News http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en ~ Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:02:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Spirited Traveller:Comfort cocktails in Las Vegas http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/spirited-travellercomfort-cocktails-in-las-vegas-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/spirited-travellercomfort-cocktails-in-las-vegas-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:48 +0000 admin However, that doesn’t necessarily extend to the drinks – at the bar, the objective is to make guests feel comfortable, even as they push limits at the poker table.There is no ‘iconic’ drink in Las Vegas, says resident mixologist Patricia Richards. The world visits Las Vegas, so people like things that are familiar, or somewhat familiar, and cocktails that are not too ‘geeked out.’In other words, classics like the Mojito, Margarita and Cosmopolitan are top Vegas tipples. Richards adds that if she had asked her the same question three years ago, she would have selected Grey Goose with Red Bull as the cocktail of choice.Along the glittery Vegas strip, most of the action takes place within the enormous hotel complexes which encompass casinos, entertainment venues, and more bars, restaurants and cocktail lounges than anyone could tackle in a single visit.For business travelers, Richards recommends the Parasol Up and Parasol Down bars (both at the Wynn, www.wynnlasvegas.com).Food – Wine Magazine also selected Parasol Down as one of its 50 Best Bars in America, due in large part to Richards’ drink list. The two-tiered bar features large inverted parasols and nightly shows projected on to the Lake of Dreams waterfall.Elsewhere, Richards notes The Chandelier (http://bit.ly/f4NK43bit.ly/f4NK43)at the Cosmopolitan as a bar that will impress, thanks to thousands of crystals artfully hung around the drinks area to glamorous effect, as well as chilled ice bars like Minus 5 (http://bit.ly/eRQmgKbit.ly/eRQmgK)at the Mandalay Bay. Take refuge from the cheery chorus line of slot machines on the Strip, and join the local crowd in a quieter, darker atmosphere at the Downtown Cocktail Room (http://thedowntownlv.com/thedowntownlv.com/)1
~Red Social de los Hispanos http://cielo.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/spirited-travellercomfort-cocktails-in-las-vegas-210202201221/feed 0 Management Tip of the Day: Compete to be unique http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/management-tip-of-the-day-compete-to-be-unique-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/management-tip-of-the-day-compete-to-be-unique-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:52 +0000 admin The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org (http:\\\\www.hbr.org). Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.Most companies want to be the best at what they do. But in the vast majority of business, there is no such thing as the best. Trying to imitate rivals will get you nowhere: It’s impossible to do exactly what your competitors are doing and end up with superior results. Customers choose different products and services for different reasons, and it’s unlikely you’ll win them all. Instead, focus on creating superior value for the customers that choose your company. Doing this profitably means accepting limits and making tradeoffs-you can’t meet every need of every customer. Don’t set out to win a war. Instead find your audience and capture their attention and loyalty.- Today’s management tip was adapted from Stop Competing to Be the Best by Joan Magretta.
~Taliban Official News Website- htt://taliban.us

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/management-tip-of-the-day-compete-to-be-unique-210202201221/feed 0 Mexico’s Genomma Lab bids for Prestige Brands http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/mexicos-genomma-lab-bids-for-prestige-brands-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/mexicos-genomma-lab-bids-for-prestige-brands-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:57 +0000 admin * Deal valued at $834 mln, excluding Prestige debt* Genomma due to report 4th-qtr results on FridayMEXICO CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Mexican pharmaceutical
products company Genomma said on Tuesday it is offering to buy
Prestige Brands, which makes healthcare and household cleaning
products.Genomma Lab said it is offering $16. 0 cash per
share for Prestige Brands Holdings Inc, a premium of 23
percent over Prestige’s closing share price on Feb. 17.The deal is worth $834 million, excluding Prestige debt,
Genomma said.Trading in Genomma shares has been suspended in Mexico since
early Monday, pending news.The Mexican company, which is due to report fourth-quarter
results on Friday, earned 795 million pesos ($62. 2 million) in
the first three quarters of 2011.Genomma had 1. 76 billion Mexican pesos ($140. 2 million) in
cash on hand at the end of the third quarter.Shares of Prestige, which sells brands including Comet
cleaning products and Clear Eyes contact lens solution, closed
at $13. 0 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
~Kim Kardashian news - http://Kim.GotJuicy.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/mexicos-genomma-lab-bids-for-prestige-brands-210202201221/feed 0 Designers save a few fashion surprises for Oscars http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/designers-save-a-few-fashion-surprises-for-oscars-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/designers-save-a-few-fashion-surprises-for-oscars-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:02:22 +0000 admin The long parade of women in glamorous gowns and expensive jewelry that starts in January at the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards finally ends with the Oscars. The best looks, experts say, have been saved for last.Colorful gowns that show some skin and classical looks from Hollywood’s Golden Age will again be de rigueur, with perhaps a white dress or two. Recent fashion shows in New York and Paris will bring out fresh looks, and while eyes will be on Angelina Joliet, as always, new fashions are in town with names like Rooney Mara and Viola Davis.The Oscars are the biggest fashion show on the planet, designer Marc Bower told Reuters.His is no understatement. Unlike catwalks in New York and Paris, Oscar’s red carpet walk-up to the world’s top movie honors is televised live and seen by tens of millions of people around the world. Photographs and videos of the celebrities appear in newspapers, magazines, the Web and are sent on mobile phones to fans and friends. One slip up, and it’s curtains for the stars.If you’re wearing bright colors, you’ll pop more and that’s important in a photograph, said designer David Meister. This is the night where the cosmetic and jewelry companies are looking for their next women, their next big contracts. You want to look beautiful, pretty and sexy.While some gowns this year on Hollywood red carpets have featured long, luxurious sleeves, actresses need to exhibit sex appeal, too, and show a touch of skin, a bare back or plunging neckline, he said.Bower sees more white, ivory and silver. At last month’s Golden Globes, Angelina Joliet showed up in a white satin Versa dress with a slash of red for color, and it made a splash with fashions everywhere.It sort of shocked everybody into realizing that white can look so well on the red carpet if it’s done right, said Bower.FRESH OFF THE RUNWAY0Old Hollywood glamour has been showcased this season, but In Style Magazine’s Hal Rubenstein said designs at Paris’ couture shows in January and New York’s recent Fashion Week could creep onto the carpet because they have not yet shown up elsewhere. And the right dress can certainly make all the difference. A dress can make the celebrity, but the celebrity cannot make the dress, said fashion designer Allen B. Schwartz. An ugly dress will be ugly on anyone. A gorgeous dress will make that actress look that much more exciting. The normally stylish Gwynne Paltry learned her lesson in 2002 in a embarrassingly sheer black Alexander McQueen gown. On the other side, risk taker Cate Blanchett will always be remembered for her 1999 Oscar Jean Paul Gaultier sheath dress whose back was embroidered with flowers and a hummingbird. While Angelina Jolie has been flawless on the carpet all season, Rooney Mara has been turning heads, too, with an often dark look that seems fitting for her Oscar-nominated role as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Bower is a fan of Mara, calling her major fashion player this season. But Mara is not the only one who’s been a standout this season. Rubenstein says the The Help stars Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer – nominated in the best actress and best supporting actress categories, respectively – have emerged as unexpected fashion plates.You don’t normally think of Viola and Octavia as fashion girls, Rubenstein said. But Viola has both an extraordinary fashion presence on and off the screen. She radiates womanliness and power. And Octavia proved beauty is not about being a size 2, it’s about looking your best and she’s been looking her best for every single red carpet occasion.
