Sunday, March 31, 2013

Mashreq upgrades Small Business Loan with higher loan amount ...

Mashreq Business Banking offers this product with some exclusive benefits, which will further assist individuals to realize their business goals.

These loans are now available to companies with only 2 years of business vintage. This will help the small businesses meet their funding needs for business expansion. In addition the loan size can now go up to Dhs1.5m.

Small Business Loan from Mashreq is a collateral free multipurpose amortizing loan offering, with a host of benefits like free business value current account with no minimum balance requirement, free debit card and a free cheque book. Customers can avail Sharia'h Compliant solutions as well.

Rohit Garg, Head of Business Banking at Mashreq commented, "The SME market is witnessing a strong comeback and there is a positive momentum in the recent period. With the enhancement of the Small Business Loan offering, we are continuing our support towards the growth and sustainability of this segment. Our range of products and services reflect on Mashreq's commitment as proud partners of SME's. Our wide branch network certainly assists to accommodate customer requirements wherever they maybe."

The bank is also running a special offer for this product wherein customers will receive a free laptop with Windows 8, Microsoft office and antivirus software.

Business Banking from Mashreq offers a comprehensive range of products and solutions, which cater to the needs of SMEs at every stage of their Business life cycle. Other financing solutions include Trade and Working Capital solutions and the unique Merchant Over Draft Facilities which is exclusively offered based on the company's Point of Sale throughput.

Furthermore, the Bank also offers Business Accounts & Debit Cards, Foreign Exchange and remittance solutions and Business Insurance for the benefit of the SMEs.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/mashreq-upgrades-business-loan-loan-amount-335435

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Finally, the Bacon Condom Has Arrived

More than most other products, condoms seem to arouse people's creative ingenuity.

There are glow-in-the-dark condoms, Scotch whiskey-flavored McCondoms, dinosaur-shaped condoms and condoms printed with ruler measurements (presumably for men who feel they have something to prove).

And now, a bacon condom. It was only a matter of time.

J & D's Foods, whose corporate mission statement is, "Everything should taste like bacon," has announced its latest product, a condom that's patterned to look like a pinkish-red slab of bacon and is flavored with the company's Baconlube, according to the New York Daily News.

The company claims the condoms are "made in America of the highest-quality latex and rigorously tested to help ensure the utmost reliability and safety for when you're makin' bacon," Fox News reports.

Sexual health experts recommend condoms as a means of preventing unintended pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted infections. But a recent study revealed that many people don't use the prophylactics correctly, either removing them too early, storing them incorrectly or using no lubricant or the wrong kind of lubricant.

And though a 2011 study found that young, male college students with higher levels of testosterone were more likely to use condoms, the practice is not universally popular: Research from 2012 involving young, unmarried men and women revealed 25 percent considered using a condom every time during sex to be a "hassle."

Could the bacon condom change that? Perhaps.

The condoms join an already lip-smacking array of J & D's bacon-oriented products, including bacon-flavored envelopes, bacon lip balm, Baconnaise sandwich spread, bacon-scented sunscreen and ? for those who love bacon to death ? a bacon-themed coffin.

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/finally-bacon-condom-arrived-133156663.html

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Giant panda artificially inseminated at U.S. National Zoo

By Reuters

Veterinarians at the National Zoo artificially inseminated the zoo's female giant panda Mei Xiang on Saturday after natural breeding failed to occur, zoo keepers said.

Mei Xiang was put under general anesthesia and inseminated with a combination of fresh semen and frozen semen collected from the zoo's male giant panda Tian Tian. The scientists said they planned a second insemination later on Saturday.

Veterinarians detected a rise in hormone levels on Tuesday, indicating Mei Xiang was ready to breed but said "no competent breeding" between the panda pair had occurred.

"We are hopeful that our breeding efforts will be successful this year, and we're encouraged by all the behaviors and hormonal data we've seen so far," said Dave Wildt, head of the Center for Species Survival at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Scientists will continue to monitor Mei Xiang's hormone levels in the coming months and conduct ultrasounds to determine whether she is pregnant. A pregnancy lasts between 95 and 160 days, they said.

Mei Xiang has given birth to two cubs. One died a week after its birth last year. The other was born in 2005 and is now at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton; editing by Jackie Frank)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Click For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a2b2190/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C30A0C175321880Egiant0Epanda0Eartificially0Einseminated0Eat0Eus0Enational0Ezoo0Dlite/story01.htm

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

FireWife: Guest Post: What You'll Need for that Adorable Baby Shower

As you know, I'm fairly excited about the prospect of possibly having baby #2. Whether you're having a little one yourself, or are planning a shower for a friend, I hope you enjoy this guest post by Rachael McAdams. Happy reading!
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Baby showers are full of absolutely adorable things for both mom and baby. Keeping track of everything however, can be tough. Here are a few lists to help stay organized. Themes, Decorations, and Invitations Baby shower decorations should reflect the overall theme of the event. Is mommy planning a ?Noah?s Ark? room? Get pairs of small stuffed animals to put on every table. Does she like to garden? Get small potted plants and packages for seeds for each guest to take home with them as favors, such as these Peter Rabbit personalized seed packets from Esty. Find out what mom and dad are planning for their new addition and try to implement it into the shower?s theme and decorations. Consider asking other family members to join in on the planning and for shower ideas. They may be able to provide that one little bit of information that could make the shower extra special! Once you decide on a theme and what type of decorations you would like to have, you need to order invitations. There are plenty of great options for every budget. For example, Tiny Prints has baby shower invitations to match any theme you can dream up and they usually have a coupon code running. Invitations should go out three to four weeks before the shower so everyone has time to respond and find that perfect gift. Also make sure to include if it the shower is a surprise so no one slips about the plans in front of mommy. Once the theme is picked and the invitations have gone out, it is time to plan a menu, Woman?s Day Magazine has a great list of tasty ideas! First it is important to consider any dietary restrictions mommy may be under. For example, many women need to be extra careful of their sodium intake during pregnancy, so make sure to avoid serving nothing but salty snacks. On the flip side, make sure to include food items mommy will enjoy. Does she love chocolate cake? Or a special recipe of her grandma?s? These are the things that will help make the day extra special with that touch of home. Ultimately, a baby shower is all about having fun and celebrating a wonderful event. Make sure your plans include a fun theme and great food, and everyone will have wonderful memories.

