: Lack of sleep may harm men's sperm.

Follow Karen Rowan?@karenjrowan. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily?@MyHealth_MHND, Facebook?&?Google+.

Copyright 2013 MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lack-sleep-may-harm-mens-sperm-155006187.html

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Watch A House Of Cards Spoof With Kevin Spacey And Obama Make A BuzzFeed Pot Joke

Screen shot 2013-04-28 at 2.49.07 AMNetflix’s “House of Cards” took center stage at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, with an official spoof about the back room jockeying over seat assignments at the coveted press dinner. The clip even gave a big nod to BuzzFeed’s alternative BBQ held during the actual dinner. Despite their admirable popularity, BuzzFeed is not a member of the White House Correspondents Association and didn’t get a table. “A colonoscopy would be cooler than that dinner,” BuzzFeed Editor in Chief, Ben Smith, says to Kevin Spacey’s character. BuzzFeed even got a shoutout from the president himself during his annual stand-up routine: “I remember when BuzzFeed was just something I did in college around 2 a.m.,” said the president in an obvious reference to his pot-smoking college days. Watch the whole routine below: The “House Of Cards” cast was out in full force at DC’s stargazing weekend. There are a lot of?entertainers who stroll into town, but Kevin Spacey was the uber-celebrity. Even at Tammy Haddad’s famous Garden Brunch, the A-list crowd couldn’t help but turn heads upon Spacey’s arrival. On top of viewers, “House of Cards” has made Netflix the talk of the town among policymakers, which could be worth more political capital than the $1 million they spent on lobbying last year. It seemed like everyone was happy to talk with Netflix’s representatives, even just as an excuse to dish about the drama and get some inside details about Capitol Hill’s new favorite?pastime. Interestingly enough, Netflix’s other original series, “Hemlock Grove,” may be off to a better start?in terms of viewers, but doesn’t seem to have the same buzz. An obvious but valuable lesson: influential fans are worth a lot.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Bc-xUn9ca9U/

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California police search for suspect in fatal stabbing of girl

(Reuters) - Authorities were searching on Sunday for a man suspected of stabbing an 8-year-old girl to death at a home in a northern California suburb, officials said.

Residents of Valley Springs, California, 60 miles southeast of Sacramento, were warned to stay inside their homes with their doors locked as investigators fanned out across the region, hunting for the girl's attacker.

Detectives interviewed potential witnesses, family members and collected fingerprints and possible DNA from the home where the girl was killed on Saturday, but had no specific suspect, the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

The sheriff's office identified the girl as Leila Fowler, 8, and said it expected an autopsy to be performed on Monday. They had previously said she was 9 years old.

Authorities said the girl's 12-year-old brother encountered an intruder in his home on Saturday afternoon and the suspect fled, according to KCRA, a local television news station. The boy then went to check on his sister and found her stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, KCRA reported.

The sheriff said the suspect was considered armed and dangerous and described him as a "muscular" white or Hispanic man, about 6-feet (1.83-meters) tall with longish gray hair. They said he was last seen wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and blue pants.

The sheriff's office said it had notified the local school district about the case and planned to have an increased presence at the schools and bus stops on Monday.

(Reporting by Chris Francescani and David Bailey; Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Jackie Frank and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-police-search-suspect-fatal-stabbing-girl-051918273.html

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No Redoubt: Volcanic eruption forecasting improved

No Redoubt: Volcanic eruption forecasting improved [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Diana Roman
droman@dtm.ciw.edu
202-478-8834
Carnegie Institution

Washington, D.C.Forecasting volcanic eruptions with success is heavily dependent on recognizing well-established patterns of pre-eruption unrest in the monitoring data. But in order to develop better monitoring procedures, it is also crucial to understand volcanic eruptions that deviate from these patterns.

New research from a team led by Carnegie's Diana Roman retrospectively documented and analyzed the period immediately preceding the 2009 eruption of the Redoubt volcano in Alaska, which was characterized by an abnormally long period of pre-eruption seismic activity that's normally associated with short-term warnings of eruption. Their work is published today by Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Well-established pre-eruption patterns can include a gradual increase in the rate of seismic activity, a progressive alteration in the type of seismic activity, or a change in ratios of gas released.

