Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/187365877?client_source=feed&format=rss
walmart black friday ad walmart black friday ad rick perry gaffe rick perry gaffe graham spanier graham spanier penn state board of trustees
বৃহস্পতিবার, ১৯ জানুয়ারি, ২০১২
বুধবার, ১৮ জানুয়ারি, ২০১২
Russia: Western sanctions against Iran stifling (AP)
MOSCOW ? A military attack on Iran would trigger a "chain reaction" that destabilizes the world, while new sanctions against Tehran would "stifle" the Iranian economy and hurt its people, Russia's foreign minister warned Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "seriously worried" about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it.
"The consequences will be extremely grave," he said at a news conference. "It's not going to be an easy walk. It will trigger a chain reaction and I don't know where it will stop."
Lavrov said an attack on Iran would send refugees streaming into its Caspian Sea neighbor Azerbaijan and further on to Russia.
"But that is just one and not the main part of the problem," he said. "It's impossible to predict all the consequences. I have no doubt that it will add fuel to the smoldering confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites."
The Sunni Arab states in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia are close U.S. allies, locked in decades-old rivalries with Iran's Shiite-led Islamic Republic.
Lavrov also warned that sanctions on Iranian oil exports now being considered by the European Union could stymie efforts to solve the Iranian nuclear standoff through talks.
"It has nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation," Lavrov said at a news conference. "It's aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent."
Russia has walked a fine line on the Iranian nuclear crisis, mixing careful criticism of Iran, an important trading partner, with praise for some of its moves and calls for more talks.
The EU is weighing whether to impose sanctions on buying Iranian oil, which is the source of more than 80 percent of Tehran's foreign revenue. The U.S. has already imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and, by extension, refiners' ability to buy and pay for crude.
The sanctions are linked to Iran's disputed uranium enrichment program, which the U.S. and its Western allies suspect is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges, saying its program is aimed at civilian power generation and research.
Moscow, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant, backed some of the previous U.N. sanctions against Iran, but in recent months has firmly rejected imposing any new sanctions and has called for more dialogue.
Russia believes that "all conceivable sanctions already have been applied" and that new penalties could derail hopes for continuing six-way negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, provoking Iranian intransigence, Lavrov said.
He noted that the EU's consideration of new sanctions comes as Iran plans to host a delegation from the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
"We believe that there is every chance to resume talks between the six powers and Iran, and we are concerned about obstacles being put to them," he said. "The sanctions could hardly help make the talks productive."
Iran's official IRNA news agency said a senior security official, Ali Bagheri, headed to Moscow for talks with Lavrov and other Russian officials on Wednesday.
____
Ali Akbar Dareini contributed to this report from Tehran, Iran.
best cyber monday deals cyber monday grover norquist grover norquist nfl week 12 picks nfl week 12 picks jason witten
Suspicions rise in Pablo Neruda's death (AP)
ISLA NEGRA, Chile ? The suspicions have lingered for decades.
Pablo Neruda, Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet, would have been a powerful voice in exile against the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. But that all changed just 24 hours before Neruda was to flee the country in the chaos following the 1973 military coup.
He was 69 years old and suffering from prostate cancer when he died, exactly 12 days after the brutal coup that ended the life of his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende.
The official version was that he died of natural causes brought on by the trauma of witnessing the coup and the lethal persecution of many of his friends. But doubts remained, even after Pinochet relinquished power in 1990 and Chile became one of Latin America's most stable democracies.
Chilean Communist Party lawyer Eduardo Contreras said he believes the poet was murdered, and he is supported by Manuel Araya, who was Neruda's driver, bodyguard and assistant in the year leading up to his death.
While Neruda's widow and his own foundation have rejected the theory, its resurgence nearly 40 years later reflects the suspicions haunting this nation of 17 million that the full story behind the coup and the dictatorship remains untold.
Araya has long contended that a doctor ? not Neruda's regular one ? gave him a fatal injection at the Santa Maria clinic or ordered somebody to do so. Talking to The Associated Press, Araya described the day of Neruda's death at the clinic, where the poet was being treated for his cancer, phlebitis and a hip problem. Araya had accompanied him as his bodyguard to protect him ahead of his departure from Chile. He himself wasn't there,and says the story was told to him by a nurse whose name he has forgotten.
