Clinton, Putin to meet in Russia on Friday: U.S

Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday in a last-minute addition to her visit to Moscow, a U.S. official told reporters.
Clinton arrived in Russia on Thursday to try to clear obstacles to a new treaty cutting arsenals of nuclear weapons and to win Moscow's backing for tougher sanctions against Iran.

Diplomats said that no significant breakthrough on either issue was likely without the agreement of Putin, widely seen as Russia's most powerful politician.

Putin was out of the country when Clinton visited last October. Putin's office on Wednesday said that no meeting with Clinton was planned.

The meeting will take place at Putin's residence near the Russian capital, the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Clinton met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday and was due to meet President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday. She was also due to take part in a meeting of Middle East mediators.

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‘Jihad Jane’ due in federal court in Philadelphia

Whether she was seeking love or vengeance, or just an escape from her dreary, small—town existence, Colleen LaRose searched the Internet and found Muslim extremists eager to engage the unhappy American.

Ms. LaRose, 46, spent long days chained to her Pennsburg, Pa., apartment caring for an elderly parent. Now, “Jihad Jane” may now spend her life in prison - unless she persuades a U.S. judge she is not a security threat.

On Thursday, Ms. LaRose makes her first court appearance since a stunning indictment last week that charged that she plotted with terror suspects abroad to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims.

Ms. LaRose’s appearance may offer clues to her mental state after six months in a Philadelphia prison.

The Council on American—Islamic Relations has questioned the religious devotion of alleged converts like Ms. LaRose, given her live—in boyfriend and apparent failure to ever pledge her faith at a mosque.

“Maybe it’s not the Islamic faith that is making them do this; maybe it’s just their personal demons,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for CAIR.

Ms. LaRose spent most of her life in Texas, where she dropped out of high school, married at 16 and again at 24, and racked up a few minor arrests. After a second divorce, she followed a boyfriend to Pennsylvania in about 2004 and began caring for his father while he worked long hours, sometimes on the road. In 2005, she swallowed a handful of pills in a failed suicide attempt, telling police she was upset over the death of her father - but did not want to die.

As she moved through her 40s without a job or any outside hobbies, her boyfriend said, she started spending more time online.

Though her boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, did not consider her religious, and she apparently never joined a mosque, Ms. LaRose had by 2008 declared herself “desperate” to help suffering Muslims in a video she posted on YouTube.

“In my view, she sort of slipped sideways into Islam. ... There may have been some seduction into it, by one or more people,” said Temple University psychologist Frank Farley.

Ms. LaRose and Mr. Gorman shared an apartment with his father in Pennsburg, a quaint if isolated town an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Just days after the father died last August, she stole Mr. Gorman’s passport and fled to Europe without telling him, making good on her online pledge to try to kill in the name of Allah, according to the indictment. From June 2008 through her August 23, 2009, departure, the woman who also called herself “Fatima Rose” went online to recruit male fighters for the cause, recruit women with western passports to marry them, and raise money for the holy war, the indictment charged.

She had also agreed to marry one of her overseas contacts, a man from South Asia who said he could deal bombs and explosives, according to e—mails recovered by authorities.

He also told her in a March 2009 e—mail to go to Sweden to find the artist, Lars Vilks.

“I will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying,” she wrote back, adding that her blonde American looks would help her blend in.

Mr. Vilks questioned the sophistication of the plotters, seven of whom were rounded up in Ireland last week, just before Ms. LaRose’s indictment was unsealed. Still, he said he was glad Ms. LaRose never got to him. Although she had written the Swedish embassy in March 2009 to ask how to obtain residency, and joined his online artists group in September, there is no evidence from court documents that she ever made it to Sweden. Instead, she was arrested returning to Philadelphia on October 15.

Some terrorism experts wonder if Ms. LaRose posed any serious threat to Mr. Vilks or the United States - or was simply a lost soul.

“People in distress blame the government, and now blaming the government means taking the side of these Muslim terrorists,” said Ian Lustick, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor. “They’re about as jihadist as you and me, but they’re a lot less happy.”

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Health overhaul to cut deficit by $100 billion: Hoyer

(Reuters) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Thursday that sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation was on track for passage by the U.S. House of Representatives and would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion in the first 10 years.

U.S. | Barack Obama | Health | Healthcare Reform | Swine Flu

Expanding healthcare coverage will cost about $940 billion over 10 years. But revenue increases and savings in the bill will cover those costs, and Hoyer said Congressional Budget Office estimates to be released on Thursday would show the deficit would be reduced by $1 trillion in the subsequent decade.

The healthcare overhaul will result in "the largest deficit reduction of any bill adopted by Congress since 1993," Hoyer said. An aide said the amount of deficit reduction in the first 10 years would likely be between $120 billion and $130 billion.

President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders have been struggling to finish work on a final package of changes to a Senate-passed version of healthcare reform and line up the 216 House votes needed to pass it.

Hoyer said the effort is picking up momentum.

"We're on track for a Sunday vote," Hoyer said.

HA, what joke, I’ve never heard of an entitlement reducing the deficit by anything let alone $1 Trillion dollars.

And by momentum I guess he means, figuring out ways to pass bills without voting on them. Note to all voters, the Dems are forcefully expanding the government under the ruse (ie lies) of helping (some) people.

Ask Massachussets how they like their healthcare, or maybe we should ask Idaho if they want healthcare forced upon them. Google Idaho and healthcare and see what you find.

The Republicans have been expanding government for years and have used all of the voting practices they now accuse the Democrats of using. WAKE UP! Millions of uninsured Americans is not acceptable! Whatever the cost, we must find a way to pay for it — after we manage to pay for the massive debts needlessly run up by the Bush administration.
It’s too bad we can’t all have the CBO do our accounting chores. Consider the following grievous assumptions the CBO makes in its assessment of the Health Care bill:

(1) Their cost estimate doesn’t include $400 billion for the Medicare “doctor fix” that Congress will have to fund separately.

(2) It includes $100 billion from Social Security, even though Social Security is already out of money and having to cash in IOU’s from the U.S. Treasury.

(3) The CBO assumes employers who decide not to buy insurance for their workers will pay the 8% fine, pay these workers enough extra to buy their own insurance, and also pay Social Security and payroll taxes on this extra money – even though the net result will be more costly to the employer than just buying the health insurance. Are you kidding?

The CBO may be non-partisan, but it still scores the legislation according to specific criteria established by the Democrats and Obama. They should use common-sense criteria because as it is they are clearly NOT non-partisan.

I think the American people deserve an honest appraisal of this legislation.

“HA, what joke, I’ve never heard of an entitlement reducing the deficit by anything let alone $1 Trillion dollars.”-Andymc7

First of all Andy thats only 1/10th of trillion, it takes 1000 billions to make a trillion but anyway, tell me andy are you with the guys in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFOnG9a1Pzw

@Andymc7: maybe that’s because this isn’t an entitlement issue. People will be paying for their premiums, although there will be subsidies for the poor.
And there was already a vote, which was passed, if you recall. There will also be a vote, probably on Sunday, for the changes agreed upon with the Senate.
Seriously, you should try to educate yourself, & stop believing that GOP talking points are facts.
BURF>>>>You are as clueless as they hoped you were if you dont think this is entitlement and your taxes wont go up! HERE IS THE SCENARIO>>>Wont be fully enacted until 2014, that means they have at least 2 yrs to tax the daylights out of us saying it is for healthcare, when they will spend that money on other stuff, then raise taxes again to cover-up what they spent and pay for this abomination! By the way when did everything in the world hinge on equality?? If I go to college and get an education and a better job, why is it my duty to pay some lazy degenerate who didnt want to go to college to advance themselves? Again it is entitlement because those lazy people believe and know the govt will pick up the tab to bail them out!!
All human beings are equal in worth. The fact that some people don’t believe this doesn’t make it any less true. In our time we are still stuck on taking care of “number 1″, that style of life no longer serves us when we are now so globally interconnected.

