More than 320 Shiites have been killed this year in Pakistan and attacks are on the rise, which suggests the government is 'indifferent,' according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
By Jibran Ahmad,?Reuters / December 30, 2012
People mourn the deaths of suicide attack victims at a funeral in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Nov. 22. A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing nearly two dozen people in a series of bombings targeting Shiites during the holiest month of the year for the sect, officials said.
B.K. Bangash/AP
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Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 41 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups.
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The United States has long pressured nuclear-armed ally Pakistan to crack down harder on both homegrown militants groups such as the Taliban and others which are based on its soil and attack Western forces in Afghanistan.
In the north, 21 men working for a government-backed paramilitary force were executed overnight after they were kidnapped last week, a provincial official said.
Twenty Shiite pilgrims died and 24 were wounded, meanwhile, when a car bomb targeted their bus convoy as it headed toward the Iranian border in the southwest, a doctor said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shiites killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government's failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was "indifferent" to the killings.
Pakistan, seen as critical to US efforts to stabilize the region before NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, denies allegations that it supports militant groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.
Afghan officials say Pakistan seems more genuine than ever about promoting peace in Afghanistan.
At home, it faces a variety of highly lethal militant groups that carry out suicide bombings, attack police and military facilities and launch sectarian attacks like the one on the bus in the southwest.
Witnesses said a blast targeted their three buses as they were overtaking a car about 60 km (35 miles) west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province.
"The bus next to us caught on fire immediately," said pilgrim Hussein Ali. "We tried to save our companions, but were driven back by the intensity of the heat."
Twenty people had been killed and 24 wounded, said an official at Mastung district hospital.
Concern about extremist Sunni groups
International attention has focused on Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.
But Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist Sunni groups, lead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are emerging as a major destabilizing force in a campaign designed to topple the government.
Their strategy now, the officials say, is to carry out attacks on Shi'ites to create the kind of sectarian tensions that pushed countries like Iraq to the brink of civil war.
As elections scheduled for next year approach, Pakistanis will be asking what sort of progress their leaders have made in the fight against militancy and a host of other issues, such as poverty, official corruption and chronic power cuts.
Pakistan's Taliban have carried out a series of recent bold attacks, as military officials point to what they say is a power struggle in the group's leadership revolving around whether it should ease attacks on the Pakistani state and join groups fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan.
The Taliban denies a rift exists among its leaders.
In the attack in the northwest, officials said they had found the bodies of 21 men kidnapped from their checkpoints outside the provincial capital of Peshawar on Thursday. The men were executed one by one.
"They were tied up and blindfolded," Naveed Anwar, a senior administration official, said by telephone.
"They were lined up and shot in the head," said Habibullah Arif, another local official, also by telephone.
One man was shot and seriously wounded but survived, the officials said. He was in critical condition and being treated at a local hospital. Another had escaped before the shootings.
Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn't make any demand for their release because we don't spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting," he said.
The powerful military has clawed back territory from the Taliban, but the kidnap and executions underline the insurgents' ability to mount high-profile, deadly attacks in major cities.
This month, suicide bombers attacked Peshawar's airport on Dec. 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on Dec. 22.
My husband and I think we?ve found a way to pay off our mortgage early, without taking on an extra job or working nights. We?ve decided to construct a rental unit ? a ?mother-in-law suite? ? within our home. If it pans out as we hope, the rental income will let us pay off our loan 10 years early. And who knows: It could give us a chance to live closer to family as we, or they, get on in years.
Jason and I are not alone; lots of folks across the country are experimenting with adding a second (or third) dwelling to an existing single-family home. And in perhaps the most interesting development, more and more people are choosing to buck the ?bigger is better? trend in North American housing. They?re taking small spaces ? backyards, side lots, or freestanding garages ? and using them to build tiny houses.
Ranging from 800 square feet to less than 100 square feet ? a far cry from the 1,000 square feet per person that has become the North American norm ? these ?doll houses? take many shapes and sizes. And the people who live in them are as diverse as the homes themselves. Some hope to save money on housing; others hope to ?live green? by choosing a smaller space; some are trading living space for a neighborhood they love; and others want to live closer to family or friends.
Here are some of their stories.
Jay Shafer, a founding father of the tiny home movement and a co-owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company,?told the BBC: ?People are thinking more about what really is a luxury now. Is it a 30-year mortgage, or is it just living simply and having the time to do more of what you want? And I think a lot of people are starting to really change their idea of the American Dream.?
Dee Williams decided to rethink her American Dream after building a school in Guatemala and having a close friend get cancer made her reevaluate her priorities. ?He was getting sicker and sicker, and I didn?t have the time or the money to really throw myself into helping him. I was spending a lot of time and money on my house. So the house was the easiest thing to try to get rid of,? Williams told?Yes! magazine. So?she sold her 1,500-square-foot Portland home?and built an 84-square-foot tiny home for $10,000. Now she lives without a mortgage, giving her the time and money to invest in her friends and community.
Akua Schatz and Brendon Purdy?s dream was to live near relatives, but they couldn?t afford a home in Vancouver, B.C.?s Dunbar neighborhood. Instead of moving to the suburbs, they decided to build a 500-square-foot laneway home in Purdy?s parents? backyard. In a city where the?average home price is $725,086, Schatz and Purdy spent $280,000 to build their home.