Source: http://kyfirewife.blogspot.com/2013/03/guest-post-what-youll-need-for-that.html

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If Steve King Runs for Senate, His Opponents Will Have a Lot to Work With

Earlier this month Rep. Steve King said there was a better than 50 percent chance that he would run for the Iowa Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Harkin. A staunch conservative with a history of saying inflammatory things, it would be an understatement to say that King is a divisive political figure. To take the state, he?d have to overcome money from a Karl Rove organization aimed at weeding out fringe GOP candidates from winning primaries, and win over districts far less conservative than his own. But his biggest obstacle may be overcoming 10-plus years of giving his opponents sound bites to run against him. Here are a few that you?ll likely hear on repeat if he runs:

Compared Immigrants to Dogs: During last year?s campaign, King made news when a comment of his at a town hall seemed to paint a parallel between immigrants and canines. In talking about which immigrants should be allowed to come into this country, King drew from his hunting experience for a metaphor: ?You want a good bird dog?? he told the crowd in Pocahontas, Iowa. ?You want one that?s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that?s the friskiest ? not the one that?s over there sleeping in the corner.? King went on to say that the United States should have ?the pick of the litter.?

Later, King would tell reporters that he meant no harm by the comment and that it was being blown out of proportion.

"It was a compliment ... They knew it was a compliment, they turned it into an insult because they're professional hyperventilators,? he said.

Waded into Legitimate Rape Debate: Former Rep. Todd Akin is the poster child for why Karl Rove feels the need to fight against fringe GOP candidates. His comment about ?legitimate rape? became all anyone could talk about during the last election, and very well could have kept Missouri in Democratic hands.

And King just couldn?t help himself by becoming part of the conversation. As a co-sponsor for a bill called the ?No Taxpayers Funding for Abortion Act,? King was asked whether exemptions should be made for victims of statutory rape or incest, such as a 12-year old girl who gets pregnant.

"Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way,? he said. ?I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter.?

Various media outlets picked up this comment as a sign that King may have partially agreed with Akin?s stance. And while they weren't nearly as controversial as Akin?s comments at the time, that doesn?t mean they won?t become part of the conversation in a senatorial election.

Called Joe McCarthy a Hero: Senator Joseph McCarthy?s name has become synonymous with paranoid witch hunts. And yet, in 2005, King called the former chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (or HUAC) a ?hero.?

?His tactics were relentless, his personality invidious, and his habits sometimes excessive,? King said. ?Nonetheless, he was a central figure in the movement to remove communist spies and sympathizers from our most sensitive government positions.?

And it?s not just a one time thing. For years, King has been pushing the sentiment, saying?in 2010 that he supported the re-establishment of HUAC? "but I would support a different committee name so that we don't have to deal with the history, and move forward."

Not a Fan of Gay Marriage: When the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could get married in the state, King warned that if they weren?t careful the Hawkeye State could become the ?Mecca? of gay marriage.? Anyone who didn?t already know how he felt about the issue needn?t look any farther than a 2003 press release he issued after a Sioux City judge granted two lesbians a divorce.

?Unicorns, leprechauns, gay marriages in Iowa ? these are all things you will never find because they just don?t exist,? he said.

But, if you want to look beyond that, check out when he said same-sex marriage was really just a push for socialism.

Maybe He'll Start His Own Country Anyway: Democrats don't want him to become senator, and Rove and other Republicans worry he may hurt their chances at picking up the seat. For them, they might rather he just start his own country somewhere and stay out of Iowa. Who knows, maybe he will. After the House of Representatives passed Obamacare in 2010, King told a crowd of Tea Party activists that he was thinking about it.?

"If I could start a country with a bunch of people, they?d be the folks who were standing with us the last few days," he told the crowd. "Let?s hope we don?t have to do that!?Let?s beat that other side to a pulp! Let?s take them out. Let?s chase them down. There?s going to be a reckoning!"

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/steve-king-runs-senate-opponents-lot-133312396--politics.html

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Analysis: N. Korea threat may be more bark than bite

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Across North Korea, soldiers are gearing up for battle and shrouding their jeeps and vans with camouflage netting. Newly painted signboards and posters call for "death to the U.S. imperialists" and urge the people to fight with "arms, not words."

But even as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is issuing midnight battle cries to his generals to ready their rockets, he and his million-man army know full well that a successful missile strike on U.S. targets would be suicide for the outnumbered, out-powered North Korean regime.

Despite the hastening drumbeat of warfare ? seemingly bringing the region to the very brink of conflict with threats and provocations ? Pyongyang aims to force Washington to the negotiating table, pressure the new president in Seoul to change policy on North Korea, and build unity inside the country without triggering a full-blown war.

North Korea wants to draw attention to the tenuousness of the armistice designed to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, a truce Pyongyang recently announced it would no longer honor as it warned that war could break out at any time.

In July, it will be 60 years since North Korea and China signed an armistice with the U.S. and the United Nations to bring an end to three years of fighting that cost millions of lives. The designated Demilitarized Zone has evolved into the most heavily guarded border in the world.

It was never intended to be a permanent border. But six decades later, North and South remain divided, with Pyongyang feeling abandoned by the South Koreans in the quest for reunification and threatened by the Americans.

In that time, South Korea has blossomed from a poor, agrarian nation of peasants into the world's 15th largest economy while North Korea is struggling to find a way out of a Cold War chasm that has left it with a per capita income on par with sub-Saharan Africa.

North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans ... more? North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin) less? The Chinese troops who fought alongside the North Koreans have long since left. But 28,500 American troops are still stationed in South Korea and 50,000 more are in nearby Japan. For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have been showing off their military might with a series of joint exercises that Pyongyang sees a rehearsal for invasion.

On Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that those drills included two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers that can unload the U.S. Air Force's largest conventional bomb ? a 30,000-pound super bunker buster ? powerful enough to destroy North Korea's web of underground military tunnels.

It was a flexing of military muscle by Washington, perhaps aimed not only at Pyongyang but at Beijing as well.

In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un reacted swiftly, calling an emergency meeting of army generals and ordering them to be prepared to strike if the U.S. actions continue. A photo distributed by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim in a military operations room with maps detailing a "strike plan" behind him in a very public show of supposedly sensitive military strategy.

The head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that North Korea's aggressive rhetoric is "not completely new," citing past provocations.

"To sum up: we assume that North Korea does not want a war," Gerhard Schindler was quoted as saying.

North Korea cites the U.S. military threat as a key reason behind its need to build nuclear weapons, and has poured a huge chunk of its small national budget into defense, science and technology. In December, scientists launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket using technology that could easily be converted for missiles; in February, they tested an underground nuclear device as part of a mission to build a bomb they can load on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.

However, what North Korea really wants is legitimacy in the eyes of the U.S. ? and a peace treaty. Pyongyang wants U.S. troops off Korean soil, and the bombs and rockets are more of an expensive, dangerous safety blanket than real firepower. They are the only real playing card North Korea has left, and the bait they hope will bring the Americans to the negotiating table.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said North Korea's "bellicose rhetoric" would only deepen its international isolation, and that the U.S. has both the capability and willingness to defend its interests in the region.

Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, isn't convinced North Korea is capable of attacking Guam, Hawaii or the U.S. mainland. He says Pyongyang hasn't successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

But its medium-range Rodong missiles, with a range of about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), are "operational and credible" and could reach U.S. bases in Japan, he says.

More likely than such a strike, however, is a smaller-scale incident, perhaps off the Koreas' western coast, that would not provoke the Americans to unleash their considerable firepower. For years, the waters off the west coast have been a battleground for naval skirmishes between the two Koreas because the North has never recognized the maritime border drawn unilaterally by the U.N.

As threatening as Kim's call to arms may sound, its main target audience may be the masses at home in North Korea.

For months, the masterminds of North Korean propaganda have pinpointed this year's milestone Korean War anniversary as a prime time to play up Kim's military credibility as well as to push for a peace treaty. By creating the impression that a U.S. attack is imminent, the regime can foster a sense of national unity and encourage the people to rally around their new leader.

Inside Pyongyang, much of the military rhetoric feels like theatrics. It's not unusual to see people toting rifles in North Korea, where soldiers and checkpoints are a fixture in the heavily militarized society. But more often than not in downtown Pyongyang, the rifle stashed in a rucksack is a prop and the "soldier" is a dancer, one of the many performers rehearsing for a Korean War-themed extravaganza set to debut later this year.

More than 100,000 soldiers, students and ordinary workers were summoned Friday to Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang to pump their fists in support of North Korea's commander in chief. But elsewhere, it was business as usual at restaurants and shops, and farms and factories, where the workers have heard it all before.

"Tensions rise almost every year around the time the U.S.-South Korean drills take place, but as soon as those drills end, things go back to normal and people put those tensions behind them quite quickly," said Sung Hyun-sang, the South Korean president of a clothing maker operating in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. "I think and hope that this time won't be different."

And in a telling sign that even the North Koreans don't expect war, the national airline, Air Koryo, is adding flights to its spring lineup and preparing to host the scores of tourists they hope will flock to Pyongyang despite the threats issuing forth from the Supreme Command.

War or no war, it seems Pyongyang remains open for business.

___

Lee is chief of AP's bureaus in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Seoul, South Korea. She can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean. Eric Talmadge in Tokyo and Sam Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-nkorea-threat-may-more-bark-bite-132942749.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Unsettled Easter Weekend Forecast

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?

NTX Rain Chances

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There is a SLIGHT RISK for severe weather later tonight, mainly over our northwestern counties.? The strongest storms have the chance to produce large hail up to quarter size, strong winds and a lot of lightning.

Severe Risk Day 1

Storms will quickly zip into East Texas before sunrise Saturday.? Most of the day tomorrow will be rain-free, like today.? It will be warm and humid too?but quite enjoyable for any outdoor plans.? About a 20% chance of storms popping up during the day?just isolated stuff.

NTX Rain Chances1

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By late Saturday evening, a weak cold front will sag in from the north and help increasing our thunderstorms chances.? Looks like the best chance of storms will be late Saturday night and then again during the afternoon Sunday.

NTX Rain Chances11

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There is another SLIGHT RISK for severe weather for Saturday night into Sunday morning, especially north of I-20.

Severe Risk Day 2

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A strong cold front should move through DFW Monday night and really cool things down again by Tuesday.? There should be a good chance of chilly rain Tuesday?very much like winter for the first half of next week.? We?re just the messengers, remember.

KTVT 7DAY MASTER

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Source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/03/29/unsettled-easter-weekend-forecast/

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Survey: Samsung takes the lead from Nokia, BlackBerry in key emerging markets

By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/survey-samsung-takes-lead-nokia-blackberry-key-emerging-233306758.html

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Well-Funded Gaming Startup Booyah Confirms Layoffs And New ...

It looks like some changes are afoot at Booyah, the location-based gaming company best known as the maker of the MyTown franchise. MyTown and MyTown 2 attempted to evolve the location-based check-in model in gaming, allowing users not only check into locations within a city-building sim, but also scan and check into products in the real world.

With the early success of MyTown and, to a lesser degree, its location-based riff on Second Life, InCrowd, Booyah has been able to raise nearly $30 million to date in three rounds, with the most recent being its $20 million Series C from Accel, Kleiner Perkins? iFund and DAG Ventures ? in the summer of 2010.

Since then, however, Booyah hasn?t been able to sustain the early success of MyTown, leading to some big changes this week. First, Booyah is getting a new CEO. Chief Creative Officer and co-founder Brian Morrisroe will be taking the reins this week, replacing Jason Willig, the former EA and Hasbro exec who had been acting as CEO since co-founder Keith Lee stepped down in 2011.

Morrisroe tells us that Willig will be stepping back into an advisory role and will no longer be involved in day-to-day operations, though he will continue to advise the company on game development and strategy.

The management shuffle comes as a result of a broader, more fundamental directional shift for Booyah. The startup likely raised too much money too early and had a difficult time deciding on which platforms to attack, without diluting efficacy or over-extending. Now, having seen the emergence of tablet gaming, the new CEO says, which is defined by longer sessions, takes place at home, and now that connected play is appealing to more traditional core and mid-core gamers, Booyah is ?shifting focus to this huge opportunity,? he says.

?We?re going to continue releasing our products on many mobile devices, but focusing efforts on tablets first gives us the best opportunity to deliver exceptional, original experiences to our users,? he continued.

Morrisroe is stepping into the CEO?s chair to lead the company in its new direction, and, although Willig will now only be advising the company, the rest of the leadership will remain intact, including co-founder and CTO Sam Christiansen.

In addition to its change in leadership and direction, Booyah has also made some significant reductions to its staff. We?ve been hearing from sources this week that Booyah had made as much as an 80 percent reduction in its staff as a result of these changes. After some digging, this estimate may be a bit high, but it?s fairly close. While the co-founders would not give specifics, Morrisroe did say that (as of today) the company does have about 20 employees. And as of January of last year, Booyah had about 50 employees, so it?s at least a 60 percent reduction of its staff.

?These moves are always difficult, but it?s about positioning the company for future success,? Morrisroe said via email, ?and we believe moving aggressively toward the emerging tablet market provides the biggest opportunity.?

While layoffs, management changes and pivots don?t a success story make, the co-founders did say that they have some new, original games in development that will be tailored to the tablet gameplay experience and continue to push its evolution forward.

As of today, Booyah has a total install base of around 25 million users across its portfolio, which includes the MyTown, Early Bird and No Zombies Allowed franchises. The company also saw strong revenue growth last year, Morrisroe says ? about 5x from 2011 to 2012, although he wouldn?t say more.