"Coincidentally," Araya said in sarcastic manner, Dr. Sergio Draper "was passing by in the hallway when a nurse called to him and said that Neruda was in a lot of pain, and this doctor, very considerately, goes and gives him a Dipirona (analgesic), and the Dipirona... killed him."
Adding to the conspiracy theories, it was at the same Santa Maria clinic where another prominent Pinochet critic, former President Eduardo Frei, was allegedly poisoned while recovering from hernia surgery in 1982. A judge in Chile has accused four doctors and two of the dictator's agents in Frei's death. The case is ongoing, and Frei's body has been exhumed. One of the doctors questioned in the case, though not accused: Sergio Draper.
The AP was unable to reach the doctor for comment, after contacting the clinic where Neruda was treated and one of Chile's main medical schools.
However, in an interview published in the Argentine newspaper Clarin in September, Draper strongly denied the allegation. he said he was only following the instructions of Neruda's physician, Vargas Salazar, to help relieve the patient's pain by giving him what he remembers was the drug Dipirona.
"I ordered that he be given an injection prescribed by his physician," Draper said. "I was nothing more than a messenger. It's outrageous that we are constantly under suspicion."
Neruda and Allende symbolized a turbulent, confrontational era in Chilean history, and their deaths following the Sept. 11, 1973 coup have long been shrouded by suspicion. Authorities recently exhumed Allende's body and confirmed that the former president committed suicide rather than be captured as troops moved in on the presidential palace.
Pinochet's dictatorship lasted from 1973 to 1990, and left 3,095 opponents of the military regime dead or missing, according to recent government statistics. There were 37,000 political prisoners. Neruda's fame as a poet and dissident was posthumously heightened by "Il Postino," or "The Postman," a semi-fictional 1994 film about his exile that won several Oscar nominations. He is buried on the Isla Negra estate where he lived.
In December, Chile's Communist Party asked that Neruda's body also be exhumed for testing. The judge investigating his death has not ruled, but veteran forensic expert Dr. Luis Ravanal said it could be difficult to find traces of toxic substances that would confirm poisoning.
"It is one thing is to detect a substance, another to demonstrate that it is there in sufficient quantities to kill him," he told the AP. "It is difficult to determine if it is a lethal or therapeutic dosage."
But Contreras says an exhumation is needed. He said medical records and Araya's account proved to him that Neruda's cancer was under control at the time of his death.
"One thing is clear: Neruda didn't die of cancer," Contreras said.
Contreras said the death certificate issued at the clinic listed the cause of death as cachexia, or extreme malnutrition and weight loss that left him unable to carry out minimal activities. But at the moment of his death, Neruda weighed more than 220 pounds (100 kilograms), according to Araya and Mexico's ambassador to Chile at the time of the coup, Gonzalo Martinez Corbala.
Martinez told the AP from Mexico City that he found no change in Neruda between visits to him before and after the coup.
Martinez said that before hearing the driver's statements he had suspected nothing unnatural about Neruda's death. "Now I have doubts," he said.
The Pablo Neruda Foundation, which manages his estate, author rights and house/museum, rejects the claims of his driver.
"It doesn't seem reasonable to build a new version of the death of the poet based only on the opinions of his driver," the foundation said in a statement, contending that Araya does not present any credible evidence to support his claims.
"The Sept. 11, 1973 coup, the death of his friend, President Salvador Allende, and the persecution launched against others of his friends, caused his health to deteriorate to the point that ... he had to be transferred in an emergency from his Isla Negra home to the Santa Maria Clinic on September 19," where he died of natural causes, said the foundation in a statement.
Araya says he went at least eight times to Communist Party directors to tell his story, but they paid no attention.
Contreras explained. "We were in a dictatorship; we weren't at the time interested in information different from that given by Matilde," he said, referring to Neruda's widow, Matilde Urrutia, who supported the foundation's conclusion until her death.