Mini HomeSchatz and Purdy?s laneway home; view from the alley.
There?s another plus to their backyard home: Schatz and Purdy have babysitters just feet away from their front door. ?It?s really a North American concept to have success tied to moving away or distancing yourself, so maybe we?re reinventing what it means to be successful, and that means keeping family close,? Schatz suggests in?this video from CTV news.
Build SmallThe laneway home sits in the backyard of Purdy?s parents? home.
But unlike Schatz and Purdy, who plan to eventually switch places with Purdy?s parents and live in the larger home as their family grows, Jon and Ryah Dietzen moved from their 1,500-square-foot home to a 400-square-foot cottage with two toddlers. They made the move for its financial freedom, but the benefits didn?t stop there. ?We realized after a few months how much time, freedom, and peace we were gaining by not collecting and spending our time taking care of more ?stuff,?? Jon Dietzen told me. By choosing a smaller house, they found a better balance between work and home life.
Royce TillotsonThe Dietzens remodeled a garage into a cottage. Here is the ?before? shot.Royce TillotsonA view of the remodeled space.
The Dietzens prove that tiny homes can work even for a family of four, and that they?re not just for couples, seniors, or singles.
Royce TillotsonA lot in a small space: kitchen island, living room, and a bedroom behind a curtain.
Small homes combat neighborhood decline brought on by shrinking household sizes. Adding people can revitalize a neighborhood, allowing schools to stay open, giving neighborhood businesses more customers, making transit service cost-effective, and saving on infrastructure costs. Infilling neighborhoods with backyard cottages helps add more people to a neighborhood, without altering its character.
As homeowners build small dwellings, they provide lower-cost housing within the existing fabric of their neighborhood, with no government support necessary. Vancouver?s planning director, Brent Toderian,?sees this?as the essential value of the trend towards small homes: ?[It?s] about ordinary people. Thousands of individual homeowners can do it, one by one by one. It?s publicly propelled, not corporate-propelled, densification. It?s gradual. It?s discreet. It?s green.?
Now that many cities have figured out backyard cottage rules, they face a new challenge: dealing with homes even tinier than the typical accessory dwelling. Some cities? regulations set minimum size requirements for dwellings. Others say a recreational vehicle can?t count as an accessory dwelling unit, which means ?you can camp in your little house, but not live in it,??writes Dee Williams. Tiny houser Lina Menard suggests that ?people should have the right to a tiny house as long as it accommodates their needs and desires.? But for people to exercise that right, cities will have to rethink the zoning rules that stand in the way of tiny homes.
Lina MenardLina Menard with her possessions, sitting outside a tiny home she lived in for 10 months. Lina MenardMenard?s tiny home includes a sleeping loft that she shares with her cat, Raffi.
After a year in a 120-square-foot tiny home, Menard has a good idea of how to live well in a small space. ?I think one of the biggest lessons I?ve learned is that I?m much happier when I live with just the things I like best. My relationship to stuff has shifted dramatically over the past year and a half. I?m much less materialistic than I used to be. But I really appreciate the little touches, too. It?s not about deprivation, but about intention,? Menard told me.
She recognizes that tiny-home living isn?t for everyone, but thinks there?s a way to broaden its appeal: the ?cohousing? model, where tiny homes would be coupled with shared kitchens, laundry facilities, guest rooms, and even amenities like barbeques, workshops, and gardens. ?Tiny cohousing would just push the envelope,??Menard writes in her blog. ?People who lived in a tiny house community would have?access?to all these things, but they wouldn?t have to?own?all these things themselves,? Menard explains.
Lina MenardA view down from the sleeping loft into Menard?s main living space.
Eli Spevak, owner of Orange Splot, LLC, has developed several innovative housing projects in Portland. ?My goal is to keep modeling new ways of providing affordable, community-oriented houses,? Spevak told?The Oregonian.
The Sabin Green cohousing community brings Spevak?s goals to fruition. Sabin Green includes four homes, built on a 75-by-100-foot lot. The lot had a single-family home and detached garage. The single-family home remains, but the detached garage was converted into a 600-square-foot cottage. A second home and a 600-square-foot accessory dwelling were built as well. The four homes face onto a central courtyard, but they also have access to shared gardens, a community room with space for visitors, and a bike storage shed. The sharing doesn?t stop with physical improvements: Residents also use just one internet service, share a newspaper subscription, and meet for weekly dinners.
Eli SpevakSabin Green before its transformation.The new view from the street.
The project is home to a diverse group, including a young couple, retirees, a single woman, and a small family. Residents Laura Ford and Josh Devine paid just under $150,000 for their 530-square-foot home. They downsized from a 700-square-foot apartment, but see the loss of square footage as worth the cost. ?If you live by yourself, you might not be able to afford the brick plaza, the teahouse, the gardens,? Devine told?The Oregonian.
Eli SpevakThe detached garage was converted into a separate residence.Steve HambuchenThe back deck from one Sabin Green home shows the view into the shared courtyard.
Ruth?s Garden Cottages ? covered by Sightline?here ? takes tiny-home communities to another level. On a 50-by-100-foot lot in Northeast Portland that housed one small dwelling,?Orange Splot added two tiny cottages, each less than 200 square feet in size. The miniature structures have room for a sleeping loft, a bathroom, and a well-proportioned front porch. The cottages make use of the kitchen in the main home. A shared garden takes up the front 50 feet of the lot.