More on the company?s changes here.

Screen shot 2013-03-28 at 12.54.32 PM


Booyah, headquartered in San Francisco, is the market leader in real-world & location ?based gaming. The company is founded on the premise that ?where you play matters? and creates compelling, innovative mass-market games and entertainment products that have been enjoyed by tens of millions of worldwide. By integrating real-world signals into its portfolio of products, Booyah is more than a games company?literally changing how people play and delivering more personal, more social & more meaningful ways for gamers of...

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/well-funded-gaming-startup-booyah-confirms-layoffs-and-new-ceo-brian-morrisroe-as-it-shifts-focus-to-tablets/

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Thomas Menino Retiring? Longtime Boston Mayor Will Not Seek 6th Term, Boston Globe Reports


BOSTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Boston Mayor Tom Menino, a Democrat who has run the city for almost two decades, will not seek a sixth term, the Boston Globe reported on its website Wednesday night.
Menino will announce his decision at a Thursday afternoon news conference, the newspaper said. Staff at the mayor's office could not be reached for immediate comment.
The 70-year-old mayor was hospitalized for a month last year for a virus and back pain that cut short an Italian vacation.
A decision not to seek re-election would set the stage for Boston's most competitive mayoral race since 1993, when Menino first won the office.
So far, only one candidate, city councilor John Connolly, has declared an intention to run, though observers said aspirants may have held off jumping into the race, waiting to see if Menino would seek re-election. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/thomas-menino-retiring_n_2968152.html

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Riff Raff Reviews 'Spring Breakers,' Challenges James Franco To A Footrace

Rapper Riff Raff has not exactly remained quiet about the fact that he thinks James Franco ripped off his persona for the role of Alien in "Spring Breakers." But has Riff Raff actually seen Harmony Korine's indie hit? Well, now he has. The folks over at Next Movie did the world a favor and got [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/27/spring-breakers-riff-raff-review/

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

James Holmes offers to plead guilty

[Updated at 6:25 p.m. ET]

The man jailed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre is willing to plead guilty to avoid being executed, according to a court motion filed on Wednesday.

The offer from James Holmes, who is charged with shooting 70 moviegoers last July, killing 12, would mean his spending life in prison without parole.

News of the offer comes five days before prosecutors were scheduled to announce whether they will seek the death penalty in the case.

"The prosecution at this time has not accepted that offer because it may choose to pursue the death penalty. Consequently, it appears the only impediment to a resolution of this case would be if the prosecution chooses to seek the death penalty," defense attorneys wrote in the motion, which was published online by the Denver Post. "If the prosecution elects not to pursue the death penalty, it is Mr. Holmes' position that this case could be resolved April 1."

?Yes!? shooting victim Marcus Weaver shouted when Yahoo News told him of Holmes' offer.

Weaver's right shoulder was peppered with gunshot pellets when the heavily armed assailant burst in and opened fire during a midnight showing of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." Rebecca Wingo, one of his best friends, died in the attack.

"Admitting to what he did is doing us all a favor," Weaver said on Wednesday. "Without a long, drawn-out trial, then we can move forward. As a community, it would bring about more healing."

According to the motion, defense attorneys made the plea offer prior to the suspect's arraignment earlier this month. If prosecutors reject the offer, "counsel will vigorously present and argue any and all appropriate defenses at a trial or sentencing proceeding, as necessary," Holmes' lawyers wrote.

During Holmes' arraignment on March 12, his lead attorney, Daniel King, told Judge William Sylvester that the suspect wasn't prepared to enter a plea because the defense wasn't sure if the prosecution planned to seek the death penalty. Knowing that could alter Holmes' plea and significantly alter how the defense moves forward, King explained.

The judge then entered a plea of not guilty on Holmes' behalf and noted that the defense would have the opportunity to change its plea at a later date.

The prosecution has repeatedly sought input from victims and victims' families on major decisions. Weaver said late on Wednesday that he had not yet heard from the district attorney's office, but he predicted they would be calling soon.

"I'll tell them to take the deal," Weaver told Yahoo News.

Yahoo staff writer Tim Skillern contributed to this story from Denver.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/shooting-supsect-james-holmes-reportedly-offers-plead-guilty-210535570.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Indie sensibilities embraced at gaming conference

FILE - In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Video game enthusiasts attend the Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco. The schedule for the 2013 GDC held March 25-29, illustrates the dramatic changes that have reshaped the gaming industry in recent years, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. GDC organizers have added a summit on free-to-play games, planned talks on topics like crowd funding and micro-transactions and coordinated panels with such titles as "Making Money with Mobile Gaming" and "Why Won't FarmVille Go Away?" (AP Photo/Ben Margo, Filet)

FILE - In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Video game enthusiasts attend the Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco. The schedule for the 2013 GDC held March 25-29, illustrates the dramatic changes that have reshaped the gaming industry in recent years, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. GDC organizers have added a summit on free-to-play games, planned talks on topics like crowd funding and micro-transactions and coordinated panels with such titles as "Making Money with Mobile Gaming" and "Why Won't FarmVille Go Away?" (AP Photo/Ben Margo, Filet)

FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2013 file photo, Mark Cerny, lead system architect for the Sony Playstation 4 speaks during an event to announce the new video game console, in New York. The schedule for the 2013 GDC held March 25-29, in San Francisco, illustrates the dramatic changes that have reshaped the gaming industry in recent years, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. Sony is angling to reignite developers' enthusiasm with the PlayStation 4. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Video game enthusiasts attend the Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco. The schedule for the 2013 GDC held March 25-29, illustrates the dramatic changes that have reshaped the gaming industry in recent years, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. GDC organizers have added a summit on free-to-play games, planned talks on topics like crowd funding and micro-transactions and coordinated panels with such titles as "Making Money with Mobile Gaming" and "Why Won't FarmVille Go Away?" (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2013 file photo, Andrew House speaks at an event to announce the Sony Playstation 4, in New York. The schedule for the 2013 GDC held March 25-29, in San Francisco, illustrates the dramatic changes that have reshaped the gaming industry in recent years, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. Sony is angling to reignite developers' enthusiasm with the PlayStation 4. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

(AP) ? It's a time of transition for the video game industry.

With last year's launch of the Wii U, the impending arrival of the PlayStation 4 and the likelihood of a new Xbox on the horizon, the next generation of video game consoles is nearly here.

However, more than half of the attendees at this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco identify themselves as indie developers and their next creations will be for smartphones and tablets. So when it comes to the next generation of consoles, the question on their minds doesn't seem to be "What's next?" but rather "Who cares?"