Araya, refuses to speak to Chilean media, finally took his story to the respected Mexican investigative magazine Proceso, and the May 2011 article went viral.
That persuaded the party to pay attention.
"Everything indicates that it was a heart attack (that caused his death)," Contreras said. "What caused the attack? The injection... If you read the literature on Dipirona you are going to find that it is lethal when given in excess."
The Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, which backed the dictatorship at the time, reported in its Sept. 24, 1973, edition that Neruda had died in a way similar to what Araya described. It said that the poet died "of a heart attack ... a consequence of a shock. After receiving an injection of a sedative, his condition deteriorated" and he entered a pre-coma state and died.
Draper was one of several doctors called to testify in the possible killing of former President Frei. Frei was recovering from a hernia operation in the Santa Maria clinic when his health suddenly deteriorated and he died in January 1982. Six people have been accused of poisoning him, according to the judicial file.
Neruda's case since May has been in the hands of Judge Mario Carroza, who also investigated the death of Allende. Advised by a team of international forensic experts, he concluded that Allende had committed suicide.
He is also trying to determine how 725 opponents of the dictatorship died.
neville george lucas numerology the game hue jackson new hampshire primary alabama football
মঙ্গলবার, ১৭ জানুয়ারি, ২০১২
Rep. Ed Markey: The Grand Canyon: Not for Sale
In the late 1960s, the daredevil Evel Kneivel lobbied the United States Government to jump over the Grand Canyon on his motorcycle. Believe it or not, jumping over the Grand Canyon has now become the second-craziest idea ever proposed about our nation's most iconic natural feature.
That is because the Republican plan to give away land around the Grand Canyon to Russian uranium mining interests is the first.
In an effort to solidify their standing as the worst environmental Congress in history, House Republicans have proposed the unthinkable - allowing a permanent uranium mining zone around the Grand Canyon. Something Congress has never done.
The attacks began last summer, in House and Senate legislation as well as hearings (here & here) before the House Natural Resources Committee.
Adding insult to injury, one of the largest uranium mines that Republicans want to open is owned in part by Russia's nuclear energy organization. That means the successor to the agency that presided over the Chernobyl disaster would be allowed to mine for uranium near one of America's most beloved national treasures.
Mining uranium around the Grand Canyon would put safe, clean drinking water - water that is the lifeblood for several western states including Nevada, Arizona and California - at risk. Some 25 million people depend on drinking water from the Canyon. The Grand Canyon generates over $700 million dollars and tens of thousands of jobs each year for the local economy.
That is why local community groups and small businesses have opposed the Republican-Russian uranium mining plan.
Democrats on the Natural Resources Committee have been fighting to protect the canyon for years. In 2008 we passed a resolution, offered by Congressman Raul Grijalva, who has been a tireless champion on this issue for years, calling for emergency protections of federal lands near the Grand Canyon National Park.
This action forced the Bush Administration to slow the pace of their giveaways.
Thankfully, this latest Republican assault on the Canyon prompted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to announce last week the protection of one million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon from more uranium mining.
Secretary Salazar showed great leadership in ensuring that these protections continue and are strengthened.
When families travel to see the Grand Canyon, they have a right to expect that the only glow they will see will come from the sun setting over the rim of this natural wonder - and not from the radioactive contamination that comes from uranium mining.
Hikers do not want to see more signs like the one at Horn Creek trail in the Grand Canyon. It warns visitors not to drink the uranium-tainted water "unless death by thirst is the only other option" because the levels of radiation in the water far exceed EPA limits for public health.
The toxic pollution at Horn Creek was caused by just one mining company. That mine has already cost taxpayers $7 million in damage assessment alone. Partial clean up of the mess will cost tens of millions more.
If the Grand Canyon is a geological window into the history of our planet, then the mining law that allows this kind of threat is a historical window into our energy policy.
All of this is made possible by the ridiculously out of date Mining Law of 1872 - a law that was enacted three years after John Wesley Powell's first expedition through the Grand Canyon. That law makes filing mining claims cheap and easy, while requiring no protections for the environment or public health, and no royalties paid to the American taxpayer.
