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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
NBA: Milwaukee 98, Minnesota 95
MILWAUKEE, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Brandon Jennings scored 24 points and Andrew Bogut added 15 Tuesday to lead the Milwaukee Bucks past Minnesota 98-95.
Jennings hit half of his 14 shots from the field and was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line for the Bucks, who evened their record to 1-1 in their home opener.
Stephen Jackson contributed 16 points to the Bucks' effort and Jon Leuer scored 14 off the bench.
Kevin Love led winless Minnesota with 31 points and 20 rebounds. Love hit six field goals and was 19-for-24 from the free-throw line.
Minnesota made a bid to steal the win with a late run that cut Milwaukee's lead to 94-92 with 1:41 to play on a jumper by Michael Beasley off one of Ricky Rubio's four assists, but Love's 3-point attempt with 2.9 to play missed the mark.
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5671235334
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Pets of the week
Mandy
?
Mandy is a 2-year-old Rottweiler. She is a stray that no one claimed. She is house-broken, and would be great with older kids. She does not like other dogs, so she'll need to be in a single dog home. Mandy is playful and loves to chew squeaky tennis balls and rope toys. She knows how to sit, stay, lie down, come, and of course fetch. She needs to be an inside dog because she gets stressed and anxious when she's out by herself. Mandy is in kennel new adopt 19.
Pepper
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Pepper is a 3-year-old Labrador retriever. She was signed over by her previous owner because they were moving and couldn't take her. She likes other dogs, likes cats, loves playing with kids of all ages, and is house-broken. Pepper is a fun and active girl. She loves to play fetch and chase after tennis balls. She knows how to sit, lie down, stay, come, and of course fetch. She would be happy in an active home with a family to run and play with. Pepper is in kennel new adopt 20.
Charlie Brown
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Charlie Brown is a 2-year-old Labrador retriever mix. He is a stray that no one claimed. Charlie Brown is an energetic dog. He loves to play, run, chew on rope toys, and chase after balls. He's the type of dog that as long as he can play outside, no matter what he's doing, he'll have a good time. He would be great for and active family or a family that can spend the necessary time to exercise him. Charlie Brown is in kennel old adopt 13.
Max
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Max is a 4- to 5-month-old Pit Bull. He is a stray that no one claimed. When he came to our shelter his hair was falling out and we determined that he had mange. He did wonderfully with his treatments, his hair is growing back and he's doing great. Max loves playing with other dogs and is great with kids of all ages. He has a lot of fun puppy energy and loves to play. Max is excited about life and meeting new friends.
Davis County Animal Care & Control is located at 1422 E. 600 North, in Fruit Heights. For more information, call 801-444-2200.
Source: http://www.standard.net/stories/2011/12/29/pets-week
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Let's Focus on Aliens and Jobs, Less So on Aliens and Voting
Any advocacy movement ? such as the one calling for not-too-much-immigration ? has limited resources and must set priorities if it is to achieve any of its goals.
Although I am a life-time elections junkie, and love to read about such trivia as the Republic of Mauritius's "best-loser" system for allocating eight seats in its 70-member parliament, I suggest that we should spend more time worrying about American workers being shouldered out of jobs by too many illegals and too many nonimmigrants, and less on aliens and voting. (My colleague Stanley Renshon, a political psychologist at the City University of New York, has written on the subject of non-citizen voting and may not agree with this assessment.)
I was reminded of this need for priorities the other day while reading that the Mayor of New Haven, Conn., John DeStefano, had advocated that all residents of his city, regardless of immigration status, be allowed to vote. The local press covered his proposal in detail.
While I am reasonably sure that Mayor DeStefano thinks that this is a good idea, and was not using it as a ploy to steer us away from other issues, I feel that the rest of us should not be distracted. In recent years, at least, alien voting in local elections has taken place in very few American locations, and when it happens, few aliens vote.
While working for the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in the 1980s, I explored this variable pretty thoroughly in Europe, and found that while some local citizen pols, notably in Holland, were very enthusiastic about it, the aliens were less so, and the percentage of them voting was far lower than that of the citizens.
The Connecticut mayor was advocating a minimal change in the law, that all residents of his town be allowed to vote in municipal elections, not in state or federal ones. That was the situation in Europe as well.
