US moves on NKorea aimed at deterring new leader

Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets wait to take off during a military exercise at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North in the latest sign that Pyongyang's warlike stance toward South Korea and the United States is moving from words to action. (AP Photo/Bae Jung-hyun, Yonhap) KOREA OUT

Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets wait to take off during a military exercise at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North in the latest sign that Pyongyang's warlike stance toward South Korea and the United States is moving from words to action. (AP Photo/Bae Jung-hyun, Yonhap) KOREA OUT

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, shakes hands with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se, at the State Department in Washington, on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se, not pictured, at the State Department in Washington, on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - In this June 27, 2008 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the cooling tower of the Yongbyon nuclear complex is demolished in Nyongbyon, also known as Yongbyon, North Korea, in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs. The North's plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down as part of international nuclear disarmament talks in 2007 that have since stalled. North Korea vowed Tuesday, April 2, 2013, to restart a nuclear reactor that can make one bomb's worth of plutonium a year, escalating tensions already raised by near daily warlike threats against the United States and South Korea. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Gao Haorong, File) NO SALES

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The parading of U.S. air and naval power within view of the Korean peninsula ? first a few long-range bombers, then stealth fighters, then ships ? is as much about psychological war as real war. The U.S. wants to discourage North Korea's young leader from starting a fight that could escalate to renewed war with South Korea.

Worries in Washington rose Tuesday with North Korea's vow to increase production of nuclear weapons materials. Secretary of State John Kerry called the announced plan "unacceptable" and stressed that the U.S. is ready to defend itself and its allies. But he and other U.S. officials also sought to lower the rhetorical temperature by holding out the prospect of the North's reversing course and resuming nuclear negotiations.

At a joint news conference with visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Kerry said the U.S. would proceed "thoughtfully and carefully" and in consultation with South Korea, Japan, China and others.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a call late Tuesday to China's defense minister, called the North's development of nuclear weapons a "growing threat" to the U.S. and its allies.

Hagel, citing North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in his phone conversation with Chang Wanquan, said Washington and Beijing should continue to cooperate on those problems, according to a Pentagon statement describing the call.

Michael Green, an Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it should be no surprise that North Korea is vowing to restart a long-dormant nuclear reactor and ramp up production of atomic weapons material.

"This is part of their protection racket," Green said in an interview. "I think the end state North Korea would like is that we, the U.S. in particular, but also China, Japan, South Korea, are so rattled by all this that we decide it's just better to cut a deal with them."

Tensions have flared many times in the six decades since a truce halted the 1950-53 Korean War, but the stakes are higher now that a defiant North Korea appears to have moved closer to building a nuclear bomb that could not only threaten the South and other U.S. allies in Asia but possibly, one day, even reach U.S. territory.

That explains, in part, why the U.S. is displaying military muscle to warn the North to hold its fire.

Washington also wants to leave no doubt that it has the South's back, and that Seoul should not act rashly. Nor does the U.S. want South Korea to feel compelled to answer the North's nuclear drive by building its own bomb.

"We are in the business of assuring our South Korean allies that we will help defend them in the face of threats," Pentagon press secretary George Little said, adding, "We are looking for the temperature to be taken down on the Korean peninsula."

Even without nuclear arms, the North poses enough artillery within range of Seoul to devastate large parts of the capital before U.S. and South Korea could fully respond. The U.S. has about 28,500 troops in the South, and it could call on an array of air, ground and naval forces to reinforce the peninsula from elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific.

In just the past few months, North Korea has taken a series of steps Washington deemed provocative, including an underground nuclear test in February. In December the North Koreans launched a rocket that put a satellite into space and demonstrated mastery of some of the technologies needed to produce a long-range nuclear missile. And several weeks ago, the North threatened to pre-emptively attack the U.S.

Bruce Bennett, a specialist in North Korean affairs for the RAND Corp., said he believes much of the recent taunting from North Korea reflects turmoil among the ruling elite in Pyongyang. He cited unusually high turnover among senior officials during the 15 months that Kim Jong Un ? grandson of the nation's founder ? has been the top leader.

"I think with the purges going on, he's got some instability that is generally not being recognized" outside of North Korea and that may be pushing Kim to take a more confrontational stance, Bennett said in an interview. "He's trying to be blustery to make it appear that he's really in control, he's really strong and he can defeat us."

In response, the Pentagon announced it would beef up missile defenses based on the U.S. West Coast, and it highlighted over a period of days the deployment of B-52 and B-2 bombers, as well as two F-22 stealth fighters, to South Korea as part of an annual U.S.-South Korean exercise called Foal Eagle, which lasts through April.

On Tuesday, officials said the Navy was keeping the USS Decatur, a destroyer armed with missile defense systems, in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula for an unspecified period instead of continuing its journey back to the U.S. after a Mideast deployment. And they said a similar ship, the USS McCain, had been shifted slightly to the waters off the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula as a further precautionary move.

North Korea has been an enigma to most outsiders since it was founded by Kim Il Sung in 1948. The United States has often misjudged the North's political path. After the founding Kim died in 1994, for example, U.S. intelligence officials said they believed his successor son, Kim Jong Il, would be more accommodating to the West.

"Flaky as he may be, (Kim Jong Il) nevertheless ... realizes the only way they're going to extricate themselves from the shambles that their economy is in now is to get outside help," James R. Clapper Jr. told a congressional panel in January 1995. Clapper was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the time; today he is President Barack Obama's most senior intelligence adviser as director of national intelligence.

___

AP broadcast correspondent Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.

___

Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-03-US-US-North-Korea/id-413f9ef919db42a4b4368915a1bba2f6

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DeGeneres hooked for 'Nemo' sequel 'Finding Dory'

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Ellen DeGeneres is going fishing again with a sequel to the animated blockbuster "Finding Nemo."

Disney and its Pixar Animation unit announced Tuesday that DeGeneres will reprise her "Nemo" voice role for "Finding Dory." The sequel is due out Nov. 25, 2015, and will be directed by Andrew Stanton, who also made "Finding Nemo."

"I have waited for this day for a long, long, long, long, long, long time," DeGeneres said. "I'm not mad it took this long. I know the people at Pixar were busy creating 'Toy Story 16.' But the time they took was worth it. The script is fantastic. And it has everything I loved about the first one: It's got a lot of heart, it's really funny, and the best part is ? it's got a lot more Dory."

The new film picks up about a year after the action of "Finding Nemo," with DeGeneres' forgetful fish Dory on her own adventure to reunite with loved ones.

According to Disney, the film will feature new characters along with familiar ones, including Nemo and his dad, Marlin, who was voiced by Albert Brooks. There's no word yet from Disney on whether Brooks will reprise his voice role.