The schedule for this year's GDC illustrates the dramatic changes that are reshaping the gaming industry, an evolution that's as much about business models as it is about pixels. GDC organizers have added a summit on free-to-play games, plan talks on topics like crowd funding and micro-transactions, and are presenting panels with such titles as "Making Money with Mobile Gaming" and "Why Won't FarmVille Go Away?"

For the past 15 years, the Independent Games Festival has served as the Sundance of GDC, specifically honoring and highlighting the work of indie developers. But the lines have increasingly blurred between the IGF and GDC, the 27-year-old conference that serves as the largest gathering of the gaming industry in the U.S. outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

Simon Carless, executive vice president at UBM Tech Game Network, which hosts GDC, IGF and several other technology conferences throughout the year, said 58 percent of developers surveyed by organizers plan to release their next game for tablets and smartphones. That's a big switch from 15 years ago when GDC was known as CGDC ? the Computer Game Developers Conference.

"I think what we're seeing is that there's many more small developers," said Carless. "For example, 53 percent of developers identify as an indie developer and 46 percent of those surveyed work at companies with 10 employees or less. It's simply a fact that people are more excited by platforms where there's a low barrier for entry."

Sony is angling to reignite developers' enthusiasm with the PlayStation 4.

When the Japanese electronics giant announced the PS4 during a splashy press conference in New York last month, Sony boasted that the successor to the PS3 would essentially be a "supercharged PC," a platform that would make it easier for developers to create and sell games. Sony plans to detail more about the PS4's technology during a Wednesday panel at GDC.

Nintendo will also be on hand with a Wednesday session outlining easier ways for developers to make apps for the Wii U, the touchscreen controller system that kicked off the latest generation of consoles last year but has failed to catch fire the way the original Wii did when it launched in 2006.

Microsoft will likely wait to tease how it plans to succeed its Xbox 360 console and camera-based Kinect system until E3 in June, although the company has scheduled several talks at GDC this week, including how to create games for Windows smartphones and second-screen experiences for Xbox SmartGlass, its companion app that connects mobile devices to Xbox 360s.

Meggan Scavio, general manager of GDC, said 23,000 attendees are expected at this year's conference, which kicked off Monday at the Moscone Convention Center and continues through Friday. While an increasing number of game makers are more interested in creating the next "Minecraft" instead of the next "Call of Duty," Scavio noted that so-called triple-A games continue to have a place at the conference.

"We're still talking about all the really big titles," said Scavio. "We've got talks on 'Dishonored,' 'Borderlands 2' and 'Assassin's Creed III.' Bungie is going to be talking about 'Destiny.' The guys from 'The Walking Dead' game are doing panels. Hideo Kojima is going to be there. It's not indie central yet."

In perhaps the most impressive indication of indie dominance, the artsy PS3 platform game "Journey" is up for the most awards at Wednesday's Game Developers Choice Awards, which honor the best titles of the past year and are selected by a jury of game creators. "Journey" was designed by thatgamecompany, a studio that went indie last year.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang .

___

Online:

http://www.gdconf.com

http://www.igf.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-26-Games-Game%20Developers%20Conference/id-2f0cfc0119fd43c1b5addcc240a92567

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US hands prison over to Afghans

FILE ? This Sept. 27, 2010, file photo reviewed by the U.S. military, shows a U.S. military guard walking a corridor between detainee cells at the Parwan detention facility near Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Saturday, March 23, 2013, the Pentagon said the U.S. has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the facility to Afghan control. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday as officials finalized the agreement after days of intense negotiations. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE ? This Sept. 27, 2010, file photo reviewed by the U.S. military, shows a U.S. military guard walking a corridor between detainee cells at the Parwan detention facility near Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Saturday, March 23, 2013, the Pentagon said the U.S. has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the facility to Afghan control. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday as officials finalized the agreement after days of intense negotiations. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE ? This March 23, 2011, file photo shows Afghan detainees through a wire mesh fence inside the Parwan detention facility near Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. Saturday, March 23, 2013, the Pentagon said the U.S. has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the facility to Afghan control. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday as officials finalized the agreement after days of intense negotiations. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

FILE ? In this March 23, 2011, file photo a U.S. military guard watches over detainee cells inside the Parwan detention facility near Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. Saturday, March 23, 2013, the Pentagon said the U.S. has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the facility to Afghan control. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday as officials finalized the agreement after days of intense negotiations. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

(AP) ? The U.S. military gave control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan to Kabul on Monday, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.

The handover of Parwan Detention Facility ends a bitter chapter in American relations with Afghanistan's mercurial president, Hamid Karzai, who demanded control of the prison as a matter of national sovereignty.

The dispute threw a pall over the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford handed over Parwan, located near the U.S.-run Bagram military base north of Kabul, at a ceremony there after signing an agreement with Afghan Defense Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi.

"The transfer of the detention facility is an important part of the overall transition of security lead to Afghan National Security Forces. This ceremony highlights an increasingly confident, capable, and sovereign Afghanistan," Dunford said.

An initial agreement to hand over Parwan was signed a year ago, but efforts to follow through on it constantly stumbled over American concerns that the Afghan government would release prisoners that it considered dangerous.

A key hurdle was a ruling by an Afghan judicial panel holding that administrative detention, the practice of holding someone without formal charges, violated the country's laws. The U.S. argued that international law allowed administrative detentions and also argued that it could not risk the passage of some high-value detainees to the notoriously corrupt Afghan court system.

An initial deadline for the full handover passed last September and another earlier this month.

The formula for how the two sides resolved this dilemma has not been made public. Officials say that the Afghan government will be able to invoke a procedure that ensures prisoners considered dangerous will not be released from the detention center. According to a senior U.S. official in Washington, the agreement also includes a provision that allows the U.S. and Kabul to work together to resolve any differences. The official lacked authorization to discuss the details of the agreement publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The detention center houses about 3,000 prisoners and the majority are already under Afghan control. The United States had not handed over about 100, and some of those under American authority do not have the right to a trial because the U.S. considers them part of an ongoing conflict.

There are also about three dozen non-Afghan detainees, including Pakistanis and other nationals that will remain in American hands. The exact number and nationality of those detainees has never been made public.

A new agreement, or memorandum of understanding, was signed at the ceremony by Dunford and Khan, but the U.S. military said it will not be made public. The agreement supplants one signed last March, which had been made public.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the new agreement "affirms their mutual commitment to the lawful and humane treatment of detainees and their intention to protect the people of Afghanistan and coalition forces," an apparent reference to the release of detainees deemed to be dangerous.

The handover should also open the way for a resumption of talks for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

It is part of an ongoing effort to gradually shift control of the country's security to the Afghans as the U.S. and allies move toward the full withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.

There are about 100,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, including about 66,000 from the United States. American officials have made no final decision on how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain.