Mike O?BrienThe view of Ruth?s Cottages from the street. Mike O?BrienThe main house contains a full kitchen that all Ruth?s Cottages residents can use, but the cottages also have modest kitchen facilities for quick snacks. Eli SpevakFront porches and a common courtyard provide outdoor living ?rooms.?
The?recession and housing crisis, combined with?changing demographics, have led many of us to reevaluate what we want in a home. More and more folks are looking for homes within walking distance of jobs, stores, and transit ? and have proven willing to trade square footage for a vibrant neighborhood. At the same time, millennials increasingly look for alternatives to the car; baby boomers have reached the age where they don?t need a big home in the ?burbs; and more and more families are choosing to live in?multi-generational households.
Tiny houses are a great solution for all these needs. So whether you are a?recent graduate wanting to be free from high rent, or?a family looking to live without a mortgage, or you want to turn your detached garage into a mother-in-law suite, a small home might be for you. As Marcus Barksdale, who built his own small home in Asheville, N.C.,?said in this interview: ?It would be really neat if more people sought to have smaller spaces, because it would free them up for a larger life.?
Many people decide to school they children at home because of inadequacies they see in modern public schools. But there are some downfalls to homeschooling that must also be avoided. You should read this article if you are considering homeschooling your children.
Planning your meals in advance will definitely help your schedule. Being prepared will let you to focus on teaching your child and not have to worry about what?s for dinner.
As a homeschool educator, don?t allow the educational guides and textbooks to limit the scope of your teaching. Your books and your curriculum should guide you in the right direction. Utilize them as aids to help illustrate your own well-crafted lessons to the children you teach. In the end, that is the true beauty of home-based education.
TIP! You can easily burn yourself out with chores on top of your homeschooling. Do not hesitate to recruit your partner in helping with the chores, and if you can afford it, hire help from the outside.
If you have very young toddlers as well as those in school, you have to ensure that the toddlers have activities too. Carefully select some toys, art supplies and activities to coordinate with the lessons your other children are learning. This will allow them to feel a part of the group.
Be cognizant of your budget for homeschooling. This will help you to allot resources efficiently, while reducing your expenses. You need to have separate accounts for each child. Remember to give a little wiggle room as expenses can change and errors can be made.
There are lots of new things to learn about homeschooling. You can go online and find groups for parents who school their children at home. They can offer valuable advice, tips and tricks that you can use in your own curriculum. Networking with other homeschoolers with the same goals and objectives as your own is a valuable resource.
TIP! You can be creative in the ways you allow your children to get together with others Public schools provide natural opportunities to socialize, and you must think outside the box to replicate that. Go on field trips with other homeschool groups.
Encourage independent learning. It?s appropriate to offer guidance, but the point is not for you to do the work. That responsibility should be left entirely to your child. They will know what they need to do if you outline it for them and give them timelines for completion. Independence is learned this way, as well as confidence in their abilities. They will also learn the impact of goofing off instead of focusing if free time is lost because of it.
See if you can?t team-up with other like minded parents in the area who are also homeschooling their kids. Your child can get a lot of good social interaction by being in a small group on a regular basis. You can also use this as an opportunity to leave your home.
Do a comparison list of your feelings regarding homeschooling and traditional schooling. If you felt your children were not receiving everything they needed at public school, this comparison can assist you in covering those missing items. You will have essentially created a checklist of things to concentrate on and things to avoid. Keep the list handy to allow yourself to reference it whenever necessary.
TIP! Be prepared to do research for topics you don?t know enough about. You can educate yourself by reading your child?s textbooks, researching things online, and even asking others.
The best teachers are honest with themselves about their shortcomings. A lot of people who homeschool want to skip topics they feel that they are weak with. This will affect your children?s education, so it?s not a good idea. If you?re feeling deficient in some areas in the main curriculum, try to hire a tutor or trade with another parent that homeschools.
Pick a room in the house that you want to teach your child. Allowing them complete freedom throughout the home can lead to many distractions. By having a designated classroom, you can help your child remain on task.
Homeschooled children may be getting a great education, but it takes effort to ensure they also get enough socialization. Organize play dates with families and friends who have children. Bring your children to the park so they can play with other kids. Find some sport teams, clubs and organizations for your child.
TIP! Homeschooling can offer a child a lot. There is a huge advantage to teaching at home, rather than sending your child to an often overcrowded and typically underfunded public learning facility.
You need to know all you can about homeschooling before you start out. Set a workable schedule and use teaching methods that work for your child?s learning style.
High schoolers who are homeschooled must focus on passing their GED tests. Address your child?s weak areas by having them take a mock GED and then tailoring your lessons to the subjects in which he does poorly. You will be able to work on any tough spots.
Do you have trouble teaching your children something? Try a different approach. Sometimes you need to teach them in a different manner, such as by seeing it happening, hearing it or even tasting something related. Children do not learn the same way, and when you try a different approach, learning may become easier.
TIP! An online blog is something that your child can benefit from significantly. You?re going to teach them to write anyway, and a blog is the perfect learning tool.
Sometimes home schooling is a tense situation for children and parents who are spending such a tremendous amount of time together. Focus on keeping school issues at school and home issues at home. If things happen to become particularly tense, you have the flexibility to take a break. You will both benefit from this.