"Finding Nemo" was released in 2003 and took in $921 million worldwide. The movie was the first Pixar production to win the Academy Award for best animated feature after the category was added in 2001. Pixar films have gone on to dominate, winning the Oscar seven years out of 12.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/degeneres-hooked-nemo-sequel-finding-dory-175311075.html

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Arizona city becomes state's first to allow same-sex civil unions

By Tim Gaynor

BISBEE, Arizona (Reuters) - A former Arizona copper mining town reborn as an artists' community defied the threat of legal action on Tuesday and became the first city in the conservative southwestern state to allow civil unions between same-sex couples.

The city council in Bisbee, a city of 5,600 residents in southeast Arizona, voted five to two to pass a measure allowing any couple to join in a civil ceremony, regardless of their sex or sexual orientation.

"We're just acknowledging the people that live here. It's a big step in the right direction (and) for a tiny town ... it's pretty neat," Gene Conners, the first-term council member who proposed the measure said shortly after it passed.

A city founded on a mountain of copper ore in 1902, Bisbee reinvented itself as a laid-back artists' enclave after the local Phelps Dodge mine shut in 1975.

The Council's vote comes as the Supreme Court is weighing whether to strike down a law that denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples, in a move that would reflect growing support in the United States for gay marriage.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 55 percent of Americans surveyed said married gay and lesbian couples should be able to qualify for Social Security survivor payments and other benefits provided to married heterosexual couples.

Arizona's constitution recognizes marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Hours before the vote, the state's attorney general, Tom Horne, wrote to the council warning it had "no authority to pass the ordinance" and that if it was approved he would seek to have it blocked in court before it could come into effect.

"The only proper way to change a statute is through the legislature, not through actions of the city council attempting to change a state statute within its boundaries," Horne said in a statement. He did not make further comment after the vote.

City Attorney John A. MacKinnon told the meeting late Tuesday he did not believe Horne had a "real case", adding that he believed he wanted "to make a political statement".

CITY HALL CERTIFICATES

The ordinance in Bisbee, which a popular local bumper sticker describes as a "liberal oasis in conservative desert," draws on language in a state civil union bill currently stalled in the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature.

A successful legal challenge notwithstanding, the ordinance is set to come into effect in May. Couples will be able to go to City Hall and pay $76 - the cost of a marriage license at the county courthouse - for a civil union certificate.

It will only be valid within the limits of the city, a picturesque trove of landmark buildings, galleries, coffee shops and old miners' cottages perched in the folds of the Mule Mountains overlooking Mexico.

Benefits extended to couples include the right to visit their sick partner in the hospital, obtain a family pass for the city swimming pool, and, for city employees, the chance for their partner to buy into their benefits - rights currently denied to same-sex couples.

At the lively council meeting late on Tuesday, two opponents expressed concerns that the measure could hurt tourism and snarl the city in costly litigation, while several others opposed it on religious grounds, calling it an "abomination".

"As far as I know, marriage is still between a man and a woman," resident Regina Drybread told the packed meeting. She added that while the ordinance only allowed for civil unions, "in reality it's the first step to legalizing same-sex marriage".

But other residents embraced the ordinance, among them James Cool, who said that same-sex couples were one of the last minorities to be discriminated against in the United States - although that was now changing.

"The train in this country has left the station on civil unions, just as it did on interracial marriage and voting rights," he said. "If you don't like civil unions, don't get one," he added to cheers.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-city-becomes-states-first-allow-same-sex-072925329.html

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Report: US-Based Sex Offenders Use Online Games to Target ...

An interesting story via the Huffington Post (based on this CBC report) details sexual predators in the United States using online games and consoles to talk to children in Canada. This particular report focuses on Winnipeg, but it's not far-fetched to imagine that if it's happening in one province, it's happening to some degree in other provinces as well.

The story came to light after Winnipeg police investigated seven cases of online predators who attempted lure children through gaming consoles.

Det.-Sgt. Darren Oleksiuk of the Winnipeg Police Service?s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit?told the CBC?police are made aware of new cases of luring through online gaming each month and have investigated seven recently. He claims that all but one of these cases involved a Winnipeg child interacting with a suspected predator in the United States.

Signy Arnason, the director of Cybertip.ca,?told the CBC?the organization has warned parents about predators using gaming consoles to contact children since 2005.

?It's a hard thing to get a statistic on, because [...] stats, likely, are about people who have been arrested and not those who have attempted to approach kids and lure them online,? said Arnason.

Arnason also said kids are reluctant to tell their parents when such incidents occur because they are worried that their games will be taken away in the name of protecting them.

?[Children] almost feel like they're being penalized for letting their parents know what happened,? said Oleksiuk.

He adds that parents need to prepare their children to deal with such hazards while gaming.

CBC reporter Gosia Sawicka signed up for PlayStation Home, a free game accessible via the PlayStation 3, to see what would happen if she pretended to be a 13-year-old girl.

Sawicka explored the public areas of the game and interacted with other players. Sawicka that "within a matter of minutes" the fake 13-year-old girl was approached by several individuals and asked "sexually explicit questions, even after learning she was just 13."

Sawicka also received requests for photos, private message request and invitations to voice chat.

ESA Canada's director of public relations Julien Lavoie pointed out to CBC that members of his organization "care about the safety of users and gamers," but he stressed "parents and their kids should always use caution and vigilance when engaging with any form of connected media."

Of course, this all leads to potential laws in Canada to deal with this sort of stuff. Unlike the U.S., Canada has no laws that limit access to various online services like some states in the U.S. do. Many states requires sex offenders to register their usernames with a state agency, and in some cases they may be told that they are not allowed to use those services.

New York state is one of the first states to tackle the issue head on. In 2012, the Attorney General?s office asked several online gaming companies to ban accounts associated with registered sex-offenders. He called this Operation Game Over. It began in April 2012, and resulted in more than 5,500 of New York state?s sex offenders being removed from online games.

Source: Huffington Post, CBC

Source: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/04/02/report-us-based-sex-offenders-use-online-games-target-children-canada

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Gas prices drop by a penny in RI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Gasoline prices have dropped by another penny in Rhode Island.

AAA Southern New England said Monday that its weekly survey finds the average cost of a gallon of regular gas in the state is $3.73.

Gas prices have gone down by six cents in the past month. The price for a gallon of regular remains 10 cents higher than the national average of $3.63.

A year ago Rhode Islanders were paying an average of $3.89.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gas-prices-drop-penny-ri-153419172.html

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AD OF THE DAY: William Shatner Battles Giant ... - Business Insider

William Shatner may be 82 years old, but he's still battling humanoid reptiles on TV for a living.