The U.S. started to hold detainees at Bagram Air Field in early 2002. For several years, prisoners were kept at a former Soviet aircraft machine plant converted into a lockup.

In 2009, the U.S. opened a new detention facility next door. The number of detainees incarcerated at that prison, renamed the Parwan Detention Facility, went from about 1,100 in September 2010 to more than 3,000.

After Monday's handover, it was renamed the Afghan National Detention Facility at Parwan and the U.S. military said it would provide the Afghan army with advisers and $39 million in funding.

The United States has spent about a quarter of a billion dollars to build the Bagram facility along with Kabul's main prison located in the capital.

_____

Patrick Quinn contributed from Kabul.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-25-Afghanistan/id-65542736ec1e4b3d82e5df71e29ee17e

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Rebel leader dissolves C. African constitution

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2013 file photo, Central African Republic rebel leader Michel Djotodia arrives ahead of planned peace talks with Central African Republic's government, in Libreville, Gabon. Rebels overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade on Sunday, March 24, after invading the capital. Seleka rebel group leader Djotodia told French radio station RFI Monday, March 25, that he is the de facto head of state and should be addressed as the president. (AP Photo/Joel Bouopda Tatou, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2013 file photo, Central African Republic rebel leader Michel Djotodia arrives ahead of planned peace talks with Central African Republic's government, in Libreville, Gabon. Rebels overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade on Sunday, March 24, after invading the capital. Seleka rebel group leader Djotodia told French radio station RFI Monday, March 25, that he is the de facto head of state and should be addressed as the president. (AP Photo/Joel Bouopda Tatou, File)

Map shows Central African Republic where rebels have overthrown their president

In this photo taken on Friday March 22, 2013 and provided on Monday March 25, 2013 by the French Army Communications Audio visual office, French soldiers arrive at Bangui airport, Central Africa Republic. Rebels overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade on Sunday, seizing the presidential palace and declaring that the desperately poor country has "opened a new page in its history." The country's president fled the capital, while extra French troops moved to secure the airport, officials said. (AP Photo/Elise Foucaud, ECPAD)

In this photo taken on Friday March 22, 2013 and provided on Monday March 25, 2013 by the French Army Communications Audio visual office, French soldiers arrive at Bangui airport, Central Africa Republic. Rebels overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade on Sunday, seizing the presidential palace and declaring that the desperately poor country has "opened a new page in its history." The country's president fled the capital, while extra French troops moved to secure the airport, officials said. (AP Photo/Elises Foucaud, ECPAD)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? A rebel leader whose fighters seized the capital of Central African Republic over the weekend has taken to the airwaves to make his first declaration, announcing he has dissolved the country's constitution and will stay in power for three years, according to excerpts from the broadcast carried on French radio.

Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, said late Monday that he plans to stay in power until 2016, the length of time left in the term of the president he and his soldiers overthrew.

Ousted President Francois Bozize fled the presidential palace over the weekend, resurfacing Monday in the neighboring nation of Cameroon, where the government issued a statement saying he had sought "temporary exile" on their soil.

The Seleka rebel leader justified his coup d'etat, saying Bozize had veered into dictatorship during his 10 years in power.

"Through us, it was the entire population of Central African Republic that rose up as a single man against the president," Djotodia said, according to Radio France Internationale.

"To this effect, we have decided to guide the destiny of the people of the Central African Republic during this transitional period of three years, in keeping with the spirit of the accords signed in Libreville in January 11, 2013 ... As a result, I have decided that it is, therefore, necessary to dissolve the constitution of Dec. 27, 2004, as well as the parliament and the government," he said.

Meanwhile, French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint, said the French Defense Ministry.

The cars, carrying Indian and Chadian citizens, continued despite warning shots. Two Indian citizens were killed, and the wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care, the defense minister said in the statement Monday.

France is investigating into the shooting, the statement said.

Pillaging, meanwhile, continued in the capital, Bangui, days after the Seleka rebels took the city. The rebels' advance started last week when they pushed past Damara, a town 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the northeast, which had marked the line of control drawn by regional forces in January, following an accord signed in Libreville, the capital of neighboring Gabon.

The rebels broke that accord last week, claiming that Bozize's government had failed to make good on a series of promises, including sending back the South African troops guarding the capital. The South African troops came under an onslaught of fire from the Seleka rebels, who shot and killed 13 South African soldiers over the weekend, in their fight to take the capital.

Seleka is a loose coalition of fighters, many of whom fought in previous rebellions. They joined forces last fall, beginning their advance toward the capital in December.

The developments mirrored a similar rebellion in eastern Congo by the M23 rebels, who took the provincial capital of Goma, pressing the government which then agreed to enter into talks with them. Seleka seemed to be taking a page from the Congolese rebels' playbook as they advanced to less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital.

The Seleka fighters benefited from the growing dissatisfaction with Bozize, who came to power in 2003, at the helm of a column of a different rebel group which also invaded the capital and toppled the former leader.

Bozize is accused of growing cronyism, and in the last election in 2011, around 20 of Bozize's family members and close associates including former mistresses, won posts in the government, according to Louisa Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the University of California, Berkeley.

"There was the sense that governing was being carried out by a tighter and tighter circle of people around Bozize," says Lombard, who has been travelling to Central African Republic for the past 10 years for research.

"And although all sorts of technocratic procedures were in place to make the government more inclusive, it was in fact less and less inclusive. The more technocratic people got sidelined. Those who held positions of power did not have much education, much background in their chosen field. There was a disregard for any kind of merit in governing."

Lombard cautions, however, that the Seleka coalition is very loosely held together. Already on Monday, a different rebel leader, 26-year-old Nelson N'Djadder who is based in Paris, said that he does not recognize Djotodia as their new president.

"Seleka is a very heterogeneous group. That is something we noticed since the beginning, when it first emerged," said Lombard. "Holding it together will be a big problem."

___

Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.

___

Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-26-Central%20African%20Republic-Rebels/id-dfa03aa7841c43f3a3de49aec4ad090c

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In Cyprus deal, Russia may have the last laugh

Europe won this round. But Russia may have the last laugh.

As part of a $13 billion deal to a bail out a pair of bloated Cyprus banks, European officials Monday won the Nicosia government?s backing for a painful ?haircut? on bank accounts that will inflict maximum financial pain on Russian companies and wealthy depositors who have long used the tiny island nation as a tax shelter.

The last-minute deal, reached just hours before a European ultimatum to cut off the country?s financial lifelines, is aimed at reining in a Cypriot banking system that had gorged on tax-dodging oligarchs and failed Greek bonds.