~Red Social de los Hispanos http://cielo.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/designers-save-a-few-fashion-surprises-for-oscars-210202201221/feed 0 Google gets real-time data from LSE http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/google-gets-real-time-data-from-lse-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/google-gets-real-time-data-from-lse-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:03 +0000 admin The move, aimed at retail investors, demonstrates the growing power of the internet to deliver data available to subscribers of specialist services such as those provided by Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg LP.The deal only covers the last price traded. LSE will not provide data such as bid-offer spreads on which professional traders depend.Google already provides real-time share data from the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq, and exchanges in China and India. Google Finance, which competes with a similar offering from smaller rival Yahoo, is funded by advertising.Other share prices are provided with a 15 minute delay.The addition of real-time quotes from the London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana will enable our users to better monitor market changes, manage their portfolios and track economic and financial developments in Europe, Maxim Edelman of Google Strategic Partnerships said in a statement on Tuesday.Edelman had already announced the new real-time quote services from the London Stock Exchange, Germany’s Deutsche Boerse and Italy’s Borsa Italiana on the Google Finance blog (http://googlefinanceblog.blogspot.comgooglefinanceblog.blogspot.com).The LSE’s data business is its fastest-growing unit. Its revenues rose 24 percent to 52. million pounds ($83. million) last quarter, accounting for 27 percent of group revenue. ($1 = 0. 301 British pounds)
~Taliban Official News Website- htt://taliban.us

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/google-gets-real-time-data-from-lse-210202201221/feed 0 Yemen vote ensures Saleh’s exit after 33 years http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/yemen-vote-ensures-salehs-exit-after-33-years-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/yemen-vote-ensures-salehs-exit-after-33-years-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:02:45 +0000 admin Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the sole, consensus candidate, billed the vote as a way to move on after months of protests against Saleh’s rule, but the president’s sons and nephews still command key army units and security agencies.Elections are the only exit route from the crisis which has buffeted Yemen for the past year, Hadi, Saleh’s long-time right-hand and former army general, said after casting his vote.Five people were killed in violence in Yemen’s south on Tuesday, where a secessionist movement is active, a reminder of the challenges Hadi will face in taming a nation where half of the population of 23 million owns a gun.The vote will make Saleh, now in the United States for more treatment of burns suffered in an assassination attempt last June, the fourth Arab autocrat in a year to be removed from power after revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.At stake is an economy left in shambles, where 42 percent live on less than $2 per day and runaway inflation is driving up food and fuel prices.Long queues formed early in the morning outside polling stations in the capital Sanaa amid tight security, after an explosion ripped through a voting centre in the southern port city of Aden on the eve of the vote.We are now declaring the end of the Ali Abdullah Saleh era and will build a new Yemen, Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman said as she waited to cast her ballot outside a university faculty in the capital Sanaa.HIGH TURNOUT CRUCIALVoters dipped their thumbs in ink and stamped their print on a ballot paper bearing a picture of Hadi and a map of Yemen in the colors of the rainbow. A high turnout was crucial to give Hadi the legitimacy he needs to carry out changes outlined in a U.S.-backed power transfer deal brokered by Yemen’s Gulf neighbors, including the drafting of a new constitution, restructuring of armed forces and multi-party elections. An official from the election security committee estimated a turnout of 80 percent, although final results will not be known for several days. The vote was backed by the United States and Yemen’s rich neighbors led by Saudi Arabia, who — alarmed at signs of al Qaeda exploiting the disorder wracking the country to strengthen its regional foothold — sponsored the power transfer deal. A pickup truck mounted with anti-aircraft guns and full of soldiers stood by another Sanaa University department as hundreds of men lined up to vote. The poll was denounced in advance by youth activists who took to the streets to demand Saleh’s removal. They regard the transfer plan as a pact among an elite they see as partners to the crimes of Saleh’s tenure, including the killings of protesters in the uprising against him. Today draws a line between the past and the future, between a family regime and a new Yemen, said Rukaya al-Fawadaya, a 25-year-old media student.The interim government faces a fiscal and humanitarian crisis, and has sought billions of dollars in international aid after unrest has all but paralyzed modest oil exports that fund imports of food staples. The United States has said it will support more aid if Yemen can move beyond Saleh’s rule.The United Nations Children’s Fund says 57 percent of Yemen’s 12 million children are chronically malnourished — the highest level outside Afghanistan — and that half a million face death or disfigurement from poor nutrition.Progress on the political front is not being matched by international donors. They need to step up to the mark and start supporting Yemen if they want to see it survive the transition. The government is still financially crippled, U.N. envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar said.The new government must act swiftly. Expectations are high and if people do not see some improvement in their daily lives then further unrest is a serious possibility.TROUBLE IN NORTH, SOUTHThe election leaves unresolved a military standoff between Saleh’s relatives, a mutinous general and gunmen loyal to tribal notables. There is an armed revolt in the north of the country and a secessionist movement in the south where Islamists accused of links to al Qaeda have also made advances.It was not clear who was behind Monday’s violence. But separatists are demanding a divorce from the north with which they fought a civil war in 1994 after political union in 1990.Southerners, who accuse the north of usurping their resources and discriminating against them, said they would boycott the election because it confers legitimacy on a political process that excluded them.The streets of the port city of Aden were nearly deserted and intermittent gunfire could be heard. Armed men attacked polling stations in the districts of Mansoura and Khor Maksar in the Aden vicinity at dawn, residents said.The northern Houthi rebels, named after the clan of their Shi’ite tribal leaders, called for a total boycott. These are not real elections it is just formalizing the American-backed GCC initiative which aimed to control the Yemeni revolution, said Dayfallah al-Shami, member of the Houthis’ leadership council. It is just a reproduction of the same regime. The Houthis have effectively carved out their own state-within-a state thanks to a weakened central government and are locked in a fight against Salafis — Sunni Muslims whose puritanical creed mirrors doctrines widespread in Saudi Arabia. That has fueled long-standing concerns on the Arabian peninsula that Shi’ite power Iran is meddling to exploit instability. The biggest fear is that Yemen’s north becomes the stage for a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States. Washington is leading international efforts to isolate Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program which many countries believe is aimed at building nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Washington, which long backed Saleh as a foe of the al Qaeda branch that plotted abortive attacks abroad from Yemen, now backs transition to ensure it has a partner in its war against the militants, which includes targeted drone strikes.Its envoy in Sanaa, Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, said on Monday that Shi’ite Muslim Iran was fomenting unrest in the northern provinces.Feierstein also called for reuniting a military in which Saleh’s son Ahmed Ali and nephew Yehia lead key units that have enjoyed U.S. support. They are locked in a stand-off with tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar and dissident General Ali Mohsen, whose battles with Saleh’s loyalists have left parts of Sanaa in ruin.
~Romania News - stiri din Romania -http://adevarul.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/yemen-vote-ensures-salehs-exit-after-33-years-210202201221/feed 0 KKR, TPG among firms eyeing Nasdaq-listed AsiaInfo-sources http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kkr-tpg-among-firms-eyeing-nasdaq-listed-asiainfo-sources-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kkr-tpg-among-firms-eyeing-nasdaq-listed-asiainfo-sources-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:11 +0000 admin * Trade buyers expected to launch rival bids-sourcesBy http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us-n=stephen.aldred-Stephen Aldred and http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us-n=nadia.damouni-Nadia DamouniHONG KONG/NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Global private
equity firms, including KKR – Co LP and TPG Capital
, and strategic rivals, are lining up potential bids for
U.S.-listed AsiaInfo-Linkage Inc, sources with direct
knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a deal expected to be
worth more than $1 billion.Shares of the China software and IT company rose nearly 7
percent in premarket trading on Tuesday, at around $12. 0.AsiaInfo received an offer from CITIC Capital in January,
financial details of which were not disclosed, and it has since
appointed Goldman Sachs as a special adviser.At the time of the offer, AsiaInfo, whose clients include
telecom groups China Mobile, China Unicom
and China Telecom, had a market capitalization of $714
million — a value that has since risen to more than $800
million.Shares of several U.S.-listed China companies have been
battered by a series of accounting scandals that have tainted
the entire sector, and private equity funds have been hunting
for potential targets..AsiaInfo was not subject to any accounting scandals, yet its
shares are still down about 44 percent over the past 12 months.CITIC has appointed Morgan Stanley as a buyside
adviser, the sources said.The sources said private equity funds were looking to
structure a joint bid with CITIC or potentially bid solo. Meanwhile, separate sources said bids may emerge from
strategic rivals such as Amdocs, Oracle, IBM
and Ericsson, who may be interested in the
company’s billings software. But while AsiaInfo Linkage is not a state-owned asset, its
core clients include state-owned companies, and many expect any
final solution on the privatization to favor a China company. Most bidders expect CITIC to have some part in a final
deal, since this is an important asset for China, said one
banker. No bidding deadline has been set, said the sources, who
declined to be named as they were not authorized to talk to the
media. AsiaInfo-Linkage, KKR, Morgan Stanley and TPG all declined
to comment. Sources were not authorized to speak with the media. 67
~Taliban Official News Website- htt://taliban.us

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kkr-tpg-among-firms-eyeing-nasdaq-listed-asiainfo-sources-210202201221/feed 0 Cuts can’t stop carnival in Portugal http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/cuts-cant-stop-carnival-in-portugal-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/cuts-cant-stop-carnival-in-portugal-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:02:21 +0000 admin The government tried, in the name of austerity imposed by international lenders, to force the end of Tuesday’s public holiday but the country effectively shut down all the same as the Portuguese refused to go without their pre-Lent FestiVals.In Lisbon, streets were quiet and many shops and offices were empty, apart from government ones.Carnival parades went ahead as normal in many parts of the country, some of them adorned with puppets of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank – the troika of lenders to Portugal’s 78-billion-euro bailout.Going without the carnival holiday is not going to save the country, said Filipe Garcia, head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros consultants. It is on symbolic points that credibility is lost, the government should be more worried about social cohesion than symbolic measures.It is a timely reminder that despite the so-far tame level of social protest and strikes against Portugal’s hardship under the bailout, there are limits to how much austerity the country will stomach during the deepest recession in decades.As Portugal is the euro zone’s second most risky country after Greece, European officials are well aware that any descent by the country into deeper social protest could undermine Europe’s argument that Athens’ situation is unique.A clear warning sign emerged last week when data showed unemployment reached a record 14 percent in the fourth quarter of last year – already above the government’s estimate of 13. percent for 2012, when the recession is expected to worsen.If you include inactive people, unemployment is already above 1 million people, signifying an unpredictable short-term future, said Renato Carmo, sociology professor at the University Institute of Lisbon.The government is clearly worried … there could be a situation of discontent that culminates in more vehement generalized protests. Those concerns have become more relevant as some economists now fear Portugal will need more funds or be forced to restructure its debts like Athens, which has seen bouts of rioting ahead of finally securing its 130-billion-euro bailout. The government has ruled out any such possibility, promising to meet tough fiscal goals with sweeping spending cuts and tax hikes, and to carry out painful reforms to boost competitiveness. MOAN LESS3Portugal’s reform drive includes changes to everything from labor markets to rental laws and cuts to national holidays such as carnival – a religious tradition stretching back 400 years, celebrated with parades and big parties ahead of Lent. Government ministers, perhaps mindful of the presence of troika officials in Lisbon to carry out their latest review of the economy, repeatedly promised that they would be at their desks on Tuesday. Missteps by the government, including a suggestion by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho that people should moan less and persist in helping the country overcome its crisis, may have compounded a souring mood in the Portuguese.Cancelling holidays is not going to help us in any way, people are just going to be more disappointed and demotivated about their lives, said Rosa Gomes, a 25-year-old shop assistant, who decided to go to work.That frustration appears to be hardening the appetite for protest.The country’s largest union, the CGTP, has called a general strike for March 22 after just two such strikes since 2010. The CGTP also gathered an unusually large group of about 100,000 people at a protest this month.Still, analysts say the fact that the Portuguese have little tradition of violent protest gives the government leeway.There are no Greek anarchists here, which gives the government time, said Viriato Soromenho Marques, a political analyst at the University of Lisbon.Carlos Fernandes, a 39-year-old civil servant, said anybody who went to work on Tuesday did so unwillingly.This is going to be a long year for us and protests are likely to escalate though I still think we are fundamentally different from the Greeks and will never reach their level of chaos, he said.