So thank you to the Obama administration. They recognize that the Grand Canyon isn't just a natural icon, it is a national treasure that deserves enduring respect.
In 2008, the President told Americans "Yes We Can." Last week, the Obama administration said "Yes We Canyon."
Now we need your help in protecting the Grand Canyon and America's national parks from polluters. Congressional Republicans attacked the move by Salazar, and have vowed to do whatever it takes to help uranium mining interests.
So please take action on our Committee Democrats website. Add your voice and declare NO uranium mining around the Grand Canyon. You can also show your support by sharing your photos from trips to America's national parks.
?
Follow Rep. Ed Markey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markeymemo
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-ed-markey/the-grand-canyon-not-for_b_1209604.html
makana gloria cain gloria cain kandi burruss occupy portland occupy portland the hunger games
Video: SC is the ?last stand?
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46004969#46004969
kepler 22 b kepler 22 b rosie o donnell st nicholas st nicholas mindy mccready mindy mccready
Belgian authorities raid 3 bishops' offices
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Belgian authorities on Monday raided three bishops' administrative offices as an official said investigators were nearing the end of a two-year probe into whether church officials protected child abusers at the expense of their victims.
Belgian Catholic Church spokesman Geert Lesage said the offices in the Hasselt, Mechelen and Antwerp cooperated during the raids and handed over requested files as much as possible.
A judicial official close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Monday's surprise raids were based on some 200 witness accounts and 87 civil claims and sought to reveal if high-level clergy were involved in keeping abuse covered up.
Over the past two years, more than 500 witnesses have come forward with accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy in Belgium over several decades. One bishop was forced to resign in 2010 after he admitted he abused a nephew.
The main part of the investigation centers on "the non-assistance to people in danger and is targeted at people higher up in the hierarchy," the official said. "Possibly, we will be able to charge people." The official would not expand on who in the church hierarchy could potentially be charged.
"Today we saw the start of the final phase of Operation Chalice," the official said, using the investigation's code name. The official said the next step would likely be in a couple of months.
Tommy Scholtes, the spokesman for the Belgian bishop's conference said, "it is up to the judicial authorities to find out whether there has been negligence."
Church officials in both Mechelen and Hasselt said that several files taken Monday centered on the 1960s and 1970s. The cases are past the statute of limitation, but could still be used to show "non-assistance to people in danger," said Jeroen Moens, a spokesman for the Mechelen Bishops' office.
A tally of the raids showed that some two dozen files were collected from the three offices based on individual cases, reports of meetings between high clergy and victims and exchanges of letters.
The Belgian church is also leading an investigation into the allegations.
The raids were the first in "Operation Chalice" since June 2010, when authorities seized hundreds of case files from a church and used power tools to open a prelate's crypt in Mechelen's St. Rumbold Cathedral seeking evidence. Pope Benedict XVI called the raids "deplorable" at the time.
That raid was declared excessive by a Belgian court and based on premises that were too vague. But the government said the investigation could continue if the inquiry respects legal rules.
The judicial official stressed that "the context was totally different this time around."
In Hasselt, the files of four cases were taken, but church officials were allowed to take a copy first, said Clem Vande Broek, a spokesman for the Hasselt bishop's office. He said two of the cases dated from over 40 years back while the suspects involved had already died and were already known to judicial authorities.
"The whole procedure was correctly dealt with," said Vande Broek.
The judicial official said that copies were always allowed to be taken to allow the church to continue its own investigation.
The scandal has had a huge impact on the Belgian church and has highlighted the issue of sex abuse, which has undermined the church's credibility in many Western nations. Revelations of rape or other sexual abuse of minors by priests, and of cover-ups by bishops, piled up for months.
Belgium's abuse scandal broke when Bruges bishop Roger Vangheluwe admitted to the sexual abuse of a nephew for 13 years, starting when the boy was 5. He acknowledged briefly abusing a second nephew too.
Associated Presssplit pea soup land of the lost cleveland cavaliers cleveland cavaliers war horse k cups best buy
Economic woes could trump social issues in SC (AP)
PROSPERITY, S.C. ? Allen Koon had always picked his presidential candidates largely based on whether they shared his moral values and stances on issues such as abortion.