The agreement ends a week of street protests in Cyprus, long lines at withdrawal-limited cash machines, and a tense geopolitical standoff after European officials made the unprecedented demand that ordinary Cypriot savers share in the cost of any bank bailout.

Under the final terms, accounts of under $130,000 will be spared. But the concession will shift the financial pain even more heavily to large accounts, many of which hold roughly $30 billion in assets belonging to Russian companies and wealthy individuals. Under the revised terms, large account holders now stand to lose as much of 40 percent of their money ? four times the original proposal.

Russian leaders ? who last week rejected pleas from Cypriot officials for an alternative financial lifeline ? were understandable unhappy with the final deal.

"The stealing of what has already been stolen continues," Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reportedly told a private meeting of government officials.

In their public response, Russian officials have been more measured. The government signaled Monday it would help backstop the European bailout by refinancing a 2011 loan with a lower interest rate or by extending repayment deadlines.

Despite widespread anger over a plan widely denounced in Moscow as ?bank robbery,? the Russians have reason to soften their public stance.

For one thing, Moscow and Nicosia still enjoy deep economic and political ties that go well beyond the latest tug-of-war with Europe. Cyprus represents an important strategic location in the Mediterranean, even more so as the future of Russian ally Syria grows more uncertain.

Russian energy companies are also eyeing large, recently discovered deposits of natural gas in Cyprus.

"It's a mistake to think that it's a very special class of rich people [that have their money in Cyprus]," said Cyprus' finance minister, Michael Sarris, early Monday. "Russians have their lawyers, accountants or their families and friends in Cyprus, so our relationship can withstand a shock like this."

While the European bank bailout will be painful for individual haircut victims, the overall losses are relatively small ? less than 1 percent of total deposits in the Russian banking system.

By stepping back from the turmoil, Russia can now watch European leaders struggle with what promises to become an even bigger money pit. Having helped break the banking system in Cyprus, Europe now owns it.

It?s not clear how much more cash will be needed to finish the job. As part of the bailout, Cyprus? second largest bank, Laiki , was sold for parts to the Bank of Cyprus, the country?s largest. Laiki?s toxic assets will be sold off over time ? assuming any one wants them.

The financial hole in Cypriot banks may yet deepen further as skittish depositors head for the exits once they eventually are allowed to get their hands on their money. Confiscating large chunk of existing accounts will make new depositors think twice about handing their money over to a Cypriot bank.

On Monday, there was still no official timetable for ending an ongoing bank ?holiday.? Bailout terms also include yet-unspecified restrictions on future withdrawals.

By standing on the sidelines, Russia has also left European leaders with an even bigger mess to clean up. Though the Brussels bailout may succeed in shrinking bloated Cypriot financial system, it will trash the Cypriot economy, which relies heavily on its banking sector for jobs and tax revenues.

After busting Cyprus' banks, European officials acknowledged that the tiny nation - with an economy smaller than Vermont's - now faces a painful recession that will require an even bigger Brussels bailout in fairly short order.

?The near future will be very difficult for the country and its people and the (European) Commission will do everything possible to alleviate the social consequences of this economic shock,? Europe's Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Olli Rehn, told reporters after the deal was announced.

European leaders face even bigger headaches beyond tiny Sypruis. Their new ?bail-in? strategy - forcing bank depositors to pay for a bail-out - hasn?t gone unnoticed in much larger countries, like Italy and Spain, with much larger banks and economies. Despite those two countries? limited trade and finance links to Cyprus, the wider bailout backlash could create a much bigger mess for Europe

The worry is that depositors in those banking systems ? which are far too large for Europe to backstop ? could stage a slow-motion bank run to move their cash out of the reach of Brussels bureaucrats. Bank stocks in Italy and Spain were down sharply Monday.

Beyond the financial impact, the political backlash to the Cypriot bailout may be even more damaging to the long-run prospects of a unified Europe.

For the past two years, resentment has been growing in struggling southern countries like Greece, Spain, Italy ? and now Cyrus ? over harsh economic demands from their wealthy northern neighbors ? lead by Germany.

Recent elections have only widened that political divide. In Italy, for example, voters recently rejected Brussels-friendly candidates in favor of an anti-euro, comic-turned-politician, Beppe Grillo, and former prime minister, Silvo Berlusconi, a colorful media tycoon convicted of tax evasion.

The result is that Italy has yet to form a new government with the legal authority to negotiate with European leaders.

?We?re talking about the third biggest euro zone economy - basically a political system currently frozen because of this huge populist movement,? said Jim O?Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. ?They seem to be saying, ?We have had enough.?? That is not an easy thing to solve at all.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29f965d5/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ceconomywatch0Ccyprus0Edeal0Erussia0Emay0Ehave0Elast0Elaugh0E1B90A59746/story01.htm

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Scant progress on jobs for disabled Americans

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Whether it means opening school track meets to deaf children or developing a new lunch menu with safe alternatives for students with food allergies, recent Obama administration decisions could significantly affect Americans with disabilities. But there's been little progress in one of the most stubborn challenges: employing the disabled.

According to government labor data, of the 29 million working-age Americans with a disability ? those who are 16 years and older ? 5.2 million are employed. That's 18 percent of the disabled population and is down from 20 percent four years ago. The employment rate for people without a disability was 63 percent in February.

The job numbers for the disabled haven't budged much since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which gave millions of disabled people civil rights protections and guaranteed equal opportunity in employment, public accommodations, transportation, government services and more.

The National Council on Disability's Jeff Rosen said longstanding prejudicial attitudes need to be addressed to boost jobs.

"Employers are still catching on to the fact that the needs of most workers with disabilities aren't special, but employees with disabilities often bring specialized skills to the workplace," Rosen said. "Perhaps no one knows how to adapt, think critically or find solutions better than someone who has to do so daily in order to navigate a world that wasn't built with them in mind."

Rosen, who is deaf, was named in January as chairman of the council, an independent federal agency that advises the president, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy.

The Obama administration recently has acted to expand the rights of Americans with disabilities in other areas.

The Education Department's civil rights division released new guidelines that direct schools to provide students with disabilities equal access to extracurricular sports teams. If schools can't, they should create similar athletic programs for disabled children, the department said.

Also, the Justice Department said in a settlement with a Massachusetts college, Lesley University, that severe food allergies can be considered a disability under the law. That potentially could lead to new menus and accommodations at schools, restaurants and other places to address the needs of people with food allergies.

One silver lining in the lagging employment for the disabled has been federal hiring.

The latest data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management shows nearly 15 percent of new federal hires between 2010 and 2011 were people with disabilities ? almost 19,000 people. That's up from the previous year when about 10 percent of new hires were people with disabilities.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2010 aimed at improving the federal ranks of people with disabilities. The goal was to add 100,000 disabled people to federal payrolls in five years; that would be within reach if the 2010-2011 hiring numbers were to stick or improve.