~Europa News - News Europa- http://www.ieuropa.net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/cuts-cant-stop-carnival-in-portugal-210202201221/feed 0 Blur to play London’s Hyde Park at Olympics closing http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/blur-to-play-londons-hyde-park-at-olympics-closing-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/blur-to-play-londons-hyde-park-at-olympics-closing-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:15 +0000 admin Highlights of the end of the Olympics will be beamed to tens of thousands of ticket holders in Hyde Park on August 12 via giant screens.Joining Blur will be The Specials and New Order in a line-up being billed as Best of British.Tickets for the closing ceremony celebration concert go on sale on February 24 and cost 55 pounds ($87) plus a booking fee.Another music concert will be held at the same venue on July 27 to mark the opening of the Olympic Games.
~Europa News - News Europa- http://www.ieuropa.net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/blur-to-play-londons-hyde-park-at-olympics-closing-210202201221/feed 0 Afghans protest over reported Koran desecration at U.S. base http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-at-u-s-base-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-at-u-s-base-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:18 +0000 admin U.S. helicopters fired flares to try to break up as many as 2,000 demonstrators who massed outside several gates to the base, chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones.Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor’s spokeswoman, said copies of the Muslim holy book had been burnt inside Bagram airbase, an hour’s drive north of the capital Kabul, citing accounts from local laborers.The laborers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Korans, Khalid said.NATO’s top general in Afghanistan attempted to contain fury over the incident, which could be a public relations disaster for the U.S. military as it tries to pacify the country ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014.When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities, said General John Allen, head of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in a written statement, as well as in a video released on a U.S. military website.This was NOT intentional in any way.Allen did not provide details on the incident.Reuters reporters at the scene said there were about 2,000 protesters.We Afghans don’t want these Christians and infidels, they are the enemy of our soil, our honor and our Koran, said Haji Shirin, one of the protesters. I urge all Muslims to sacrifice themselves in order to pull out these troops from this soil. The Afghan Taliban also strongly condemned the incident. Since the invasion of Afghanistan by the animal Americans, this is almost the 10th time that they have degraded the holiest values of Muslims, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in an emailed statement. Bagram also houses a prison for Afghans detained by American forces. The center has caused resentment among Afghans because of reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspected Taliban prisoners, with President Hamid Karzai demanding the transfer of prisoners to Afghan security. Winning the hearts and minds of Afghans is critical to U.S. efforts to defeating the Taliban, but critics say Western forces often fail to grasp Afghanistan’s religious and cultural sensitivities. Allen also offered an apology to the government and people of the country.I offer my sincere apologies for any offence this may have caused, to the president of Afghanistan, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan, said Allen.But the apology did little to ease anger. The Koran is the holy book of Islam any hint that Western forces are showing it disrespect could deepen resentment over their presence in Afghanistan.We want them out of our country now, said Zmari, 30, a protester who has a shop near to the base.Protests raged for three days across Afghanistan in April last year after a U.S. pastor burned a Koran in Florida.Eleven people were killed when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, including seven foreign U.N. workers. Another riot in the southern city of Kandahar left nine dead and more than 80 wounded.
~Romania News - stiri din Romania -http://adevarul.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-at-u-s-base-210202201221/feed 0 Canada’s Fortis to buy CH Energy for $1 bln http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/canadas-fortis-to-buy-ch-energy-for-1-bln-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/canadas-fortis-to-buy-ch-energy-for-1-bln-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:46 +0000 admin Fortis, which will also assume $500 million debt, will pay CH Energy shareholders $65 a share, representing a premium of 11 percent over Friday’s close.Last November, Fortis had said it was looking to expand in the United States and could have as many U.S. assets as Canadian within 10 years.Fortis, which is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said the deal will immediately add to its earnings, excluding one-time transaction costs.CH Energy Group’s regulated utility operations in New York State are similar to our regulated utility operations in Canada, Fortis’ Chief Executive Stan Marshall said in a statement.Poughkeepsie, New York-based CH Energy’s main business, Central Hudson Gas – Electric Corp, is a regulated transmission and distribution utility serving about 300,000 electric and 75,000 natural gas customers in eight counties of New York State’s Mid-Hudson River Valley.Fortis, the largest investor-owned distribution utility in Canada, serves more than 2,000,000 gas and electricity customers. It owns and operates non-regulated generation assets across Canada and in Belize and Upstate New York. Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Sriraj Kalluvila)
~Justin Bieber fun club - http://Bieber.Pizda.Net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/canadas-fortis-to-buy-ch-energy-for-1-bln-210202201221/feed 0 SBA Communications to buy tower sites for $1.1 bln http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/sba-communications-to-buy-tower-sites-for-1-1-bln-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/sba-communications-to-buy-tower-sites-for-1-1-bln-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:02:53 +0000 admin * To buy tower sites, antenna assets from Mobilitie
affiliates* Deal to add to free cash flow immediately* Deal to close in 2nd qtrFeb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Wireless tower operator SBA
Communications Corp agreed to buy more than 2,300 tower
sites and some antenna assets from affiliates of Mobilitie LLC
for about $1. billion, as it looks to benefit from an explosion
in data traffic.The company and its larger rivals American Tower Corp
and Crown Castle International Corp are
scrambling to beef up their tower and antenna assets to meet the
blazing demand for data from devices such as tablets and
smartphones.In December, SBA’s larger rival Crown Castle International
Corp said it would buy NextG Networks Inc to expand its
presence in the small-antenna-systems market.SBA said it would pay $850 million in cash and about 5.
million in Class A shares for the tower sites in the United
States and Central America, and some small antenna system assets
in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Alabama.We are particularly excited about the prospects for these
towers to serve the future cell-splitting needs of US wireless
carriers, which needs we anticipate will flow from the continued
growth in consumer demand for wireless data services, Chief
Executive Jeffrey Stoops said in a statement.Wireles carriers use cell-splitting, which divides the
coverage of a cell site into several new cell sites, to free up
more capacity in the region.The cash amount of the deal will be paid with cash on hand
and existing credit facilities, and a $500 million financing
from Barclays Bank PLC and J.P. Morgan. The transaction, which is expected to close in the second
quarter, will be immediately accretive to free cash flow. Barclays Capital and J.P. Morgan advised SBA, while Moelis -
Company LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch served as financial advisers
for Mobilitie.