"But there are numerous cases of volcanic activity that in some way violated these common patterns of precursory unrest," Roman said. "That's why examining the unusual precursor behavior of the Redoubt eruption is so enlightening."

About six to seven months before the March 2009 eruption, Redoubt began to experience long-period seismic events, as well as shallow volcanic tremors, which intensified into a sustained tremor over the next several months. Immediately following this last development, shallow, short-period earthquakes were observed at an increased rate below the summit. In the 48 hours prior to eruption both deep and shallow earthquakes were recorded.

This behavior was unusual because precursor observations usually involve a transition from short-period to long-period seismic activity, not the other way around. What's more, seismic tremor is usually seen as a short-term warning, not something that happens months in advance. However, these same precursors were also observed during the 1989-90 Redoubt eruption, thus indicating that the unusual seismic pattern reflects some unique aspect of the volcano's magma system.

Advanced analysis of the seismic activity taking place under the volcano allowed Roman and her team to understand the changes taking place before, during, and after eruption. Their results show that the eruption was likely preceded by a protracted period of slow magma ascent, followed by a short period of rapidly increasing pressure beneath Redoubt.

Elucidating the magma processes causing these unusual precursor events could help scientists to hone their seismic forecasting, rather than just relying on the same forecasting tools they're currently using, ones that are not able to detect anomalies.

For example, using current techniques, the forecasts prior to Redoubt's 2009 eruption wavered over a period of five months, back and forth between eruption being likely within a few weeks to within a few days. If the analytical techniques used by Roman and her team had been taken into consideration, the early risk escalations might not have been issued.

"Our work shows the importance of clarifying the underlying processes driving anomalous volcanic activity. This will allow us to respond to subtle signals and increase confidence in making our forecasts." Roman said.

###

This research was funded by U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards ARRA Award.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


No Redoubt: Volcanic eruption forecasting improved [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Diana Roman
droman@dtm.ciw.edu
202-478-8834
Carnegie Institution

Washington, D.C.Forecasting volcanic eruptions with success is heavily dependent on recognizing well-established patterns of pre-eruption unrest in the monitoring data. But in order to develop better monitoring procedures, it is also crucial to understand volcanic eruptions that deviate from these patterns.

New research from a team led by Carnegie's Diana Roman retrospectively documented and analyzed the period immediately preceding the 2009 eruption of the Redoubt volcano in Alaska, which was characterized by an abnormally long period of pre-eruption seismic activity that's normally associated with short-term warnings of eruption. Their work is published today by Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Well-established pre-eruption patterns can include a gradual increase in the rate of seismic activity, a progressive alteration in the type of seismic activity, or a change in ratios of gas released.

"But there are numerous cases of volcanic activity that in some way violated these common patterns of precursory unrest," Roman said. "That's why examining the unusual precursor behavior of the Redoubt eruption is so enlightening."

About six to seven months before the March 2009 eruption, Redoubt began to experience long-period seismic events, as well as shallow volcanic tremors, which intensified into a sustained tremor over the next several months. Immediately following this last development, shallow, short-period earthquakes were observed at an increased rate below the summit. In the 48 hours prior to eruption both deep and shallow earthquakes were recorded.

This behavior was unusual because precursor observations usually involve a transition from short-period to long-period seismic activity, not the other way around. What's more, seismic tremor is usually seen as a short-term warning, not something that happens months in advance. However, these same precursors were also observed during the 1989-90 Redoubt eruption, thus indicating that the unusual seismic pattern reflects some unique aspect of the volcano's magma system.

Advanced analysis of the seismic activity taking place under the volcano allowed Roman and her team to understand the changes taking place before, during, and after eruption. Their results show that the eruption was likely preceded by a protracted period of slow magma ascent, followed by a short period of rapidly increasing pressure beneath Redoubt.

Elucidating the magma processes causing these unusual precursor events could help scientists to hone their seismic forecasting, rather than just relying on the same forecasting tools they're currently using, ones that are not able to detect anomalies.

For example, using current techniques, the forecasts prior to Redoubt's 2009 eruption wavered over a period of five months, back and forth between eruption being likely within a few weeks to within a few days. If the analytical techniques used by Roman and her team had been taken into consideration, the early risk escalations might not have been issued.

"Our work shows the importance of clarifying the underlying processes driving anomalous volcanic activity. This will allow us to respond to subtle signals and increase confidence in making our forecasts." Roman said.