The article on this subject in the New Haven Independent noted that a few municipalities in Maryland allow such voting for local office, notably Takoma Park, near Washington, D.C., and this is the pattern, too, for Chicago's Board of Education. Similar proposals have failed in (ultra-liberal) San Francisco and in Portland, Maine.
The story did not include the fact that once upon a time, in my hometown, Arlington, Va., in a very specialized situation, non-citizens were allowed to take part in the selection of members of the local board of education.
In Virginia school board members are chosen in a non-partisan election; in Arlington, this is an annual event as the five members of the board have staggered one-year terms. While the elections are nominally non-partisan, in some cities and counties, including Arlington, the parties run, in effect, a primary and then support the winner in the formal elections in the fall.
In Arlington, at the time, the Democrats were allied with a progressive but non-partisan organization called Arlingtonians for a Better County (ABC); the Democrats and ABC took turns running the endorsement process; when the Democrats did it, you had to be a registered voter, when ABC did it the next year, any registered voter and any ABC member could vote, and ABC did not confine its membership to citizens. Each faction agreed ahead of time to honor the other's choice.
After voting in one of the ABC selection processes, I asked the people running the event about the number of non-citizen voters. They were reluctant to talk about it but finally acknowledged that there were very few non-citizens, and most of those were wives of officials of the British Embassy (who had kids in the local schools).
My sense, then, is that it will be very difficult to secure state legislative approval for extending voting, even in municipal elections, to aliens (and even more so to illegal aliens). If it happens at all, it is unlikely to produce much in the way of alien voting, and thus is not worth much of our attention.
What I have been discussing is legal voting by non-citizens. Another discussion, again over-hyped in my eyes, is the possibility of extensive illegal voting by aliens, and the imposition of tough voting place standards to make sure that this does not happen.
Certainly, we should be careful that only citizens vote, but, again, ours is a cause with limited resources and we should be spending them on pressing for labor market policies that do not flood our labor markets with needless alien workers, driving down wages, and displacing resident workers.
There are clearly millions of illegal and nonimmigrant workers, nationwide; there may be a few thousand alien municipal voters in a few places. Let's pay attention to the former.
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Source: http://cis.org/north/lets-focus-on-aliens-and-jobs
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Video: After recent polls, more ?ire of Newt?
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45808888#45808888
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tensions rise as Iraq seeks Sunni VP arrest (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Iraqi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Muslim Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday for suspected ties to assassinations and bombings, a decision likely to fuel sectarian tensions after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
The move risks unraveling Iraq's fragile power-sharing deal among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs who have struggled to overcome tensions just a few years after sectarian slaughter drove the country to the edge of a civil war.
Interior Ministry spokesman, Major General Adel Daham, told a news conference confessions by suspects identified as Hashemi's bodyguards linked the vice president to killings and attacks on Iraqi government and security officials.
"An arrest warrant was issued for Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi according to Article 4 of the terrorism law and is signed by five judges... this warrant should be executed," Daham said, waving a copy of the document in front of reporters.
The political struggle between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Sunni rivals in the country's delicate power-sharing deal has intensified during the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops nearly nine years after the invasion.
The ministry showed taped confessions, aired on state-run Iraqiya television and other local media, of men it claimed were members of Hashemi's security detail. The men said they had been paid by his office to carry out killings.
The three men shown on television detailed the assassinations they were told to carry out by Hashemi's aides including planting roadside bombs and driveby shootings of security and government officials.
One man said he was handed $3,000 as a reward by Hashemi himself.
But the identity of the men could not be independently confirmed.
Hashemi, who could not be contacted for a response, was in Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous enclave in the north, Kurdish political sources said. Kurdistan has its own government and security forces, making Hashemi's immediate arrest unlikely.
In a statement earlier on Monday, Hashemi accused Maliki's government of "deliberate harassment" after his plane was delayed for three hours at Baghdad airport. He had been heading for the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya to meet the Iraqi president.
Security forces arrested three Hashemi bodyguards on their way back from the airport, the statement said, adding military forces surrounding Hashemi's house for weeks had been beefed up.
"The vice-president has been very patient and is waiting for a reasonable explanation from the government parties concerned," the statement said.
DEEPENING CRISIS
Fearing a deepening crisis that could push Iraq back into sectarian turmoil, senior Iraqi politicians were holding talks with Maliki and other leaders to contain the dispute.