Federal agencies are trying to achieve the numbers through better recruitment, especially at colleges and universities. And last month, OPM issued rules to limit the paperwork that potential hires with disabilities would need to provide. They essentially "self-identify" as disabled by qualifying for a special hiring category known as "Schedule A" that allows disabled people to apply for a job through a noncompetitive hiring process, meaning they could be hired without competing with the general public.

The administration also is considering new rules that would leverage the power of federal spending to encourage companies to hire more disabled workers. The Labor Department is weighing a rule that would require companies with federal contracts to set a goal of having at least 7 percent of their workforce be disabled. Federal contractors employ nearly one-quarter of the nation's workforce.

Since the rule was proposed more than a year ago, business groups have complained that it would be too burdensome and lead to conflicts with federal laws that discourage companies from asking job applicants to identify themselves as disabled.

"We have had a long history of supporting the disabled community," said Randel Johnson, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for labor issues. "But this proposal goes too far, woefully underestimates cost of compliance, and is completely unworkable as structured in the proposal."

Jennifer Lortie, 29, of Griswold, Conn., considers herself one of the lucky employed Americans with a disability.

Lortie was born with cerebral palsy and has limited use of her arms and legs. She graduated college during the recession and it was no easy task finding a job.

She spent more than a year scouring newspapers, job search websites and sending out dozens of resumes. She worried her wheelchair might be a strike against her until she landed a position in 2009 as an assistive technology specialist with the Connecticut Tech Act Project. The federally-funded program aims to increase independence for people with disabilities by educating them on new and best-fit technologies for work, school and community living.

"I think helping people kind of makes me think maybe there's a reason that I am in a wheelchair," Lortie said in an interview. "There has to be some reason to all this, so it gives me a sense of purpose as far as 'OK, I'm in a wheelchair but I can help other people' instead of just sitting home feeling sorry for myself."

Lortie spends four hours each day commuting to work and then back to the home she shares with her parents. They drive her to the bus stop and then she takes two buses to get to work ? two hours each morning and two hours at the end of the day to get home. And she doesn't mind a bit. "I like to help people," she said.

Jill Houghton works with companies to expand employment for people with disabilities. Among the big barriers, she said, are concerns about cost. Companies worry about whether they'll have to make special accommodations or additional training and they want to know how much it's going to cost.

"The reality is that businesses have found that when they create inclusive workplaces, where people with disabilities are working side by side with people without disabilities ... the bottom line is that it doesn't increase costs," said Houghton, who heads the US Business Leadership Network, a trade association that represents about 5,000 businesses.

She said she has noticed a significant increase in calls and requests recently to the group from the business community about hiring people with disabilities.

Companies want to be inclusive of people with disabilities, Houghton said. "Businesses are learning that it just makes good business sense."

___

Associated Press writer Sam Hananel contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scant-progress-jobs-disabled-americans-070741632.html

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Too much choice leads to riskier decisions, new study finds

Mar. 25, 2013 ? The more choices people have, the riskier the decisions they make, according to a new study which sheds light on how we behave when faced with large amounts of information.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Lugano set up a gambling game in which they analysed how decision-making is affected when people are faced with a large number of potential gambles.

They found that a bias in the way people gather information leads them to take more risks when they choose a gamble from a large set of options, a phenomenon which researchers have labelled 'search-amplified risk'.

This means that, when faced with a large number of choices -- each having outcomes associated with different probabilities of occurring -- people are more likely to overestimate the probabilities of some of the rarest events.

The study, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, found that with large choice sets, people took riskier gambles based on a flawed perception that there was a higher probability of 'winning big' -- but in reality they more often went away empty-handed.

Dr Thomas Hills of the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick said: "It's not that people just give up and make random decisions when faced with a large number of options.

"They are making rational decisions, but these decisions are based on faulty information gathering.

"The problem is with the information search strategies people use when faced with a large number of options.

"People search more when they have many choices, increasing the likelihood that they will encounter rare, risky events.

"The problem is that they don't sample any given choice enough to understand its underlying probabilities. This leaves the rare events sticking out like sore thumbs.

"As a consequence, people choose these riskier gambles more often."

For the study, 64 participants took part in a game where they had to choose one box out of a varying number of boxes presented on a computer screen.

Each box contained a different sum or money -- for example ?1 or ?5 -- and each box had a certain probability of paying out -- for example, 1 out of 10, 1 out of 3, or every time.

Participants were able to 'sample' each box by opening it as many times as they liked to determine the payout amount and to try to deduce the probability of a payout.

Once they were satisfied with the information they had gathered, they committed to their final choice by choosing a single box.

The game consisted of five turns, with either an increasing or decreasing number of boxes per turn.

The first group could initially choose from two boxes, this was then increased to four, then eight, then 16 then 32. Another group started with 32, then this decreased to 16, eight, four then two.

The researchers found that both the number of boxes per turn and whether the number of boxes was increasing or decreasing affected the quality of decision-making among the participants.

With a higher number of boxes, people made a higher total number of samples. For example one group on average made 12 samples when there were two boxes on screen and 50 samples when there were 32 boxes on screen.

However, as these figures show, the increase in sampling was not in proportion with the increase in box numbers.

For example in one group, people made six samples per box when there were two boxes on screen, but only two samples per box when there were 32 boxes.

These results show that with large choice sets, people gathered a broad range of information on the value of the potential sum they could win, so were aware that there were boxes with higher payout values.

However they were not delving deeply into that information, which in this context meant they were not fully investigating the probability of the payout of the higher-value boxes.

They came across a 'rare event' -- say a ?5 payout which was rarer than a ?1 payout -- and gambled on it, even though they had not fully researched the probability of that payout occurring.

This kind of gamble was more likely to result in a zero payout.

The researchers also found differences in decision-making between the 'many-to-few group' -- those who started with a large number of choices which were then decreased -- and the 'few-to-many group' where the order was reversed.

The study showed that people who started with smaller choice sets were more likely than the other group to gather more information across all choice set sizes.

In other words, there appeared to be a carry-over effect where people gathered a lot of information with a small choice set, and this comparatively higher rate of information gathering was repeated for larger choice sets.

Conversely, people who started with a large choice set gathered less information than the other group when it came to the smaller choice sets.

However when there were many options, neither group was able to consistently choose options with the highest expected values.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Warwick.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Thomas T. Hills, Takao Noguchi, Michael Gibbert. Information overload or search-amplified risk? Set size and order effects on decisions from experience. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2013; DOI: 10.3758/s13423-013-0422-3

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/kbbr4E3ddbo/130325093709.htm

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