###

This research was funded by U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards ARRA Award.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/ci-nrv042913.php

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Chamath Palihapitiya Chats About Why Big Ideas Are Harder To Find, But Could Be Easier To Get Funded

Screenshot_4_29_13_12_05_PMThe Social+Capital Founder, early Facebook employee and owner of the Golden State Warriors, Chamath Palihapitiya, joined us onstage at Disrupt NY?and gave some brutally honest answers to questions as to why we’re seeing a lull in innovation. I had a chance to talk to Palihapitiya?back stage and we dove deeper into the fact that the Valley should “be ashamed of itself” over the lack of new and big ideas. One of the reasons for this is because it’s easier to hack on things that have already been done. It’s safe. Palihapitiya?says it’s time to go back to the drawing board and go big.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/d5t-070Vbmk/

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রবিবার, ২৮ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

'Iron Man 3' rules world, 'Pain & Gain' takes US

This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)

This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)

(AP) ? "Iron Man 3" is the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadows a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.

The superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets.

Sunday studio estimates show director Michael Bay's true-crime tale "Pain & Gain" muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.

The movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-28-US-Box-Office/id-1928f604bc1f439e83aa2bec3cfe65cc

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Congress passes plan to ease flight delays

By Richard Cowan and Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Friday approved a plan to ease nationwide air-traffic delays caused by federal spending cuts, seeking to calm irritated travelers but sparking a backlash from groups still being hit by budget cuts.

The Senate unanimously voted for the plan late Thursday and the House of Representatives approved it Friday by a 361-41 vote. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama intends to sign the bill.

The legislation will give the Department of Transportation flexibility to use about $250 million in unspent funds to cover immediate salaries of air traffic controllers and other essential employees at the Federal Aviation Administration who had been furloughed.

Lawmakers hurried the bill through, eager to stem the growing wrath of the traveling public, which had dealt with significant take-off and landing delays since the furloughs started on Sunday.

They also had faced anger from airline CEOs whose companies had mounted a grassroots campaign through a website called dontgroundamerica.com, encouraging Americans to send messages to Congress and the White House.

Congressional approval of the air travel bill, barely four pages long, came as lawmakers prepared to fly out of Washington for a week-long recess. It was not clear how quickly the air delays would ease once the bill is enacted.

Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland chided fellow lawmakers for frantically pushing the bill through just before the break, making their upcoming travels easier. "They will pat themselves on the back and say job well done," said Van Hollen, who wanted to address more than just FAA furloughs.

The union representing the controllers was relieved. "After just one week of furloughs, it is abundantly clear that a fully staffed air traffic control workforce is necessary for our national airspace system to operate at full capacity," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said.

BIPARTISAN WORK

The quick legislative action marked a surprising bipartisan effort, especially after many Republicans had accused the Obama administration of manipulating funds to maximize the impact of the broad budget cuts and thus make Republicans look bad as they pursue an aggressive deficit-reduction agenda.

The cuts, known as "sequestration," were originally hatched by Washington in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. But policymakers failed to reach such a deal earlier this year and the cuts went into effect on March 1.

Unless Congress comes up with a better spending plan for the next fiscal year, air traffic controllers potentially could find themselves back on furlough sometime after October 1, when a new round of automatic spending cuts is scheduled.

Nicholas Calio, head of Airlines for America representing the leading U.S. airline companies, praised Congress' action, adding, "The winners here are the customers who will be spared from lengthy and needless delays."

The companies might consider themselves winners, too, as they faced potential losses that could have climbed to millions of dollars a day in a worst-case scenario.

The move comes with the risk, though, of igniting lobbying campaigns to ease other program cuts triggered by sequestration.

Democrats complained the FAA legislation fails to prevent 70,000 poor children from losing pre-school education, 4 million fewer meals from being delivered to poor, elderly people and stop the grounding of some military air combat units.

"Let's deal with all the adverse cuts, not just those that affect the affluent traveling sector," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat.

INTEREST GROUPS COMPLAIN

But conservative House Republicans have rejected moves to repeal or replace the automatic spending cuts. Earlier this week, Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho, told reporters that those cuts marked "the first time we've saved money in Washington, D.C."

