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Monday, August 5, 2013
Rescuers find body of Mt. Hood snowboarder
MOUNT HOOD, Ore. (AP) ? A dozen rescuers armed with chain saws and other tools chipped away at tons of ice and snow Sunday to the recover the body of a 25-year-old snowboarder killed when an ice tunnel collapsed on Oregon's Mount Hood.
The snowboarder, Collin Backowski, of Colorado, was traveling with five companions when the collapse hit Saturday afternoon. The others tried to dig him out but could not break through the ice and snow, which an official described as being as thick as concrete.
Rescuers quickly responded but halted efforts about 11 p.m. Saturday, then resumed early Sunday morning.
Hood River Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tiffany Peterson said that after removing tons of debris by hand, searchers found Backowski where he had been buried by 8 to 10 feet of snow and ice.
None of the searchers or other snowboarders was injured, Peterson said.
The ice tunnel was on the White River Glacier, which begins about 6,000 feet up the south side of the mountain.
An airplane was dispatched to survey the area, along with crews from local sheriff's offices.
Seven rescuers, including five members of an all-volunteer group called the CragRats, were on the mountain on Saturday night.
Companions took pictures of the area just before the tunnel collapsed, giving searchers a better idea of where to look.
Warm temperatures made snow on the mountain slushier and more easily sloughed off the surface, adding to the challenge of attempting to reach the snowboarder.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rescuers-body-mt-hood-snowboarder-184201376.html
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Syria limits foreign currency use, threatens traders with jail
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian traders who price goods in foreign currency will face up to 10 years in jail, the government announced on Sunday in a move aimed at stemming the increasing dollarization of an economy crippled by two years of civil war.
A decree issued by President Bashar al-Assad "forbids the use of anything other than the Syrian pound as payment for any type of commercial transaction or cash settlement".
Traders who violate the law face up to three years in jail and a fine equivalent to double the value of the payment. If the sum involved is over $5,000, punishment could rise to 10 years with hard labor, according to the decree published by state media.
Bankers said Sunday's move reinforced existing prohibitions on pricing goods in dollars - a law which has been increasingly flouted after sharp falls and wild fluctuation in the Syrian pound - and said the penalties had been stiffened.
"It's to prevent people from fleeing to the dollar," said one Damascus banker, adding the decree would not have an impact on banking operations.
"It does not in any way affect the banking sector - the country needs foreign currency transfers," he said. "The idea is that people don't all think in dollar terms as if there is no local currency. It's more a psychological move with the currency crumbling."
Sharp falls and fluctuations in the Syrian pound have led to increasing use of the U.S. dollar in all walks of life, by food sellers and manufacturers, taxi drivers and importers.
Before protests against Assad's rule erupted in March 2011 the pound stood at 47 to the dollar. After two years of war and economic collapse, it now changes hands for around 200, and briefly fell as low as 300 last month, exchange dealers say.
Devastation to the commercial and industrial cities of Aleppo and Homs, together with the loss of foreign currency earnings as oil exports and tourism dried up, have hit the economy hard. Damage is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars and this year's wheat crop is expected to fall by half.
The weakness and volatility of the local currency has pushed up inflation and left many shopkeepers struggling to price their goods in local currency.
"Having dollars, depositing them and using them as a currency of savings has never been outlawed but even before the crisis, dealing with dollars in domestic commercial transactions was banned," said a chief currency dealer in a Damascus bank.
"This is a law that imposes more penalties," he said. "Syrians can get transfers in dollars and importers can still price their goods in dollar but they cannot put dollar price tags on goods sold," he said.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans and Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-limits-foreign-currency-threatens-traders-jail-121820997.html
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Asia's exports stutter, missing out on U.S. revival
By Wayne Arnold and Choonsik Yoo
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The U.S. economy may have stopped sneezing, but Asia's exports are still laid up with a nasty cold.
Growth in exports from seven of East Asia's biggest exporters - Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore - slowed to a halt in the second quarter, according to national trade data compiled by Reuters, led by a 9 percent drop in exports to the European Union compared to a year earlier.
Growing trade between China and its neighbors has failed to offset a sharp decline in demand from Europe and slumping demand for things made in Japan. More troubling is that the slowdown dashes expectations earlier this year for a gathering recovery in the United States to trigger a rise in demand for Asian exports.
Exports still represent the equivalent of roughly 35 percent of the region's combined economic output. But the U.S. recovery has been led by housing and shale-gas investment, not demand for the electronics Asia's factories supply.
That could make it harder for Asia's economies to weather rising global interest rates and a westward migration of international investment funds. While foreign investors are still accumulating Japanese stocks, they have sold off roughly $12.5 billion of other Asian stocks since May, according to data from Nomura.
"The attraction for more money to be put into this region at this time is not there," said Kelvin Tay, chief investment strategist at UBS in Singapore. "We're caught in the middle of nowhere."
SOME SURPRISES
The trade numbers contain some notable surprises: though Japan's falling yen has made its export earnings swell when measured in its own currency, demand remains weak and its exports in U.S. dollar terms fell 14 percent in the second quarter.
And despite a rising currency, South Korea's exports rose 1 percent, with exports to China climbing 13 percent on booming sales of industrial machinery, auto parts and popular consumer items like smartphones, TVs and refrigerators.
That might bode well for China's slowing economy, suggesting that factories are preparing for a boost in orders, and that China's efforts to shift growth from investment and exports to domestic demand are stoking an appetite among consumers for high-end white goods like those made by Samsung Electronics , LG Electronics and Hyundai Motors .
"The Chinese government has been pushing hard to boost domestic consumption, and South Korean exports of late appear to be enjoying that," said Lee Sang-jae, economist at Hyundai Securities in Seoul. "Private consumption there is growing much faster than the overall economic growth."