Look into the homeschooling laws of your state. Different states have different guidelines regarding how you are expected to homeschool. You might have to do standardized testing, but some states won?t require it. Some states go so far as to expect parents to register as a school.
You can begin to see from this article that homeschooling is a viable option. Apply the tips you just read and prepare yourself before you start homeschooling your children. Remember that your goal is to provide your children with an excellent education.
TIP! Socialization is often a sticking point for homeschooling parents. However, the opportunity to socialize is still open to all homeschoolers.
There is plenty to learn about free lead system. Luckily for you, you have found the best wisdom in this article. Although there is more free lead system information you want to learn, this article should have answered some of your questions.
Whenever I get a new issue of Cooking Light, I pore over it and pick out at least a half dozen recipes that I want to make. However, I love that I can also access old recipes online from the days long?before I was reading Cooking Light. This recipe was a find from the online Cooking Light archives, all the way back to 2005, when all I knew about food and cooking was that I showed up in the university dining hall a few times a day to be fed! I was looking for a recipe that used chicken sausage and came across this ragout (aka stew). It turns out Cooking Light was using kale way before it was trendy! This tastes healthy, and IS healthy, making it a good recipe as we move past the holidays and try to get back to balanced eating. That being said, make sure you add a hefty amount of fresh parmesan to each bowl--it added a necessary burst of flavor! One Year Ago: Slow Cooker Chicken and Barley Stew Two Years Ago: Chicken Sausage and Apple Strata Three Years Ago: Gingerbread Pancakes Slow Cooker White Bean and Sausage Ragout with Tomatoes, Kale, and Zucchini adapted from Cooking Light January 2005 Ingredients: -1 onion, chopped -4 links chicken sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices -2 zucchini, quartered and cut into 1/2-inchs lices -3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed -6 cups chopped, trimmed kale -1/2 cup water -2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained -2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained -1/4 tsp salt -1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper -freshly grated parmesan, for serving
Directions: 1. Add all ingredients to a slow cooker and stir to mix combine. 2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until warmed through. Serve with shredded parmesan.
Stocks?tumbled for a fifth day as a 'fiscal cliff' deal goes unfulfilled in Washington.?Despite the fiscal gridlock in Washington, major stock indexes are holding on to gains for the year.
By Steve Rothwell,?AP Business Writer / December 28, 2012
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday.. Stocks dropped Friday, for a fifth day, on concern that Washington lawmakers will fail to reach a budget deal before a year-end deadline.
Seth Wenig/AP
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Stocks?fell for a fifth day on concern that Washington lawmakers will fail to reach a budget deal before a self-imposed year-end deadline.
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The five-day losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average was the longest since July.
The Dow dropped 158.20 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,938.11 points, with losses accelerating in the last 20 minutes of trading as reports circulated that President Barack Obama would not be making a new budget proposal in a meeting with congressional leaders.
The Standard & Poor 500 index fell 15.67 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,402.43, its longest losing streak in three months, and the Nasdaq dropped 25.59 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,960.31.
"The reality, late in the day, is that a deal is just not going to get done," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical strategist at Schaeffer Investment Research. "We could be greeted by a big sell-off at the start of January."
President Barack Obama returned from a Christmas break in Hawaii to meet with congressional leaders at the White House to try thrash out the terms of a deal that would prevent across-the-board tax increases for millions of Americans as well as simultaneous government spending cuts beginning Jan. 1. Those measures, if implemented, could push the economy back into recession, economists say.
Stocks?closed lower Thursday but erased most of an early loss after Republicans said they would reconvene the House of Representatives Sunday in hopes of piecing together a last-minute budget deal.
Traders have been focusing on Washington, and the budget negotiations, since the Nov. 6 presidential election returned a divided government to power.
"I can't wait till this is done, so we can start talking about markets again and not just about politics," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management. Cote doesn't expect lawmakers will manage to reach a deal before the deadline and says that when people assess the extent of tax increases on the way, "the market is going reel."
Cote also expects slowing earnings growth to hit?stocks.
Despite the fiscal gridlock in Washington, major?stock?indexes are holding on to gains for the year. The Dow is up 5.9 percent, the S&P 500 index is 11.5 percent higher and the Nasdaq is up 13.6 percent.
Stocks?rose in 2012 on optimism that a housing market recovery, coupled with an improving job market, will support economic growth. The Federal Reserve has also extended its bond purchasing program, which is intended to lower borrowing costs and encourage spending and investment.
Stocks?declined despite reports that suggested the outlook for the economy is improving.
A measure of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes increased last month to its highest level in two and a half years, the latest sign of improvement in the once-battered housing market. The National Association of Realtors said Friday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose to its highest since April 2010.
The Institute of Supply Management's Chicago-area purchasing managers index for December came in at 51.6, beating estimates for a gain to 51.
Bond prices rose as investors moved money into defensive investments. The yield on the benchmark rise 10-year Treasury note, which falls when bond prices rise, dropped to 1.70 percent from 1.75 percent late Thursday.
Among?stocks?making moves:
Hewlett-Packard fell 36 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $13.68 after the computer and printer maker said the Department of Justice is investigating H-P's business software unit Autonomy. H-P bought Autonomy for $10 billion in 2011 and has accused the company's former management of fudging its accounting before the acquisition. H-P has lost almost half its market value this year, making it the biggest decliner among the 30stocks?in the Dow average.