We have to start thinking in terms of what benefits the most people. We also need to invest in education. The time for “leave me the hell alone” is almost at an end. As many of us as there are in the world, we have no choice but to cooperate with each other. The only other choice is to kill each other until there are few enough left that the rest can be greedy with their resources. It’s an option. But it’s a bloody and ugly one. Letting people die for lack of care even when we know we could make the system work for everyone, is just as bad as putting a gun to the heads of the sick and pulling the trigger.

I’d rather just pay more taxes, and work on myself and how I relate to my fellow human beings. This is far less about money than it is about doing what is human and what is righ

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UPDATE: House adjourns; overtime likely

Updated 3:07 p.m.

The House of Delegates has adjourned until noon Saturday as negotiators from each chamber continue to seek a deal on the state budget.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said that while it remains possible, he does not consider it likely that lawmakers will approve a budget in time to adjourn on Saturday.


Earlier:

RICHMOND — Two days of legislative negotiations have produced modest advances toward a new state budget, but both sides say a shift in attitudes may be the most promising development.

A dozen lawmakers expected to toil late into Thursday evening hoping to shake hands on a deal by Friday. With a deal in place by noon, the General Assembly could still meet its Saturday adjournment deadline.

The legislature has to reconcile a budget through 2012 that’s more than $4 billion short of projected revenues, the sharpest and longest downturn for state finances in modern times.

After testy encounters between Senate and House negotiating teams earlier in the week, including pledges by both sides to stand firm until the fiscal year’s end in June to get their way, relations thawed Wednesday.

“The atmosphere has been more conciliatory (with) more desire to see each other’s priorities and get this game over,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Lacey Putney, an independent from Bedford and the lead House negotiator.

No matter the outcome, thousands of local and state government jobs are likely to be eliminated over the new budget’s two-year life, services are likely to be streamlined or cut, and some city and county governments will have to consider property tax increases.

House and Senate conferees and experts from the staffs of both chambers’ money committees broke into small working groups Wednesday night and Thursday to refine spending plans in major spending areas such as public safety and health and human resources.

The most towering obstacles, however, remained Thursday evening, with about 48 hours remaining in the scheduled life of the 2010 session. And any breakdown in the talks could send the session into overtime for the fifth time in 10 years.

Sen. Janet D. Howell, a conferee, agreed that the talks appeared to have turned a corner, but there are demands on which the Senate won’t relent, including restoring many House cuts to state support to local public schools.

“We’ve been in no rush. We’re still not in any rush,” said Howell, D-Fairfax County.

For the House’s Republican majority and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, the priority is limiting the amount of fee increases the Senate had sought to generate additional revenue, particularly new levies for filing lawsuits in Virginia courts.

“The bill as passed by the Senate is extraordinarily high and would put us at the most prohibitive court fees in the country,” McDonnell said in an AP interview. “But I think some reasonable increase at this point would be appropriate.”

The Senate has already reduced its court fee proposal by nearly one-fourth, from almost $51 million to nearly $39 million, but Putney said the take is still too high.

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Israeli troops, Palestinians clash near Jerusalem

By DALIA NAMMARI
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 13, 2010; 11:30 AM

JERUSALEM -- Several dozen Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Saturday amid rising religious and political tensions in the disputed city.

The confrontation erupted at the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The women chanted "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital," briefly planted a Palestinian flag on one of the crossing's metal gates and tried to push through it. Israeli troops scuffled with the women and dispersed them with tear gas. At one point, a firebomb hit a military jeep and soldiers rushed to extinguish the fire.

As the women withdrew, Palestinian teens threw stones at soldiers who closed the crossing to traffic.

The Israeli military said four protesters were detained but no one was hurt.

Saturday's protest came at a time of growing friction in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want to establish a capital in the eastern sector of the city, captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. Israel's hard-line leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to consider partition, insisting he will never relinquish control over any part of Jerusalem.

Earlier this week, Israel announced plans to build 1,600 more homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, setting off a bitter diplomatic row with the United States, Israel's closest ally.

Jerusalem also has seen several protests in recent weeks against Israel's decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites. The move's practical implications are not clear, but the Palestinians see it as a provocation
Click here!

Five Palestinians were injured later Saturday in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, Palestinian medics said. Residents of a village near Nablus said they tried to prevent settlers from bathing in a water cistern they depend on for agriculture.

Palestinian villagers then hurled rocks at soldiers who tried to maintain order between the sides. The soldiers responded with tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets, injuring the Palestinian, the medics said.

On Friday, Israel sealed the West Bank for at least two days, in an attempt to prevent more protests.

Even when a closure is not in effect, most West Bank Palestinians are barred by Israel from entering Jerusalem. The Qalandiya crossing is one of the main gateways for Palestinians who obtain special entry permits to the city.

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Democrats seek agreement, vote on health care

By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
Under White House pressure to act swiftly, House and Senate Democratic leaders reached for agreement Friday on President Barack Obama's health care bill, sweetened suddenly by fresh billions for student aid and a sense that breakthroughs are at hand.

"It won't be long," before lawmakers vote, predicted Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She said neither liberals' disappointment over the lack of a government health care option nor a traditional mistrust of the Senate would prevent passage in the House.

At the White House, officials worked to maximize Obama's influence over lawmakers who control the fate of legislation that has spawned a yearlong struggle. They said he would delay his departure on an Asian trip for three days - until March 21 - and he will go to Ohio next week for a campaign-style pitch for his health care proposals.

The delay gives congressional leaders much-needed breathing room to finish the legislation and nail down support from wavering lawmakers.

"I'm delighted that the president will be here for the passage of the bill; it's going to be historic," said Pelosi, D-Calif. - though there's no guarantee the House can act by then. A procedural vote in the House Budget Committee is set for Monday afternoon, but as of late Friday lawmakers still hadn't gotten the final analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that they need to go forward.

With Democrats deciding to incorporate changes in student aid into the bill, Republicans suddenly had a new reason to oppose legislation they have long sought to scuttle.

"Well of course it's a very bad idea," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We now have the government running banks, insurance companies, car companies, and they do want to take over the student loan business."

He said it was symptomatic of Democrats' determination to have "the government expand its tentacles into absolutely everything."

At its core, the health care bill is designed to provide health care to tens of millions who lack it and ban insurance companies from denying medical coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Obama also wants the measure to begin to slow the rate of growth in medical costs nationwide. Most people would have to get insurance by law, and poor and middle-income Americans - including families of four earning up to $88,000 - would receive subsidies.

Whatever the outcome, there was no doubt the issue would reverberate into this fall's elections, with control of Congress at stake.