In an ad for a forthcoming Star Trek video game, Shatner and a Gorn duke it out, reprising an epic battle from an old 'Star Trek' episode. After a few painful swings and lame-looking dodges, Shatner stops. "We're both too old for this," he pants.

The ad takes appropriate aim at the Trekkie crowd, its soundtrack and fight sequence sure to hit a nostalgic nerve for anyone who remembers the original combat scene.?

Paramount, which?developed the video game, are crossing their fingers that Captain Kirk and the Gorn are still relevant and cool ? even if they are more lethargic than ever.

Trek out the ad right here:?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/shatner-vs-gorn-in-throwback-showdown-2013-4

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Use Humor to Make a Complaint More Effective

When you're complaining about bad service or a problem to the boss, it's easy to get frustrated with a situation, but Psychology Today points out that humor is a great defense, provided you do it right.

Using humor when you're complaining is all about striking the right tone and taking the edge off the complaint so it's easy for the recipient to swallow. To that end, Psychology Today suggests a few ground rules:

1. If our humor is too heavy handed, our complaint won't be taken seriously.

2. If our humor is too offensive it can make the recipient even more defensive than they would have been if we just told it to them ?straight'. The line between funny and offensive is not only thin it is also subjective. What some people consider funny, others might find insulting.

3. If our underlying tone is too condescending, angry or sarcastic it will cancel out the ?funny' and we are unlikely to get the result we want.

4. The biggest danger we face when using humor to complain is that our efforts might come across as simply?not funny.

Stand up comics have been doing this for years, but adding a bit of a joke to any old complaint you need to make can turn a potentially uncomfortable situation into something a little more pleasant. Just remember not to be a jerk about it. Head over to Psychology Today for a couple different examples of how (and how not to) use humor in a complaint.

Does Humor Make A Complaint More Effective? | Psychology Today

Photo by Britta Frahm.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/k5Y7giIq7Ww/use-humor-to-make-a-complaint-more-effective

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Pineapple Express 2 Trailer Is Here!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/pineapple-express-2-trailer-is-here/

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Business Beat - Spokesman.com - March 31, 2013

Have an item for Business Beat? Send it to businessbeat@?spokesman.com.

Architecture

Bernardo|Wills Architects has hired Brian Page as a project architect/manager and Michelle Widner as an interior designer. Page has 30 years of architectural experience and is a member of the American Institute of Architects. Widner has 10 years of interior design experience and is a member of the International Interior Design?Association.

GreenCupboards has hired Brian Chausmer as a buyer and Sydney Walter as an inventory?clerk.

Education

Jann Leppien has been selected as the inaugural Margo Long Chair in Gifted Education at Whitworth University??

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Have an item for Business Beat? Send it to businessbeat@?spokesman.com.

Architecture

Bernardo|Wills Architects has hired Brian Page as a project architect/manager and Michelle Widner as an interior designer. Page has 30 years of architectural experience and is a member of the American Institute of Architects. Widner has 10 years of interior design experience and is a member of the International Interior Design?Association.

GreenCupboards has hired Brian Chausmer as a buyer and Sydney Walter as an inventory?clerk.

Education

Jann Leppien has been selected as the inaugural Margo Long Chair in Gifted Education at Whitworth University School of Education. She will join the faculty in July and is currently an associate professor of education at the University of Great Falls. Previously, Leppien was a research assistant for The National Research Center on the Gifted and?Talented.

Finance

The following individuals are recipients of U.S. Bank?s annual Pinnacle Award: Loretta Bombino, of Spokane; Becky Evers, of Davenport, Wash.; Julie Bjornberg, of Reardan, Wash.; Gail Brock, of Spokane; and Robert Emmons, of Spokane. The Pinnacle Award is U.S. Bank?s highest employee achievement?honor.

Miscellaneous

Eileen Williams has been named business development manager for Unicep. Previously, Williams worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a certified medical sales?representative.

Nonprofit

The Arthritis Foundation-Great West Region has named Duane Hille as the development coordinator for the Spokane area. Previously, Hille was employed by the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department at Riverfront?Park.

Real?Estate

Peter Willits and Danny Howard have joined Team Idaho Real Estate as new sales associates. Willits is an accredited buyer?s representative and a graduate of the residential institute. Howard specializes in residential real?estate.

Jenna Nicol has joined Century 21 Beutler-Waterfront as a?broker.

Todd Spencer has joined RE/MAX of Spokane as a broker. He has 10 years of real estate experience and specializes in new home?construction.

Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/mar/31/business-beat/

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Rapper Rick Ross explains lyrics on 'U.O.E.N.O.'

FILE - This July 7, 2012 file photo shows rapper Rick Ross performing during the OpenAir music festival in Frauenfeld, Switzerland. Ross says critics have misinterpreted his recent lyrics on Rocko's ?U.O.E.N.O? after uproar from women's advocacy groups. Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDNA, known as molly, and having his way with a woman in the song, ?and she ain't even know it.? Thought the song came out in January, the lyrics gained widespread notice last week when women's groups began to complain. Petitions were also issued, including one asking Reebok to withdraw its advertising agreement with Ross. The Miami-based rapper said in an interview on New Orleans' Q93.3 that ?There was a misunderstanding with the lyric, a misinterpretation.? He says the term rape was never used and it's not something condoned by him, his camp or hip-hop in general. (AP Photo/Keystone/Ennio Leanza, file)

FILE - This July 7, 2012 file photo shows rapper Rick Ross performing during the OpenAir music festival in Frauenfeld, Switzerland. Ross says critics have misinterpreted his recent lyrics on Rocko's ?U.O.E.N.O? after uproar from women's advocacy groups. Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDNA, known as molly, and having his way with a woman in the song, ?and she ain't even know it.? Thought the song came out in January, the lyrics gained widespread notice last week when women's groups began to complain. Petitions were also issued, including one asking Reebok to withdraw its advertising agreement with Ross. The Miami-based rapper said in an interview on New Orleans' Q93.3 that ?There was a misunderstanding with the lyric, a misinterpretation.? He says the term rape was never used and it's not something condoned by him, his camp or hip-hop in general. (AP Photo/Keystone/Ennio Leanza, file)

FILE - This Sept. 29, 2012 file photo shows Rick Ross performing at the BET Hip-Hop Honors at Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta. Ross says critics have misinterpreted his recent lyrics on Rocko's ?U.O.E.N.O? after uproar from women's advocacy groups. Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDNA, known as molly, and having his way with a woman in the song, ?and she ain't even know it.? Thought the song came out in January, the lyrics gained widespread notice last week when women's groups began to complain. Petitions were also issued, including one asking Reebok to withdraw its advertising agreement with Ross. The Miami-based rapper said in an interview on New Orleans' Q93.3 that ?There was a misunderstanding with the lyric, a misinterpretation.? He says the term rape was never used and it's not something condoned by him, his camp or hip-hop in general. (Photo by John Amis/Invision/AP, file)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Rapper Rick Ross says critics have misinterpreted his lyrics on Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O" after uproar from women's advocacy groups.

Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with a woman in the song, "and she ain't even know it."

Although the song was released in January, the lyrics gained widespread notice last week when women's groups began to complain. Petitions were issued, including one asking Reebok to withdraw its advertising agreement with Ross.

The Miami-based rapper said in an interview on New Orleans' Q93.3 that "there was a misunderstanding with the lyric, a misinterpretation." He says the term "rape" was never used and it's not something condoned by him, his camp or hip-hop in general.

Messages to Ross' publicist weren't returned.

___

Online:

http://rickrossdeeperthanrap.com /

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-01-People-Rick%20Ross/id-348933915f864ebc8f06a4e6bde1142a

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Obama plays golf, attends college basketball playoff game (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295679189?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Business, labor resolve dispute on immigration bill (cbsnews)

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Argentina puts forward alternative payment plan in bond dispute

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina is pitching an alternative payment formula to a U.S. appeals court that would allow it to resolve litigation with creditors holding defaulted bonds for which they are demanding to be paid $1.33 billion.

In a filing late on Friday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Argentina proposed to pay creditors who did not participate in two restructurings through a choice of bonds equal to the debt's value at the time of the country's 2002 default, or through discount bonds.

The offer was under the same terms as those offered to creditors during a 2010 debt swap, a deal already rejected by the holdouts, who are seeking full payment immediately.

And the par-value option was only for investors with less than $50,000 in face value bonds, effectively meaning the hedge fund plaintiffs pursuing the case could really be compensated under Argentina's plan only by taking a big cut to their possible recovery.

Elliott Management affiliate NML Capital Ltd, one of the lead plaintiffs, stands currently to receive $720 million from Argentina following a New York judge's order in November, according to Argentina.

But Argentina's discounted bond formula would provide NML a value of just $186.8 million, according to the filing. Argentina estimates NML paid about $48.7 million in 2008 for its stake in the bonds.

"The Republic is prepared to fulfill the terms of this proposal promptly upon Order by the Court by submitting a bill to Congress that ensures its timely implementation," Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's U.S. lawyer, wrote.

The filing was the latest development in the long-running litigation spilling out of Argentina's $100 billion sovereign debt default in 2002. Around 92 percent of its bonds were restructured in 2005 and 2010, with bondholders receiving 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

But holdouts led by Elliott Management affiliate NML Capital Ltd and Aurelius Capital Management have fought for years for full payment. Argentina calls these funds "vultures."

In October, the 2nd Circuit upheld a trial judge's ruling by finding Argentina had violated a so-called pari passu clause in its bond documents requiring it to treat creditors equally.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan subsequently ordered Argentina in November to pay the $1.33 billion owed to the bondholders into an escrow account by the time of its next interest payment to holders of the exchanged debt.

The 2nd Circuit heard an appeal of that order on February 27. Two days later, it directed Argentina to provide details of "the precise terms of any alternative payment formula and schedule to which it is prepared to commit."

BOND OPTIONS

In its 22-page submission late on Friday, Argentina said that under a so-called par bond option, the bondholders would receive bonds due in 2038 with the same nominal face value of their current bonds. They would pay 2.5 percent to 5.25 percent a year, Argentina said.

Bondholders would also receive an immediate cash payment of past due interest, Argentina said. And they would receive derivative instruments that provide payments when the country's gross domestic product exceeds 3 percent a year.

The par option, though, is restricted to small investors, unlike the discount option, the seemingly more applicable fit for NML and Aurelius.

Under the discount proposal, holdouts could receive discount bonds due in 2033 that pay 8.28 percent annually. The holdouts would also receive past due interest in the form of bonds due in 2017 paying 8.75 percent a year, and GDP-linked derivative units.

Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, wrote that the proposal, unlike what he called the "100 cents on the dollar immediately" formula Griesa adopted, "is consistent with the pari passu clause, longstanding principles of equity, and the Republic's capacity to pay."

It was unclear on Saturday how the court might view Argentina's proposals.

Euginio Bruno, a lawyer and bond restructuring expert with the law firm Estudio Garrido Abogados in Buenos Aires, said the government's Friday proposal "was within expectations, considering the legal constraints on offering anything better than the terms of the 2010 restructuring."

Argentina has a "lock law" that keeps governments from improving the terms of previous restructurings.

Representatives for NML and Aurelius declined to comment on Saturday on Argentina's filing.

Earlier in the week, the holdouts scored a victory over Argentina when the 2nd Circuit denied a full court review of its October ruling on the equal treatment provision.

The United States had backed Argentina in seeking the review, contending the 2nd Circuit's decision ran "counter to longstanding U.S. efforts to promote orderly restructuring of sovereign debt."

Argentina and holders of its restructured bonds say that granting the holdouts 100 cents on the dollar could complicate future sovereign restructurings around the world.

Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou repeated on Saturday that Argentina would continue repaying investors who participated in the restructuring no matter how the U.S. court case is resolved.

"One way or another, Argentina will pay," he said.

The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.

(Additional reporting by Helen Popper, Alejandro Lifschitz and Guido Nejamkis in Buenos Aires; Editing by Todd Eastham and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/argentina-puts-forward-alternative-payment-plan-bond-dispute-045551353--sector.html

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The Original Digital Pet Returns for a New Generation - NYTimes.com

Making the most of a recent nostalgia trend in technology that has brought back brands like Furby and Pac-Man, Bandai is reintroducing Tamagotchi, the digital pet from the 1990s, as a lifestyle brand called Tamagotchi L.I.F.E. (for Love Is Fun Everywhere).

The original Tamagotchi was a toy that fit on a keychain; the new version is a smartphone app. An iOS version was released on Thursday, following the introduction of an Android app last month. The app is free, but comes with banner ads; an ad-free version is available for 99 cents.

The app recreates the same nurturing play that Tamagotchi offered when it was introduced in the United States 16 years ago. It eats, it sleeps and it poops. It can die, too, so you have to take care of it by feeding it, playing games with it and giving it medicine when it gets sick. To increase awareness of your parenting duties, the little guy sends alerts when it needs attention, at least a half-dozen times a day. Fortunately, Tamagotchi sleeps through the night.