The cuts aimed to trim a total of $109 billion from federal spending through September of this year and affect a broad range of programs, from early education to medical research.

Some interest groups immediately cried foul at the FAA fix.

Cynthia Pellegrini, an executive at March of Dimes, a nonprofit that advocates for the health of mothers and babies, said she was troubled by Congress acting on a case-by-case basis.

"Over the next several months we feel there are going to be significant impacts on women, children and families," Pellegrini said in an interview. "This may not be as visible as longer lines at the airport. You can't see that a child's belly is emptier because her family couldn't get food assistance."

The U.S. Travel Association on Friday said it appreciated Congress' swift action but expressed concern that funds could be diverted from critical projects to upgrade airports.

The furloughs of air traffic controllers began this week, prompting traveler backlash at major hubs like those in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Without the legislation, the FAA said it would have to furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days through September 30 in order to save $637 million that is required by the sequestration.

Of those 47,000 workers, almost 15,000 are full-time air traffic controllers or trainees.

While supporting the legislation, the White House on Friday said it falls short of broader action needed to address sequestration. "It would be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them the unnecessary delays," he told reporters.

Carney said lawmakers need to take additional steps to alleviate the impact felt beyond the airline industry from the cuts, such as among poorer elderly people, defense industry workers and others brought on by sequestration.

That, Carney said, could be accomplished through a long-term budget deal "that would replace the sequester altogether."

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Doug Palmer, Susan Heavey, Karen Jacobs and Alwyn Scott; Writing by Karey Van Hall; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-passes-plan-ease-flight-delays-031742838.html

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5 Writing Links You Can Use in the Field | Copyblogger

The Lede | copyblogger.com

This week on The Lede ?

  • Why You Should Write Daily
  • Why Originality is Overrated
  • The Few Sentences You Need to Dominate Your Market
  • David Ogilvy?s Obituary
  • 10 Ways to Write Clearly. No, Make that 1.

Want to grab even more useful links (beyond those that make The Lede)? Follow @copyblogger on Twitter.

//

Why You Should Write Daily
Mr. Babauta?s article gives very good advice. It?s also one hell of an example of the type of advertorial that works to support and fund independent content (you?ll see what I mean when you click through).

//

10 Ways to Write Clearly. Make That 9. No, Just 1.
This article delivers one of the first lessons every good copywriter learns. It?s a lesson that must be remembered and used throughout any career that matters, and it all boils down to just one thing ?

//

The Few Sentences You Need to Dominate Your Market
I am a believer in the power of brevity. Most people are, even if they don?t know it. Within the craft of writing copy that sells, there?s often a necessity for long copy, but Mr. Sandeen argues that the initial decision to continue reading usually boils down to just a few sentences. And of course, he?s right.

//

Why Originality is Overrated
In line with David Ogilvy?s famous quote, ?If it doesn?t sell, it isn?t creative,? Mr. Tullman makes a brief case for the eradication of novelty in selling. You may feel that you?ve ?accomplished something? with that clever turn of phrase, or that outrageous storyline involving rappers, zombies, and your product ? but does it actually sell? If you go looking for gasps or laughs in reaction to your sales copy, you?re merely trading the hope of a potentially profitable business for the vacant pursuit of ?creative? awards and adulation.

//

David Ogilvy?s 1999 New York Times Obituary
Speaking of Mr. Ogilvy ? I?m not quite sure why this link made The Lede this week. I suspect it has something to do with the human fascination with our common (and final) problem. A gentle reminder that our time here is short, and our remaining working hours should be as generous, helpful, and industrious as we can make them. Perhaps.

Miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is VP of Marketing for Copyblogger Media, as well as its Resident Recluse. Get more from him via Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://www.copyblogger.com/the-lede-20130427/

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Texas Miracle-Ear Centers Provide Hearing Solutions to Those ...

In Times of Need, Miracle-Ear Opens Their Doors.

Plymouth, MN (PRWEB) April 26, 2013 - Texas Miracle-Ear franchise owner, Pat Curry, and the Miracle-Ear Foundation partner to provide hearing solutions to those affected by the tragic fertilizer explosion, north of Waco, Texas.