Economists and investors who look to South Korea as a bellwether for global export demand see in its rising numbers glimmers of hope for the rest of Asia, too. Markus Rosgen, strategist at Citigroup in Hong Kong, said such optimism was reinforced by last week's positive survey of European purchasing managers by London-based financial information services firm Markit.
And Deutsche Bank's chief Asian economist, Michael Spencer, pointed to the U.S. Institute for Supply Management's index of national factory activity, which rose in July to a 2-year high of 55.4, beating economists' expectations of 52.0 and June's reading of 50.9.
But such optimism wasn't reflected in last quarter's exports to Europe or the United States. Exports from China to the EU dropped 8 percent, and fell 20 percent from Japan, marking a seventh straight quarter of declines. Exports to the United States dropped 2.4 percent, led by a 21 percent drop in exports from Hong Kong and a 7 percent decline from Japan.
"PRETTIEST PIG"
While surveys in the West may be improving, they have yet to lift the mood among managers in Asia. HSBC/Markit's survey of regional purchasing managers indicates that new orders are falling in China, South Korea and Taiwan, and that growth is slowing in Japan.
"This suggests that an immediate rebound is not on the cards for Asia," Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC in Hong Kong, wrote in an August 2 note to clients. "In developed markets, broadly speaking, things have picked up nicely. But the feed through to emerging markets is lacking."
Instead of boosting Asian stocks on hopes of an export rebound, therefore, economists warn more investors are likely to shift funds from Asia to the United States with its relatively more positive outlook.
"It is becoming obvious that although the U.S. economy is still struggling to regain its growth momentum, it is probably the ?prettiest pig at the fair' - best of a group of somewhat unattractive options," Chris Christopher, an economist at U.S. consulting and publishing firm IHS, wrote in a note to customers on consumer market trends.
The biggest weakness in export demand came from the country seemingly enjoying the most dramatic rebound - Japan.
Thanks to unprecedented efforts by the central bank there to stimulate demand by buying assets with newly minted money, Japan's yen has lost more than a fifth of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past year. That translated into a 7 percent increase in Japanese exports last quarter, helping Toyota Motor almost double its net profit to a quarterly record 562.19 billion yen ($5.69 billion). Toyota attributed more than a third of its quarterly operating profit to a falling yen.
Despite the rising yen value of its exports, though, Japan actually shipped out almost 6 percent less in the second quarter than the year before. And the value of those exports in U.S. dollars fell 13.8 percent.
(1 = 98.7650 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota and Tomasz Janowski in Tokyo, and Kevin Lim in Singapore; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asias-exports-stutter-missing-u-revival-211813497.html
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Sunday, August 4, 2013
Warrior Mind Podcast # 144: Making a Difference and a Profit ...
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This Warrior Mind Podcast is based on Mental Strength Tip #103: Profit and Personal Success.
The purpose of this podcast is to help you understand the importance of how making a difference will turn into making a profit and to do this as soon as possible in your business/career in order to achieve personal success.
A successful entrepreneurial business has many parts but it always begins with the understanding of why you do such work. Aside from that, as an entrepreneur you should also understand the people you serve, their struggles, and by making difference in their lives you deserve to be rewarded in the form of a profit.
Enjoy the podcast below:
I encourage you to embrace a profit driven mindset.? When you do, this will remove of the most powerful mental obstacles that holds most people back from achieve personal success.
?I don?t want to do business with those who don?t make a profit, because they can?t give the best service.? ? Richard Bach
To get you started on creating a personal development plan pick up a copy of ?Develop the Mental Strength of a Warrior? today!
This is a fantastic e-book that helps you with your personal development, self-improvement and personal power.? You?ll learn to take back control of your thoughts, develop success awareness and helps you tap into the powers of your unconsciousness mind to create the mental strength to succeed at anything!
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Chinese Taipei beats Philippines 84-79 in Asia Basketball Championship
Over 200,000 people last night packed Ketagalan Blvd. in front of the Presidential Office to "bid farewell" to Army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu and demand truth and justice regarding Hung's untimely death, according to Citizen 1985, organiser of the event. The rally, the second of its kind, was held on the eve of the funeral service slated for this morning for the 24-year-old ...
China and Taiwan sign landmark deal
China and Taiwan moved closer to overcoming six decades of hostilities today, as they signed deals drastically expanding direct flights and allowing shipping links across the Formosa strait.The agreement follows a dramatic thaw in relations over the last six months, since the election of Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou. The island broke away from the mainland at the end of the civil ...
22 Matsu statues from Taiwan arrive in Hainan for blessing ceremony
Twenty-two statues of the Chinese sea goddess Matsu arrived in Hainan Province from Taiwan on Monday for a cross-Strait mass blessing ceremony. Escorted by followers, the ornate statues arrived in Haikou, capital of Hainan, on Monday evening after being transported on a flight from Taiwan. More than 10,000 worshippers, sailors and fishermen, including those from Taiwan, will attend the ...
Huge crowd protests Taiwanese soldier?s death over unauthorized cellphone
A family member holds a photo of Taiwanese soldier Hung Chung-chiu who died in early July after being forced to perform a vigorous regime of callisthenics in sweltering heat, at a protest in front of President Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. The death of the 24-year-old soldier has set off a wave of anger in the country, undermining Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou?s ...
Taiwans space programme offers tsunami satellite images to aid relief
Taiwan's national space programme offered Wednesday its satellite images of the damage caused by powerful tsunamis that ravaged Asia at the weekend to affected countries and aid groups for free.The National Space Programme Office (NSPO) normally charges 3,000 euros (4,080 dollars) for each photograph covering an area of 600 square kilometres (240 square miles), the office said.The images ...
President vows to seek truth at funeral of serviceman
Ma Ying-jeou vowed to get the truth in the death of Army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu at his funeral in Taichung City Sunday. Ma told parents of Hung who died on July 4 from strenuous exercise while being confined in an Army holding cell that 18 officers have been indicted in the case which will be heard in public by a court-martial and the truth will out during the trial. The president said the ...