The app has color graphics and better resolution than the original Tamagotchi, but it still has the same pixelated appearance of the original. If you?re feeling really nostalgic, a toy mode replicates the look of the original, including the shell that housed it. The app also includes a few extras, like a rock-paper-scissors game and the ability to share photos of your bouncing baby blob on Facebook.

The app is a simple pastime, but I can see how it could get tedious after a few days for anyone over the age of 7. The Tamagotchi?s incessant appetite is bested only by the piles of stinking poop it makes (you can tell they are stinky because they have wavy stink lines rising above them).

Unlike other mindless apps, there are no ropes to cut or fruit to slice or birds to sling at pigs. Bandai may have updated the brand for a new audience, but it forgot to advance the concept.

Source: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/the-original-digital-pet-returns-for-a-new-generation/

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Pirate perch probably use chemical camouflage to fool prey

Mar. 28, 2013 ? It?s a nocturnal aquatic predator that will eat anything that fits in its large mouth.

Dark and sleek, it hides beneath the water waiting for prey. A Texas Tech University researcher says the target will never know what hit them because they probably can?t smell the voracious pirate perch.

After careful investigations, William Resetarits Jr., a professor of biology at Texas Tech, and Christopher A. Binckley, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Arcadia University, found that animals normally attuned to predators from their smell didn?t seem to detect the pirate perch. It could be the first animal discovered that is capable of generalized chemical camouflage that works against a wide variety of prey.

The team published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal The American Naturalist.

Thankfully, at five-and-a-half inches long, only insects, invertebrates, amphibians and other small fish need worry about the danger hiding near the bottom among the roots and plantlife, Resetarits said.

?We use the term ?camouflage,? because it is readily understandable,? he said. ?What we really are dealing with is some form of ?chemical deception.? The actual mechanism may be camouflage that makes an organism difficult to detect, mimicry that makes an organism difficult to correctly identify, or cloaking where the organism simply does not produce a signal detectable to the receiver.?

Resetarits said pirate perch aren?t really perch at all, but related to the Amblyopsid cave fish family. Fossils from this fish date back about 24 million years ago.

They make their homes in freshwater ponds and streams in the Eastern United States. Once considered for the aquarium market, the fish got its name because of its penchant for eating all tank mates.

?Pirate perch have some unique aspects to their morphology and life history, but they are generalist predators, and so should have been avoided by prey animals like all the other fish tested,? he said. ?For some reason, they weren?t avoided at all.?

To test their theory, Resetarits and Binckley ran a series of experiments in artificial pools housing 11 different species of fish, including pirate perch.

The fish were kept at bay at the bottom of the pools with screens so that they could not prey on the beetles and tree frogs that colonized the water.

When it came to choosing a pool, the beetles and frogs consistently steered clear of the water with other fish species in them, most likely because they could smell the presence of fish in the water. However, they had no qualms about moving into pools containing the pirate perch.

?We were incredibly surprised,? Resetarits said. ?It took a while for us to pull this all together. When we first observed it with tree frogs, we were very surprised and puzzled. But when the same lack of response was shown by aquatic beetles, we were quite literally flabbergasted. We continued to do experiments with other fish and always got the same results. All fish except pirate perch were avoided.?

Exactly what the pirate perch is doing to hide isn?t yet known, he said. Researchers want to determine how the pirate perch are either scrambling chemical signals or masking their odor. Once they have identified chemical compounds that might explain the behavior, they will return to the field to test with the same tree frogs and beetles as well as other organisms known to respond to fish chemical cues, such as mosquitoes and water fleas.

?We will also test whether this chemical deception works against the pirate perch?s own predators,? Resetarits said. ?Of course, other critical questions that we are working on include just how much advantage in terms of prey acquisition do pirate perch gain as a result of chemical deception. Does this phenomenon occur in closely related species, such as cavefish? Are there prey species that have found a way around the chemical deception? There are many questions now, and I think we have just scratched the surface.

?I think the most important aspect is not the bizarre, just-so story, but the fact that there is no reason to believe that chemical camouflage is less common than visual camouflage. Humans? sense of smell is just not very sophisticated, so we can?t simply ?notice? examples of chemical camouflage the way we do visual camouflage. I think chemical camouflage is likely quite common. We are starting pursuit of the larger question, starting with close relatives of pirate perch.?

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu and on Twitter @TexasTechMedia.

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Journal Reference:

1. William J. Resetarits, Christopher A. Binckley. Is the Pirate Really a Ghost? Evidence for Generalized Chemical Camouflage in an Aquatic Predator, Pirate PerchAphredoderus sayanus. The American Naturalist, 2013; : 000 DOI: 10.1086/670016

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/c5NbMbTJghI/130329085941.htm

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U.S. commandos hand over troubled area to Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? U.S. special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic district of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan special forces on Saturday, a senior U.S. commander said. The withdrawal satisfies a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there on U.S. orders.

The transfer of authority ends a particularly rocky episode in the strained relations between the U.S. and Karzai. He had insisted that U.S. forces leave Nirkh district in Wardak province over the alleged torture, kidnapping and summary execution of militant suspects there ? charges U.S. officials firmly denied.

The incident shows the larger struggle of Karzai's government to assert its authority over security matters, even as its green security forces try to assume control of much of the country from coalition forces on a rushed timeline, ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of most of coalition forces by December 2014.

"We're coming out of Nirkh," said Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the top U.S. special operations commander in Afghanistan, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Wardak province outside Kabul, confirmed that U.S. special operations forces withdrew and were replaced by a joint Afghan security forces team.

Karzai had originally demanded the U.S. special operations forces pull out from the entire province, a gateway and staging area for Taliban and other militants for attacks on the capital Kabul. But he scaled down his demands to just the single district after negotiations with top commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford and other U.S. officials.

"President Karzai was specific, it's only for Nirkh, that was a provocative point," Thomas said. "American special operations forces are integral in the defense of Wardak from now until the foreseeable future."

U.S. commandos will also continue to visit the Afghan team in Nirkh.

"We're going to support them from a distance," Thomas said. "The reality is there was such a groundswell of support (from locals) in Wardak after the initial allegations that we're keeping several teams down there to work with the Afghan security forces for the future, with an idea that we'll transition over time."

The American special operations troops are paired with and live alongside locally recruited and trained teams known as Afghan local police. Thomas said most of the local police will be paired with Afghan security forces by the end of the summer, with the Americans making occasional visits as they will do in Nirkh, to assess whether they need logistic or other support.