The U.S. ambassador in Iraq was in contact with senior Iraqi leaders, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said, without providing details on which figures or the matters under discussion.
Violence has ebbed sharply since the peak of attacks in 2006-07 when suicide bombings and hit-squads claimed thousands of victims in tit-for-tat killing between Sunni and Shi'ite communities.
But sectarian tensions are close to the surface and still color many aspects of Iraqi political life.
The completion of the U.S. withdrawal on Sunday left many Iraqis fearful that a shaky peace deal between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis might collapse and reignite sectarian violence.
Maliki over the weekend asked parliament for a vote of no-confidence against another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who is deputy prime minister, on the grounds that he lacked faith in the political process.
Hashemi and Mutlaq are both leaders of the Iraqiya bloc, a secular group backed by minority Sunnis, which joined Maliki's unity government only reluctantly and recently boycotted parliament sessions after complaining of being marginalized
Many Sunnis, who were in power under Saddam, feel shunted aside by the rise of Shi'ites after the invasion. Already some Sunni-dominated regions in Iraq are seeking more autonomy from the central government, chaffing against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian tack taken by Maliki.
(Additional reporting Kareem Raheem; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Serena Chaudhry/Maria Golovnina)
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Hey, new Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners, get ready for an update
No cause for alarm here, folks, but your brand new Verizon Galaxy Nexus is going to get a little update once it's activated. Bugfixes, mostly. And since you probably haven't actually used the Verizon Galaxy Nexus without this update, you won't really know what you were missing.
And before anybody freaks out about it getting an update on Day 1, remember that pre-release updates are hardly unusual. Update it and go about your business.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/MsWMcLvOMr0/story01.htm
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Time Warner finally cuts a deal for HBO Go streaming, launches 'in the next month'
Continue reading Time Warner finally cuts a deal for HBO Go streaming, launches 'in the next month'
Time Warner finally cuts a deal for HBO Go streaming, launches 'in the next month' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Xer3CpVgoLg/
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HP TouchPad returns in TigerDirect bundle, if only for a moment
[Thanks, Andrew]
HP TouchPad returns in TigerDirect bundle, if only for a moment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |TigerDirect | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/15/hp-touchpad-returns-in-tigerdirect-bundle-if-only-for-a-moment/
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Unemployment rate falls to 9.4 percent in Ky. (AP)
FRANKFORT, Ky. ? The jobless rate has dropped slightly in Kentucky.
The Office of Employment and Training released a report Thursday showing unemployment at 9.4 percent in November, down from 9.6 percent in October.
The report showed that employment declined in six of the state's 11 major job sectors. Overall, the number of people working increased by 4,500 for the month to more than 1.8 million.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector added 6,000 jobs in November. Meanwhile, the construction sector lost 2,500 jobs and manufacturing lost 1,700.
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NJ's jobless rate unchanged in November (AP)
TRENTON, N.J. ? Holiday hiring helped drive a gain of 10,400 private sector jobs as New Jersey's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1 percent in November.
The state Labor Department says preliminary estimates indicate total nonfarm wage and salary employment grew to 3,881,000.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector led the growth in five of the ten industry sectors that saw gains in November, with an increase of 9,900 jobs. Most of that reflects a gain of 7,800 in the retail trade component as merchants increased staff for the holiday shopping season.
Officials also revised October's employment numbers up by 2,000 jobs.
Treasury Department chief economist Charles Steindel says November's brisk pace of hiring shows employers anticipate increased consumer spending.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Stocks rise as European leaders hash out plans (AP)
A promised plan to restore long-term confidence in the euro boosted stocks and other risky assets Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 150 points, led by banks. Italian bond yields dropped sharply after the nation's new government introduced austerity measures. The euro and commodities prices rose.
The leaders of France and Germany, the two strongest economic powers in the euro area, called for a new European Union treaty designed to avert another crisis by imposing greater fiscal discipline on member countries. Ballooning deficits in Greece, Portugal and Ireland have forced those countries take bailouts from their neighbors.
Investors are hoping that a summit of European leaders this Friday will produce concrete measures to prevent a messy breakup of the euro currency, which is shared by 17 nations. Markets have been jittery because of fears that the euro might disintegrate, causing a sharp recession in Europe that would spread through the world economy.