The health care bill appeared on the cusp of passage in early January, but was derailed when Senate Republicans won a Senate seat in Massachusetts, and with it, the strength needed to sustain a filibuster and block a final vote.

In the weeks since, the White House and Democrats have embarked on a two-part rescue strategy. It calls for the House to pass legislation that cleared the Senate in December, despite numerous objections, and for both houses to follow immediately with a second bill that makes changes to the first.

The second, fix-it bill would be drafted under rules that strip Senate Republicans of the ability to require Democrats produce a 60-vote majority.

Obama outlined numerous requested changes several weeks ago, many of them designed to satisfy the concerns of House Democrats.

They would increase subsidies for lower income families who cannot afford insurance, give additional money to states that provide higher-than-average benefits under Medicaid, and gradually close a coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug program used by millions of seniors.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/12/1808726/dems-seek-agreement-quick-vote.html#ixzz0i4qVz28w

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Obama pushing on health care end game

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is pushing a new anti-fraud plan and his top health official is challenging the nation's insurers as the administration cranks up the pressure for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's medical system.
Discuss
COMMENTS (1)

Obama is to speak Wednesday in suburban St. Louis, his second health care address in three days. His speech comes as congressional Democrats stand on the brink of delivering the president a dramatic success with passage of his massive overhaul legislation -- or a colossal failure if they can't get it done.

As part of the administration's campaign, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sketched out a stark choice for insurers: oppose reform and eventually lose customers, or work with the White House to improve the legislation.

She told insurers in a speech that if overhaul fails, premiums will continue to rise and employers will cancel coverage. She said the industry may make money initially, but "this kind of short-term thinking won't work in the long run for the American people or our health care system. It won't work for you."

Sebelius called on insurers to take the millions they might spend on attack ads and give Americans relief from rising double-digit premium increases, and "instead of spending your energy attacking the parts of the president's proposal you don't like, you can use it to strengthen the parts you do."

Sebelius' plea comes as business groups that oppose the legislation are stepping it up, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announcing a coordinated campaign to spend as much as $10 million on ads, starting Wednesday, saying, "Stop this health care bill we can't afford."

Leaders in the House and Senate are awaiting a final cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office in the next day or so that will allow them to start counting votes -- and twisting arms -- in earnest. In the House, in particular, getting the needed majority will be touch and go.

The two-step approach now being pursued calls for the House to approve a Senate-passed bill from last year, despite House Democrats' opposition to several of its provisions. Both chambers then would follow by approving a companion measure to make changes in that first bill.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has said he expects the House to act by March 18, the day Obama leaves for an overseas trip. That timetable would be tough to meet, and congressional leaders told White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that they don't need deadlines handed down from the White House.

Republicans are playing on House Democrats' suspicions of their Senate colleagues, arguing that Senate Democrats may not hold up their end of the bargain and the votes will be damaging politically for Democrats in November

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Lost Boys star Corey Haim dies age 38 after 'drug overdose'

ACTOR Corey Haim has died at the age of 38 after an apparent accidental drug overdose.

The actor who was best known for his role in the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys, was found in an unresponsive state at an apartment, near Burbank, California.

Police said Haim's mother was at the home at the time.

The actor, who struggled with drug addiction, was pronounced dead Providence St. Joseph's Medical Centre.

Canadian-born Haim was a teen heartthrob in the 1980s and appeared in several movies with fellow Lost Boys star Corey Feldman, with the two dubbed the Two Coreys.

However, his career never took off and the quality of his roles steadily decreased.

As the work dried up, Haim became more and more dependant on drugs.

In 2000 he confessed to taking around 85 Valium a day to calm his nerves.

He claimed to have finally overcome his drug habit in 2004, saying: "'I'm clean, sober, humble and happy."

However, while filming the direct-to-video sequel to Lost Boys in 2008, his co-star Feldman said he wanted nothing to with him until he kicked his addiction.

Haim began acting lessons as a child after by his mother enrolled in classes trying to help him overcome shyness.

He first broke into mainstream acting playing the role of Larry in the Canadian comedy series The Edison Twins, which ran from 1982 through until 1986.

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Roberts: Scene at State of Union 'Very Troubling'

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama's first State of the Union address was "very troubling" and that the annual speech to Congress has "degenerated into a political pep rally."


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama's first State of the Union address was "very troubling" and that the annual speech to Congress has "degenerated into a political pep rally."

Responding to a University of Alabama law student's question about the Senate's method of confirming justices, Roberts said senators improperly try to make political points by asking questions they know nominees can't answer because of judicial ethics rules.

"I think the process is broken down," he said.

Obama chided the court for its campaign finance decision during the January address, with six of the court's nine justices seated before him in their black robes.

Roberts said he wonders whether justices should attend the address.

"To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I'm not sure why we're there," said Roberts, a Republican nominee who joined the court in 2005.

Roberts said anyone is free to criticize the court and that some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.

"So I have no problems with that," he said. "On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum. The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court -- according the requirements of protocol -- has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling."

Breaking from tradition, Obama used the speech to criticize the court's decision that allows corporations and unions to freely spend money to run political ads for or against specific candidates.

"With all due deference to the separation of powers, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said.

Justice Samuel Alito was the only justice to respond at the time, shaking his head and appearing to mouth the words "not true" as Obama continued.

In response to Roberts' remarks Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs focused on the court's decision and not the chief justice's point about the time and place for criticism of the court.

"What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections -- drowning out the voices of average Americans," Gibbs said. "The president has long been committed to reducing the undue influence of special interests and their lobbyists over government. That is why he spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response."

Justice Antonin Scalia once said he no longer goes to the annual speech because the justices "sit there like bumps on a log" in an otherwise highly partisan atmosphere.

Roberts opened his appearance in Alabama with a 30-minute lecture on the history of the Supreme Court and became animated as he answered students' questions. He joked about a recent rumor that he was stepping down from the court and said he didn't know he wanted to be a lawyer until he was in law school.

While Associate Justice Clarence Thomas told students at Alabama last fall he saw little value in oral arguments before the court, Roberts disagreed.

"Maybe it's because I participated in it a lot as a lawyer," Roberts said. "I'd hate to think it didn't matter."

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Maddox is a brainy child besides speaking fluently Khmer

Maddox and Mom (AP)

MADDOX JOLIE-PITT IS A BRAINY CHILD

10th March 2010
Daily Star (UK)

NOT only does Maddox Jolie-Pitt have the world’s best-looking parents, he’s also got the brains of a mini-Einstein.

Angelina Jolie, 34, and Brad Pitt, 46, have been raving to pals that their adopted eight-year-old from Cambodia is intellectually gifted and has a high IQ.

A Hollywood source said: “Maddox is amazingly smart and loves books and tinkering with gadgets.

He is a gifted painter and sketch artist, takes piano lessons, does well in football and speaks fluent English, French, Spanish and his native Khmer.”

Yep, we feel slightly inadequate.

Click to Read More...

Posted by Socheata

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Obama Bypasses Members of Congress and Heads Right for Their Constituents

President Obama has finished trying to turn the Republican tide on health care reform and is now focusing his sights on average Americans. It is through their prism that Mr. Obama hopes to prod members of congress to urgently pass his health care reform legislation and he did so in full-on campaign style Monday in Pennsylvania.

A deafening crowd welcomed the President to Arcadia University, just north of Philadelphia, where Mr. Obama told them he gets it.