Jennifer Barak of West, Ben Norris of Elm Mott, and Robert Mills of Waco, staff at Texas Miracle-Ear centers immediately opened their doors to those affected in their neighborhood by the explosion. ?For such a devastating event, the least we could do as a local business is extend our services and support the hearing of those in our community,? said Curry. ?We are providing free hearing screenings and aids to those who lost their existing hearing aids during the explosion. If you or someone you love were affected, I encourage you to stop by any one of our Miracle-Ear locations so we can evaluate your hearing loss and get you fit with new hearing aids.?

In partnership with Pat Curry, the Miracle-Ear Foundation, a Minneapolis-based non-profit organization, supports underserved children and adults across the country with their hearing healthcare needs. The Miracle-Ear Foundation, working with Miracle-Ear centers across the country, has donated more than 6,500 hearing aids to over 4,100 individuals nationwide, including the aids donated to Waco, Texas.

About Miracle-Ear

A trusted resource for hearing solutions for 65 years, Miracle-Ear uses state-of-the-art technology to remove the barriers of hearing loss. The Plymouth, Minn-based company specializes in customizable hearing solutions that feature discreet, comfortable products designed to meet each individual's hearing loss needs. Free hearing tests are available at all of the company's 1,200 franchised locations across the U.S.. Franchise opportunities are available for those interested in running their own Miracle-Ear business with the support of a nationwide industry leader. For more information, visit http://www.miracle-ear.com.

Contact:

Meghan Lynch
Miracle-Ear, Inc
http://www.miracle-ear.com
763-268-4132

###

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130426_texas_miracleear_centers_provide_hearing_solutions.html

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Amanda Bynes shaves half of her head

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

Amanda Bynes' bizarre behavior (don't call it erratic!) has been tabloid fodder for years now, and the former child star has been fanning the flames on her personal Twitter account.

Her hair has been the subject of many rants, including an early April gripe that a salon damaged her locks?so badly that she had to shave her head. ?

She proved she did just that on Thursday, showing off her buzzed scalp in a series of selfies.

"I buzzed half my head like (pop star Cassie)!" she tweeted, along with a grinning emoticon.

The 27-year-old starlet didn't go full Britney -- can anyone forget Spears' 2007 meltdown in a Tarzana hair salon? Blond, wavy locks still cascade from the crown of Bynes' head.

"This is the new me!" Bynes added. "I love it!"

Do you love Amanda's new look? Tell us on our Facebook page.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/26/17931975-amanda-bynes-shaves-half-of-her-head?lite

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শনিবার, ২৭ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Stephen Wolfram says he almost had a deal with Google, but it 'blew up'

Stephen Wolfram says he almost had a deal with Google, but it 'blew up'

As you may recall, Wolfram Research signed a deal with Microsoft a few years back that saw some Wolfram Alpha functionality integrated into Bing. As it turns out, it very nearly found its way into a certain other search engine as well. In an interview at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam today, Stephen Wolfram revealed that his company had tried to work with Google and "almost had a deal," but it "blew up." Unfortunately, he didn't provide any further details about when those talks took place or exactly what the potential deal entailed, and it doesn't sound like we can expect that deal to be revived anytime soon -- especially considering Google's own efforts that are increasingly overlapping with Wolfram Alpha. As Wolfram himself notes, though, the two companies do have something of a longstanding connection: Google co-founder Sergey Brin was actually an intern at Wolfram way back in 1993.

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Source: The Next Web

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FvbaFJF2-RU/

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In China, the License Plates Can Cost More Than the Car | China ...

After Beijing (pop. 21 million) introduced a license plate lottery in January?2011, the joint share of Chinese brands sold there plunged by more than half, to 9.7?percent for the year, according to researcher IHS Automotive. In Shanghai, which began auctioning license plates in 1994, domestic brands made up only 8.9?percent of cars sold in 2011 (the most recent data available), less than a third the level nationwide, IHS reports.

Shanghai officials have put in place a complicated ? and expensive ? process to buy the right to add a car to the often-gridlocked roads of this city of 23?million people. To register for the license auction, prospective car buyers must put down 2,000?yuan as good faith money. In exchange, they get a disk loaded with software they can use to bid online.

After a couple of rounds of offers, the government figures out the highest price it can charge to completely sell out the year?s new allotment of licenses. Lottery participants who had bid at least that much then get to pay for their plates.