While the statements from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were far from a long-term solution, investors are eager to buy on any hint of good news because they have been earning meager returns from relatively low-risk investments such as Treasurys and CDs, said Brian Gendreau, investment strategist with Cetera Financial Group.
"There's pent-up demand, and people will use any excuse to get back in, thinking there's been too much pessimism," Gendreau said. Despite strong signals about the U.S. economy, the market has been weighed down by negative headlines about the U.S. budget impasse, credit-rating downgrades of the U.S. and other nations, and Europe's spreading crisis, Gendreau said.
Yields on Italian bonds dove to their lowest level in a month, suggesting traders believe that Italy is far less likely to default. The main Italian stock index jumped 2.9 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 141 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,161 shortly after noon Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 19, or 1.5 percent, to 1,263. The Nasdaq composite index gained 40, or 1.5 percent, to 2.667.
The gains were broad, lifting 28 of the 30 stocks in the Dow and all 10 industry groups in the S&P 500.
Financials stocks were among the biggest winners. Investors have feared that U.S. banks might be dragged down by their close connections to the unstable European financial system.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 4.4 percent, the most in the Dow. Bank of America was the second-biggest gainer of the Dow 30, rising 3.7 percent. Citigroup Inc. rose 6.4 percent, Morgan Stanley 5.5 percent.
Monday's strong gains follow the best week in more than two years for U.S. stock indexes. The S&P 500 rose 7.4 percent last week, the most since March 2009. The Dow jumped 7 percent, the most since July 2009.
Markets are hopeful that, given the gravity of the situation afflicting the euro zone, the German and French leaders will come up with a common proposal for tighter integration on budget matters. Analysts say that such a plan could lead to further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, possibly through the International Monetary Fund.
Italy's borrowing costs pulled back from a level that might have forced the nation to default. Analysts say bailing out Italy would be too costly and would hurt the credit standing of German and France, which have the strongest economies in the euro group.
The yield on the 10-year Italian bond plunged half a percentage point to 5.97 percent. It rose above 7 percent last month, a level at which other nations were forced to take bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe's largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.
The euro rose 0.3 percent to $1.3456. Crude oil rose 85 cents a barrel to $101.81 in New York.
In corporate news:
? Gannett Co. leapt 11.4 percent after the media company was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" by analysts at Lazard Capital Markets.
? Incyte Corp. fell 2.7 percent after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the drug maker to "neutral" from "buy," saying its new blood-disease drug Jakafi might not work as a long-term treatment.
? SuccessFactors Inc. soared more than 50 percent after the company agreed to be sold to German software company SAP for $3.4 billion. SuccessFactors makes software specializing in human resources tasks. The deal is part of SAP's plan to compete with software rival Oracle Corp.
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'Cabin In The Woods' Trailer: Joss Whedon, Chris Hemsworth Bring The Scares
That noise you're hearing is millions of Joss Whedon fans from across the universe yelling "FINALLY!" all at once.
It has taken years for the Whedon co-written movie, "Cabin in the Woods," to finally hit screens, and after last week's teaser poster, here we have the first trailer and the most conclusive evidence yet that [...]
It has taken years for the Whedon co-written movie, "Cabin in the Woods," to finally hit screens, and after last week's teaser poster, here we have the first trailer and the most conclusive evidence yet that [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/05/cabin-in-the-woods-trailer/
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Dominican-Haitian activist Sonia Pierre dies at 48 (AP)
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic ? Sonia Pierre, a human rights activist who bravely fought discrimination against poor Dominicans of Haitian descent since she was a child, died Sunday, according to colleagues. She was 48.
The renowned activist died outside of the municipality of Villa Altagracia while being rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack around noon Sunday, said Genaro Rincon, a lawyer who works with Pierre's Dominican-Haitian Women's Movement.
Pierre's chronic heart troubles were first discovered in 2007 when she was in Washington to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award honoring her work securing citizenship and education for Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.
Through the decades, her activism made her the target of threats in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but it earned her recognition from overseas as a fierce defender of human rights, including an award from Amnesty International in 2003.
Pierre was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-floor barrack in a Dominican migrant worker camp and was just 13 when she was first arrested and threatened with deportation for leading her fellow Dominican residents of Haitian descent in a march for cane cutters' rights.