"We need to give families and businesses more control over their own health insurance and that's why we need to pass health care reform; not next year, not five years from now, not ten years from now. But now."

But what is it exactly that brings the President to the Philadelphia area? If you ask the Republican National Committee, it's salvaging the faltering campaign of Democratic Senator Arlen Specter. Ironically, the group says, it's the health care reform push that is taking its toll on his re-election bid.

The RNC cited a February Franklin and Marshall College Poll Monday as evidence. The poll says only 30% of Pennsylvanians approve of the job Senator Specter is doing compared to a 52% approval rating last March, when the health care debate began.

Mr. Obama's aides say his visit was not about elections. "I wouldn't say that this is about any specific targeting in that sense," Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters. "I mean, if you look at where we're going, it doesn't really have an impact on a particular member. But Philadelphia is a place where they are seeing these rising costs really crush their -- crush families and businesses and local government."

The President is in his comfort zone in such public settings. He has hit the road before on behalf of his health care agenda.

But this time, the message is more urgent. As Mr. Obama traverses the country-- hitting St. Louis on Wednesday-- will members of Congress feel the nudge of their constituents enough to get on board with his health care agenda? There isn't much time left to find out. The White House has said they want a House-passed bill by the time President Obama heads overseas on March 18.

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Is it still the man’s job to approach a woman?

During this Women’s Herstory Series, I want to discuss relevant issues that women face today while also honoring great women of the past and present. As the economy has moved away from the agrarian society and into the industrial sector, more women have left conventional roles of homemaker, housewife, and other domestic occupations. Now, we see more women in powerful positions making strides in the professional sector. Women have fought for equal rights, representation, and access to resources that their male counterparts freely enjoy. We demand equal pay and opportunity in all sectors both private and public. But for all of the fuss that women make about equality in their professional standing, do we really want the potential burden of equality in our dating lives too?

Burden in the equality of dating sounds like a loaded phrase. But, as I’ve met more and more very eligible single women who are looking to date, I encounter a common denominator in many of these singles. Most women that I know of still believe that it is the man’s job to approach and pursue a woman. Ironically, these are the same women who fiercely claim to be independent, self-confident, and self-assured. Well if you’re so independent, self-confident, and self-assured, why not walk up to your Mr. Right? (This article focuses on the exchange between heterosexuals but I will discuss the exchange between two women in a separate post.)

I challenge women with this archaic mentality of waiting for a male to approach them. While you’re waiting for your next date, potential male suitors are passing you by. When these women who wait on men to find them don’t have anyone ask for their number, they immediately internalize the lack of attention. Show me a woman who feels rejected and I’ll show you a woman who will start to temporarily self-destruct. “It must be my hair” or “I didn’t wear the right outfit” she’ll whine to herself and girlfriends. From the conversations that I’ve had with the opposite sex, a woman doesn’t have to always wear the perfect outfit. She’s allowed to have her imperfections. (Men who don’t allow for imperfection aren’t worth your time anyway.)

“So why aren’t these men approaching me if I’m a full package?” many women ask. It’s probably because they pick up on all your independence, self-esteem, and self-confidence that you boldly present. These men are more than likely intimidated by you. Or, these may may falsely believe that you’re seeing someone else if you look too busy to be bothered. Some women inadvertently make themselves inapproachable. If you find that you’re not attracting as many fellows as you want to, do a self-evaluation of your own approachability. Approachability exists in the little things like direct eye contact, body language, a cute smile and perhaps saying something like “Good day.” These ice-breakers show that a woman is friendly and open worthy of a second glance. It may be intimidating at first, but practice this a few times. There is such a false idea that women who make themselves available are being trashy. Proper advertisement of one’s availability and exploiting oneself are completely different sides of the self-propagating scale.

Men have told me that it is actually sexy if a woman approaches. It shows a genuine sense of self-confidence and an ability to go after what one wants. What man doesn’t want the kind of woman who knows exactly what she wants and isn’t afraid to get it? So, cast aside your self-esteem that may be a bit superficial and try on a pair of big girl panties. Go after the one that you really want. Who knows, maybe he was too afraid to go after you…

In sum, if we’re going to ask for equal rights, we better be prepared for what that really means. It means that you need to take all that equality that your ancestors have fought for and put it into practice. You can’t have all the glory without any of the guts. My question to the readers are:

1.) When was the last time you were approached? How did the scenario look?

2.) When was the last time you approached someone? What did that look like?

3.) Would you be willing to approach a man and ask for his phone number or a future coffee date?

4.) Do you think it’s time for women to start empowering themselves and approaching men?

If you have any interesting answers to these questions, write something in the comments section. I always read them.

Please stay involved in our Herstory Month Series!

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Dr. Edgar Wayburn, Medal of Freedom Winner, Sierra Club Hon. President, dies at 103

A Towering Figure in the Modern Conservation Movement
Published on Mar 8, 2010 - 7:44:57 AM

San Francisco, CA Mar. 8, 2010 - Honorary Sierra Club President and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, Dr. Edgar Wayburn died late Friday night at his home in San Francisco in the presence of his family. He was 103.

The following is a letter from Sierra Club Deputy Executive Director, Bruce Hamilton, followed by a biography of Dr. Wayburn:

"Ed Wayburn was one of the towering figures on the national and world stage of conservation. He was the 20th Century John Muir."

"Ed would take a vision such as protecting 100 million acres of Alaska or protecting the Marin Headlands as a national park and run with it until he accomplished what seemed impossible. He enlisted the help of Presidents, Cabinet members, powerful members of Congress, mayors, and millions of Americans and would not take no for an answer. This is why he is credited by President Clinton as 'the man who saved more wilderness and parks in the United States than any other American.' "

"When you or your grandchildren marvel at the wilderness in Redwood National Park, Alaska, or the Marin Headlands you will be witnessing the living legacy of Ed Wayburn. It is his lasting gift to all of us."

A longer tribute and bio of Dr. Wayburn celebrating his 100th birthday is available

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YouTube adds video captions

English-language video clips will be captioned automatically, in a move designed to make the site more accessible for the deaf or hearing-impaired


By Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor
Published: 9:04AM GMT 05 Mar 2010

YouTube has started to add captions to all its English-language video

YouTube has announced that every English-language video uploaded to the site will be captioned automatically. The move means that Britain’s nine million deaf or hearing-impaired people will be able to access YouTube’s ever-increasing range of films and videos.

Google stressed that the roll-out of the service is only just beginning, and that the automatic software is imperfect. Video owners will be allowed to download the transcript for their content and then improve them where necessary.
Based on the technology that powers Google Voice Search, the captions will be most accurate if the video provides a clear audio track, but will, the company promises, be improved “every day”.

A button will allow users to request that existing videos be auto-captioned as soon as possible, and once they have been processed the captions will be available at the click of a button at the bottom right of the video player.

Emma Harrison, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf’s director of external affairs, welcomed the feature. “Captioning will significantly help people with a hearing loss understand video content and increase their ability to share experiences of watching those in which speech plays a prominent part,” she said.

"We believe that all on-demand content should be accessible and RNID will continue lobbying hard to ensure that people with a hearing loss have better opportunities to enjoy subtitled videos, movies and television programmes.”