As local officials grapple with growing traffic congestion and air pollution and seek new sources of revenue, more cities will impose license plate quotas,?UBS?analysts predicted in January. Guangzhou (pop. 13 million) and Guiyang (pop. 4 million) already have them.

Tianjin (pop. 13 million) may start them as early as May, China Youth Daily?reported on April?11. ?If the measures were followed by more Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities [China?s informal classification of medium-size metropolitan areas], the impact would be much bigger,? says Geely?s Ang.

?Local automakers have pretty much given up on markets like Beijing.??

China?s auto manufacturers face further trouble as cities tighten emission standards after toxic smog blanketed Beijing and Shanghai for much of the winter. Since Feb.?1, Beijing has used the same strict pollution regulations as the European Union on new cars, and Shanghai expects to impose them by November. The increased pollution scrutiny benefits European and American manufacturers because they have larger model lineups across which environmental compliance costs can be spread and because they already have developed models which meet the European rules.

With the combined blows of the pollution regulations and license plate quotas, some smaller domestic manufacturers have been forced to retreat from the biggest cities, according to Chi Yifeng, head of the Beijing Asian Games Village Automobile Exchange, a big dealer selling multiple car brands in the capital. ?Local automakers have pretty much given up on markets like Beijing,? Chi says. ?The plate lottery system is too big a test for them.?

Yet shifting their focus farther inland or to Western China won?t necessarily mean Chinese brands can escape their handicap in the biggest urban areas, says Cao He, an analyst with China Minzu Securities in Beijing. ?Making their cars visible in cities like Beijing and Shanghai impresses future buyers like migrant workers when they consider buying cars back home,? Cao says. None of the top?10 car models sold in China last year were Chinese brands.

Chinese automakers have focused on cities such as Lanzhou in northwestern Gansu province and Chengdu in Sichuan. Domestic manufacturers can find plenty of growth in such cities, considered third-tier or lower despite populations ranging from 2?million to more than 10?million, says Wang Chuanfu, chairman of?BYD, a Shenzhen-based automaker that counts Warren Buffett?s?Berkshire Hathaway?as an investor. ?Tier-3 and Tier-4 markets are opportunities for local brands,? Wang says.

Source: Bloomberg ? In China, the License Plates Can Cost More Than the Car ?

Source: http://chinadailymail.com/2013/04/27/in-china-the-license-plates-can-cost-more-than-the-car/

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Rescuers comb Bangladesh rubble for second day

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

SAVAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Employees at a garment factory that collapsed in Bangladesh killing at least 260 people were told to work despite warnings it was unsafe, officials said on Thursday as an unknown number of the more than 3,000 workers remained trapped in the rubble.

Survivors described a deafening bang and tremors before the eight-floor building, where most of the employees were women, crashed all around them. Dhaka District police chief Habibur Rahman said about 2,000 people had been rescued over two days.

Wednesday's disaster refocused attention on Western high-street brands that use Bangladesh as a source of low cost goods. North American and European chains including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw said they were supplied by factories in the building.

"I thought there was an earthquake," said Shirin Akhter, 22, who was starting her day at the New Wave Style workshop, six floors up, when the complex crumbled. Akhter was trapped for more than 24 hours before breaking through a wall with a metal bar. She said her monthly wage was $38.

For a second night, local residents used flashlights and dug with crowbars and their bare hands to find survivors and bodies beneath twisted wreckage of the Rana Plaza building in the commercial suburb of Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside the capital Dhaka.

They dropped in bottled water and food to people who called out, trapped between floors. Late on Thursday, rescuers forced a hole into a room and pulled out 41 people alive. Still, the death toll grimly rose all day.

Relatives identified their dead among dozens of corpses wrapped in cloth on the veranda of a nearby school. More than 1,000 were injured.

Police said the owner of the building, local politician Mohammed Sohel Rana, was told of dangerous cracks on Tuesday.

While a bank in the building closed on Wednesday because of the warnings, the five clothing companies told their workers there was no danger, industry officials said. Rana is now on the run, according to police.

"We asked the garment owners to keep it closed," said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Mohammad Atiqul Islam. Instead, Islam said, there were 3,122 workers in the factories on Wednesday.

"An unspecified number of victims are still trapped," said Mizanur Rahman, a rescue worker with the fire brigade, as he clambered over the wreckage. "We can't be certain of getting them all out alive. We are losing a bit of hope."