Thousands protest soldier?s death in Taiwan
A Taiwanese people holds a placard during a protest rally for the death of Taiwan?s soldier Hung Chung-chiu, in front of the President Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. The 24-year-old soldier died in early July after being forced to perform a vigorous regime of calisthenics in sweltering heat at a military camp. The incident has set off a wave of anger on the democratic ...
Chinese Taipei converts 13-point deficit to break hosts heart
Chinese Taipei fought back from a double-digit third quarter deficit to break the hearts of host Philippines by winning their last group match 84-79 on Saturday at the 27th Asian Men's Basketball Championship.The host headed into the final period with a 68-55 lead but quickly ran out of gas. Naturalized player Quincy Davis and Lu Cheng-Ju sparked Chinese Taipei to a 18-4 run to open the ...
Chinese Taipei beats Philippines 84-79 in Asia Basketball Championship
Chinese Taipei overcame a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a furious rally to beat the Philippines 84-79 on Saturday night to remain unbeaten in the Asia Basketball Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in the Philippines.Lu Cheng-Ju led Chinese Taipei with 22 points and hit six three-pointers to lead their comeback in the final quarter by outscoring the Filipinos, 29-11, in the ...
Tens of thousands gather in Taiwan in continuing protest over soldiers death
Tens of thousands of Taiwanese have gathered in downtown Taipei to protest the death of a 24-year old soldier confined to a brig as punishment for bringing an unauthorized cell phone onto his base. Saturday's protest was the biggest so far in the continuing campaign to register discontent over the death of Hung Chung-chiu on July 3. Hung died after several days of being forced to perform a ...
One dead and two missing in separate accidents at sea
The swimmer, a 25-year-old man, was swept out to sea by strong currents at Kenting's popular Nanwan Beach at about 4 p.m. A jet-skier went to his rescue, but it was clearly too late, police said, adding that the man was pronounced dead later in a local hospital. At about 5 p.m., eight other people were also swept out to sea at Nanwan, but they were rescued, police added. Weathermen said ...
13 new ferret-badger rabies cases COA
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Thirteen ferret-badgers were confirmed to be infected with rabies yesterday, breaking the record for highest number of confirmed rabies cases within a day, according to the Council of Agriculture ...
Tainted NZ dairy items not imported food body
TAIPEI--Health authorities said Saturday there is no indication that tainted dairy products from New Zealand have been imported into Taiwan, and the New Zealand government has confirmed Taiwan is not in the list of countries that the products have ...
CDC expands human rabies vaccine program
TAIPEI--Anyone in Taiwan who was bitten by a Formosan ferret-badger in the period May 2012 to July 31 this year is now eligible to be vaccinated against rabies in an inoculation program launched by The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), its director-general Chang Feng-yee said ...
Cost concerns raised of situation without No. 4 nuke plant
TAIPEI--Several local industrialists voiced concerns Saturday over a steep rise in costs in case the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant cannot start operations in view of a vote blocked in the legislature over the fate of the controversial ...
Taiwanese athlete Huang pockets roller skating gold at World Games
TAIPEI--Taiwanese athlete Huang Yu-ting clinched a gold medal in the women's 1,000-meter roller skating sprint Saturday at the 2013 World Games in ...
Govt must up communication over service trade pact VP Wu
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Vice President Wu Den-yih yesterday said the government must do its best to convince the people that the cross-strait service trade pact is aimed at helping them do business in ...
Firms lag in branding have potential strategist
TAIPEI--Taiwanese companies are lagging behind their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and even Singapore in terms of brand building, but they have a great potential to catch up in this regard, according to a visiting brand ...
MStar Q2 net profit up almost 20 percent
TAIPEI--MStar Semiconductor Inc., one of Taiwan's leading integrated circuit designers, said Saturday that its net profit for the second quarter rose almost 20 percent from a quarter earlier on solid global demand for TV ...
HTC chair dismisses acquisition speculation
"HTC is a Taiwanese brand. We should treasure this brand and its management philosophy," said Wang, dismissing foreign investment firms' speculation that continued losses might force the vendor to seek a merger with others. Speaking to reporters during the firm's sports meet day in Taipei, Wang said HTC has been giving conservative guidance to its outlook because it is an ...
10 devoted vocational instructors praised by Ministry of Education
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Ten vocational school instructors were commended by the Ministry of Education (MOE) recently for their dedication in promoting vocational ...
Trade agreement helps growth ANZ
TAIPEI--The service trade agreement that Taiwan recently signed with China will help stabilize the island's economic growth, according to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ...
Source: http://www.taipeinews.net/index.php/sid/216219903/scat/0dd057261bcc461b
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Lose Weight More Easily With These Tips - ArticleRich.com
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Source: http://www.articlerich.com/Article/Lose-Weight-More-Easily-With-These-Tips----/2747284
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Australians to go to the polls on Sept. 7
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called an election for Sept. 7 and said Sunday that it will be fought over who can be trusted to manage the Australian economy as it transitions from a decade-old mining boom fed by Chinese industrial demand that is now fading.
In starting the five-week election campaign, Rudd said the economy can no longer rely on Chinese demand for iron ore and coal that made the country one of the few wealthy nations to avoid a recession during the global economic downturn.
"The boom, of course, has fuelled so much of our nation's wealth," he told reporters at Parliament House. "That boom is over."
"Who do the Australian people trust to best lead them through the new economic challenges that lie ahead?" he asked.
Rudd conceded that his center-left Labor Party was the underdog, saying his advisers had told him that if the election had been held this weekend, his government would have lost.
But opinion polls also show that more voters prefer Rudd, a 55-year-old Chinese-speaking former Beijing diplomat, as prime minister than opposition leader Tony Abbott, a former Roman Catholic seminarian and journalist who is also 55.