Since then, Pierre tirelessly fought to secure citizenship and education for the beleaguered minority of Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.
"She was like a sister to me," said Edwin Paraison, executive director of the Zile Foundation, a Haitian group that tries to improve relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. "The Haitian community has lost someone who was a huge advocate in the fight for Haitian rights."
An estimated 500,000 to 1 million ethnic Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, many in isolated village slums that dot the countryside. Most of those born in the Dominican Republic are descendants of Haitians who crossed the border fleeing violence or seeking economic opportunity.
When she won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2007, Pierre denounced what she said were "massive abuses" in the Dominican Republic against people of Haitian descent, particularly children.
"They suffer discrimination from the moment they are born," she said during the award ceremony in the U.S. Senate. "The authorities refuse to recognize them as Dominicans."
While Haiti has been plagued by poverty, violence and political instability, its eastern neighbor, with a population of more than 9 million, grew out of its own early struggles to be seen as a comparative land of opportunity even as many Haitian migrants are exploited as cheap labor.
Police arrested Pierre in 1976 when she led her fellow Haitian-Dominican neighbors in a march to demand rights for those who cut sugar cane. She was jailed for a day and threatened with deportation to Haiti, where her mother was born.
"I was crying because I didn't know anyone in Haiti," Pierre once recalled.
Her advocacy also has made her and her family targets in the Dominican Republic. She was once chased out of her Santo Domingo office by a man waving a pistol. She was also punched at a stop light by another man who told her, "I know who you are."
Pierre insisted she was trying to help her people and not malign the Dominican Republic. "I am not a critic of my country, and this is my country," she said. "I am a critic of my government."
Paraison, a former minister of Haitians living abroad, said Pierre is survived by three children.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Clinton pledges continued support to Afghanistan (AP)
BONN, Germany ? The United States and other nations vowed Monday to keep supporting Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave the country in 2014, as the nation faces an enduring Taliban-led insurgency and possible financial collapse.
"The United States is prepared to stand with the Afghan people for the long haul," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a global conference on Afghanistan's future that was overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan.
The international community has "much to lose if the country again becomes a source of terrorism and instability," she added.
The Bonn conference is focused on the transfer of security responsibilities from international forces to Afghan security forces during the next three years, long-term prospects for international aid and a possible political settlement with the Taliban.
Clinton stressed that in return for continued support the Afghans must live up to their commitments "on taking difficult decisions to embrace reform, lead in their own defense and strengthen an inclusive democracy rooted in the rule of law."
About 100 countries and international organizations are represented among the 1,000 conference delegates, including some 60 foreign ministers. The attendees are hoping to agree on a set of mutual binding commitments under which Afghanistan would promise reforms and work toward goals such as good governance, with donors and international organizations pledging long-term assistance in return to ensure the country's viability beyond 2014.
"Together we have spent blood and treasure in fighting terrorism," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said. "Your continued solidarity, your commitment and support will be crucial so that we can consolidate our gains and continue to address the challenges that remain. We will need your steadfast support for at least another decade."
Afghanistan is economically dependent on foreign aid and spending related to the huge military presence, currently totaling about 130,000 international troops. The country seeks assurance that donor nations will help fill the gap after most forces leave by 2015.
Although donor nations will not commit to specific figures at the one-day session Monday, they will sign up to the principle that economic and other advances in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban government in 2001 should be safeguarded with continued funding.
Afghanistan estimates it will need outside contributions of roughly $10 billion in 2015, or slightly less than half the country's annual gross national product, mostly to pay for its security forces, then slated to number about 350,000.
Pakistan is a central player in regional efforts to improve trade and strengthen its weak economies. But its boycott has cast a pall over the session, because it points out that nation's influence in Afghanistan and its ability to play the spoiler.
Pakistan is seen as instrumental to ending the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan because of its links to militant groups and its unwillingness, from the U.S. and NATO perspective, to drive insurgents from safe havens on its soil where they regroup and rearm.
Pakistan canceled its participation to protest last month's NATO air assault, carried out from Afghan territory, that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The deaths fed the popular perspective in Pakistan that the U.S. and NATO, not the Taliban, are Pakistan's principal enemies.