~Lady Gaga Latest news at http://Gaga.GotJuicy.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/sba-communications-to-buy-tower-sites-for-1-1-bln-210202201221/feed 0 Croda says looking to buy, not sell itself http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/croda-says-looking-to-buy-not-sell-itself-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/croda-says-looking-to-buy-not-sell-itself-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:53 +0000 admin * FY pretax profit 242. mln stg vs 192. mln stg yr ago* Revenue up 6. pct to 1. 6 bln stg* Final dividend up 20 pct to 30. 5p* Shares rise as much as 7 pctBy Juhi AroraFeb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – British chemicals firm Croda
International Plc said it was not looking to sell
itself and would rather be a buyer in the wake of consolidation
in the sector.The chemical industry has seen consolidation of Croda’s
peers such as Cognis and Belgian chemicals firm
Taminco over the last few years.Croda has often been mentioned as a takeover target for
bigger peers such as Dow Chemicals.We haven’t received any takeover offers, (and) we don’t
want to be taken over, Group Finance Director Sean Christie
told Reuters.Christie said he would look to buy smaller companies with a
turnover of 10-50 million pounds, whose technology he can market
through Croda’s sales force. We would look to make these acquisitions across our
divisions … we’re more interested in clever technology rather
than gigantic chemical companies, Christie said. Earlier on Tuesday, the company posted January-December
pretax profit of 242. million pounds ($384. 8 million) beating
analyst estimates of 236. million pounds, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S. The FTSE 250 company, which supplies chemicals used in
cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, also raised its final dividend by
20 percent to 30. 5 pence, taking its total dividend to 55 pence
per share. Trading in January was encouraging and this positive trend
has continued, the company said in a statement, adding that
exposure to the growing economies of Asia and Latin America gave
it confidence in its future prospects. Analyst James Tetley of N+1 Brewin said he expected this
trading trend to leave further scope for outperformance in 2012. The company, whose key customers include Estee Lauder
, L’Oreal and Syngenta, said 2011
revenue rose nearly 7 percent to 1. 6 billion pounds.Tetley said the company now looked poised to join the FTSE
100 as a pure organic growth story as trends in aging,
vanity and healthcare become long-term demand drivers.Croda shares were trading up 4 percent at 2112. 6 pence at
1211 GMT on Tuesday, making them the second biggest gainers on
the FTSE 250. They rose nearly 7 percent earlier in the day.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/croda-says-looking-to-buy-not-sell-itself-210202201221/feed 0 Afghans protest over reported Koran desecration http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:00 +0000 admin U.S. helicopters fired flares to try to break up as many as 2,000 demonstrators who massed outside several gates to the base, chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones.Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor’s spokeswoman, said copies of the Muslim holy book had been burnt inside Bagram airbase, an hour’s drive north of the capital Kabul, citing accounts from local laborers.The laborers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Korans, Khalid said.NATO’s top general in Afghanistan attempted to contain fury over the incident, which could be a public relations disaster for the U.S. military as it tries to pacify the country ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014.When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities, said General John Allen, head of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in a written statement, as well as in a video released on a U.S. military website.This was NOT intentional in any way.Reuters reporters at the scene said there were about 2,000 protesters.We Afghans don’t want these Christians and infidels, they are the enemy of our soil, our honor and our Koran, said Haji Shirin, one of the protesters.I urge all Muslims to sacrifice themselves in order to pull out these troops from this soil. Bagram also houses a prison for Afghans detained by American forces. The centre has caused resentment among Afghans because of reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspected Taliban prisoners, with President Hamid Karzai demanding the transfer of prisoners to Afghan security. Allen did not provide details on the incident. Winning the hearts and minds of Afghans is critical to U.S. efforts to defeating the Taliban, but critics say Western forces often fail to grasp Afghanistan’s religious and cultural sensitivities. I offer my sincere apologies for any offence this may have caused, to the president of Afghanistan, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan, said Allen. The apology did little to ease anger. The Koran is the holy book of Islam any hint that Western forces are showing it disrespect could deepen resentment over their presence in Afghanistan. We want them out of our country now, said Zmari, 30, a protester who has a shop near to the base.Protests raged for three days across Afghanistan in April last year after a U.S. pastor burned a Koran in Florida.Eleven people were killed when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, including seven foreign U.N. workers. Another riot in the southern city of Kandahar left nine dead and more than 80 wounded.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghans-protest-over-reported-koran-desecration-210202201221/feed 0 In shift, Obama campaign targets Santorum on economy http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/in-shift-obama-campaign-targets-santorum-on-economy-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/in-shift-obama-campaign-targets-santorum-on-economy-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:54 +0000 admin In a sign of the growing seriousness with which the president’s team takes the former Pennsylvania lawmaker, Obama’s campaign gave equal billing to Santorum in a memo criticizing the two Republican candidates’ tax and deficit reduction plans.Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Rick Santorum claim they will champion spending cuts deep enough to cut taxes and balance the budget, Obama campaign policy director James Kvaal wrote in the note, which was distributed to reporters.In fact, they have both proposed irresponsible and reckless tax plans that would drive up the deficit by trillions of dollars, while their claims to balance the budget through spending cuts are completely unrealistic.Santorum has surged ahead of Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, in some national polls. He beat the struggling frontrunner in a string of recent nominating contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.Though Obama’s campaign has kept its fire directed primarily on Romney, it has started to watch Santorum closely.The campaign’s Pennsylvania state director said last week in an email blast that Santorum’s extreme-right social views are as out of touch as they are memorable, and asked locals to collect stories that revealed his true colors.Santorum has drawn contrasts between himself and Obama on social issues, criticized the president’s administration on Monday of implementing healthcare policies that discourage marriage and hurt families.Adding Santorum to a critique of Romney’s economic policies offered a new way for Obama’s campaign to attack the surging conservative.BUDGET CRITIQUE0Romney and Santorum have some similar proposals. Romney would extend Bush-era income tax cuts for wealthy earners while eliminating education and child-care tax breaks that benefit lower-income taxpayers. His plan would cut annual tax revenue by $180 billion, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Romney repeatedly promises to balance the budget, but his platform not only fails to reach that goal – it would actually increase the deficit and drive up the debt, Kvaal wrote. The cost of his tax cuts and defense increases will total approximately $375 billion in Fiscal Year 2016, the year Romney chose as the benchmark for his budget plans, Kvaal said. Santorum’s tax plan, meanwhile, would dramatically cut tax revenues. His plan calls for collapsing the current six income tax brackets down to two at 28 percent and 10 percent. The plan would keep in place tax breaks for mortgages and healthcare and would boost tax breaks for parents. With its even larger tax cuts, the Santorum plan would drive up the deficit even higher. Santorum has proposed $900 billion in tax cuts in 2015, Kvaal said.Both tax plans have been criticized by conservatives, too.Conservatives attack Romney’s plan for maintaining a tax on investment income for households making more than $200,000 a year, while Santorum has been accused of playing favorites through the tax code by offering benefits to manufacturing businesses and families with children.
~Red Social de los Hispanos http://cielo.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/in-shift-obama-campaign-targets-santorum-on-economy-210202201221/feed 0 UPDATE 3-Kraft sees growth despite pruning products http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/update-3-kraft-sees-growth-despite-pruning-products-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/update-3-kraft-sees-growth-despite-pruning-products-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:25 +0000 admin * Revenue up 6. pct to $14. bln* Sees ‘12 revenue up about 5 pct; earnings up at least 9
pct* Shares up 1. pctBy http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us-n=martinne.geller-Martinne GellerFeb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Kraft Foods Inc forecast
earnings growth of at least 9 percent this year even as it
prunes its portfolio of North American brands.Kraft, North America’s largest packaged food maker, will
separate into two companies later this year. One will focus on
snacks like Cadbury chocolate and Oreo cookies, and the other
will focus on North American grocery brands including Maxwell
House coffee and Oscar Mayer lunch meat.Kraft forecast 2012 net revenue growth of about 5 percent,
including a hit of up to one percentage point from product
pruning in North America.The company said it expected operating earnings to rise at
least 9 percent on a constant-currency basis, reflecting a
higher tax rate and a 4 percentage point hit from higher pension
costs.Shares of Kraft were up 1. percent at $38. 4 in trading
before the market opened.Kraft also said it would incur one-time costs of $1.
billion to $1. billion as it prepares its split. It also might
incur fees of between $400 million and $800 million as it
migrates debt to the North American grocery company. The company also reported quarterly earnings that met Wall
Street estimates. It said net income was $830 million, or 47 cents per share,
in the fourth quarter, up from $540 million, or 31 cents per
share, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 57 cents per share, in line
with the analysts’ average estimate, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 6. percent to $14. billion. Organic net
revenue, which excludes the effects of acquisitions,
divestitures, currency and calendar changes, rose 6. percent. Organic revenue rose 7 percent in North America, 3. percent
in Europe and 7. percent in developing markets.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/update-3-kraft-sees-growth-despite-pruning-products-210202201221/feed 0 Medco quarterly profit jumps, helped by generics http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/medco-quarterly-profit-jumps-helped-by-generics-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/medco-quarterly-profit-jumps-helped-by-generics-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:23 +0000 admin which has agreed to be bought by rival Express Scripts Inc
, posted a higher quarterly profit as the pharmacy
benefit manager increased dispensing of more profitable generic
drugs.