Latest economic figures show a sharp decline in the nation's finances, with the Treasury Department on Friday raising its estimated deficit for the current fiscal year to 30.1 billion Australian dollars ($26.8 billion) due to the mining slowdown. The new forecast for the year ending June 30, 2014, reveals a substantial deterioration in Australia's finances since May, when the department forecast a deficit of AU$18 billion.
The government also announced a AU$33.3 billion shortfall in the revenue forecast over the next four years ? a deterioration of about AU$3 billion a week since the May forecast.
Economic growth for the fiscal year, forecast at 2.75 percent in May, was downgraded on Friday to 2.5 percent.
The unemployment rate forecast in May to rise to 5.75 percent in the current fiscal year was revised up to 6.25 percent. The latest figures show the Australian jobless rate crept from 5.6 percent in May to 5.7 percent in June.
The conservative Liberal Party-led opposition coalition has accused the government of wasting money on stimulus spending after the last conservative government delivered surplus budgets years after year until it lost power in 2007.
After the election was announced, Abbott promised to "get the budget back under control," and listed scrapping the unpopular carbon tax among his top priorities if elected.
The election promises to be an extraordinary contest for Australian politics. Labor leads Australia's first minority government since World War II, and polls suggest the opposition faces an easier task picking up seats than Labor does.
Labor holds 71 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives where parties form governments. The opposition holds 72 seats, with the remainder held by independent lawmakers or sole legislators from minor parties.
A recent poll has shown that secrets spiller Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks Party have a realistic chance of winning seats in the 78-seat Senate.
Rudd was first elected prime minister in 2007 but was ousted in 2010 by his then deputy Julia Gillard in an internal leadership showdown among Labor lawmakers.
He reclaimed the leadership in a similar challenge on June 26 as the government faced the prospect of a loss of historic portions with Gillard at the helm.
Since then, Rudd has changed several key policy positions, and opinion polls suggest Labor is closing the opposition's lead.
Abbott opposes charging polluters for their carbon gas emissions, despite Australia having some of the world's worst emission rates on a per capita basis. He has vowed to give priority to scrapping both the carbon and mining taxes.
Both taxes were introduced by Labor in July 2012. The carbon tax on Australia's biggest polluters rose from AU$23 a metric ton of carbon dioxide to AU$24.15 from July 1, 2013. The opposition argues this is the world's highest tax rate on carbon dioxide and is making Australian industry uncompetitive.
The tax is due to be replaced in 2015 by an emissions trading scheme, in which the cost of emitting a metric ton of carbon would be determined by buyers and sellers in a carbon market.
Rudd has pledged to bring forward the emission trading scheme linked to the European market by a year to July 2014, reducing the cost to Australians of emitting a metric ton of carb dioxide from AU$25.40 to an estimated AU$6.
The 30 percent mining tax on the profits of iron ore and coal miners was designed to cash in on burgeoning profits from a mineral boom fueled by Chinese industrial demand. But the boom was cooling before the tax took effect, with prices for iron ore and coal peaking in 2011. The tax was initially forecast to earn the government AU$3 billion in its first year but collected only AU$126 million after six months.
The opposition has also promised to scale down the government's plan to build an AU$37.4 billion high-speed fiber-optic national broadband network. The government boasts it is the biggest infrastructure project in Australian history.
The opposition proposes a slower, AU$20 billion version that would incorporate the aging copper wire network rather than replace it.
The opposition would also introduce a new tax on big business to pay for a new maternity leave entitlement for middle and high income earners.
Mothers would be paid their usual salary of up to AU$150,000 while they take up to six months off work on maternity leave.
Mothers are currently entitled to the minimum wage of AU$622.10 a week for 18 weeks for maternity leave.
Both Labor and Liberal parties have promised to curb the number of asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat but propose different strategies to achieve this aim.
Labor has promised that every bona fide refugee who attempts to reach Australia by boat from July 19 will be settled on the impoverished South Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea or Nauru.
The Liberals have promised new policies of turning asylum seeker boats back and creating temporary protection visas so that refugees can be sent back to their homelands when conditions improve.
Rudd said the September date meant he would not attend the G20 meeting in Russia that week, but Australia would likely be represented by Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australians-polls-sept-7-063206662.html
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Oil & Gas - Chile - E-CL looks to increase LNG imports in Chile, prices to rise
Chilean power generator E-CL is looking to increase LNG imports via its GNL Mejillones terminal in northern Chile.The firm is in negotiations with suppliers, however,...
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Born inside a N. Korean prison camp, this man escaped ? and survived
The North Korean military has put on a lavish display to mark the anniversary of the armistice which ended the Korean War. But despite the truce nearly 60 years ago, North Korea is still seen as a volatile nation. It has been condemned by other countries for its nuclear testing programme and its record of human rights violations ? in particular its use of brutal prison camps. One man who knows all about the country's abuse of human rights is Shin Dong-hyuk ? the only man born inside a North Korean prison camp who managed to escape. His story has been documented in a book 'Escape from Camp 14' by journalist Blaine Harden. Here the author offers Yahoo! News a startling picture of what life is like in notoriously secretive North Korea.
A naked Shin was hung from the ceiling by his arms and legs, his body in the shape of a U. Just a boy at the time, he was lowered by a winch towards a tub of burning charcoal. Crazed with pain, he smelled his burning flesh. A guard then pierced his stomach with a hook on a pole and held him over the fire until he lost consciousness. This was just one instance of the brutal torture Shin experienced and witnessed at Camp 14 ? one of North Korea?s inhumane prison camps.
American Journalist Blaine Harden spent years trying to gain the trust of Shin, now in his late 20s, so that his story could be told. He tells us: "The purpose of writing the book is to grab people by the throat and explain how North Korea operates and Shin?s story does that so well because no one has told it before."
Shin is the only person to be born in a prison camp who has escaped and lived to tell the tale.