DAY OF MOURNING

The government declared a national day of mourning and flags were flown half mast at all official buildings.

Dhaka city development authority had filed a case against the building's owner for faulty construction, Police Chief Rahman said. It filed another case against the owner and the five garments factories for causing unlawful death.

Rana had told proprietors of the building's five factories that the cracks were not dangerous, Islam said. "After getting the green signal from the plaza owner, all the garment factories opened," he said. BGMEA blacklisted the five companies on Thursday.

More than 1,000 textile workers besieged the BGMEA offices on Thursday, pelting it with stones and clashing with riot police, TV channels showed. The workers demanded all garment factories be shut and the owners harshly punished for accidents.

"The deaths of these workers could have been avoided if multinational corporations, governments and factory owners took workers' protection seriously," Amirul Haque Amin of the National Garment Workers' Federation said in a statement.

"Instead, the victims' families must live with the terrible consequences of this tragedy."

U.S. ambassador Dan Mozena said the accident could affect Bangladesh's market access to the United States. Bangladesh is fighting a petition by U.S. unions to revoke preferential trade access because of worker safety issues.

"It certainly makes the environment of the workplace safety questionable," Mozena told reporters in Dhaka.

UK clothing retailer Primark, which has 257 stores across Europe and is a unit of Associated British Foods, confirmed that one of its suppliers occupied the second floor of the building. Danish retailer PWT Group, which owns the Texman brand, said it had been using a factory in the building for seven years.

"We check the working conditions at the factory, but we are not construction engineers. We cannot be held responsible for how they build their factories," PWT director Ole Koch said.

British clothing retailer Matalan said it used to be supplied by one of the factories at the complex but had no current production there.

Canada's Loblaw, a unit of food processing and distribution firm George Weston Ltd, said one factory made a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items for the company.

Primark, Loblaw and PWT operate under codes of conduct aimed at ensuring products are made in good working conditions. Documents including order sheets and cutting plans obtained by Reuters appeared to show that other major clothing brands such as Benetton had used suppliers in the building in the last year.

A Benetton spokesman said none of the factories were suppliers to the company. Spain's Mango said it had an unfulfilled sample order with Phantom Apparel, at the plaza.

About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter. The bulk of exports - 60 percent - go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and 5 percent go to Canada.

GIVING BLOOD

Hundreds of students donated blood at a clinic in Savar after doctors at Dhaka hospitals said they could not cope with the number of victims.

Mohammad Mosharraf, who was rescued on Thursday after 26 hours, said he had been hit on the head by something heavy and knocked unconscious when the building came down.

"When I regain my sense I found another four colleagues are also trapped under the debris of the building," he told Reuters.

"We desperately tried to shout for someone to rescue us. Initially we didn't receive any response, but we moved to another part of the floor and found some light and heard voices."

The Rana Plaza collapse follows a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka that killed 112 people in November and another incident at a factory in January in which seven people died, compounding concerns about worker safety and low wages in Bangladesh.

Entry level wages in these factories start at 14 cents an hour, said Charles Kernaghan of the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights.

After the Tazreen fire, U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would take steps to alleviate safety concerns, while Gap Inc announced a four-step fire-safety program.

Merchandise for both Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp was being made, without the retailers' authorization, at the Tazreen facility when the fire occurred last November.

Wal-Mart said on Thursday that no goods were being made for it at the Rana Plaza facility. It now has a zero-tolerance policy on unauthorized contracting and said it had not learned of any unauthorized production taking place there. Sears said that based on its initial findings, no merchandise was being made for it at any of the factories in the building.

Edward Hertzman, a sourcing agent based in New York who also publishes trade magazine Sourcing Journal, said pressure from U.S. retailers to keep a lid on costs fostered poor conditions.

Hertzman, whose publication has offices in Bangladesh, said New Wave Bottoms was on the second floor, Phantom Apparels the third, Phantom Tack the fourth and Ethar Textile the fifth.

The New Wave website listed 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States.

(Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed in Dhaka, Jessica Wohl and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago, Solarina Ho in Toronto, Robert Hertz in Madrid and Mette Kronholm Fraende in Copenhagen.; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Paul Tait, Alex Richardson, Mark Trevelyan, Toni Reinhold)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-bangladesh-building-collapse-rises-147-015232779.html

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MPs criticise accounting firms on tax avoidance

(Ends first round) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mps-criticise-accounting-firms-tax-avoidance-013519045--sector.html

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শুক্রবার, ২৬ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Insert Coin: Snapzoom gives Kickstarters a crack at its smartphone scope adapter (video)

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.