Barnes and Noble rose 62 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $14.97 after the U.K. publishing and education company Pearson said it is making an $89.5 million investment in the company's Nook Media division, as the two companies look to make a bigger digital push into the education sector.
Apple's supply chain has clearly sprung a leak since Steve Jobs' passing: Every few months, it seems, a rumor or report from unnamed sources at this or that supplier makes the rounds. The current rumor is that Apple is hard at work at its next innovation -- and it's not a television set or a smart remote control. Instead, it is a watch.
MOSCOW (AP) ? The United Nations envoy for Syria warned Saturday that the country's civil war could plunge the entire region in chaos by sending an unbearable stream of refugees into neighboring countries, but his talks in Moscow brought no sign of progress toward settling the crisis.
Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov both said after their meeting that the 21-month Syrian crisis can only be settled through talks, while admitting that the parties to the conflict have shown no desire for compromise. Neither hinted at a possible solution that would persuade the government and the opposition to agree to a ceasefire and sit down for talks on political transition.
Brahimi, who arrived in Moscow on one-day trip following his talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier this week, voiced concern about the escalation of the conflict, which he said is becoming "more and more sectarian."
Brahimi warned that "if you have a panic in Damascus and if you have 1 million people leaving Damascus in a panic, they can go to only two places ? Lebanon and Jordan," and that those countries could break if faced with half a million refugees.
Brahimi said that "if the only alternative is really hell or a political process, then we have got all of us to work ceaselessly for a political process."
Russia has been the main supporter of Assad's regime since the uprising began in March 2011, using its veto right at the U.N. Security Council along with China to shield its last Mideast ally from international sanctions.
Lavrov reaffirmed that Russia would continue to oppose any U.N. resolution that would call for international sanctions against Assad and open the way for a foreign intervention in Syria. And while he again emphasized that Russia "isn't holding on to Bashar Assad," he added that Moscow continues to believe that the opposition demand for his resignation as a precondition for peace talks is "counterproductive."
"The price for that precondition will be the loss of more Syrian lives," Lavrov said.
Both Brahimi and Lavrov insisted that peace efforts must be based on a peace plan approved at an international conference in Geneva in June.
The Geneva plan called for an open-ended cease-fire, a transitional government to run the country until elections, and the drafting of a new constitution, but it was a non-starter with the opposition because on Russian insistence it left the door open for Assad being part of the transition process and didn't contain any mention of possible U.N. sanctions.
Brahimi said that while some "little adjustments" could be made to the original plan, "it's a valued basis for reasonable political process."
With the opposition offensive gaining momentum, there was little hope that the initiative would have more chance for success than it had when it was approved.
Lavrov has said that Moscow is ready to talk to the main Syrian opposition group, even though it has earlier criticized the United States and other Western nations for recognizing the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
On Friday, coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib rejected the Russian invitation for talks and urged Moscow to support the opposition call for Assad's ouster. Lavrov said Saturday that al-Khatib's statement was surprising after his earlier contacts with Russian diplomats in Egypt in which they tentatively agreed on a meeting in a third country.
Lavrov argued that the coalition leader should "realize it would be in his own interests to hear our analysis directly from us."
Lavrov rejected the opposition claim that Russia's continuing weapons supplies to Assad's regime made it responsible for the massacre, saying that Moscow bears no responsibility for the Soviet-era weapons in Syrian arsenals. He said that defensive weapons like anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has continued to supply to Damascus couldn't be used in the civil war.
"We aren't providing the Syrian regime with any offensive weapons or weapons that could be used in a civil war," Lavrov said. "And we have no leverage over what the regime has got since the Soviet times."
London, Dec 29 (ANI): As fears grow that the United States is preparing to plunge over the 'fiscal cliff', billionaire investor Warren Buffett has predicted that women will save the American economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has predicted.
Worms are useful in the garden and great for fish bait, but one of their talents has remained hidden ? until now. Scientists have discovered that worms can manufacture tiny semiconductors. ?
At King's College in London, researchers fed an ordinary red worm, Lumbricus rubellus, soil laced with metals. The worm produced quantum dots, nano-sized semiconductors that are used in imaging, LED technologies and solar cells. The experiment was published in the Dec. 23 issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The worms created these electronic components because of their ability to detoxify their body tissue. When worms ingest the metals, proteins in their body shuttle these "toxins" to tissues called chloragogen cells that are similar to a liver in mammals. In the case of?cadmium, a molecule called?metallothionein attaches to it to take it away.?Through several chemical steps the worm separates the metals from the organic molecules they are attached to and stores them in tiny cavities its body, but not forever: eventually whatever toxic metals the worm eats are excreted.?
Squirmy semiconductor factories In the experiment the scientists spiked soil with cadmium chloride and sodium tellurite (sodium, telluride and oxygen). The ability of worms to process cadmium is well known, but it wasn't clear what they would do with the tellurium in the sodium tellurite.
The worms ended up making tiny particles of cadmium telluride, a crystalline compound that is also a semiconductor. Those tiny particles ? called quantum dots ? were then taken out of the worms' tissue. The dots themselves are only nanometers across. [Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Bending Findings]
In biological imaging, quantum dots are used in place of dyes because they can be "tuned" to glow at specific wavelengths. Cadmium telluride dots, for example, glow green when hit with blue light. The researchers tested the dots on animal cells and found they worked as well as the ones created in laboratories.