His only crime? Being related to his father?s brothers who escaped to South Korea after the Korean War in the 1950s. There are people like Shin who were born in the camps and never allowed to leave and others, considered defectors, who are either there for ?rehabilitation? - or more likely until they die.
Harden says: "They can arrest anybody they want, for any reason, without any charge and take them away in the middle of the night and never tell them why they were taken."
The camps have been around since the late 1950s and Harden says they have always operated in almost exactly the same way. He says: "There is an incredible culture of brutality. Working people to death, usually by the time they?re in their mid-40s, they have executions, guards who are at liberty to murder, rape and torment the prisoners without any sanctions against them. They are taught to regard the prisoners as pigs and dogs. They can rape them, impregnate them, kill the babies and kill the women. They can also beat children to death if they?re in the mood."
A total of 60 former camp inmates have told their stories to human rights investigators. Harden explains how those interviews, carried out separately across a decade, tell a remarkably consistent story about how the camps operate, what life is like, who lives, who dies, why and how.
Shin was starved, beaten and raised as a slave in a culture of disclosure and reward. He reported his mother and brother for plotting an escape which ultimately led to their execution.
Harden says: "How Shin was raised in the camp is an example of the sort of mentality that is spread across the country. There are about 170,000 secret police in North Korea. They are in virtually every apartment block, every village. They are there to incentivise people to snitch on each other. And children, relatives and friends do snitch on each other."
An estimated 200,000 people are detained in prison camps and there are fears the camps are growing. Satellite images show the existence of the camps, yet North Korea still denies their presence to the rest of the world.
But people in North Korea know the camps exist. "They know that every once in a while people disappear into the night ? an entire family," says Harden. "And they know if they speak out there?s a chance that they could join them."
North Korean female soldiers on parade in Pyongyang (Reuters)
People may be scared into silence but they are armed with more knowledge. Despite its extravagant ceremonial parades and military displays, North Korea is poor. Times are hard and although the Kim family rulers have tried to isolate the notoriously secretive country from the rest of the globe, censoring media, preventing access to the internet and effectively starving the populace of information, knowledge about the wealth and freedoms in the outside world has seeped through into this totalitarian state.?
More electronic products such as DVDs, radios and USB sticks are crossing the border illegally, primarily from China, and the number of radios that can tune into outside radio stations has increased. A recent survey of all defectors who have fled the country revealed that while in North Korea, 60 per cent were able to listen to outside radio stations on a daily basis.
Harden says: "They know more about the outside world but their ability to act on it and interact with each other based on the new information they have is not changing very much at all. There?s no civil society inside North Korea. People do not get together. They cannot meet in more than groups of three or four anywhere and people cannot travel easily within the country so they are socially and politically atomised."
Harden believes that life may have actually got worse under new leader Kim Jong-Un, who was declared the 'Supreme Leader' of North Korea at the end of 2011 following the death of his father.
He says: "It seems to have gone backwards in some ways. The border has been effectively closed down, people are not crossing or fleeing the country. The number of defectors arriving in South Korea has been cut significantly in the past year. Kim Jong-Un recognised that having this porous border was allowing people to go off and tell stories to human rights people and he wanted to end it. The Government has lost none of its appetite for cruelty."
??????????????????????????????????? [Amnesty: North Korea Prison Camps 'Expanding']
Propaganda is also used incessantly and it is extremely powerful. Pictures of the ?great? and ?dear? leader Kim Jong-Un are everywhere and the state owned Central News Agency is the sole news provider in the country, ensuring the publication and broadcast of specific messages, including verbal attacks on America and South Korea.
Harden says: "They teach people that the US in particular, South Korea and Japan are plotting to murder them, to bomb them to kill their children - and there are some good reasons for North Koreans to believe it. During the Korean War the Americans bombed North Korea. They destroyed virtually every city, town and village, including about 85 per cent of the structures.?
Harden states that every single person in the country had a relative killed in the war. "That is sold and resold in the state propaganda about why you need the Kim family to protect you."
???????????????????? [North Korean defector's 'impossible' dream of closing prison camps]
Shin was not subject to the propaganda. There was no use for propaganda for the prisoners born in the camps. They have no choices. They are put to work, then they die. For the rest of the population though it's a highly effective method of control.
Despite all this, Harden is optimistic change will occur in North Korea. The UN has authorised a human rights investigation into the camps, amid denials from the country's UN ambassador Sin Son-ho, who recently asserted 'we don't have any human rights problems'.
Harden says: "They are surrounded by a booming China and an absolutely amazing South Korea which is one of the fastest growing economies, one of the most wired places in the world and Japan. They?re getting poorer and their options are fewer. As more information seeps into the country, the contradictions become sharper, so change has to happen."
Shin is one of many who dares to hope he is right.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inside-north-korea-s-brutal-prison-camps-171717380.html
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Autonet Mobile puts a new twist on the car key (video) - Engadget
Remember Autonet? The company -- which is best known for providing manufacturers like Chrysler with in-car WiFi hotspot solutions -- is launching a new product designed to replace the key fob and enable low-latency remote vehicle control and diagnostics from any smartphone. Of course, this is nothing new -- car makers have been featuring apps to unlock doors, start the engine and monitor vehicles for some time now. Still, most existing solutions rely on satellite or 2G connectivity and often require the car's computer to be fully booted before responding to commands, which makes for a slow and unreliable experience. Autonet's new system combines in-vehicle hardware, mobile software and cloud services to streamline this process for both manufacturers and owners. More after the break.
Autonet Mobile hands-on
See all photos6 Photos
We recently talked with Autonet's CEO, Sterling Pratz, who demoed how the technology works. The company supplies car makers with a board that attaches to the vehicle's CAN bus and includes a 3G radio. It's capable of powering up and connecting to the Internet in less than half a second. A smartphone app provides basic keychain functionality (lock/unlock, remote start/stop, open trunk, panic on/off) and features a series of apps (car health report, geo zones, valet mode, curfew management, alarm notification, find my vehicle, speed tracker and parental controls). Of course, Autonet's cloud services tie everything together. For example, the car health report, which is really just a mobile website, lets you monitor all aspects of the vehicle, such as gas level, tire pressure and battery voltage.