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Google Enlists DocVerse in Attack on Microsoft

Google's got its head in the cloud--again. The search giant today announced that it has bought DocVerse, a software startup that makes an online collaboration plug-in for Microsoft Office. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google paid $25 million for the San Francisco-based developer, which was founded in 2007 by former Microsoft employees Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui.

The DocVerse deal wraps up an acquisitive week for Google, which announced Monday that it gobbled up online photo-editing site Picnik.

Office, Meet Apps

So what are Google's intentions for its latest conquest? "Our first step will be to combine DocVerse with Google Apps to create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps," write DeNeui and Sinha in their DocVerse blog. Their plug-in currently allows MS Office users to work collaboratively on Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents, even when they're offline.

If implemented correctly, DocVerse's Office-to-Apps bridge can help Google position its Apps communications and collaboration suite as a viable alternative to Microsoft products in the enterprise market. A collaborative tool that enables seamless (or at least pretty good) integration between the competitors' business apps could only serve to help Google and harm Microsoft, which has reigned over the enterprise market for years.

A Cloudy Outlook

The DocVerse acquisition fits nicely with Google's cloud-based view, and with the search company's not-so-subtle efforts to dethrone the desktop-centric MS Office.

"The future of productivity applications is in the cloud," blogs Google Apps group product manager Jonathan Rochelle. "But we recognize that many people are still accustomed to desktop software. So as we continue to improve Google Docs and Google Sites as rich collaboration tools, we're also making it easier for people to transition to the cloud, and interoperate with desktop applications like Microsoft Office," Rochelle writes.

Google recently added advanced data backup and recovery capabilities to all components of the Apps suite. It also introduced mobile device management tools for users of Google Apps Premier and Education Edition. Today's DocVerse announcement is yet another sign of Google's business-market play.

Microsoft, of course, is developing its own cloud-based strategy too. Its upcoming Office 2010, for instance, will feature numerous Web-based enhancements, including scaled-down online versions of core Office desktop apps.

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Apple iPad to go on sale on 3 April in US and 'late April' in UK

Apple yet to provide details on UK or international release dates, selling prices or associated mobile network companies
Apple's touchscreen iPad tablet computer will go on sale on 3 April in the US, but no specific date – beyond "late April" – has been given for its release in the UK and other international locations.

The company declined to set either the selling price for its models abroad, or to name any of the mobile network companies that will be providing connectivity for the more expensive iPad systems, which have 3G data sims built in.

US customers will be able to pre-order the iPad, which Steve Jobs described as a "magical and revolutionary product", from Friday 12 March, either online or in Apple's retail stores.

The devices come in two basic forms – with Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, and with both Wi-Fi and 3G mobile connectivity. However, only the Wi-Fi versions will go on sale on 3 April; Apple said only that the 3G versions will be on sale in "late April".

All the versions of the iPad will go on sale in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland at the same time.

The iPad has excited huge interest because it expands the interface of the iPhone, Apple's hugely successful mobile phone, into a usable "slate" computer with a 9-inch screen. A number of content publishers have thought that it could be a completely new medium for sales of various products – including electronic versions of books, magazines, newspapers, music and films – that they will be able to charge for by selling them through Apple's iTunes store, which has been a source of revenue for music, film, TV, audiobook and notably "app" creators.

In the US, the basic iPad model with Wi-Fi and 16 gigabytes of storage will cost $499. Apple says that it "lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more". The device is 0.5 inches thick and weighs 1.5 pounds – "thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook" and Apple says it can run for up to 10 hours on a single battery charge. (Tests on other products suggest the figure may typically be only half that.)

In the past few weeks there had been mounting speculation that there were production problems at Apple's factories in China. Apple had no comment on that, but the staged release to the international market compared to the US – which makes half of Apple's sales – suggests it is husbanding its resources.

The announcement notably does not offer any pricing for the UK, nor any details about which mobile carriers Apple might sign up with. O2, Orange and Vodafone already offer its iPhone, but none of them are mentioned in Apple's announcement.

Nor is pricing – which could be key to how well it sells. Since the announcement of the iPad in January, the pound has slipped against the dollar in international exchange markets, which has led to speculation that Apple is waiting until the last minute to announce the price in order to minimise any losses on exchange-rate volatility. Macworld magazine, which calculated in February that the low-end iPad selling for $499 in the US might have a starting price of £388 in the UK, recalculated on Friday that the downturn in sterling would now mean a minimum starting price of £400.

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Oscar hopeful Sandra Bullock crowned worst actress

(Reuters) - Sandra Bullock has earned a few honors in Hollywood, "America's Sweetheart" among them, and on Saturday she was crowned with the dubious title of worst actress of 2009, one day before she's favored to win an Oscar.

Entertainment | Film | People

Bullock, whose drama "The Blind Side" has made her the odds-on favorite to claim the best actress Oscar, was given a Razzie Award for worst female performance in "All About Steve." No performer has ever won a Razzie and an Oscar the same year.

The actress played a socially awkward designer of newspaper crosswords, who falls in love with a cameraman (Bradley Cooper) and stalks him in the movie.

Organizers of the Razzies, an annual event that began in 1980 to spoof the glitzy Oscars, which take place on Sunday, also named Bullock and Cooper the worst screen couple of 2009.

Hollywood stars are rare sightings at the Razzies, but in 2005 Halle Berry sportingly claimed her award for "Catwoman," and brought along the Oscar she had previously won for her role in "Monster's Ball."

The Razzies this year also turned their inside Hollywood sarcasm on one of the biggest box office hits of 2009, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." The critically panned blockbuster was named worst film, and organizers bestowed a second trophy of shame upon its director Michael Bay.

Special awards were given for the past decade. The 2000 film "Battlefield Earth," based on the writings of Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard, was named worst picture of the decade.

Comedian Eddie Murphy, who has had several box office duds in recent years, and Paris Hilton were named the worst actor and actress of the 2000s, respectively.

The so-called "winners" were determined by mailing ballots to 657 voters in the United States and 19 foreign countries.

Following is a list of 2009 Razzie winners:

Worst picture: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Worst actor: The Jonas Brothers ("Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience")

Worst actress: Sandra Bullock ("All About Steve")

Worst supporting actor: Billy Ray Cyrus ("Hannah Montana: The Movie")

Worst supporting actress: Sienna Miller ("G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra")

Worst screen couple: Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper ("All About Steve")

Worst screenplay: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Worst director: Michael Bay ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen")

Worst remake/rip-off or sequel: "Land of the Lost"

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Oscars 2010: odds on best film

The 10 films in the running for best movie are:
Jeremy Renner starring in The Hurt Locker
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in Avatar
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in Avatar Photo: REUTERS
Brad Pitt in this year's Oscar contender 'Inglourious Basterds'
Brad Pitt in this year's Oscar contender 'Inglourious Basterds'

The Hurt Locker (8-11)

Heart-stopping drama about a US Army bomb disposal unit in Iraq, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Despite several controversies, including criticism from some Iraq war veterans, it is the favourite.
James Cameron's 3-D spectacle silenced the doubters to become the biggest grossing film of all time. Set on a faraway moon with a strong environmental message and eye-popping special effects. New voting system means it may lose out.

Inglourious Basterds (10-1)

Set in Nazi-occupied France the film provided director Quentin Tarantino with his biggest ever box office opening and could pull off a shock win at the Oscars.