The success doesn't mean that thousands of worms are to be sacrificed for dot-making, said co-author Mark Green, a reader in nanotechnology at King's College.
"The interesting bit is that semiconductor quantum dots, which emit light, were made in a living animal," he told Livescience via email. "The aim of the work wasn?t to come up with a new synthetic process of making dots that are better than bench-synthesized materials, it was just to see if we could do solid-state chemistry in a living animal ? and it appears we can!"
A dotty idea Green said the idea occurred to him several years back when he was an Oxford University post-doctoral researcher. He heard a lecturer note that animals use certain proteins to get rid of toxic metals such as cadmium. Green realized he was doing something similar to make cadmium telluride quantum dots in the lab, sans worms.
He wondered if some extra chemical might spur worms to make their own cadmium telluride quantum dots.
"The big problem," he said, "was that I didn't know enough biology, and I could see immediately that trying to get the dots out of an animal would be a problem."
So Green shelved the idea for a few years, until he met Stephen St?rzenbaum, the lead author of the paper. St?rzenbaum told Green that he knew exactly where cadmium given to worms went: to the detoxifying chloragogen cells. Since the cadmium ? and thus the nanoscale dots ? would end up there, it would be relatively easy to get them out of the worm.
So they tried it. It worked.
"We were very surprised, didn't really expect it to work that easily," Green said.
The quantum dots Green and his team made aren't quite the quality of the lab-bench versions. That may change, though. "We'd like to think we can play around with some of the chemistry and make them better," Green said.
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If Chuck Hagel is nominated by President Obama to serve as Secretary of Defense, there will be at least three compelling arguments in his favor. He served with distinction in the military and would ? like Secretary of State nomineeJohn Kerry ? bring a veteran's perspective to his post. He has adopted and articulated a sane perspective on the grave foreign policy blunders whose consequences still haunt the nation, including the Iraq and Vietnam wars. And as we have learned ever since his nomination was first floated, he has made all the right (and right-wing) enemies.
Hagel is a former Republican senator from Nebraska, which means that his voting record was mostly conservative and that he has probably said many things that might offend liberal Democrats. (Already he has felt obliged to apologize for a nasty remark he once made in reaction to President Clinton's nomination of James Hormel as the first openly gay U.S. ambassador.) He is a devout Catholic and an opponent of abortion rights, and he has received poor ratings in the past from the NAACP, the ACLU and other liberal organizations.
But as a potential nominee for Secretary of Defense, Hagel is coming under far heavier fire so far from the right ? where he is being widely smeared as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic ? than from the left. The neoconservatives and their allies on the religious right cannot forgive Hagel for turning against the Iraq war and the Bush administration ? a stance that reflected his opposition to reckless warfare and his adoption of a realistic internationalism. They dislike Hagel as well for his refusal to endorse Israel's expansion of West Bank settlements and other actions that undermine the Mideast peace process; for his reluctance to promote war with Iran; and for his critical eye on Pentagon misspending and waste.
In reality, those are all valid reasons to support him. It is hard to believe that the opinions of the same people who assured us that Iraq would be a free and easy "cakewalk" are today accorded any attention whatsoever, thousands of lives and trillions of dollars later.
Yet it is equally important to emphasize that the charge of anti-Semitism against Hagel is groundless and shames those who have uttered this canard. Among those who have forthrightly denounced it are Jon Soltz, a Jewish army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and now heads Vote Vets and Jeffrey Goldberg, the "Atlantic" magazine blogger on Mideast affairs who once served in the Israel Defense Forces. (They are unlike many of Hagel's critics, who might fairly be characterized as "chickenhawks.")
In a letter to the 200,000-plus members of Vote Vets, many of whom are, like him, Democratic-leaning Iraq and Afghan war veterans, Soltz writes: Chuck Hagel, as a Vietnam Veteran, would put troops first. He has a record of challenging neocon dreams of preemptive use of force ? and winning that debate. He has a record of challenging wasteful Pentagon spending, taking on the military-industrial complex, to ensure our defense dollars are responsibly spent on equipment we actually need ... So please, take a stand against this swiftboating of a man who has only served America with honor.
Goldberg favors Hagel's appointment precisely because he believes the Nebraskan, who now teaches at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, would push back against Israeli policies that endanger the future of the Jewish state: I think Israel is heading down a dangerous path, toward its own eventual dissolution, because it refuses to contemplate even unilateral half-measures that could lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state ... I've spoken to Chuck Hagel in the past. He is not a hater of Israel. On the other hand, he, like Bob Gates, the former secretary of defense, might be able to look (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) in the eye and demand an explanation for the Israeli government's actions on the West Bank.
The "swiftboating" of Hagel is being mobilized by the likes of William Kristol, the "Weekly Standard" editor, who managed to avoid service in Vietnam but still believes that bloody tragedy was a great idea. Kristol and his ilk have been so wrong about every policy issue over the past four decades that their angry opposition to Hagel is a sterling endorsement of him.