"No one is more interested than the United States in getting to the bottom of what happened in the border incident," Clinton said with an edge in her voice. She has called the deaths tragic and pledged a thorough investigation, but Pakistan rebuffed her entreaties, as recently as Saturday, to reconsider and attend the conference.
Pakistan's army accused NATO of a "deliberate act of aggression," an assertion the Pentagon hotly denied. Pakistan has received billions in U.S. aid since 2001, largely in expectation of cooperation against militants.
Afghanistan's western neighbor Iran joined the conference, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the country stands ready to support Afghanistan and "welcomes the departure of the international military," condemning the idea of any bases remaining after 2014.
The U.S. is currently seeking an agreement with the Afghan government establishing operating rules for the small number of remaining U.S. forces and other issues after international forces withdraw.
"Any international or regional peace initiative to restore peace and security in Afghanistan can only be successful if it discards the presence of foreign military forces," Salehi said.
The U.S. had once hoped to use the Bonn gathering to announce news about the prospect for peace talks with the Taliban, making it a showcase for political reconciliation, but Afghan and U.S. outreach efforts have not borne fruit and no prominent Taliban representatives were attending the conference.
The reconciliation efforts suffered a major setback after the September assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading the Afghan government's effort to broker peace with the insurgents.
The final declaration of the Bonn conference is expected to outline broad principles for political reconciliation with the Taliban, a project that several leading participants in the conference increasingly predict will outlast the NATO timeline for withdrawal in 2014.
"The road ahead will remain stony and difficult. It will require endurance and tenacity," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.
Violence in Afghanistan is up sharply this year, and has spread to the once-peaceful north of the country. And widespread corruption is bedeviling attempts to create a viable Afghan government and institutions to take over when the U.S. and NATO leave.
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Westwood takes 7-shot lead at Sun City after 62
Lee Westwood of England and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa walking on the 8th during the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa on Friday Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo)
Lee Westwood of England and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa walking on the 8th during the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa on Friday Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo)
SUN CITY, South Africa (AP) ? Defending champion Lee Westwood shot 10-under 62 Saturday to take a seven-shot lead at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
The No. 3-ranked Westwood produced the best round under normal rules at the Sun City tournament, reeling off 10 birdies for a 16-under 200 at the $5 million invitational event.
After Padraig Harrington's 61 in 2001 ? when players were allowed to clean and place their ball because of wet weather ? Westwood's performance was the lowest score in the 30 years of the Nedbank Challenge.
The Englishman picked up eight shots on overnight leader Graeme McDowell (70), who shared second at 9 under with Robert Karlsson (69).
Westwood didn't drop a shot in a third-round performance that topped the second-round 64 he shot here last year to set up an eight-stroke win.
He left the top-ranked player, the No. 4-ranked player, two current major champions and one former major winner all trailing in his wake.
Westwood had three birdies in a row from No. 2 and three more in succession through the turn. He finished by picking up four more shots on Nos. 14 through 17.
Westwood made birdies on each of the four par-5s and his score would have been even lower had he holed one of the four eagle putts he had on those long holes.
"If you ask me now (about) the poor shots I hit in the round, I probably could not tell you one," Westwood said. "I hit it over the flag or right where I was aiming all day. It was as good as I've played in a long time."
McDowell ? the 2010 U.S. Open winner ? had an eagle, three birdies, a bogey and a double-bogey to share second with Karlsson, who carded his third straight 69 at Gary Player Country Club.
American Jason Dufner returned a 70 after dropping a shot on No. 18. The Nedbank Challenge rookie was tied for fourth with No. 4-ranked Martin Kaymer, who also shot 70 with five birdies, a bogey and a double-bogey.
But none of the 12-man field ? which also features top-ranked Luke Donald, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and British Open winner Darren Clarke ? could come close to the consistent brilliance of Westwood.
"It is great that it is a strong field this week, but you do not go in thinking about that at the start of the week," Westwood said. "I enjoy playing this golf course. It is one of my favorites and you get what you deserve. It all went to plan."
Donald was unable to launch a challenge as he was pulled back by bogeys early and late in his round to go with four birdies. He shot 70 for a 5-under 211 for eighth place, 11 shots off the pace.
South Korea's Kyung-tae Kim and South African Schwartzel shared sixth at 6 under, a shot ahead of Donald.