Autonet's still working on several of these apps, including parental controls, which it plans to detail in an announcement later this year. In the meantime, cars are already rolling off the assembly line with the company's 3G-capable CAN bus board pre-installed and dealers can even retrofit the technology in some vehicles. While Autonet is mum on which car makers it's partnering with, you can probably figure it out by watching our video interview above.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/02/autonet-mobile-puts-a-new-twist-on-the-car-key-video/
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T-Mobile says its Moto X variant will only sell through Motorola at first
While it's well-known that the Moto X will launch on multiple US carriers, it turns out that T-Mobile customers won't have the easiest time buying one -- at least, not at first. The provider's Mike Sievert has confirmed to AllThingsD that the T-Mobile Moto X variant will only be available through Motorola itself in the short term. He hints that the network could offer the Android flagship in its stores, but any announcements would come later. Pricing also remains a mystery; it's not clear if Motorola will offer UnCarrier-style down payments instead of asking shoppers to pay in full. Either way, T-Mobile fans who crave a Moto X should be prepared to jump through some hoops.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, T-Mobile
Via: TmoNews
Source: Official Motorola Blog, AllThingsD
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Beyonc? Shows Off Family?s Matching Timberlands
The pop diva shares an adorable photo of her family's matching Timberland boots on Instagram.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/mHEdWXiD_vA/
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Saturday, August 3, 2013
E-books: US tells Apple to cut publishing ties
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Source: news.malaysia.msn.com --- Friday, August 02, 2013
The US Department of Justice said Friday that tech giant Apple must cut ties with the five publishers with which it was found guilty of running an e-book price-fixing scheme. ...
Source: http://news.malaysia.msn.com/top-stories/e-books-us-tells-apple-to-cut-publishing-ties-1
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Obama likely to miss goal of doubling exports
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Back in January 2010, President Barack Obama set a lofty goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years. With just 18 months to go to 2015, that target seems to be slipping beyond reach and has vanished from White House talking points.
Blame tepid U.S. manufacturing growth, the lingering weak global economy, and a stronger U.S. dollar, which makes it harder to sell American goods and services overseas.
Monthly export numbers have been mostly stagnant this year. And only a scant 6,000 manufacturing jobs were added last month, according to Labor Department jobs statistics released Friday.
"The goal of doubling exports keeps getting harder to achieve, not easier," said Alan Tonelson, research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, which represents about 2,000 mostly family owned manufacturing companies. "We're actually backsliding, not making progress."
Obama and administration officials counter by asserting that 7.2 million jobs ? 500,000 of them in manufacturing ? have been added since job losses bottomed in March 2010, two months after Obama set his doubling-exports goal.
"Over the past four years, for the first time since the 1990s, the number of manufacturing jobs hasn't gone down. It's gone up. Now we have to build on that progress," Obama said this week in Chattanooga, Tenn., after similar stops in Illinois, Missouri and Florida the week before.
Actually, the number of overall manufacturing jobs has changed little over the past 12 months.
Those 500,000 "new" manufacturing jobs have been cited before by Obama, going back to his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last September. The lack of a significant progress since then underscores how hard it will be to reach his goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of next year.
Obama's boasts of job gains also ignores the millions of jobs, including hundreds of thousands manufacturing ones, that were lost in the early months of his presidency and in the final year that George W. Bush was president. Obama cherry-picked his starting point, making it the 2010 employment trough.
He is proposing lowering the corporate tax from 35 percent to 28 percent. As a special incentive for manufacturers, he would set a rate of 25 percent for companies "that bring jobs back to America." In exchange, he wants to pair changes in tax laws with new domestic spending.
Republicans balked at those strings attached.
The worst recession since the Depression began in December 2007 and officially ended in June 2009, although the unemployment rate continued to rise for six more months. It hit 10 percent in late 2009 before a slow descent to 7.4 percent last month.
"We applaud the president's discussion about manufacturing. I think the president never misses a chance to talk about the importance of manufacturing," said Chad Moutray, chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers. He also praised the administration's efforts to push two new free-trade pact negotiations, one with Europe and the other with Asian trading partners.
But, Moutray added, "We've had really disappointing numbers so far this year. Hopefully, they'll start to turn around as we move into the second half. ... Next year, it's going to be almost impossible for us to meet the president's goal of doubling exports."
A new industry report on the level of manufacturing activity showed an expansion in July. But the improvement likely won't move the needle much toward Obama's export target.
"The more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America," Obama said on Jan. 27, 2010, in his State of the Union address. "So tonight, we set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support 2 million jobs in America."
For all of 2009, U.S. exports totaled $1.6 trillion. Doubling that would suggest reaching a level of $3.2 trillion exports for all of 2014.
U.S. exports did rise to $2.2 trillion in 2012. But then came slowdowns in Europe, China and Brazil.
In May, the most recent trade figures available, monthly U.S. exports slipped 0.3 percent, to $187.1 billion. New trade numbers are out next week.
White House officials agree trend lines don't look good. But they emphasize big-picture improvements.
"You can look at the export slowdown in one or two ways. You can say, 'Well, job growth hasn't been as good in the last 12 months.' But what I would say is that we haven't created 500,000 (manufacturing) jobs like this since the '90s," said White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, using that familiar job-creation number.
"I feel like the wind is at our backs. Like a lot of things in life, good things happen when you seize opportunity, when you have a trend going your way and you seize and expand on it," Sperling said.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew suggests economics is "kind of collective psychology. When people feel better about the future, they act better and the economy picks up. When people worry, it also has an effect on the economy."