One Wardak government official expressed relief that the agreement crafted with Karzai did not mean the complete pullout of U.S. forces from the province, saying that local officials were worried their new forces would not yet be able to keep hardcore insurgents out of the area.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because his comments run counter to public statements made by Karzai that the Afghan security forces are ready for complete independence in Wardak.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants attacked a police convoy Saturday morning in Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan, kicking off a fierce gun battle, according to deputy provincial police chief Col. Mohammad Hussain.

The police requested a coalition air strike, which hit the militants' position and killed 15 fighters but also wounded nine civilians including a woman and child, Hussain said. He did not report any police casualties.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KimberlyDozier

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-commandos-hand-over-troubled-area-afghans-085617778.html

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Guest Post: The Knowledge Economy's Two Classes of Workers ...

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

The knowledge economy has important implications for both workers and organizations.

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Setting aside that our economy is by and large organized to benefit a State-financial Elite and the technocrat Caste that serves them,?let's consider the two classes of worker in what Peter Drucker labeled the Knowledge Economy in his 1993 book?Post-Capitalist Society.

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At the risk of simplifying Drucker's nuanced account, here is a precis:

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The Marxist class division of labor vs. capitalist/management no longer adequately describes the new economy, as knowledge workers own "the means of production" which is first and foremost knowledge. Corporations and government offer an organization within which workers can apply their knowledge (i.e. the means of production in a knowledge economy).

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Since the new economy is no longer characterized by capital vs. labor, it is a post-capitalist economy.

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Knowledge workers are a minority of the workforce; the majority are service workers, either skilled or low-skilled.

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Economist Robert B. Reich divides the workforce into similar categories: "symbolic analysts" (knowledge workers) and two classes of service workers: "routine producers" and "in-person servers."

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Since the service workers own and leverage less capital (knowledge), their ability to create surplus value and thereby demand high wages is intrinsically lower than the knowledge workers.

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This creates a structural tension, as society has to establish a way to maintain the wages of the service workers in an economy where the value and income they can generate by their labor is capped.

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The other root cause of our present difficulties with the workforce might be termed a general lowering of employees' frustration tolerance.Many employees, particularly the younger ones, are increasingly reluctant to put up with factory conditions.?Despite the significant improvements we've made in the physical environment of our plants. Because they are unfamiliar with the harsh economic facts of earlier years, they have little regard for the consequences if they take a day or two off.

For many, the traditional motivations of job security, money rewards, and opportunity for personal advancement are proving insufficient.

Large numbers of those we hire find factory life so distasteful they quit after only brief exposure to it.?The general increase in real wage levels in our economy has afforded more alternatives for satisfying economic needs.

There is also, again especially among the younger employees, a growing reluctance to accept a strict authoritarian shop discipline. This is not just a shop phenomenon, rather is a manifestation in our shops of a trend we see all about us among today's youth.

More money, time and effort than ever before must now be expended in recruiting and acclimatising our quality control programs have been put to severe tests; large numbers of employees remain unmoved by all attempts to motivate them; and order in the plants is being maintained with rising difficulty.

That this is not simply a bosses' problem was expressed by youthful Gary Bryner, President of the Lordstown local of the UAW (July 25, 1972):

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There are symptoms of the alienated worker in our plant-- the absentee rate, as you said, has gone continually higher. Turnover rate is enormous. The use of alcohol and drugs is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. So has apathy within our union movement towards union leaders and towards the Government ... (The worker) has become alienated to the point where he casts off the leadership of his union, his Government...?He is disassociated with the whole establishment.

Here's the key quote from this excellent historical essay:

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Modern capitalism can, by and large, cope with the traditional type of economic problem, for instance those dealt with by Marx, it can continue to develop production.?It is in difficulties, however, when confronted with a massive resistance to its values, priorities and whole pattern of authority.

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In the traditional labor vs. capital framework, we expect the resistance to come from labor;?in the knowledge economy, that resistance is arising from those who own and control the means of production, the knowledge workers themselves.

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This has important implications for corporations, non-profit organizations and government alike.?In Drucker's view,?"Every organization has to build in organized abandonment of everything it does. Increasingly, organizations will have to plan abandonment rather than try to prolong the life of a successful policy, practice or product."

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In other words, creative destruction is the necessary result of constant, purposeful innovation. Any organization which fails to do so will become obsolete. The same can be said of those providing the knowledge capital to the organizations, the knowledge workers.

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One consequence that none dare speak is the absolute reduction of any functional need for layers of management, or anything resembling traditional management.The Internet is a tool for eliminating management, along with generally needless/useless meetings and the other sources of unproductive friction in modern corporate and government organizations.

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Management exists to minimize the problems created by its own hiring mistakes.Valve says the secret of their management-free environment is hiring good people. That sounds right to me. We don't have any weak contributors in our start-up so we have never felt a need for management.
One of the interesting aspects of better global communications, better access to information, and better mobility is that collectively it reduces the risk of making hiring mistakes. When employers were limited to hiring people who lived nearby, and the only information at their disposal was lie-filled resumes, every growing company would necessarily absorb a lot of losers. But now that entrepreneurs can hire the best people from anywhere in the world, we have for the first time in human history the ability to create teams so capable they require no management structure. That's new.

I think the manager-free model only works for a business that has high margins and depends more on creating hits than cutting costs. The videogame business fits that model, as do many Internet businesses. And in both cases entrepreneurs can hire from anywhere in the world.

So here's my summary: Management only exists to compensate for its own poor hiring decisions. The Internet makes it easier to locate and then work with capable partners. Therefore, the need for management will shrink - at least for some types of businesses - because entrepreneurs have the tools to make fewer hiring mistakes in the first place.

Management won't entirely go away, but as technology makes it easier to form competent teams without at least one disruptive or worthless worker in the group, the need for management will continue to decline.

Even organizations based on rigid command hierarchies such as the U.S. military are finding that decentralized command decisions based on proximity to information flow, field intelligence and detailed knowledge of local assets trump sclerotic centralized command structures in getting demonstrable results.

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If this is true in sprawling bureaucracies, it is certainly true in smaller organizations.

This is the economy that every worker has to understand if they want to navigate it to their own benefit.?Every enterprise and organization that wants the most productive workers has to understand that their task is not "managing labor," it is offering workers of all levels opportunities to be effective and to contribute.

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In my view, each worker is an enterprise, and the less time, energy and money wasted on management and friction, the more time and energy there will be for wealth creation or value creation, and as a result, more money available for wages.

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Via correspondent Rui N.P.:?America: A Nation of Permanent Freelancers and Temps.