Up in the Air (33-1)

George Clooney stars as a corporate downsizer who travels America firing employees and racking up air miles only to then face redundancy himself.

Up (66-1)

A landmark in animation which tells the tale of Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year-old widower who hitches balloons to his house and floats away to explore the jungles of South America.

Precious (80-1)

An early favourite for the Oscars, the film was based on Push, a novel by New York poet Sapphire. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibé stars as an illiterate, obese teenager who is abused by her mother and made pregnant by her father.

The Blind Side (125-1)

Based on the true story of Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock, a wealthy white woman from Memphis who adopted a homeless black teenager and helped him become a professional American Football player.

District 9 (125-1)

A South Africa science-fiction film made on a budget of just $30 million (£20 million) and with a cast of unknowns. Set in a world in which aliens have been confined in Johannesburg.

An Education (125-1)

Stars British actress Carey Mulligan in an adaptation of the journalist, Lynn Barber's, memoir about a bright, suburban schoolgirl who falls under the spell of an older man. The screenplay is by Nick Hornby.

A Serious Man (150-1)

A black comedy from film-makers Joel and Ethan Coen which stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a 1960s physics professor whose personal life is falling apart.

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Obama pushes health-care compromise

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged Congress to pass a revised version of his health-care legislation that includes a number of Republican proposals.

In a speech delivered in the White House on Wednesday, Obama called on lawmakers to finish their work on health care, saying the country "is waiting for us to act."

"This is where we've ended up," Obama said. "It's an approach that has been debated and changed and I believe improved over the last year."

Before an audience of health-care workers, including doctors and nurses, Obama urged the leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives to schedule a vote in the next few weeks.

Obama roundly rejected calls from Republicans to draft new legislation from scratch

"I do not see how another year of negotiations would help. Moreover, the insurance companies aren't starting over. They are continuing to raise premiums and deny coverage as we speak. For us to start over now could simply lead to delay that could last for another decade or even more."

As with bills currently stalled before the House of Representatives and the Senate, the proposal is expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

It would not include a publicly run insurance plan, however, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums "if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified."

A version of the proposed legislation posted on the White House website on Monday says it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.

Obama's afternoon speech came a day after he sent letter to congressional leaders saying he was open to incorporating four Republican ideas into his proposal.
Republicans not expected to support bill

The proposals included expanding pilot programs that experiment with specialized health courts rather than jury trials for medical malpractice lawsuits, increasing aid to Medicaid providers, expanding the use of health savings accounts, and using investigators disguised as patients to uncover waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

Republicans in both the House and the Senate, however, remain unanimous in their opposition to the bill, and were not swayed by the possible inclusion of their proposals.

Republican Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn said "merely incorporating these ideas into the deeply flawed House and Senate bills will not bring us any closer to real reform."

While Democrats control both the House and the Senate, the two chambers have been unable to agree on health-care legislation.

The inclusion of Republican proposals is aimed at the some three dozen Democratic moderates who opposed an earlier version of the bill brought before the House of Representatives in November.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/03/us-obama-health-care.html#ixzz0hSagRC3I

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Iraq elections: calls for swift results as Iraqis go to the polls

Fears that wrangling over the results will trigger a return to violence has overshadowed last-minute campaigning for the Iraqi election.


By Richard Spencer in Baghdad
Published: 8:07PM GMT 05 Mar 2010


Female supporters wave Iraqi flags at a rally for Ammar Al-Hakim in Baghdad

The lead-up to Saturday's vote has been more peaceful than most Iraqis and international observers dared predict.

Violence has risen overall but rumours of al-Qaeda "spectaculars" in Baghdad, similar to suicide car-bombings that killed hundreds of people last year, have so far been unfulfilled.
Western diplomats are hailing the election as the best hope for democracy since the 2003 invasion.

Polls are unreliable but Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, is seen as marginal favourite to become the first Iraqi leader ever to be returned to power by the will of the people.

But a close result without a clear winner could lead to months of stagnation, allegations of fraud and outside interference, and a threat of renewed violence.

"Thing are already getting worse," said Omar Majid, a member of one of the "Awakening Council" patrols held responsible for bringing order to the streets of Iraq's cities after the sectarian chaos of three years ago.

"There are already holes in the security, and we are getting weaker."

The creation of the Awakening Council to take on al-Qaeda in Sunni areas, combined with an all-out assault on Shia militias by Mr Maliki and US forces, has been credited with returning Iraq to a semblance of normality.

Security is intense, but blast walls established everywhere against car bombs and rocket attacks are emblazoned with campaign posters.

A measure of the increased freedom since the Islamist gangs were brought under control is the prominence of women candidates, their unveiled portraits in smart suits attracting widespread attention and, it is claimed, traffic jams.

They have also sparked political jokes.

"That woman is ten years older than her picture," said an Iraqi of one candidate. "You see how the politicians are already lying to us."

Mr Majid patrols the streets of Adhamiyah, a Baghdad suburb that became notorious for "IEDs" – improvised explosive devices stuck under cars or left at the side of the road.

His colleague, Mutlab Ali Kudhir, 27, described how he joined the Awakening Council after an al-Qaeda gang burst into his house and shot his wife dead in front of him two years ago.

"They killed her because she was Shia," he said. "We had no warning."

Now most of the patrol's members will be voting for Mr Maliki's main opponent, Ayad Allawi.

Like Mr Maliki, Mr Allawi is Shia but he stands on an anti-sectarian ticket.

But that means, in effect, most of the Sunni community will vote for his electoral block while the majority Shia will vote for either Mr Maliki or a conservative Shia Islamist alliance.

"The more honest candidates still admit that this election will follow sectarian lines," said a western diplomat.

That leaves the fear that whichever group loses out will take up arms again.

Even if Mr Maliki wins, he is unlikely to gain a majority, with many analysts fearing it will take several months to negotiate a coalition.

US forces are now preparing to delay their pull-out, due to start in earnest in August.

"The most likely scenarios will probably lead to protracted negotiations," said Kenneth Pollack, a Middle East security analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"That could hamstring the functioning of the Iraqi government for some time to come, and might well provoke renewed violence."

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Angkor: How can a UNESCO site keep tourist temple raiders in check?

Image credit: Angkor Wat (Workbook Stock/Thomas Kokta/Getty Images)

Fri Mar 5, 2010
By Sarah Dowdey
Discovery News

It only takes a quick Google image search to understand why Angkor, the Khmer empire's ancient seat, makes plenty of "must-see" travel lists. Its ruined temple complexes pop out through the forests, and its sprawling reservoirs offer a testament to the city's impressive engineering.

When I podcasted on Angkor a while back, my co-host and I talked a bit about the possible role of environmental degradation in the city's downfall. Deforestation may have caused silting, something that could damage the complex waterworks that kept the city running so efficiently.

Another hypothesis, this one from National Geographic's Richard Stone, centers more on plain old environmental bad luck: an El Niño cycle beginning exactly when the delicate water management system was showing its age. Deprived of the mechanical wizardry that kept dramatic seasonal changes in check, the city may not have been equipped to face a long dry period.

But since Angkor's fall could have had as much to do with war, religion or rivalry among feuding Khmer royal offspring, I'll focus here on the present-day site's environmental woes. The ruined complex, situated near Siem Reap, has been one of Cambodia's tourist cornerstones since the country opened as a safe destination after years of war and internal strife.