___
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-likely-miss-goal-doubling-exports-080037238.html
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WaterField adds two more Finn wallets to their line up
It’s not news that I love love love WaterField wallets. Just do a search on this site and you’ll find me gushing about them too many times to count. Their wallets are the standard by which I judge all other wallets that I happen to be judging I recently switched from one of their Catch [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/08/01/waterfield-adds-two-more-finn-wallets-to-their-line-up/
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The Case for Replacing Family Dinners with Family Breakfasts
By dinnertime, your family is tired, in a bad mood, and often not together. The mornings are another story?and can bring all the benefits of supper, with none of the pain. Plus: waffles! Fast Company's Laura Vanderkam lays out why family breakfasts are superior to family dinners.
Parents hear again and again that eating dinner together as a family is supposed to be important for kids. Studies find that kids who eat with their families are less likely be depressed, and more likely to eat fruits and veggies. Such research may explain why families claim to eat together far more often than they actually do. While one USA Today survey found that 50% of families claim to always eat dinner together, a UCLA study that observed middle-class families found that only 17% actually do. (Both stats can be found in this book.)
Despite our best intentions, dinner is just hard to pull off. Kids have after-school activities, and working parents may not be home until 6 pm or later. Someone has to make dinner just as everyone is crashing in the door, harried from traffic and starving. But dinner isn?t the only time a family can have a family meal. In our house, we?ve found that family breakfast has a lot going for it that family dinner just can?t match.
First off, we?re usually all there.
Second, everyone likes breakfast food. Many a family dinner has been marred by fights over broccoli or kale consumption. No one complains about pancakes, waffles, cereal, eggs, bagels, etc.
Third, research into the science of willpower is finding that self-discipline is like a muscle. It gets fatigued from constant use. By dinnertime, everyone has been taxing their willpower all day making decisions and dealing with difficult people. So we?re more likely to be crabby and unpleasant with our loved ones.
But at breakfast? We?re fresh?and able to give our families our best, rather than what?s left over. That?s worth getting up a few minutes earlier.
The Delicious Case for Replacing Family Dinners with Family Breakfasts | Fast Company
Laura Vanderkam is a nationally recognized writer who questions the status quo and helps her readers rediscover their true passions and beliefs in pursuit of more meaningful lives. She is the author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Portfolio, August 27, 2013), and 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010). She blogs at www.lauravanderkam.com.
Image remixed from Nemo (Pixabay).
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Ford to offer compressed natural gas V6 option with 2014 F-150
The 2014 Ford F-150 will offer a gaseous-fuel prep option on the 3.7L V6 engine, which means it will be able to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
With this addition, the Blue Oval will have 8 vehicles available to run on clean-burning, inexpensive CNG/LPG, the others being mostly commercial trucks.
Ford will also become the only manufacturer with an available CNG/LPG-capable half-ton pickup.
The factory-installed, gaseous-fuel prep package will cost $315 in the U.S. and include hardened valves, valve seats, pistons and rings so it can operate on either natural gas or gasoline through separate fuel systems. Upfits will run approximately $7,500 to $9,500 depending on fuel tank capacity.
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Friday, August 2, 2013
Berkshire profit rises 46 percent, helped by economy
By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc
on Friday said second-quarter profit rose 46 percent, boosted by improved demand in such businesses as car insurance, energy and railroads, as well as gains from investments and derivatives.
Operating results topped analyst forecasts, reflecting how many of Berkshire's more than 80 businesses are benefiting from growth, however modest, in the U.S. economy.
"It's about as good as you could expect," said Jeff Matthews, a Berkshire shareholder and author of "Secrets in Plain Sight: Business and Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett." "Berkshire's earnings are very similar to the economy - not shooting the lights out but still growing."
Buffett, who turns 83 later this month, has run Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965, and favors businesses with consistent earnings power.
In June, he spent $12.3 billion to buy part of H.J. Heinz Co, the maker of ketchup and Ore-Ida potato products. A month earlier, the world's fourth-richest person told shareholders at that in looking for companies to buy, "we're going to find most of our opportunities in the United States."
Quarterly net income for Berkshire rose to $4.54 billion, or $2,763 per Class A share, from $3.11 billion, or $1,882 per share, a year earlier.
Operating profit rose 5 percent to $3.92 billion, or $2,384 per Class A share, from $3.72 billion, or $2,252 per share.
Analysts on average expected operating profit of $2,170 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 16 percent from a year ago to $44.69 billion. Book value per Class A share, Buffett's preferred measure of growth, rose 2 percent from the end of March to $122,900.
BURLINGTON NORTHERN, GEICO
Profit rose 10 percent at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to $884 million as higher revenue from shipping consumer products, industrial products and coal offset lower revenue from agricultural products.
Rising prices and higher customer loads helped drive a 10 percent increase in profit from its MidAmerican Energy utilities and energy unit to $279 million.
Meanwhile, pretax underwriting gains more than doubled at the Geico car insurance unit to $336 million, as premiums earned grew by 11 percent while underwriting expenses fell.
Businesses benefiting from growing sales included the NetJets corporate plane unit, the Clayton Homes manufactured housing unit, and the Forest River recreational vehicle unit.
Other businesses fared less well. Underwriting gains in reinsurance operations, including General Re, declined in part from catastrophe losses tied to European floods.
Berkshire also said growing price competition and "relatively sluggish customer demand in certain markets" hurt earnings at its Iscar metalworking, Lubrizol specialty chemical and Fruit of the Loom underwear businesses.
HEINZ REDUCES BERKSHIRE CASH STAKE
The quarter also included $622 million of net gains from investments and derivatives, compared with a year-earlier $612 million net loss.
Accounting rules require Berkshire to report these sums with its earnings, and Buffett believes the amounts in any given quarter are often meaningless.
The company's cash stake shrank during the quarter to $35.7 billion from $49.1 billion, largely reflecting the purchase of Heinz by Berkshire and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital.