England's Simon Dyson (75) Denmark's Anders Hansen (77) and Clarke, who shot 76 after a 69 on Friday, dropped to 3 over.
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Iran says it shot down U.S. spy plane (Politico)
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran?s armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country?s eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.
An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country?s airspace by American drone aircraft.
Continue Reading?An advanced RQ170 unmanned American spy plane was shot down by Iran?s armed forces. It suffered minor damage and is now in possession of Iran?s armed forces,? IRNA quoted the official as saying.
No further details were published.
Iran is locked in a dispute with the United States and its allies over Tehran?s disputed nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that it seeks to generate electricity and produce isotopes to treat medical patients.
Iran said in January that two pilotless spy planes it had shot down over its airspace were operated by the United States and offered to put them on public display.
The Islamic Republic holds frequent military drills, primarily to assert an ability to defend against a potential U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.
Tehran has focused part of its military strategy on producing drones for reconnaissance and attacking purposes.
Iran announced three years ago it had built an unmanned aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles, far enough to reach Israel.
Ahmadinejad unveiled Iran?s first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft in August 2010, calling it an ?ambassador of death? to Iran?s enemies.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Biden calls for openness to create business climate ? CNN Political ...
(CNN) - On a visit to Turkey, Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday called for increased openness around the world, arguing that political and social freedoms create economic opportunities.
Biden spoke at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted in Istanbul, whose goal is to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate innovation and private enterprise.
FULL STORYSource: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/03/biden-calls-for-openness-to-create-business-climate/
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Central banks move to stabilize financial system (AP)
FRANKFURT, Germany ? The central banks of the wealthiest countries, trying to prevent a debt crisis in Europe from exploding into a global panic, swept in Wednesday to shore up the world financial system by making it easier for banks to borrow American dollars.
Stock markets around the world roared their approval. The Dow Jones industrial average rose almost 500 points, its best day in two and a half years. Stocks climbed 5 percent in Germany and more than 4 percent in France.
Central banks will make it cheaper for commercial banks in their countries to borrow dollars, the dominant currency of trade. It was the most extraordinary coordinated effort by the central banks since they cut interest rates together in October 2008, at the depths of the financial crisis.
But while it should ease borrowing for banks, it does little to solve the underlying problem of mountains of government debt in Europe, leaving markets still waiting for a permanent fix. European leaders gather next week for a summit on the debt crisis.
The European Central Bank, which has been reluctant to intervene to stop the growing crisis on its own continent, was joined in the decision by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland.
"The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity," the central banks said in a joint statement.
China, which has the largest economy in the world after the European Union and the United States, reduced the amount of money its banks are required to hold in reserve, another attempt to free up cash for lending.
The display of worldwide coordination was meant to restore confidence in the global financial system and to demonstrate that central banks will do what they can to prevent a repeat of 2008.
That fall, fear gripped the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a storied American investment house. Banks around the world severely restricted lending to each other. The global credit freeze panicked investors and triggered a crash in stock markets.
In October 2008, the ECB, the Fed and other central banks cut interest rates together. That action, like Wednesday's, was a signal from the central banks to the financial markets that they would be players, not spectators.
This year, investors have been nervously watching Europe to see whether they should take the same approach and dump stocks. World stock markets have been unusually volatile since summer.
The European crisis, which six months ago seemed focused on the relatively small economy of Greece, now threatens the existence of the euro, the common currency used by 17 countries in Europe.
There have also been signs, particularly in Europe, that it is becoming more difficult to borrow money, especially as U.S. money market funds lend less money to banks in the euro nations because of perceived risk from the debt crisis.
European banks cut business loans by 16 percent in the third quarter. And no one knows how much European banks will lose on their massive holdings of bonds of heavily indebted countries. Until the damage is clear, banks are reluctant to lend.
Banks are also being pressed by European governments to increase their buffers against possible losses. That helps stabilize the banking system but reduces the amount of money available to lend to businesses.
"European banks are having trouble borrowing in general, including in dollars," said Joseph Gagnon, a former Fed official and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "The Fed did the Europeans a favor."
Foreign central banks are reducing by half a percentage point, to about 0.6 percent, the rate they charge commercial banks for dollar loans. Commercial banks need dollars because it is the No. 1 currency for international trade. The lower rate is designed to get credit flowing again.