And while Angkor has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, and spent 12 years on the group's "threatened" list, such a designation requires some trade-offs. With international protection comes international exposure and a flood of new visitors. According to the non-governmental organization Heritage Watch, Angkor saw 7600 visitors in 1993; by 2006, the number was 1.6 million; by the time 2010 is up, the complex will likely draw 3 million. Tourists of course bring in money for the developing country, as well as help assure a certain degree of protection for cultural sites. But they also walk everywhere. They touch things. They require hotels, resorts and transportation. The development of Siem Reap may even be sucking Angkor dry, drawing out its groundwater and weakening the temples' foundations.

Fortunately, groups like Heritage Watch are advocating for a more sustainable type of tourism. Working with the Cambodian government, they've started a "heritage friendly tourism campaign" to save antiquities, discourage looters and encourage visitors to fan out, spread their wealth and take a little heat off of Angkor.

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Military Makes Mighty Show of Rockets [-Several hundreds of thousands dollar rockets just for a show?]

Cambodian soldiers test fire multiple rocket launchers (BM21) at the air field in Kampong Chhnang province

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Kampong Chhnang
04 March 2010

It was as though lightning leapt from the rocket barrels. Fifteen trucks firing multiple rockets each, nearly 200 all, in a military exercise in Kampong Chhnang province early Thursday morning that officials insisted was not a show of force.

Rows of trucks were parked at the province’s giant, dusty airstrip, launching 122-mm rockets over the rice fields and palm trees and across the plains. The shots came first in a trickle, as single rockets were fired for aim, and then in a roaring flood, as armed crews behind embankments fired for effect.

Formations of soldiers, military police and other forces applauded and distant booms drifted in from impact zones up to 40 kilometers away.

“They hit the target,” a jovial Defense Minister Tea Banh reported after the exercise, addressing a crowd of reporters from the shade of camouflage netting. The rockets all landed within a 1.6 square kilometer area, he said.







The military exercise was the first of its kind since the end of Cambodia’s wars more than a decade ago and came as Cambodian and Thai troops are engaged in a tense standoff along the border near Preah Vihear temple.

Tea Banh said the exercise had nothing to do with Thailand, a statement echoed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was not present at the airport Thursday.

“I have to confirm that this is not to show off military muscle,” Hun Sen told a ceremony in Phnom Penh. “This is a normal military exercise, and this is us preparing ourselves to defend the nation in case of invasion.”

Cambodia has used the BM-21 multi-barreled rocket launchers, also known as Stalin’s Organs, since it began purchasing them from Russia in the 1980s.

Hun Sen said Thursday that military experts would evaluate the rockets’ ability to “hit and destroy” their targets.

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Cambodian military tests rockets

Cambodian soldiers test fire multiple rocket launchers (BM21) at the air field in Kampong Chhnang province


Cambodian soldiers prepare to test-fire a multiple rocket launcher


Cambodian troops fired some 200 rockets in their first public drill since the country's civil war ended

Thursday, March 04, 2010
By Suy Se (AFP)

KAMPONG CHHNANG, Cambodia — Cambodia's military mounted a rare public test of rockets on Thursday amid a lingering troop standoff over disputed territory with neighbouring Thailand.

In their first public drill since the country's civil war ended more than a decade ago, troops fired some 200 rockets from truck-mounted launchers at an airfield 180 kilometres (about 110 miles) from the Thai border.

Cambodian defence ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat told AFP the display was "not about flexing our muscles" against Thailand.

"The drill is not a threat or a show of force against neigbouring countries or foreign countries," Chhum Socheat said before the rockets were fired in front of assembled media and top brass.

Muffled thumps could be heard as salvos of rockets landed far from the launch site.

"It is about the strengthening of the abilities of our forces in order to fulfil the duties of national defence against invaders," Chhum Socheat added.

Prime Minister Hun Sen declared in a speech last week the rockets would be fired to gauge the quality of the Russian and Chinese-made Cold War-era weapons which have long lain unused in warehouses.

Cambodia and Thailand have been locked in nationalist tensions and a troop standoff at their disputed border since July 2008, when Cambodia's 11th century Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.

Four soldiers were killed in clashes in the temple area in 2008 and three more in a gunbattle last April. Smaller flare-ups continue to be reported between troops in the area.

The Thai-Cambodia border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia, which ended in 1998.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand. The exact boundary through the surrounding grounds remains in dispute.

Relations plunged further in November after Hun Sen appointed ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as his economic adviser and then refused to extradite him to Thailand, which he fled to avoid a jail term for corruption.

Thailand's government downplayed the Cambodian rocket drill and said there had been no troop reinforcements on the disputed border.

"I don't think Cambodia wants to intimidate us, as we have sent them a clear signal that we don't want the dispute to go out of control and affect people in both countries," deputy Thai prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban said.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the drill was "nothing to do with us, they are not firing into our territory."

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Shuttle flights would continue under new proposal

WASHINGTON — The space shuttle era could get a new lease on life under a bill filed today by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The measure would delay the shuttle’s planned retirement in 2010 until NASA is confident that a replacement spacecraft is ready or that the shuttle and its massive payload bay is no longer needed to keep the International Space Station afloat through 2020.

The 37-page bill also authorizes an additional $1.3 billion in NASA spending next year above President Barack Obama’s request of $19 billion. The extra money would help prepare NASA for as many as two additional shuttle flights per year after 2010, as well as fund new spacecraft development.

“This must not be an ‘either or’ proposition where we are forced to choose between continuing to fly the shuttle to service the station and maintain our independence in reaching space, or investing in the next generation of space vehicle. We can and must do both,” Hutchison said in a statement.

Last month, Obama moved to cancel NASA’s Constellation moon rocket program in favor of an approach that would rely on commercial rocket companies to ferry cargo and crew to the space station after the shuttle’s final four missions.
Constellation aimed to send astronauts to the station by 2015 and return astronauts to the moon by 2020 aboard new Ares rockets and an Orion capsule, but financial and technical problems made those goals impossible.

The White House has said it hopes to have crewed, commercial launches to the station as early as 2016.

The Obama plan has gotten a chilly reception in Congress and the Hutchison measure emphasizes the need for NASA to have a government-run system that could lift astronauts into space. The new bill also calls for the “continuation or modification” of programs initiated under the Constellation program.

“While commercial transportation systems may contribute valuable services, it is in the United States’ national interest to maintain a government operated space transportation system for crew and cargo delivery to low-Earth orbit and beyond,” it notes.

The bill faces an uncertain fate in Congress.

Politically, there is talk of Hutchison leaving the Senate after losing a bid for the Texas governor’s mansion. Plus, getting more money for NASA always has been difficult — even in rosy budget years — and plans for continuing the shuttle have been criticized before because additional flights would be costly and would pose a safety risk.

Indeed, a key criticism of continued shuttle flights is that NASA would have to recertify the aging fleet to ensure that age wouldn’t cause another fatal accident. Investigators of the 2003 Columbia disaster made that specific recommendation and Hutchison appears to have listened.

The bill calls for the creation of a Flight Certification Review Committee that would assess what needs to be done in order to fly the shuttle for an additional five years. The five-member team would be appointed by the National Academies of Science.