Snapzoom gives Kickstarters a crack at its smartphone scope adapter

Snapzoom stole a lot of hearts at Engadget Expand, but it didn't quite steal enough votes to win our Insert Coin contest. Now you can exact some justice, as the smartphone adapter for binoculars, telescopes and microscopes is up for grabs on Kickstarter to let you zoom in on the moon, bacteria or whatever else you can think of. So far it's vacuumed up $15,000 toward its $55,000 goal, and while the early bird offer is sold out, backers can still grab one starting at $60, a hefty discount from the final $80 retail price. For $90, you'll even get a basic 10x25 compact Bushnell travel binocular tossed in, so if you want to see what made our Insert Coin judges go zoom-crazy, hit the source or video after the jump.

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Source: Snapzoom (Kickstarter)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5X_t12b56pQ/

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Putin: order and discipline not a sign of Stalinism

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin rejected comparisons with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on Thursday in his annual televised question-and-answer session with citizens, denying political persecution but saying Russia needed order and discipline.

A liberal journalist referred to a host of legal sanctions applied to Putin's opponents since he was re-elected president to ask him whether there were elements of Stalinism in his exercise of power.

But on a day when the first Russian civic group was fined under a new law intended to limit foreign influence, an opposition activist was jailed over an anti-government protest and another was being tried for fraud, Putin dismissed the idea.

"I don't see any elements of Stalinism here," he said. "Stalinism is linked to the cult of personality, massive legal violations, repressions and labor camps.

"There is nothing like that in Russia and I hope there never will be again," he said. "But this does not mean that we should not have order and discipline."

Putin, a former KGB officer who has mixed praise of some of Stalin's achievements with criticism of his harsh methods, denied using the courts to persecute opponents - a hallmark of Stalin's three decades in power until his death in 1953.

"Nobody is putting anyone behind bars for their political views," Putin said.

FRAUD CHARGES

Protest leader and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, arguably Putin's most formidable political opponent in the absence of any effective parliamentary opposition, says his trial on charges of defrauding a timber firm has been trumped up to silence him.

Avoiding using Navalny's name, but clearly referring to him, Putin said: "People who fight corruption must be pure as crystal themselves, otherwise it (their campaigning) all looks like self-promotion and political advertising."

Navalny's supporters have compared his trial to that of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed in 2005 on fraud and tax evasion charges after falling out with Putin and remains in prison.

Putin's remarks in a confident live appearance that lasted nearly five hours indicated he has no plans to ease the pressure on opponents and activists that has helped stifle what were the biggest opposition protests since he came to power in 2000.

The human rights campaign groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch this week said Putin's new term had seen a witch-hunt against dissenters and the toughest crackdown on civil society since the Soviet era.

PROTESTERS ON TRIAL

A Moscow court on Thursday convicted opposition activist Konstantin Lebedev of organizing mass disorder at a protest on May 6 last year, the eve of Putin's inauguration, and sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison.

He was given lenient treatment because he implicated others, which lawyers fear could bode ill for prominent opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov and more than 20 others who have also been formally accused or charged in connection with the May 6 protest. One other person has been convicted.

Also on Thursday, a Moscow court handed a 300,000 rouble ($9,500) fine to Golos, a vote-monitoring group that documented fraud allegations in the presidential election and a 2011 parliamentary election, for declining to register as a "foreign agent" under a new law aimed at NGOs with foreign funding.

For many Russians, that designation clearly evokes the Stalin era. Golos said the foreign payment in question had been a human rights prize, which it had promptly returned in full.

Putin dismissed criticism of the law, saying: "Let them say where they got money, how much, and how they have spent it."

He also referred disparagingly to Pussy Riot, the female band, some of whose members were jailed for singing a raucous anti-Putin song near the altar of Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral.

"These girls from Pussy Riot and guys who desecrate the graves of our soldiers must be equal before the law," he said.

($1 = 31.5385 Russian roubles)

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-order-discipline-not-sign-stalinism-181241727--business.html

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