To get the dollars to lend, central banks go to the Fed and exchange their currency for dollars under a special swap program. Foreign central banks pay the Fed whatever interest they earn from commercial banks.
The Fed had offered dollar swaps from December 2007, when world financial markets were weakening because of fear about subprime mortgages, until February 2010. It reopened the program in May 2010, as European debt concerns grew, and planned to end it Aug. 1, 2012. On Wednesday, the Fed extended the program to Feb. 1, 2013.
If it all works, the market rates on dollar loans will drop, and stock and bond markets will calm down.
"It shows that policymakers are on the case," said Roberto Perli, managing director at the International Strategy & Investment Group, an investment firm. He said it has symbolic value even if it does not have a big impact on credit markets.
The decision to cut the interest charged on the dollar swaps was taken by the Federal Reserve following a videoconference held by Fed officials on Monday morning. The Fed's policy-setting panel approved it 9-1. The president of the Fed's regional bank in Richmond, Va., voted no.
In New York, the stock market jumped at the opening bell and added to its gains throughout the day. It finished up 490.05 points, its seventh-largest one-day gain and its best since March 23, 2009, two weeks after the stock market's post-meltdown low.
Wednesday's advance also swung the Dow from a loss for the year to a gain. It closed at 12,045.68, its first close above 12,000 since Nov. 15.
Stocks closed 5 percent higher in Germany, 4.2 percent in France and 3.2 percent in Britain. European stocks had posted big gains earlier this week because investors saw hope that countries would settle on an attempted fix for the European debt crisis.
Stock markets in Asia, which closed before the central banks announced their move, finished lower for the day. The statement came out at 8 a.m., in the middle of the European trading day and an hour and a half before the market opened in New York.
Borrowing costs for countries across Europe fell, an encouraging sign. The yield on benchmark 10-year national bonds dropped 0.32 percentage points in Belgium. It also fell in Spain, France and Germany.
The yield on 10-year Italian bonds fell 0.08 points to 7.01 percent. The 7 percent level is significant because it is considered the point at which a country's borrowing costs become unsustainable. Yields above that level forced Ireland, Portugal and Greece to seek bailouts.
In the U.S., the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.08 percent from 2 percent late Tuesday. That showed investors were willing to take money out of assets considered super-safe, such as U.S. government debt, and invest it in riskier assets like stocks.
It is also a sign of increased confidence in the U.S. economy, which is beginning to pick up after it faltered in the spring and summer. It grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in July, August and September, the strongest since late last year.
It will take more than that to bring down unemployment in the U.S., which has been stuck at about 9 percent for more than two years, but the U.S. has added jobs for 13 months in a row. The government's next read on unemployment comes out Friday.
In Europe, countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy overspent for years and racked up annual budget deficits that have left them with backbreaking debt. Italy alone owes euro1.9 trillion, or 120 percent of what its economy produces in a year.
The ECB extends unlimited short-term loans to banks. It cannot lend directly to governments, including by buying their national bonds. It can, however, buy national bonds on the secondary market, lowering borrowing costs for governments.
The ECB has resisted expanding even this indirect support because it believes that would take the pressure off politicians to cut spending and reform government finances, a concern known as moral hazard.
European leaders are considering other options, including creating a fiscal union ? giving a central authority control over the budgets of sovereign nations. That would ease the ECB's concerns.
The ECB has also worried that injecting too much money into the European economy would trigger inflation.
The coordinated action was a demonstration of how interconnected the world financial system is, and that the debt loads of countries like Italy and Greece are everyone else's problem, too.
Germany's economy depends heavily on exports, and if economic output in the rest of Europe collapses, the people of smaller countries couldn't buy as many German goods.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States depends on Europe for 20 percent of its own exports. And investors in American banks have worried about their holdings of European debt.
Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency, lowered its rating at least one notch Tuesday for the four largest banks in the U.S. ? Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
China, one of the only places in the world where the economy is growing quickly, needs the U.S. and Europe both to stay healthy. Growth in Chinese exports has declined from 36 percent in March compared with the year before to 16 percent in October.
China will reduce the amount of money that its commercial lenders must hold in reserve by 0.5 percentage points of their deposits. It was the first easing of Chinese monetary policy in three years.
___
Wiseman reported from Washington. AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed from Washington.
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