A companion bill authored by U.S. Reps. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach, and Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, is expected next week. A Kosmas aide said the delay is due to the two lawmakers seeking to get more original

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Opera says its browser is the "fastest" of them all

Opera Software has launched version 10.50 of its web browser - which it claims is the world's "fastest" for Windows-based systems.

The latest iteration of the browser also includes a redesigned GUI, along with a feature known as "private browsing" which attempts to hide all traces of visited site
"Opera 10.50 is the fastest browser in almost all speed tests. But, more important than any speed test is the real-world speed during use. We designed Opera 10.50 to be easy to use, while making our unique features stand out, so you can get more out of the Web," explained Opera CEO Lars Boilesen. 



"Under the hood, we introduced a new JavaScript engine, Carakan and a new graphics library, Vega. What that means to you: no more waiting around for a site to load. [And] on Windows 7/Vista, we let Opera enjoy Aero Glass, as well as supporting Aero Peek and Jump Lists."

Other features include:

* Opera Turbo - Compresses Web pages on Opera's servers and facilitates the faster transfer of data.
* 
Unite - Allows users to share content immediately without uploading files or posting to a social network.
* 
Link - Synchronizes speed dial, notes, search-engine preferences and more. Can be used across multiple Opera browsers.

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Chile quake may have shortened day

This composite image of the Earth is based on data from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite. It represents the most detailed image of the Earth from space ever taken. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

The 8.8-magnitude Chilean earthquake released so much energy that it may have slightly shortened the length of the Earth's day, a NASA scientist says.

Richard Gross, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory computed how the Earth's rotation may have been affected by the Feb. 27 quake, which has killed at least 723 people.

The JPL computer model suggests that the length of the Earth day may have been shortened by 1.26 millionths of a second.
YOUR NEWS:

If you were in the quake zone — or have relatives who were — tell us about your experience.

The change in the length of the day came as a result of the shift in the Earth's axis that occurred because of the quake. The Earth's figure axis, the imaginary line about which its mass is balanced, shifted by 2.7 milliseconds of arc, or about eight centimetres.

Gross said the same model estimated that the 2007 Sumatran earthquake, with a magnitude of 9.1, should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 millionths of a second, although its shift in the Earth's axis was only about seven centimetres.

Gross said the smaller Chilean earthquake had a greater effect on the Earth's rotation because it occurred farther away from the equator. As well, the fault responsible for the Chile quake dips into the Earth at a steeper angle, making it more effective at shifting the axis.

Gross said more data from the Chilean earthquake will provide a clearer picture of how it affected the planet.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/02/tech-nasa-earth-chile-quake.html#ixzz0hD44TGQk

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Google 'considering China options'

Google has said it is continuing to review the future of its China operations, almost two months after the firm said it would stop complying with Chinese government regulations requiring it to censor search results.

On Tuesday a senior executive from the internet search giant told a US senate committee that the company's investigation into alleged hacking attacks on its email service was still in process.

Google warned in January that it was considering pulling out of China altogether after discovering that Chinese dissidents using Google's Gmail service were being spied on.

Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights, Nicole Wong, a Google vice-president, said the firm had not set a specific deadline for ending censorship of its Chinese search results, although she said Google was "reviewing our options".

"The attack on our corporate infrastructure and the surveillance it uncovered - as well as attempts over the past year to limit free speech on the web even further - led us to conclude that we are no longer willing to censor our search results," she said.

Commenting on the future of Google's operations in China, Wong said the company was "firm in our decision that we will not censor our search results in China and we are working towards that end"
She added that Google has "many employees on the ground" in China, "so we recognise both the seriousness and the sensitivity of the decision we are making".

Wong gave few new details on the mid-December cyber attack thought to have originated from China that was partly responsible for Google's threat to pull out of the country.

However, she said the company was in discussion with the Chinese government as to how it can continue to do business in the country.

China has so far insisted that all companies offering internet services in China must comply with regulations requiring them to block access to sites deemed undesirable by Chinese censors.

"We want to get to that end - of stopping censoring our search results - in a way that is appropriate and responsible," Wong told the hearing.

"We are working on that as hard as we can but it's a very human issue for us."

Tuesday's senate subcommittee hearing was chaired by Dick Durbin.

The Illinois Democratic senator has said he intends to introduce a bill that would require internet companies to follow a code of conduct for doing business in countries that restrict free speech and human rights.

Durbin's proposed bill would subject companies that do not take "reasonable steps to protect human rights" to civil or criminal penalties.

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Apple suit likely a shock to Google phone maker Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/02/apple-htc-patent-lawsuit.html#ixzz0hD35DDrS

Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC is likely coming as a shock to the Taiwanese phone maker, which holds the American company in high regard.

"I have always been an Apple fan, all of my life," said John Wang, HTC's chief marketing and innovation officer, in a recent interview. "I stay up till 1 a.m. to see [Apple CEO] Steve [Jobs'] speeches, every time he speaks. Apple is such a respectable company in this world."

On Tuesday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC that claims the company has violated 20 of its patents related to graphical interface, underlying architecture and hardware in several of its handset models. Apple has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. District Court in Delaware to block the import and sale of infringing phones in the United States, as well as triple damages and interest.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” Jobs said in a press release. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

HTC on Tuesday said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not comment.

In an interview with CBC News in late January, Wang spoke of his admiration for Apple, but also of HTC's own innovation efforts. The company set up its first dedicated innovation centre, dubbed "Magic Labs," in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005. The lab's focus was to concentrate on inventing new technologies away from the pressures of quarterly business targets, with an eye to developing products that would hit the market two or three years into the future.

Wang said he was surprised when he watched Jobs' speech in January 2007, where he unveiled the iPhone. Touting a sleek, graphical touch-screen interface, the iPhone nearly swept the carpet out from under HTC, which had been working on similar features since 2005.

"My jaw dropped. I was thinking that half of my projects at Magic Labs were in this phone," Wang said. "I wasn't feeling too well after that announcement."

The shock was short-lived, though, as Apple's announcement edified HTC's approach, he added. HTC released its Touch smartphone in June, 2007, a month before Apple released the iPhone.

"The introduction of the iPhone showed that HTC's direction was correct. It turned out to be good for HTC as well," he said. "I'm sure Apple was equally surprised that HTC introduced Touch around the same time."

HTC and Google, with its Android operating system, have been quickly expanding their shares of the exploding market for smartphones since the two joined forces in late 2007 with the Open Handset Alliance. Phones running Android capture about five per cent of the market in 2009, according to research firm Gartner, up from only 0.5 per cent a year earlier.

HTC has been the most aggressive developer and marketer of Android phones in that time, fielding a number of handsets including the very first — the G1 — and Google's showcase product, the Nexus One. Other companies, including Motorola and LG, recently released Android phones as well.

Apple's accusation that HTC stole its innovations is also likely to anger the Taiwanese company. In its early days, HTC invented and designed products for other technology companies, such as the iPaq personal digital assistant for Hewlett-Packard. The company then moved on to designing phones for carriers in Europe and Japan, which are the most "advanced and cut-throat" markets in the world, Wang said.

"That's how you build a strong company because if you can work with the most advanced partners in the most competitive market in the world … then you can do anything. You can truly become an industry leader," he said. "HTC's DNA has always been innovation. It's not just one person, one group or one department, it's always been everywhere. That's the way HTC culture has always been."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/02/apple-htc-patent-lawsuit.html#ixzz0hD3D2KC8

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