Then the recession pushed South Carolina's unemployment rate to record levels and Koon's construction business found itself short of work. Other jobs also were hard to come by in this town, named for boom times, and elsewhere. So, this year, the economy has pushed cultural issues to the backseat for Koon ? and likely others here.
"You've got to eat first. You've got to keep your family going, you've got to have a future for your children," said Koon, a Republican searching for a presidential candidate who has a plan for getting the state and national economy back on track. He's leaning toward Mitt Romney ahead of South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary.
For the first time this year, the presidential race is playing out in a state with a dismal economy. That's reshuffled the focus of the first-in-the South GOP contest that historically has been shaped by cultural issues because of the huge chunk of evangelical and conservative voters who make up the party's foundation in South Carolina.
The state's 9.9 percent unemployment rate exceeds the national average of 8.5 percent and dwarfs the jobless rate in Iowa (5.7 percent) and New Hampshire (5.2 percent), both of which held their votes this month.
In the past few years, manufacturing and construction job losses have hammered South Carolina. The state also has seen a sharp downturn in its $14 billion tourism industry and rising gas prices.
More than 18 percent of South Carolina's residents are living in poverty, compared with the national rate of just more than 15 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Republican candidates are battling to emerge as the nominee against President Barack Obama in a race certain to center on the country's struggling economy.
A week before the South Carolina primary, Romney is the clear GOP front-runner after back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.
A former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist, Romney has promoted himself as the strongest Republican challenger to Obama, given his background in private business. Romney is hoping that a campaign focused squarely on the economy will appeal to voters in South Carolina, where up to 60 percent of voters consider themselves evangelical and social conservatives.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are working to undercut the central rationale of Romney's campaign by casting him as a heartless corporate raider whose venture capital firm put people out of work. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have shied away from this line of attack. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is hardly a factor in the state.
All are emphasizing economic issues over social issues, though most are mindful not to ignore issues such as opposition to abortion and gay rights in hopes of winning backing from social conservatives.
Gingrich pitches plans to create jobs, boost home ownership and save Social Security. But he is focusing one of his first television ads on Romney's record on abortion. Santorum, who nearly won in Iowa, is trying to link moral issues with economic success. He cites studies that show children who are raised by married parents are less likely to live in poverty than kids in single-parent homes.
There are some glimmers that South Carolina's economy, like the country's, is starting to revive.
The state unemployment rate has retreated from its peak of 11.8 percent in 2009.
Under Gov. Nikki Haley, a Romney backer, South Carolina added more than 10,800 manufacturing jobs last year, many of them at a $750 million Boeing aircraft assembly plant in North Charleston that was the biggest single industrial investment in state history.
In the opposite corner of the state, German automaker BMW announced Wednesday that it would add 300 jobs ? and a $900 million investment ? to its North American headquarters. Online retailer Amazon plans to hire 2,000 full-time employees by the end of 2013 at a Lexington County warehouse.
Still, in this tiny town about an hour from the capital of Columbia, some say a full recovery still seems a long way off, especially for small-business owners.
John Hardin owns the Friendly Frawg Cafe, a breakfast and lunch spot on Main Street, where the crowds have dwindled as nearby manufacturing plants cut jobs.
As he fried eggs on a griddle, Hardin said bringing business back to South Carolina is going to require a president with business experience. Hardin plans to vote for Romney.
"He's the only businessman out there. And that's what we need right now," he said.
That's not to say that with the economy as the focus, social conservatives plan to sit on the sidelines.
GOP voter Chuck Stogner went to see Santorum speak in Charleston on Thursday. He said he was looking for a candidate who shared his values and thinks he found a match in Santorum.
"He talks like the folks I have in my home," Stogner said. "You can tell he has the right beliefs."
___
Online:
Employment data: http://jobs.scworks.org/analyzer/default.asp?
___
Smith reported from Charleston. Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Charleston, Meg Kinnard in Columbia and AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.
drew peterson earthquake new years eve times square 2012 new years eve ball drop 2012 holidays prosperity phish
এতে সদস্যতা:
পোস্টগুলি (Atom)