Medco remains confident its $29 billion merger would close
in the first half of the year.Fourth-quarter net income rose to $424. million, or $1. 8
per share, from $378. million, or 88 cents per share, a year
ago.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/medco-quarterly-profit-jumps-helped-by-generics-210202201221/feed 0 Alibaba offers to take listed unit private for $2.5 billion http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/alibaba-offers-to-take-listed-unit-private-for-2-5-billion-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/alibaba-offers-to-take-listed-unit-private-for-2-5-billion-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:47 +0000 admin Alibaba Group, founded by Jack Ma, is offering investors HK$13. 0 ($1. 4) in cash per share to take Alibaba.com private, the same as its initial public offering price in 2007, the two said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Tuesday.That implies a premium of more than 60 percent over its 60-day average closing price, Alibaba said. Alibaba.com’s shares closed at HK$9. 5 on February 8 before being suspended pending an announcement – a 12-week closing high, but down 30 percent from last July. The stock will resume trading on Wednesday.Taking Alibaba.com private will allow our company to make long-term decisions that are in the best interest of our customers and that are also free from the pressures that come from having a publicly listed company, Ma, who is chairman of Alibaba Group and board chair of Alibaba.com, said.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Graphic: Alibaba.com results http://r.reuters.com/byz66sr.reuters.com/byz66sGraphic: Alibaba Grp structure http://r.reuters.com/map56sr.reuters.com/map56sGraphic: Yahoo/Alibaba http://r.reuters.com/dyn56sr.reuters.com/dyn56sINSIDER video on talks collapse: http://reut.rs/xa3MXnreut.rs/xa3MXn^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^0NOT RELATED TO YAHOO DEAL1Alibaba.com is 73 percent-owned by Alibaba Group, which in turn is 40 percent-owned by Yahoo, which bought its stake for about $1 billion in 2005. The remaining 27 percent of Alibaba.com is held by public investors including Morgan Stanley, Vanguard Group and Capital International, according to Thomson Reuters data. Ma has been trying to buy back a large stake in Alibaba held by Yahoo, but talks on a complex asset swap have been deadlocked. Sources told Reuters last week that the talks over a so-called cash-rich asset swap broke down over how best to value Taobao, Alibaba’s fast-growing online retail business. The plan to take Alibaba.com private had nothing to do with a possible Yahoo deal, Alibaba said in the statement.Alibaba Group will finance the Alibaba.com deal through external funding and internal cash resources, it said, adding the offer price would not be increased.Alibaba has signed a $3 billion loan giving it the money it needs to buy out the unit, sources told Thomson Reuters publication Basis Point on Monday.WEAK Q4 RESULTSNews of the go-private deal came shortly after Alibaba.com posted a first profit decline in more than two years in the fourth quarter of 2011, as a weak global economy hit the number of paying members for its services.October-December net profit fell 6 percent to 385. 5 million yuan ($61. million) from 410. million yuan a year earlier, roughly in line with forecasts from two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was the first quarterly profit fall since the 2009 third quarter.The company, which operates an e-commerce website linking Chinese businesses to overseas buyers, warned its financial performance and membership growth could be dented further as it shifts to a value-added-services model from a subscription-based service.The company is undergoing a business transition, and I think things will start to probably recover in 2013, said Dick Wei, a Hong Kong-based analyst for J.P. Morgan.Alibaba.com’s paying members fell 2. percent in the fourth quarter to 765,363 as international buyers have become less active due to the euro zone debt crisis and a weak recovery in the United States. The e-commerce firm’s exposure to international markets makes its turnover sensitive to the performance of major economies.Alibaba.com said the changing focus of the business, which will be more on improving the platform than on increasing subscriber numbers, would impact the company’s results in the medium term, and was the main reason behind the privatization.With this offer, we provide our shareholders a chance to realize their investment now at an attractive cash premium rather than waiting indefinitely during this period of transition, Ma said in the statement.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/alibaba-offers-to-take-listed-unit-private-for-2-5-billion-210202201221/feed 0 Bombardment of Syria’s Homs kills 21: activists http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/bombardment-of-syrias-homs-kills-21-activists-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/bombardment-of-syrias-homs-kills-21-activists-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:02:29 +0000 admin The bombardment rained down as International Committee of the Red Cross officials tried to negotiate a pause in the fighting to allow them to bring aid to civilians suffering in horrendous conditions after 18 days of attacks on Homs.In Damascus, security forces opened fire on demonstrators overnight, wounding at least four, activists said, in the latest sign that the 11-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is taking a grip on the capital as well as the provinces.Western powers and the Arab League prepared for a meeting of the Friends of Syria contact group in Tunisia on Friday to pressure Assad to step down, while Russia and China backed Assad’s own program for reforms.Russia said it would not attend the meeting because the Syrian government would not be represented. The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested the United Nations Security Council should send a special humanitarian envoy to Syria.Activists said government forces launched the artillery attack on Homs after rebel fighters holding the opposition Baba Amro district blocked troops from entering.Several shells are falling each minute, activist Nader al-Husseini told Reuters from the district, adding that two children were among the victims.Another activist said 21 bodies had been found, many dug out from under the rubble. Others are still buried. Today the shelling is very fierce, he said.The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights said at least 250 shells and rockets had hit Baba Amro since the morning and Syrian air force planes were flying reconnaissance missions.Activists said government forces backed by armor and under the control of Alawite officers, from the same minority sect as Assad, have been closing in on Baba Amro, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood, since the offensive on Homs began on Feb 3. Tanks are deployed in the Inshaat district next to Baba Amro, opposition sources said, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a convoy of more than 50 armored vehicles was seen heading from Damascus towards Homs on Tuesday. Homs, a city of one million people athwart the Damascus-Aleppo highway, has been at the heart of the uprising against Assad’s 11-year rule. Dangerous conditions and government curbs on access make it hard for media to verify activist reports, but international rights and aid organizations confirm a bloody and desperate standoff in which several hundred people have been killed. UNDER FIRE IN DAMASCUS4Assad says the revolt, until recently limited mainly to the provinces, is the work of foreign-backed terrorists. But crowds rallied in the capital Damascus on Monday night and at least four people were wounded when security forces opened fire, activists said.There were hundreds of demonstrators at the main square of Hajar al-Aswad and suddenly buses of security police and shabbiha (pro-Assad militia) turned up and started firing into the crowd, activist Abu Abdallah told Reuters by telephone.Footage posted on YouTube, purportedly taken before the shooting, showed a crowd marching in Hajar al-Aswad carrying placards in support of besieged Homs and singing Eyes are shedding tears for the martyrs among Syria’s youth.Elsewhere, an activist group in Kfar Tkharim near the Turkish border said rebel fighters had killed five soldiers and captured two in an ambush on a government column.An activist in al-Qusair, about 32 km (20 miles) southwest of Homs and close to the Lebanese border, said five people were killed and eight wounded when the northern part of the town came under heavy fire from army mortars and T-72 tanks.People in that area are hiding in their homes, they can’t leave. Others are resisting. Those who are farther away are fleeing the town. Some people are so scared they’re trying to leave anyway even if they are close to the fire, Abu Ansa told Reuters by telephone.Activists in the western city of Hama said troops, police and militias had set up dozens of roadblocks, cutting neighborhoods off from each other.Ahmad Ramadan, a leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, said Assad loyalists killed his brother Mahmoud when they riddled his car with gunfire in his home city of Aleppo.The regime has been accusing Mahmoud of sending food and medicine to Homs and he was receiving daily threats. He was hit in the head and neck and died immediately, Ramadan told al-Jazeera Arabic news channel.CALL FOR CEASEFIREThe Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, the only international organization deploying aid workers in Syria, said on Monday it was in talks with the authorities and opposition fighters for a ceasefire to bring aid to civilians. Diplomatic sources said the ICRC was seeking two-hour ceasefires in places such as Homs, where residents are running out of food, water and medicine. Western and Arab nations who want Assad to relinquish power are preparing an explicit gesture of support for his opponents. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Friends of Syria meeting would show that his government was increasingly isolated and offer support for the brave Syrian people. We’ll send a clear message to Russia, China and others who are still unsure about how to handle the increasing violence but are up until now unfortunately making the wrong choices, Clinton said in Mexico at a meeting of the G20 world powers. Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has sharpened his criticism of Assad, condemned the Syrian leader’s plan for a referendum on a new constitution, saying Sunday’s vote would be held while the souls of corpses and the dust settle in Homs. In a newspaper article he also criticized Western powers for not formally recognizing the Syrian opposition, saying they had retreated from their earlier clear support of the demands of the Syrian people.Assad met a senior Russian politician in Damascus on Monday, who reiterated Moscow’s support for his self-styled reform program and spoke out against any foreign intervention. China accused Western countries of stirring up civil war.Nevertheless, the chief of the Arab League, which has suspended Syria for its crackdown on protesters, said Russia and China might temper their support for Assad.There are indications coming from China and to some extent from Russia that there may be a change in position, League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in Cairo.Assad’s government says it is committed to meeting demands for democracy with a referendum on Sunday on a new constitution, leading to multi-party elections within 90 days.Western officials and Syrian dissidents have dismissed the plan, saying a valid election cannot take place amid bloodshed.