Another $5.6 billion in cash will go toward the purchase of Nevada utility NV Energy Inc
And this week, building supply unit MiTek Industries said it bought Benson Industries LLC, which designs curtain wall systems for buildings such as One World Trade Center and the United Nations Secretariat, for an undisclosed price.
Berkshire also owns tens of billions of dollars of common stocks such as Coca-Cola Co
In Friday trading, Berkshire Class A shares closed up $800 at $176,500. Its Class B shares rose 54 cents to $117.82.
(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler, Bernard Orr)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/berkshire-hathaway-second-quarter-profit-rises-46-percent-211724471.html
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Republicans hold key to progress in Washington
The American democratic system of government was never intended to function with the extreme levels of partisan loyalty and rancor that have characterized the Obama years ? the like of which has not been seen since the years immediately prior to the Civil War.
This largely explains why President Obama, who was solidly elected to the presidency twice, can?t get more of his agenda through Congress. After all, the Republicans have only controlled one house of Congress during three of his five years in office. Ronald Reagan managed to get a lot done, even though the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for his entire presidency.
But on every major issue, from increasing defense spending to cutting taxes, Reagan had allies in the Democratic Party.?Today, Mr. Obama cannot count on a single Republican vote on any vital matter before the House, and scant few in the Senate, outside of immigration.
Even Nixon, at the nadir of his presidency, had more support from the opposition for parts of his agenda than Obama has today.
Is the fault Obama?s? Has his cold professorial style alienated Republicans? Has he not moderated his agenda enough?
Moderated his agenda? Republican-style tax cuts made up a third of his 2009 stimulus. His health-care plan was largely the Republican alternative to Hillarycare. His (and the Fed's) response to the global securities collapse has sent the stock market skyrocketing, and sent no Wall Streeters to jail ? though at least one may be on his way. His immigration plan is very near to George W. Bush?s. His gun control plan in response to the horrific Newtown massacre was to the right of Reagan?s Brady Bill.
Sure, if a more experienced Washington insider had become president in 2009 ?? a Joe Biden or a Hillary Rodham Clinton ? it?s possible a few more Republican votes would have been gettable, but not enough to change the outcome on any of Obama?s key agenda items.
And of course, Obama has misplayed his hand badly on occasion. His rhetoric at the last fiscal cliff, that allowing sequestration to take place would be a disaster for the country, hasn?t turned out to be true. The Republicans who proclaimed there was more than enough fat in every agency to withstand the first round of cuts without widespread suffering, have been vindicated. Specific vulnerable populations have been hurt by sequestration, but it is far from the disaster Obama foretold.
But these are minor parts of the story. Most of the responsibility ? and possibility for progress ? lies with Republicans, especially in the House. (Several key Senate Republicans have forged a compromise on immigration.)
GOP members have seen that simply hugging Obama once can virtually end a Republican career (see the former governor of Florida, Charlie Crist). A single vote with Obama has done the same for several Republicans in Congress.
The tea party movement, which represents not a third party but the most conservative, populist elements within the base of the GOP, has defeated almost no Democrats. But its interventions in Republican primaries have sent home many Republican incumbents.
There were early signs of extremists holding lawmaking ? and even GOP agendas ? hostage in Congress. In the mid-1990s, GOP House speakers began following The Hastert Rule, named after Speaker Dennis Hastert. It commands that the leadership of the GOP in the House allow no bill to come up for a vote that doesn?t have majority support in the Republican caucus. And it can be read as an early harbinger of the grassroots extremism ruling Republican politics.
Imagine the Reagan presidency if Democrats had adopted a similar rule. None of Reagan?s agenda items could have passed that test. Reagan would be remembered as a failed president.
That?s the real challenge that Obama is facing, one unlike what any other American president has ever faced. It?s a parliamentary level of almost uniform opposition, in a presidential system that cannot function without cooperation from the opposing party.
The tea party claims, above all else, to revere America?s Founding Founders. But the Founders were pragmatists who deeply opposed partisan politics. The Constitution they wrote makes no mention of, and no institutional allowance for, political parties.
The system they set up will not work if one party moves in lock step, following a rigid ideology. If the radical left had taken over the Democrats during the Eisenhower or Reagan presidencies, the results would be the same as we are seeing today.
One of two things will occur before mid-term elections in 2016. Republican conservatives who believe in the traditional American way of doing politics could start outvoting the tea party movement in Republican primaries. If that happens, the normal rhythm of compromise and contestation returns. Or, American politics is in for even more gridlock and fiscal cliffs. And Obama will be relegated to executive orders and speaking from the bully pulpit. (Note his current speech tour around the country.)
In the short term, it looks like America is in for the latter scenario ? more gridlock. When Republicans and Obama sit down to negotiate the next budget as well as the debt ceiling, there is little reason to expect anything different from what has been seen lately.
But a hopeful sign of change could come soon in Wyoming. Hardline Republican Liz Cheney, the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has announced that she is running for Senate against three-term incumbent Mike Enzi ? a fellow Republican. If Ms. Cheney, whose tea-party tinged stances promise even more confrontation and gridlock, can be beaten by solidly conservative incumbent Enzi in the August 2014 primary, it could be an indication that the battle for the soul of the GOP is finally shifting against the more radical elements. Other incumbent Republicans would then stop fearing tea party challenges so much.
The emerging battle between ultra conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma and the GOP radicals in the Senate over Obamacare is another key data point to watch. If Republicans shut down the government this fall in a pointless attempt to get Obama to defund his health-care plan, the blame for the ensuing catastrophe would almost certainly land squarely on the Republicans, as it did in 1995. The tea party would finally have gone too far, and it might well cause a backlash within the GOP primaries against its kamikaze style of politics.
Then the traditional American style of Republican politics as practiced by Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Reagan could return. And Congress could get back to the business of governing, rather than obstructing.
Jeremy D. Mayer is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at?George Mason University?where he also directs the masters program in public policy.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-hold-key-progress-washington-173011509.html
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