Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/161580863?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Asia stocks rise as Europe stabilizes, Japan grows (AP)
BANGKOK ? Asian stocks rose sharply Monday after Japan's economy grew for the first time in four quarters and Europe moved closer to resolving a debt crisis that threatens to hurl the region into recession.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo rose 1.2 percent to 8,617.03. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 2.2 percent to 19,552.55 and South Korea's Kospi added 2 percent to 1,901.05. Benchmarks in Singapore, Australia, and mainland China were also higher.
Hopeful signs emerged over the weekend from Italy after Premier Silvio Berlusconi reluctantly bowed to market pressure and resigned. His successor, economist Mario Monti, faces the monumental task of enacting profound reforms aimed at preventing Italy from defaulting on its huge debts.
Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland ? which have received emergency financial help from international lenders ? Italy is considered much too big to bail out. Its next government must push through austerity measures to deal with euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) in debt.
Investment confidence was also boosted after Japan released data showing its economy ? horrifically shaken from a record earthquake in March ? had surged in the latest quarter.
The economy surged 6 percent in the latest quarter, the first expansion for the world's No. 3 economy in four quarters. It comes as Japan claws its way out of a crisis stemming from an earthquake and tsunami that decimated factories across the country's northeast on March 11.
Since then, the country has steadily restored its factories, helping the economy rebound despite the threats of a financial crisis in Europe, slowing global economy and a strong yen.
In Greece, there was good news Friday, as former central banker Lucas Papademos was sworn in as interim prime minister following a political crisis that jeopardized the country's ability to continue receiving emergency loans.
Papademos must now get his government to agree to a debt deal that will net the country billions of euros in acutely needed rescue money ? provided that it enacts painful austerity measures including tax hikes and sharp cuts in public spending.
Without the rescue money, Greece's faces insolvency and a massive default on its debts ? an event that experts believe would set off a regional banking crisis and eventually blow up into an all-out European recession.
On Wall Street, stocks surged Friday after Italy and Greece moved closer to getting their financial crises under control.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped or 2.2 percent to 12,153.68. The S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent to 1,263.85. The Nasdaq composite rose or 2 percent to 2,678.75.
Uncertainty still hangs over financial markets, however, as traders await U.S. economic data. Reports on October retail sales, inflation and housing data are due this week, starting Tuesday.
Despite its 2.5 percent growth rate last quarter, the U.S. economy remains fragile. The Federal Reserve recently lowered its economic outlook for 2012. The central bank predicted that the economy will grow at a rate of about 2.7 percent next year. That is a full percentage point below a forecast from June, and below the 3 to 5 percent annual growth rate that is considered healthy.
Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 9 cents at $99.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.21 to settle at $98.99 in New York on Friday.
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Monday, 14 November 2011
Arab League votes to suspend Syria over killings (AP)
CAIRO ? In a surprisingly sharp move, the Arab League voted Saturday to suspend Syria over the country's bloody crackdown on an eight-month uprising and stepped up calls on the army to stop killing civilians.
The decision was a humiliating blow to a regime that prides itself as a bastion of Arab nationalism, but it was unlikely to immediately end a wave of violence that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
"Syria is a dear country for all of us and it pains us to make this decision," Qatar's Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim told reporters. "We hope there will be a brave move from Syria to stop the violence and begin a real dialogue toward real reform."
In Damascus, pro-regime demonstrators threw eggs and tomatoes at the Qatari Embassy to protest the vote.
The 22-member Arab League will monitor the situation and revisit the decision in a meeting Wednesday in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, bin Jassim said, a move that appeared to give Syrian President Bashar Assad time to avert the suspension.
But Syria has been unwilling to heed previous calls to end the violence. Saturday's vote came after Damascus failed to carry out a Nov. 2 peace deal brokered by the Arab League that called on Syria to halt the attacks and pull tanks out of cities.
More than 250 Syrian civilians have been killed so far this month, including 12 on Saturday in attacks in the restive city of Homs, the Damascus suburbs and elsewhere, according to activist groups.
President Barack Obama praised the Arab League, highlighting what he called the group's leadership in seeking to end attacks on peaceful protesters. "These significant steps expose the increasing diplomatic isolation of a regime that has systematically violated human rights and repressed peaceful protests," he said in a statement.
Arab League diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said that if Syria does not adhere to its demands, the organization will work to unify the disparate Syrian opposition into a coalition similar to that of Libya's National Transitional Council. A next step would be to recognize the opposition as the sole representative of the Syrian people in a move that would symbolically isolate Assad's regime even further.
In his statement, bin Jassim called on all factions to meet later this week to unify their message as a step toward dialogue with the Syrian government, but many within the opposition refuse to negotiate with the regime.
Still, there is little to stop Assad now from calling upon the scorched-earth tactics that have kept his family in power for more than four decades. A longtime pariah, Syria grew accustomed to shrugging off the world's reproach long before the regime started shooting unarmed protesters eight months ago.
An international military intervention has been all but ruled out, given the quagmire in Libya and the lack of any strong opposition leader in Syria to rally behind. International sanctions, some of which target Assad personally, have failed to persuade him to ease his crackdown.
Syria also retains the iron support of Shiite Muslim-led Iran, which wants to keep Damascus in its fold in a mostly Sunni Muslim region dominated by Arab suspicions of Tehran's aims. Should Assad's regime fall, it could rob Iran of a loyal Arab partner.
The vote was a strong message from Syria's Arab neighbors and showed growing impatience with Damascus.
Neil Sammonds, a Syria researcher for Amnesty International, said the unified Arab showing will put more pressure on the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions despite objections by Syrian allies Russia and China. Only Syria, Lebanon and Yemen voted against the Arab League suspension of Syria, with Iraq abstaining.