Average:

Your rating: None Average: 2.2 (13 votes)

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-29/guest-post-knowledge-economys-two-classes-workers

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Adrienne Maloof: Brandi Glanville is Why I Quit

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/adrienne-maloof-brandi-glanville-is-why-i-quit/

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Analysis: Austerity threatens EU's competitive edge in infrastructure

By Anthony Deutsch

BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's carefully maintained autobahns, high-speed TGV trains and vast network of modern airports have long been the envy of the world.

But thanks to austerity budgets that are slashing infrastructure spending just as other parts of the world are ramping it up, that may not be true for much longer.

European infrastructure spending rose just 1.5 percent last year to $741 billion, compared to global growth of 4.5 percent and a 7.1 percent rise in the Asia-Pacific, according to data compiled by Marketline, a business information provider.

Spending in Europe will increase slightly over the next four years, to 4.3 percent growth by 2016, Marketline told Reuters, but will continue to significantly underperform the world average. Only the United States will do worse, with growth of just 1.8 percent seen in 2016.

Company executives, trade groups and even European Union officials themselves say the region is in danger of falling behind competitors, with possibly irreversible consequences.

"We are out of pace with other parts of the world. We are not rejoicing," said Harold Ruijters, who leads the Transport Commission's Trans European Network unit, which aims to connect Europe's fragmented railways, roads and airports.

Brussels' main infrastructure funding budget, the Connecting Europe Facility, was cut in the latest EU budget announced in February from an originally allocated 50 billion euros to 29.3 billion euros over the next seven years.

Broadband and digital infrastructure took the biggest hit, cut from 9.2 billion to just 1 billion euros.

The budget for spending on major transportation through 2020 was cut by 38 percent from 21 billion to 13 billion euros, forcing the Transport Commission to drop air and road projects, which will instead need to seek uncertain sources of commercial funding.

"We are dealing with a severely reduced budget. At the same time, during a time of crisis we are acknowledging that this was perhaps the best deal we could get," Ruijters told Reuters.

Several years of earlier austerity cuts in infrastructure have already started hurting Europe's competitive position, he said, citing railways and aviation as problem sectors.

Reduced budgets and the prospect of long-term weak economic growth in the bloc will make it virtually impossible to meet spending needs in the coming two decades, he said.

The financial reality is out of sync with the EU's long-term strategic goal of creating jobs, and increasing competitiveness and growth in a single European market, which the EU Commission had estimated would require 1.5 trillion euros of spending on transportation infrastructure by 2030.

"At the moment we have one of the best infrastructures in the world, but it is ageing and we have to invest billions just to keep it up. We are far away from completing the internal market, in all transportation modes," said Jurgen Thumann, head of Business Europe, a Brussels-based industrial lobby group.

"As other world regions are launching ambitious transport modernization and infrastructure investment programs, it is crucial that European transport continues to develop and invest to maintain its competitive position," Thumann told Reuters.

Currently 12 of the top 20 nations in a ranking by the World Economic Forum for 2012-2013 are in Europe.

But this year China will for the first time spend more on infrastructure than Europe, though per capita it is still a small fraction of what is spent in the United States and in Japan, Marketline said.

Pedro Rodrigues de Almeida, director of infrastructure studies at the World Economic Forum, concurred that even after the European economy recovers, which economists expect could happen as early as the second half of this year, essential spending will lag requirements for years to come.

"We will not recover the levels of construction expenditure that we had in 2007-2008, or just before the crisis, until around 2016. This is something that is going to take several years," he said.

WHERE'S THE MONEY

A decades-long trend of falling global public expenditure on infrastructure, from around 9.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1990 to 7 percent in 2005, has been driven by rising costs for pensions and health care, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Until the global financial crisis hit, the private sector had increasingly filled that gap.

Now, while there are plenty of investors such as pension funds or insurance companies who have money available, they are restricted in how that money can be invested to avoid too much risk and meet targets, meaning only a small percentage of their total funds may be allocated for infrastructure projects which often require billions over many years, if not decades.

The same applies for banks, which face tougher regulations over lending money.

The number of infrastructure projects to be financed fell eight percent last year, the first decline in a decade, the OECD said. Lending to European projects, including total debt and equity, slowed by nearly 39 percent to slightly more than $49 billion.

"The cost of Europe's infrastructure needs are so great they go beyond what is imaginable," an infrastructure investor who asked not to be named told Reuters.

"This will hurt Europe in the long run. It is inevitable."

STRUCTURAL UNDER-INVESTMENT

In Germany, which makes up 15 percent of total European infrastructure spending, 41.5 billion euros worth of projects will be started, continued or finished between 2011 and 2015, down from an initially budgeted 57 billion euros.

A spokesman for the German Ministry of Transport told Reuters the situation was one of "structural under-investment."

"There are so many projects waiting to be carried out, but there's no money there. We have succeeded in getting some more funding, but more is needed. We need it because this investment is important for jobs, the economy and prosperity of Germany."

A high-profile plan that may be dropped is the four-billion-euro French canal originally cited as one of 30 priority infrastructure projects backed by Brussels, which Paris has said it can now only afford if 30 percent is paid out of European funds.

The Seine-Nord canal is a 106-km, high-capacity waterway that will link Seine river to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It would relieve Europe's most congested transport corridor with more than 130 million tons of traffic per year.

Construction which was supposed to start next year was expected to create 4,500 jobs, with around 25,000 new permanent jobs between 2025 and 2030. Its future is highly uncertain as the French government reviews 245 billion euros worth of costly projects.

A Transport Ministry spokeswoman said two working groups were evaluating technical aspects, costs and financing options, with an outcome expected in April.

In Ireland, the transport budget for the period 2010-15 was reduced by almost 50 percent in just two years from 17.5 billion to eight billion euros.

Plans to give Dublin its first underground rail services - one to connect the airport to the city centre and another to link two existing rail lines - have been scrapped. The projects would have cost 2 billion euros, the government estimated.

Italy's parliament in December froze a 3.9-billion euro contract to build a road and rail bridge connecting Sicily to Italy's mainland, known as Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina.

Spain is budgeting 9.6 billion euros in public infrastructures in 2013, down 16 percent from a year earlier and down 36 percent from 2008, when 15 billion were targeted. Several major toll-road projects were pulled after going bankrupt due to over-spending.

That led to the halt of the construction of 14 luxury stations along the high-speed rail network, saving 3.5 billion euros, and the cancellation of a railway from Madrid to Lisbon.

TRANSPORT NETWORK

Trade within Europe, which has a population of more than 730 million and represents roughly 22 percent of the world's cargo by value, is expected to double in the coming decade.