Still, there may be valid reasons to oppose his candidacy, based on his temperament, experience or record. Before confirmation he should be questioned closely on his commitment to fair treatment of LGBT personnel and on any substantive issues, such as reproductive rights, where administration policy may conflict with his personal beliefs. He may run into problems among his former Republican Senate colleagues, not all of whom admire him, but their opinions should carry little weight. Indeed, their opposition too should serve to strengthen the case for Hagel's confirmation. He has served his country with courage and principle over many years in public service ? which is far more than can be said for most of his adversaries.
To find out more about Joe Conason, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
After being approved by a 64 percent vote in a referendum, Egypt's Islamist-backed constitution was signed into law by President Mohamed Morsi Wednesday.
By Tamim Elyan,?Reuters / December 26, 2012
Members of the constitutional assembly speak during a session at the Shura Council building in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday. The official approval of Egypt's disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil. Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress.
Mohammed Asad/AP
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Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi signed into law a new constitution shaped by his Islamist allies, which he says will help end political turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the fragile economy.
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Anxiety about a deepening political and economic crisis has gripped?Egypt?in past weeks, with many people rushing to buy dollars and take out their savings from banks. The government has imposed new restrictions to reduce capital flight.
The new charter, which the secularist opposition says betrays?Egypt's 2011 revolution by dangerously mixing religion and politics, has polarised the Arab world's most populous nation and prompted occasionally violent protest on the streets.
Results announced on Tuesday showed Egyptians had approved the text with about 64 percent of the vote, paving the way for a new parliamentary election in about two months.
The win in the referendum is the Islamists' third straight electoral victory since veteran autocrat?Hosni Mubarak?was toppled in 2011, following parliamentary elections last year and the presidential vote that brought Mursi to power this year.
Mursi's government, which has accused opponents of damaging the economy by prolonging political upheaval, now faces the tough task of building a broad consensus as it prepares to impose unpopular austerity measures to prop up the economy.
The presidency said on Wednesday that Mursi had signed a decree enforcing the charter overnight after the official announcement of the result of the referendum approving the basic law,?Egypt's first constitution since Mubarak's overthrow.
The opposition has condemned the new basic law as too Islamist, saying it could allow clerics to intervene in the lawmaking process and leave minority groups without proper legal protection. It also said the referendum was marred by widespread electoral violations.
FILE - This Feb. 12, 2012 file photo shows Jessie Baylin with her husband Nathan Followill of the band Kings of Leon at the 54th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Followill and Baylin welcomed a baby girl on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - This Feb. 12, 2012 file photo shows Jessie Baylin with her husband Nathan Followill of the band Kings of Leon at the 54th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Followill and Baylin welcomed a baby girl on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? The Kings of Leon family has just gotten bigger.
Drummer Nathan Followill and his wife, singer-songwriter Jessie Baylin, welcomed a baby girl on Wednesday. It's the first baby for the couple and the third for the Followill family band. Nathan Followill's brother Caleb and cousin Matthew also have children.
A spokesman says Violet Marlowe Followill was born at 4:01 p.m. in Nashville. She was 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth.
The baby comes before what promises to be a busy 2013 for Kings of Leon. The Nashville, Tenn.-based band has been working on new music for an album that's expected to be released next year. Baylin released her third album, "Little Spark," earlier this year.
Did Santa somehow leave you a lump of Android or Windows in your stocking instead of the bright, shiny, iPhone or iPad you really wanted? Did your Apple hopes get dashed by the cold, hard realities of a Galaxy, Nexus, Droid, Lumia, Kindle, or Surface? If think you mistakenly got put on the naughty list instead of the nice, don't cry and certainly don't pout. Here's why -- you can exchange it and still get the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or iPad mini of your dreams!
How to return your Windows or Android device
This is the most obvious solution, and the route you should take if you're within the return period, is taking your Android or Windows gift back to the store. Regardless of whether the phone or tablet was purchased from a carrier or electronics store, they all have return policies.
If you have the receipt (or can get it from the person who gifted the device to you), and haven't opened the box, it should be as easy as walking in with your Android or Windows device, making the exchange, paying any difference in price, and walking back out with your iPad or iPhone. Worst case, you might have to pay a small restocking fee depending on the retailer and the reasons you give them. (Hint: shop at friendly retailers and give them good reasons for exchange.)
How to sell your Android or Windows device
If all else fails, you can't exchange your Windows or Android device, and you still desperately want an iPhone or iPad instead, you can still sell it.
We've taken a look at tons of these services and many of them take Android and Windows devices in exchange for credit or cash.
Amazon Trade-In Store
Amazon will take almost any device you can think of for a trade-in. It's an extremely simple process and you'll know exactly how much you're getting for the device before you even send it in.
The only hitch here is that you'll be given payment in the form of an Amazon gift card. If you're looking for cash to put towards a new iPhone right now and don't want to wait for Amazon to have it in stock or if the model you want isn't available, it's not the best option.
If you don't mind waiting or Amazon already carries the iPhone or iPad you want to get, Amazon is a great option.
Gazelle offers a service that lets you easily turn most electronic devices into cash. Simply send in your Windows or Android device and Gazelle will send you money after confirming the item condition. The first thing you'll need to do is tell Gazelle what you're selling and what condition the item is in. You can choose from poor, fair, good or excellent condition, and it's important to be honest when rating the condition so there's no hiccups or snags along the way.
It also helps if you have the box and original documentation and cables with your item. Considering you've just recently received the device, this probably isn't an issue for most.