"This will help put the diplomatic pressure on the Security Council to act, to show Russia and China that they are out of step with the region and the rest of world," Sammonds said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said international pressure would continue to build "until the brutal Assad regime heeds the calls of its own people and the world community."
Saer el-Nashif, who was among the Syrian opposition leaders meeting with Arab League diplomats in Cairo several times in recent weeks, praised Saturday's vote and said he hopes it leads to a Security Council decision.
Arab nations are also eager to avoid seeing another leader toppled violently, as happened to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, who was captured and killed last month. An Arab League decision had paved the way for the U.N.-mandated no-fly zone and NATO airstrikes that eventually brought down Gadhafi, but bin Jassim stressed international intervention was not on the agenda in Syria.
"None of us is talking about this kind of decision," he said.
Syria, which blames the bloodshed on extremists acting out a foreign agenda to destabilize the regime, slammed Saturday's vote as "illegal" under Arab League charter rules.
Its Arab League envoy, Youssef Ahmed, said Damascus was calling on the "armed opposition abroad to lay down arms, surrender, stop the violence and accept a national dialogue."
Diplomats who attended the meeting said the Syrian ambassador accused the Qatari foreign minister of carrying out a U.S. agenda, and the Qatari official replied that the league was doing this for the good of the Syrian people.
The bloodshed has spiked dramatically in recent weeks amid signs that more protesters are taking up arms to protect themselves, changing the face of what has been a largely peaceful movement. Many fear the change plays directly into the hands of the regime by giving the military a pretext to crack down with increasing force.
Despite growing international isolation, Assad appears to have a firm grip on power.
Assad and his father, who ruled Syria before him, stacked key security and military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect, ensuring loyalty by melding the fate of the army and the regime. As a result, the army leadership will likely protect the regime at all costs, for fear it will be persecuted if the country's Sunni majority gains the upper hand. Most of the army defectors so far appear to be lower-level Sunni conscripts.
The government has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. Key sources of information are amateur videos posted online and details gathered by witnesses and activist groups who then contact the media, often at great personal risk.
___
Associated Press writer Hadeel al-Shalchi contributed to this report.
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Sunday, 13 November 2011
Funeral planned for Heavy D at historic NY church
In this Oct. 1, 2011 photo, rapper Heavy D, also known as Dwight Arrington Myers, performs during the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. A representative confirmed Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 that the singer and former leader of Heavy D & the Boyz died. He was 44. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
In this Oct. 1, 2011 photo, rapper Heavy D, also known as Dwight Arrington Myers, performs during the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. A representative confirmed Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 that the singer and former leader of Heavy D & the Boyz died. He was 44. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
In this Oct. 1, 2011 photo, rapper Heavy D, also known as Dwight Arrington Myers, performs during the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. A representative confirmed Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 that the singer and former leader of Heavy D & the Boyz died. He was 44. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
In this Oct. 1, 2011 photo, rapper Heavy D, also known as Dwight Arrington Myers, performs during the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. A representative confirmed Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 that the singer and former leader of Heavy D & the Boyz died. He was 44. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (AP) ? A private funeral for rap legend Heavy D will be held at a historic black Baptist church in a northern suburb of New York City.
Grace Baptist Church of Mount Vernon announced Friday that the funeral for Heavy D had been scheduled for Nov. 18.
The New York-born rapper died at a Los Angeles hospital Tuesday after collapsing outside his home. He was 44.
Dwight Arrington Myer was the titular member of Heavy D and the Boyz, which had hits with "Now That We Found Love," ''Who's the Man" and "Somebody for Me."
He was one of the genre's top stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Grace Baptist Church's website says its congregation was founded by five black women in 1888.
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True Reverse Perspective
November 10, 2011?|
Video of the Week #16, November 10th, 2011
From: The Cosmic Magnifying Lens by Davide Castelvecchi at Degrees of Freedom.
Original source: True Reverse Perspective from JMS on Vimeo. There is quite a lot of additional information there.
This animation by London-based video artist Jeremy Mooney-Somers represents the technique that artists have codified as reverse perspective, also known as Byzantine perspective. While in ordinary perspective lines converge to a point ?at infinity,? in reverse perspective, sometimes seen in Byzantine icons, they converge to a point in front of the scene depicted. This work represents an excellent representation.
About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.More??
The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=ec874e1a850282b89d359dd2b18537de
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Saturday, 12 November 2011
The Secret Circle Scoop: There Are Two of Them?! What's Next? (omg!)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]omg! -
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the midseason finale of The Secret Circle.]
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Friday, 11 November 2011
BJP not in favour of govt bailout for Kingfisher (Reuters)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? The Bharatiya Janata Party, is opposed to any move by the government to bail out debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines that cancelled flights to minimise losses and urgently needs cash to escape a collapse.
"If Kingfisher is not in a position to run on a financially viable basis then it should find its own way ... There is no case for a government bailout," Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader and former finance minister, told TV channels on Friday.
Earlier in the day, civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi had said he would talk to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to get Kingfisher assistance from banks.
Ravi said he had advised Mallya to speak with the finance minister as the airline was not able to get its debt recast. Kingfisher has a debt of 60 billion rupees including a large chunk from state-controlled banks.
In April, state-run lenders State Bank of India, private lender ICICI Bank and a few other lenders converted about 12 billion rupees of loans into equity in Kingfisher as part of a debt recast.
Shares of the cash-strapped carrier slumped to a life low on Friday as the airline continued to cancel flights and newspapers reported leasing companies were planning to take planes back and pilots were leaving.
The shares closed down 9.45 percent lower at 19.65 rupees.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Choudhary; Editing by Harish Nambiar)
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