~Red Social de los Hispanos http://cielo.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/bombardment-of-syrias-homs-kills-21-activists-210202201221/feed 0 TNT results weaken case for higher UPS bid http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/tnt-results-weaken-case-for-higher-ups-bid-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/tnt-results-weaken-case-for-higher-ups-bid-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:56 +0000 admin TNT, which said on Friday it was still in talks with UPS after rejecting a 4. billion euro ($6. billion) bid, swung to a fourth-quarter operating loss, hit by an impairment charge at its troubled Brazilian business, where it has struggled to integrate acquisitions.TNT said on Tuesday it would look for buyers or partners for both Brazil and its Chinese unit in order to focus on Europe.At 1050 GMT, its shares were down 2. percent at 9. euros. That is still above the 9 euros per share offered by UPS, but is below Monday’s peak of 10. 4 euros, reached amid speculation UPS might have to offer much more to clinch a deal or that U.S. rival Fedex (symbol_FDX.N_2FDX.N) might make a counterbid.The dip in this morning’s share price reflects prudent profit-taking but also a nervousness that unless FedEx enters the fray, TNT may struggle to solicit much more than 10. 0 euros from UPS, said Alex White, corporate finance partner at accountants BDO.There seems little new information TNT can leverage in its price negotiations with UPS.TNT, under fire from activist shareholders to improve its performance, reported a fourth-quarter operating loss of 104 million euros, after a profit of 24 million in the 2010 period, as it took an impairment charge of 104 million euros on its business in Brazil and a 45 million impairment on aircraft.Adjusted underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were 57 million euros on quarterly revenue of 1. 7 billion euros. Analysts in a poll commissioned by Reuters had forecast a fourth-quarter underlying operating profit of 61. million euros and revenue of 1. 5 billion euros.VOLTE FACETNT chief executive Marie-Christine Lombard has staked her reputation on turning round the troubled operations in Brazil, where TNT has struggled to integrate Expresso Mercurio, which it bought in 2007, and its delivery partner Expresso Aracatuba, acquired in 2009. But on Tuesday, Lombard said TNT was now looking for commercial partnerships, joint ventures, or a sale for both Brazil and China. It’s a complete volte face, Gert Steens, analyst at SNS Securities, said. The only reason to buy TNT is the European business. They’ve been diluting the value of the European business by spending so much time and money elsewhere. This just confirms no one is going to pay for Brazil and China, he added. On a conference call with journalists, Lombard declined to comment on the talks with UPS, and would not say whether TNT had been approached by any other potential buyers, including FedEx. She warned the economic environment remained very uncertain, with a risk of a recession in Europe and a slowdown in Asia, and said TNT would continue to reduce costly fixed capacity on intercontinental routes in favor of more flexible arrangements like subleasing planes and sharing capacity. TNT said it planned to cut 150 million euros in costs by the end of 2013, while taking 150 million euros of restructuring expenses and writeoffs.We … do not expect the UPS proposal to increase significantly and we doubt TNT could deliver the value implied by the UPS proposal for several years due to the depressed economic climate in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region that is key to profitability and the difficult issues still to be resolved in the Brazilian and Chinese markets, Citi analyst Roger Elliott said in a research note.
~Europa News - News Europa- http://www.ieuropa.net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/tnt-results-weaken-case-for-higher-ups-bid-210202201221/feed 0 Discounts push Jakks Pacific to holiday-qtr loss http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/discounts-push-jakks-pacific-to-holiday-qtr-loss-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/discounts-push-jakks-pacific-to-holiday-qtr-loss-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:02:27 +0000 admin * Q4 sales $141. mln vs est $124. mln* Sees Q1 loss/shr $0. 1-$0. 4 vs est loss/shr $0. 8* Sees FY 2012 EPS $1. 1-$1. 7 vs est $1. 3Feb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Toy maker Jakks Pacific Inc
posted wider-than-expected quarterly loss and forecast
a weak first quarter as heavy discounting eats into its margins.Toy companies faced flagging sales in 2011 and
stepped up discounting to attract bargain-hungry shoppers during
the year-end holiday shopping season.Last month, the world’s largest toy company Mattel Inc
posted quarterly sales below analysts’ estimates and
said it sees higher input, labor and transportation costs in
2012. The maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, however,
said it would raise prices of its toys to combat rising costs.Earlier this month, the second-largest U.S. toy company
Hasbro Inc also reported lower-than-expected quarterly
sales in the holiday quarter.Coming off a year in which U.S. toy sales fell 2 percent,
toymakers like Jakks are looking for new ways to attract
shoppers this year including reaching back to the past with
classics from the 80s and turning to facebook for hits.Jakks, which also competes with Leapfrog
and Mega Brands Inc, forecast a first-quarter loss of 61
cents to 64 cents per share, while analysts’ were expecting a
loss of 48 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.In October, Jakks had turned down a $670 million, or $20 per
share, offer from Oaktree Capital Management, calling the bid
inadequate. The company’s shares, which closed at $15. 6 on Friday on
the Nasdaq, have shed about a quarter of their value since
trading at around the bid price after the offer was made in
September. For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net loss of $20
million, or 77 cents a share, compared with earnings of $8.
million, or 30 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, the company lost 72 cents per share. Malibu-based Jakks — which makes toys under brands such as
Pokemon, Hello Kitty and The Smurfs — said sales fell to $141.
million, from $198 million, last year. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of 62 cents per
share on revenue of $124. million.
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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/discounts-push-jakks-pacific-to-holiday-qtr-loss-210202201221/feed 0 Burberry, McQueen mastery defy quirky London label http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/burberry-mcqueen-mastery-defy-quirky-london-label-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/burberry-mcqueen-mastery-defy-quirky-london-label-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:12 +0000 admin Although, a cradle of talent which has produced such stars as Stella McCartney, McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith, London’s place on the fashion map has always been squeezed between New York and its European cousins in Paris and Milan. Mostly, it was considered a place to find emerging designers.We used to come here and think it’s all going to be eccentric and street chic and actually it’s incredibly grown up, polished and sexy, glamorous clothes so it’s a global stage now — it’s wonderful, U.S. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour told Reuters.Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey combined country and town styles for an elegant collection which dazzled front row celebrities including Kate Bosworth, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and British Prime Minister’s wife Samantha Cameron.Cropped tailored bomber jackets, draped hem blanket skirts and sculptural dress shirts featured prominently in his autumn/winter 2012 collection, as did pencil skirts with large bellow pockets, double-breasted jackets and brogue lace-up ankle boots.It’s always such a beautiful collection and I adore Christopher – he’s really one of a kind, Bosworth said, adding that she loved Bailey’s impeccable cuts.In the grand finale a clap of thunder sounded before water emulating rain gushed down the sides of the transparent marquee in which the event was hosted.Burberry is known for its trademark raincoats and Bailey said he loved to celebrate rain.I quite like taking all these clichs and these very familiar things and kind of playing with them a little bit because behind the clich they usually started with something more profound and I like the idea of that, he said backstage after his show.As silver paper raindrops fell from the ceiling, models sashayed down the catwalk carrying brightly colored umbrellas, under which an array of khaki, dark camel and burgundy trench coats was visible, some with paneling or tiered peplum detail. I think Burberry is a quintessentially British brand that Christopher has totally reinvented and made young and hip and fun and made an incredible global success, Wintour said. BRIDES AND THE DEVIL2Sarah Burton, the creative director of McQ who designed the wedding dress Kate Middleton wore for her marriage to Britain’s Prince William last April, also notched up the drama at her show in a former post sorting office in central London. She initially took her cue from military uniforms, sending girls in khaki belted coats with metal buttons and large pockets down a catwalk carpeted with autumnal brown leaves before revealing more glamorous, playful dresses featuring rainbow colors on layered black tulle. Dressed in a belted ivory floor-length tulle gown with decorated appliqu\’e9d velvet flowers, model Kristen McMenamy found herself bathed in white light as she looked up to the ceiling from where crisp leaves floated down around her. After feeling around on the floor, she found a white rope and pulled herself along it toward a forest which suddenly appeared at the end of the catwalk while a sudden burst of red light illuminated a little wooden cabin nestled among the trees.It’s actually a club where I sign my soul away to the devil… I signed a little card and that’s what it symbolizes, McMenamy, whose dress was reminiscent of a wedding gown, told Reuters after the show.It’s quite ironic because my whole upbringing was Roman Catholic… and I thought if I become a nun I’m saved and if I become a model I go to hell.Actress Salma Hayek said she was very impressed by the show and had her eye on one of the black and wine-colored coats Burton sent down the catwalk, as well as the floral dresses.This is my first time in London and it’s one of the most beautiful fashion shows I’ve ever seen, Hayek said after the show.