Selling your unwanted device on eBay is a pretty simple process. If you've ever used eBay for selling things in the past then you know the selling process isn't all that tricky, however there are still some things to keep in mind when using eBay to sell things. For instance, eBay charges fees for each auction based on the item you're selling and how much it sells for, among other things, so here are five quick tips to help you get the most out of your auction:
Only ship to the buyer's confirmed Paypal address if using Paypal.
Price competitively, especially if you're using Buy It Now as an option.
Make sure the pictures you use follow your description and are good quality - post pictures of any physical blemishes and be up-front in your description.
Use a fast shipping service and make sure you include that in your item description. People are impatient by nature so sellers that offer fast shipping tend to sell items quicker.
Use keywords in your title and in your item description to attract more potential buyers.
You may also want to consider insuring your item in case anything goes wrong during shipping. Watch out for low-feedback buyers and also keep in mind that Paypal charges processing fees as well.
Craigslist allows you to list items for sale in your area so you can perform the transaction locally and face-to-face. This is a quick way to get some cash to put towards your new iPhone or iPad on the spot and also an easy way to let the buyer check out the merchandise in person before committing to the purchase. As long as you were honest about the condition and specifications, you should have no issue in completing a painless transaction with a buyer.
Don't ever put your personal or home address in an ad. Ever!
Price your devices competitively. A good way to do this is to find existing ads on Craigslist in your area for the same model device and price accordingly. If your ad shows up next to someone else's and yours is grossly overpriced, it won't sell.
Some buyers prefer being able to text or call you immediately about an item and it may increase the likelihood of a quick sale. Having a phone number that they can reach you at is ideal. Only do this if you're comfortable with putting your phone number on the internet. This is a good time to use a Google Voice number or other forwarding number if you have one.
Meet in a public place, preferably in the daytime. A coffee place like Starbucks is a good idea. It's also never a bad idea to bring a friend or relative with you. While most buyers are perfectly friendly, there are shady people out there. If the person doesn't want to meet in a public place, pass on them and wait for someone who doesn't have an issue with that.
Watch out for email scams, something Craigslist is notorious for. Anyone offering to pay you a great deal more than the list price or who asks you to ship the item to a foreign country is a scammer. Delete their e-mails and correspondence immediately and wait for a legitimate buyer to come along.
Sell to a family member or friend
Okay, so maybe you aren't an Android or Windows fan, but there are lots of people out there that are. Selling to a family member or a friend is an easy way to get cash and you already know you won't get scammed. If you really think about it, you can probably find someone in your circle of friends and family that's in desperate need of a phone or tablet upgrade.
Perhaps your uncle is still using a flip phone and has been talking about upgrading to a smartphone for years. Here's your chance to finally talk him into it. Just keep in mind that selling to family or friends that may not be in dire need of the device may lower the selling price so we'd only suggest this route if you're after a quick sale and don't mind covering any potential differences.
More help selling Android and Windows devices
Still need help offing some Windows and Android devices? Our sister sites, Windows Phone Central and Android Central both have marketplace forums that can be a great resource for finding buyers. You already know the viewers are fans of that platform so it may be a great place to find a buyer.
Share With Friends: | | Politics ? Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla. Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/189067401?client_source=feed&format=rss sugar bowl presidential candidates mild kidney failure celebrity wife swap gla republican candidates virginia tech
LOS ANGELES ? Ryan Reynolds is the latest superhero to rule the weekend box office. Reynolds? ?Green Lantern? debuted at No. 1 with $52.7 million, a fair but unremarkable opening stacked up against other comic-book adaptations. Released by Warner Bros., ?Green Lantern? brought up the rear among superhero movies to open so far this summer, [...]
? About 3 weeks ago, a box from Sprint arrived. Inside the box was a kitten. No, sorry?actually it was this nifty 7? Android tablet from HTC, the EVO View 4G. After using it almost daily, and discussing it with everybody I could corner, I?m still somewhat conflicted about whether or not I?d buy one. [...]
Hong Kong bills itself as one of Asia?s most diverse cities and is home to a sizable population of non-ethnic Chinese minorities, but many of them educated at local public schools are unable to read and speak Chinese. In the 15 years since reverting to Chinese sovereignty, South Asian students here have been given the [...]
At first, you?ll be mystified by the 20 most-liked Facebook photos posted by advertisers during 2012. The giants of Facebook advertising ? Walmart, Amazon, Target, Samsung, etc. ? are completely absent. In their place are some tiny businesses and niche companies you?ve never heard of. Sure, a couple of major brands like Bed Bath & [...]
Here are the stories you clicked on the most on our site
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1. hanbroekman 07:38 AM 12/24/12
The link for #1 is wrong
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2. Chryses 07:56 AM 12/24/12
Yes. #4. How Hollywood Is Encouraging Online Piracy, was n eye-opener for me.
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3. Stagnaro 10:20 AM 12/24/12
Admittedly, all most popular American Sceintific Stories are really interesting and fascinating. However, I find both enlightening and preoccupaying that readers showed to be no interested in papers suggesting new road, clinical in nature, in the war against today's growing epidemics, as CAD, type 2 DM, and Cancer.
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4. jtdwyer 03:28 PM 12/24/12
At least 'Zip past' was only mistyped "Zippast" in this link to article #7...