Brussels said in a policy paper released before the recent budget cuts that 550 billion euros in high-priority projects were needed through 2020 to create a core transportation network to meet the increased demand.

The investment would connect 120 major ports and airports to rail, upgrade 15,000 km (9,300 miles) of rail tracks to high speed and remove 35 key cross-border bottlenecks. The region's railways use seven different gauges and only 20 major airports and 35 major ports are directly connected to the rail network.

The upgrades would not only make the distribution of goods faster and cheaper, but also be required to meet EU targets to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent, halve conventional car use and shift 50 percent of long distance freight onto trains and ships by 2050.

Airline executives have been among the most outspoken about concerns that Europe risks losing its competitive position if it fails to implement these plans.

Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport plans to spend 2.1 billion euros between 2011 and 2015 on new facilities, for example, while Dubai said last year it plans to invest six billion euros in airport expansion by 2018 to boost capacity by 50 percent.

"Europe was a leader in terms of quality infrastructure," Air France-KLM chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta told Reuters. "I am very concerned about the future, especially airports. The amount of investment in other regions is incredibly high."

(Additional reporting by Victoria Brian in Berlin, Elena Berton and Gilles Guillaume in Paris, Conor Humphries in Dublin, Danilo Masoni in Milan and Jose Elias Rodriguez in Madrid; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-austerity-threatens-eus-competitive-edge-infrastructure-071948211--finance.html

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Lawyer: reality star learned of divorce from media

ATLANTA (AP) ? A lawyer for reality television star Porsha Williams says she learned from the media that her former NFL player husband had filed for divorce.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart filed for divorce in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta Friday. The filing says his marriage to Williams is "irretrievably broken." The pair appears on Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta."

Lawyer Randy Kessler said Wednesday that Williams would have liked to have heard the news of the divorce filing from her husband and is disappointed that he misled her.

Stewart's filing says the two married on May 21, 2011, and have no children together.

Stewart asks the court to find there are no marital assets to divide. He asks that neither side be ordered to pay alimony.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-reality-star-learned-divorce-media-034056922--spt.html

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Part of Berlin Wall removed in pre-dawn operation

BERLIN (AP) ? For nearly 30 years, the Berlin Wall was the hated symbol of the division of Europe, a gray, concrete mass that snaked through neighborhoods, separating families and friends. On Wednesday, it took hundreds of police to guarantee the safe removal of 15 feet (less than 5 meters) of what's left of the wall.

Construction crews, protected by about 250 police, hauled down part of the three-quarter of a mile (1.3-kilometer) strip of the wall before dawn to provide access to a planned luxury apartment complex overlooking the Spree River.

Even though most of the strip remains intact, the move angered many Berliners, who believe that developers are sacrificing history for profit.

The site, known as the East Side Gallery, has become a major tourist attraction, painted by 120 artists with colorful scenes along the gray concrete tiles.

It is the longest remaining portion of the 96-mile (155-kilometer) wall that surrounded Western-occupied West Berlin from 1961 until the peaceful revolution against the communist East German government in 1989. At least 136 people were killed trying to escape over the wall.

The flap over the future of the East Side Gallery flared last month with the announcement that developers wanted to tear away part of the wall. The announcement triggered a series of protests, including one attended by American celebrity David Hasselhoff.

Hasselhoff is remembered here fondly for his song "Looking for Freedom" that became the unofficial anthem of the 1989 revolution.

"It's like tearing down an Indian burial ground," Hasselhoff said during the March 17 protest. "It's a no-brainer."

After the protests, demolition work was suspended while local politicians and the investors looked for alternative access to the apartment site, located in the heart of the German capital.

When no other access route could be found, the main investor, Maik Uwe Hinkel, decided to resume the project. Work began at 5 a.m. Wednesday when few people were out on the streets.

In an emailed statement, Hinkel said the removal of parts of the wall was a temporary move to enable trucks to access the building site. He said that after four weeks of fruitless deliberations with city officials and owners of adjacent property, he was no longer willing to wait.

As word of the demolition spread, small crowds of Berliners turned out to watch although no one sought to block the effort.

"I can't believe they came here in the dark in such a sneaky manner," said Kani Alavi, the head of the East Side Gallery's artists' group. "All they see is their money. They have no understanding for the historic relevance and art of this place."

The irony of Berliners trying to preserve part of what was once a hated symbol of repression reflects a growing public belief that the German capital needs to preserve symbols of its past ? both the good and the bad ? for future generations.

Much of Adolf Hitler's capital was destroyed by Allied bombing and the 1945 Soviet ground assault that ended World War II in Europe.

With the end of the Cold War, however, Germans have worked to preserve other sites, including those that do not flatter the country.

A museum to Nazi atrocities has been built over the site of Gestapo headquarters. Tourists can wander through dungeon-like prisons operated by the Soviets and the East German secret police ? as well as underground complexes built in the west of the city to protect civilians against nuclear attack.

It's all designed to allow new generations to understand the painful history behind a country that is now Europe's economic powerhouse.

"The Berlin Wall is the most significant symbol of the division of Berlin," said Maria Nooke, the deputy director of the Berlin Wall Foundation. "On the one hand it illustrates the repression in East Germany, on the other hand it symbolizes how Germans peacefully overcame that repression."

It took years for Berliners ? both easterners and westerners ? to develop such feelings for the wall.

"After a while, there was a growing need to deal with that part of history and to preserve it for future generations," Nooke said.

In an effort to give visitors and Berliners a taste of life in a divided city, a 70-meter (-yard) stretch of the wall on Bernauer Strasse was restored to its original state, including an East German watchtower from which guards would shoot at people trying to scale the structure.

The East Side Gallery was recently restored at a cost of more than 2 million euros ($3 million) to the city. It is now covered in colorful murals painted by about 120 artists.

Scenes include the famous image of a boxy East German Trabant car that appears to burst through the wall; and a fraternal communist kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German boss Erich Honecker.

"I heard it on the radio, so I quickly took my son to nursery school and then came here," said Jana Voigt, a kindergarten teacher who grew up in East Berlin. "I feel so betrayed that they tore down that piece of the wall while I was asleep. They knew that so many Berliners don't want the wall to be touched."

She said part of the wall needs to be protected for future generations "in order to understand what happened here."

Karl-Heinz Richter was a 17-year-old teenager when he tried to escape from East Berlin three years after the wall was erected. His escape failed and he was jailed.

"What you see happening now is capitalism in its purest form: it's all about money and power, history doesn't matter anymore. That's disgusting." he said. "For me the wall is a holy site. I'm outraged that they would even dare to touch it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/part-berlin-wall-removed-pre-dawn-operation-185011250.html

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