~Lady Gaga Latest news at http://Gaga.GotJuicy.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/burberry-mcqueen-mastery-defy-quirky-london-label-210202201221/feed 0 Kraft sees charges from break-up http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kraft-sees-charges-from-break-up-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kraft-sees-charges-from-break-up-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:06 +0000 admin * Revenue up 6. pct to $14. bln* Sees ‘12 revenue up about 5 pct; earnings up at least 9
pct* Shares dip 0. percentFeb 21 (Reuters)- WireNews – Kraft Foods Inc expects
earnings to rise at least 9 percent this year even as it prunes
its portfolio of North American brands.Kraft, North America’s largest packaged food maker, will
separate into two companies later this year. One will focus on
snacks like Cadbury chocolate and Oreo cookies, and the other
will focus on North American grocery brands including Maxwell
House coffee and Oscar Mayer lunch meat.Kraft forecast 2012 net revenue growth of about 5 percent,
including a hit of up to one percentage point from product
pruning in North America.The company said it expected operating earnings to rise at
least 9 percent on a constant-currency basis, reflecting a
higher tax rate and a 4 percentage point hit from higher pension
costs.Kraft also said it would incur one-time costs of $1.
billion to $1. billion as it prepares its split. It also might
incur fees of between $400 million and $800 million as it
migrates debt to the North American grocery company.The company also reported quarterly earnings in line with
Wall Street estimates.It said net income was $830 million, or 47 cents per share,
in the fourth quarter, up from $540 million, or 31 cents per
share, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 57 cents per share, in line
with the analysts’ average estimate, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue was $14. billion, up 6. percent. Shares of Kraft were down 0. percent at $37. 9 in trading
before the market opened.
~Romania News - stiri din Romania -http://adevarul.com

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/kraft-sees-charges-from-break-up-210202201221/feed 0 Ericsson buys BelAir to boost WiFi offering http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/ericsson-buys-belair-to-boost-wifi-offering-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/ericsson-buys-belair-to-boost-wifi-offering-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:25 +0000 admin maker Ericsson is to buy privately-held WiFi
technology firm BelAir Networks as part of its plan to boost its
mobile broadband offering.
Demand for wireless connectivity has boomed in the last
couple of years with the proliferation of mobile devices, such
as smartphones and tablets.BelAir, which produces indoor and outdoor WiFi systems for
telecoms operators that allow people to surf the Internet
without a physical coupling to a network, has 120 staff. With this acquisition Ericsson will be able to
add the WiFi functionality to its micro base stations at a low
incremental cost, making its emerging small-cell cellular
infrastructure offerings more appealing, said Pal Zarandy,
partner at telecom consultancy Rewheel.Telecom operators see WiFi hotspots crucial for offloading
wireless data traffic, which is expected to grow 26-fold in the
next five years, according to Cisco, as usage of video
on mobile devices surges.For example, China Mobile – the world’s largest
mobile carrier by subscribers – plans to deploy a million
hotspots and Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI
plans to grow its 10,000 Wi-FI hotspots to 100,000 within six
months.Ericsson will lead the way in the growing converged WiFi
and cellular market where improved end-user experience is the
driving force, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement.By integrating BelAir Networks’ market-leading products and
competence into Ericsson’s existing radio portfolio, we will be
able to do this more quickly.Ericsson did not give any financial details of the deal.BelAir had raised some $43 million of venture funding.
~Taliban Official News Website- htt://taliban.us

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/ericsson-buys-belair-to-boost-wifi-offering-210202201221/feed 0 Out of sight, Somali piracy fight gets rougher http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/out-of-sight-somali-piracy-fight-gets-rougher-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/out-of-sight-somali-piracy-fight-gets-rougher-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:02:23 +0000 admin Having seen last year how Somali pirates treat their captives, the 61-year-old is in no hurry to experience it again.It was hell on earth, he told Reuters by telephone from his home in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik.The number of ships seized in the region by Somali pirates fell last year, industry data shows, but the overall number of attempted attacks continues to rise and the raids have become increasingly violent.Breaking the piracy business model and tackling Somalia’s onshore problems will be among the aims of a major international conference on Somalia in London on Thursday. But few are optimistic of a solution any time soon, and shippers say they must take matters into their own hands.Greater use of private armed security guards on ships and a much tougher approach by international navies is beginning to work, some mariners, officials, contractors and military officers say. But others worry they may simply fuelling a growing arms race, ramping up the conflict and producing a rising human and financial cost.In March last year, Alibasic was transporting a cargo of crude oil from Sudan to Asia when his tanker – the 100,000 ton United Arab Emirates-registered Zirku – came under attack. For 90 minutes, the pirates poured heavy machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire into the vessel.Then they were aboard, swarming over the two levels of barbed wire that surrounded the decks.The ferocity of the initial onslaught, he says, was matched by much of the treatment suffered by him and his 28 crew during their 75 days in captivity.As the shipowners negotiated the payment of an unspecified but reportedly massive ransom, he did everything he could to keep the multinational crew – including Jordanians, Egyptians, Ukrainians and Pakistanis – safe from sometimes drugged and bored captors. I read them poetry and played them opera to try to calm them down, he said, adding that he also played chess with the pirate leader Abdallah to win his respect. But they nearly hanged my second mate. The unlucky second officer’s only offence, he said, was to have demanded the right to have a shower after spending hours working in the tanker’s sweltering engine room. By the time Alibasic persuaded the pirates to let him go, the rope was already around his neck. Seafarers’ organizations say the treatment of prisoners has worsened over time. Other sailors have been suspended hung upside down for hours, dumped overboard or even keelhauled – dragged under the ship from one side to the other on a rope, a traditional punishment of the age of sail barely reported since the 17th or early 18th centuries. Estimates suggest at least 60 seafarers have died. TOUGHER NAVAL APPROACH5When the pirates forced Alibasic to sail back out into the Indian Ocean to rescue some of their stranded colleagues, he found himself on the receiving end of a new set of naval rules of engagement.On one of his trips, his tanker came under fire from the U.S. Navy.I got on the radio and said: What are you doing? They (the pirates) will kill us all … They were using us as human shields, he said.About 25 warships from various nations now patrol the Indian Ocean at any given time.Some states – such as Russia – have always adopted an aggressive approach when their ships were hijacked, storming them with force and either killing the pirates or leaving them to die in open boats. The United States has also launched special forces missions to rescue its nationals.Other Western states – particularly the Europeans who make up the bulk of EU and NATO-led task forces – were initially more cautious. But even they have started to take a tougher stance, engaging pirate motherships and retaking captured vessels.Many commanders have welcomed the new approach, saying it is behind the slump in successful pirate attacks in the second half of 2011. Only 25 ships were seized in 2011, the European Union Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR) says, compared to 47 the year earlier.Pirates now hold six ships and roughly 176 hostages, the EU says, again well down from last year.But average ransoms continue to rise – now about $5 million compared to $4 million last year.Estimates of the cost to the global economy are also up – one report put it at $7 billion in 2011.The fastest growing component of that, the US-based Oceans Beyond Piracy report said, was the cost of the rising number of armed private security guards. At the beginning of 2011, they estimated perhaps a quarter of ships carried such guards, rising to an estimated half now. Shipping companies spent roughly $1 billion on private guards alone in 2011, the report said – much more than the estimated $160 million earned by the pirates themselves in ransoms. SECURITY COSTS, WORRIES2Many piracy experts – including serving naval officers – believe it was the private guards who made the real difference against piracy in 2011. But the unregulated industry raises a host of new worries. A 2011 UN report details one incident, in which naval forces rescued a damaged skiff containing one dead Somali and six survivors, who said two other compatriots had also been killed and had fallen overboard. Naval observers concluded gunfire had come from illegally-held weapons on a ship recently attacked by the skiff, but were unable to provide definitive proof.It’s very likely people are being killed out in the Indian Ocean by private guards and it’s not being reported, says Rory Lamrock, piracy analyst at UK-based risk consultancy AKE.A former military officer himself, tanker captain Alibasic worries over the moral and legal implications of dispensing lethal force from the deck of a civilian merchant ship.But he also has a more immediate concern – will the guards he now carries on his voyages through the region have enough arms and ammunition to fight off the kind of concerted assault he faced last March?As to solving the wider problem of Somali piracy, he says that is something that will only happen when the world gets seriously involved onshore in the pirate havens of Puntland and elsewhere.When we had a war in Croatia, we did not become pirates, he says, referring to the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The international community and the UN came and things were sorted out in only a few years. That’s what needs to happen in Somalia.
~Europa News - News Europa- http://www.ieuropa.net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/out-of-sight-somali-piracy-fight-gets-rougher-210202201221/feed 0 Palestinian prisoner ending hunger strike after deal http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/palestinian-prisoner-ending-hunger-strike-after-deal-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/palestinian-prisoner-ending-hunger-strike-after-deal-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:22 +0000 admin There is a deal. (Khader Adnan) will stop his hunger strike. They will not extend his administrative detention and he will be free on April 17, an Israeli Justice Ministry spokeswoman said.Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, confirmed Adnan would be released on that date and end his hunger strike now.Adnan, 33, has been refusing to eat since mid-December and doctors voiced fears about his deteriorating health.Israel’s High Court, in light of the agreement, cancelled at the last minute a scheduled hearing of the Islamic Jihad member’s appeal against his imprisonment, avoiding a high-profile examination of the issue of detention without trial.The court has upheld the procedure for decades, siding with the government’s argument that detention without trial is a necessary security measure that can be used to avoid exposing confidential and information in trials.Human rights groups have condemned the measure and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement Saturday saying she was following Adnan’s case with great concern.She reiterated the EU’s long-standing concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge.West Bank officials said Adnan’s hunger strike was the longest staged by a Palestinian detainee and his Jihadist supporters had warned of violent reprisals against Israel if he died.Adnan’s case had put a spotlight on Israel’s so-called administrative detention that enables it to hold suspects without trial or charge indefinitely. A local rights group, al Haq, said 315 Palestinians were being detained under the edict.The Israeli army has said in a statement he was arrested for activities that threaten regional security, but it did not elaborate.
~News from Hollywood ? Check out http://movies.bevery-hills.org

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/palestinian-prisoner-ending-hunger-strike-after-deal-210202201221/feed 0 Afghanistan’s Karzai says speaks to Taliban every day: report http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghanistans-karzai-says-speaks-to-taliban-every-day-report-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghanistans-karzai-says-speaks-to-taliban-every-day-report-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:02:26 +0000 admin Afghan and U.S. officials are seeking negotiations with the Taliban as a way of ensuring peace after foreign combat troops leave in 2014, though the talks lay in a very fragile state and the Islamist group recently rejected they existed at all.We talk to the Taliban every day. We were talking to them just a few days ago somewhere around this region, Karzai said in an interview taped a week ago in Kabul with SBS, adding his contact with the group’s one-eyed leader Mullah Omar was through indirect means.(But) not personally, Karzai said when asked if he had spoken with Omar. I mean not directly, person ( see http://BingPeople.com) to person ( see http://BingPeople.com). But through intermediaries, yes. Karzai and many Western analysts say the reclusive leader is based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.Karzai also stressed that peace talks with the Taliban, who were originally backed by Islamabad, are key to regional stability and bringing peace as well to Pakistan, a player seen as crucial to efforts to end the war in Afghanistan.It’s no longer Afghanistan that’s the subject of conversation, or the issue. It’s Pakistan as well. It’s peace in Pakistan as well. It’s stability in Pakistan as well, he said.The interview was recorded before Karzai’s visit to Islamabad last week, where he upset Pakistan by asking for access to Afghan Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or leadership council, named after the Pakistani city where it is said to be based.Afghans have always been suspicious of Pakistani intentions because of historical ties between Pakistani intelligence and insurgent groups like the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has consistently denied the existence of the Quetta Shura.During the bitter civil war that engulfed Afghanistan following the end of the Soviet war, the Taliban ruled the country from 1996-2001 under strict Islamic laws and provided shelter to al Qaeda until their ousting by U.S.-backed Afghan troops just over a decade ago.Karzai said despite the history, he is also keen to work together with Islamabad to help advance peace talks with the Taliban. We as the Afghan people and government are willing to help Pakistan work for peace in Afghanistan and work for peace in Pakistan, together, Karzai said in fluent English. Karzai added that Afghanistan was making progress on security in the eleventh year of a costly war, local and foreign support for which is souring. The United States and NATO are racing against the clock to train a 350,000-strong force of Afghan army and police who will take over all security responsibilities before end-2014, when foreign combat troops leave, though skepticism looms that the target can be met in an increasingly violent war. The Afghan leader also said the Taliban would not return to power in a total capacity. I don’t think the Taliban will ever come back to take Afghanistan, no, he said. Two years ago I would have been uncertain and unwilling to give you an answer as firm as I do today. The Afghan people will not go back to the nothing of 10 years ago.
~News from Hollywood ? Check out http://movies.bevery-hills.org

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/afghanistans-karzai-says-speaks-to-taliban-every-day-report-210202201221/feed 0 Iran announces candidate list for March 2 election http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/iran-announces-candidate-list-for-march-2-election-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/iran-announces-candidate-list-for-march-2-election-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:02:41 +0000 admin Iranians will vote in nationwide elections on March 2 for the first time since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in July 2009, which sparked eight months of popular protests and a crushing government response.Loyalists of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is implacably hostile to the West and its drive to curb Tehran’s nuclear activity, look set to triumph in the vote at the expense of Ahmadinejad in a contest among conservative hardliners.Politicians say the Guardian Council, made up of six clerics and six jurists who vet candidates, barred many Ahmadinejad supporters, forcing him to pick younger political unknowns.With marginalized reformists not involved, that should mean a parliamentary majority for Ahmadinejad’s adversaries in the power struggle among clerical and political conservatives.Khamenei’s supporters are sharply critical of the Ahmadinejad government for its handling of the economy.Prices of goods have spiraled in recent weeks because of the plummeting value of the Iranian currency, the rial, and the squeeze from international sanctions on Iran’s financial institutions imposed over its nuclear program.A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai, said 3,444 candidates had been approved out of 5,395. He added that the campaign would begin on Thursday after all qualifying candidates had been notified.Candidates wanting to take part in elections in Iran initially have to register with the interior ministry and are subjected to a number of checks. If approved they face the scrutiny of the Guardian Council.Leading reformists are shunning the vote, which they say will not be free or fair. Opposition leaders defeated in the 2009 presidential vote, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, have been under house arrest for a year.
~Swimsuits hot collection - http://eroticx.com/video

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/iran-announces-candidate-list-for-march-2-election-210202201221/feed 0 Stock futures up as Europe approves Greece deal http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/stock-futures-up-as-europe-approves-greece-deal-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/stock-futures-up-as-europe-approves-greece-deal-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:02:43 +0000 admin A deal on the 130 billion euro ($172. 7 billion) bailout was reached after Greece was forced to accept unpopular fiscal measures, and private bondholders agreed to steeper losses.After hitting a seven-month high on Monday, the FTSEurofirst 300 /finance/markets/index?symbol=gb%21FTPP.FTEU3 index of top European shares lost 0. percent and the euro shed 0. percent on Tuesday as investors booked profits after the agreement.Analysts said the deal was already priced into the market, which showed a muted response as initial optimism waned on questions about Greece’s dismal economic outlook .EUWe’ve had a very strong market of late, partly driven by expectations of a Greek deal. Now that we have it, the market will look for a near-term driver, said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lek Securities in New York.Any pullbacks will be looked at as potential entry opportunities as investors, in many cases, are underperforming the benchmark S-P 500. As the market keeps impressing, market short-players will be forced to reconsider the macro bets they’ve made, and thus a run to cover could propel another upside surge.S-P 500 futures gained 1 point and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 42 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 1. points.The S-P 500 is up 8. percent for the year.Apple Inc (symbol_AAPL.O_2AAPL.O) edged up 0. percent to $503. 0 in premarket trading after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled the iPhone maker did not infringe patented technology owned by Android phonemaker HTC Corp (symbol_2498.TW_32498.TW).Separately, a Chinese court will deliberate on a request by troubled technology company Proview to halt the sale of iPads in Shanghai. Home Depot Inc (symbol_HD.N_4HD.N) climbed 3. percent to $48. 0 premarket after the home improvement retailer’s quarterly profit beat estimates. Kraft Foods Inc (symbol_KFT.N_5KFT.N) edged down 0. 3 percent to $38 after the maker of Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolate and Oscar Meyer meats reported higher earnings that met expectations. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (symbol_WMT.N_6WMT.N) dropped 2. percent to $60. 1 after it said it earned $1. 1 per share from continuing operations in the fourth quarter versus its forecast of $1. 2 to $1. 8 per share. Separately, Wal-Mart said it was taking a controlling stake in a Chinese e-commerce firm as it sought new revenue sources to fend off rising competition in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Dell Inc (symbol_DELL.O_7DELL.O) was due to report results later Tuesday. Dutch group TNT Express (symbol_TNTE.AS_8TNTE.AS), which rejected a 4. billion euro ($6. billion) takeover offer from United Parcel Service Inc (symbol_UPS.N_9UPS.N), will focus on its European business and look for buyers or partners for troubled units in Brazil and China. Investors are betting UPS will raise its offer or rival FedEx Corp (symbol_FDX.N_10FDX.N) may enter the fray.U.S. engineer URS Corp (symbol_URS.N_11URS.N) will buy Canadian oilfield services company Flint Energy Services Ltd (symbol_FES.TO_12FES.TO) for C$1. 5 billion ($1. 5 billion) to expand its presence in the oil and gas sector.Futures exchange operator CME Group Inc (symbol_CME.O_13CME.O) and an Omani sovereign fund boosted their stake in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange after a cash infusion on Tuesday.AES Corp (symbol_AES.N_14AES.N), the first U.S. power producer to enter China about two decades ago, is looking to sell all or some assets there, sources said.
~Justin Bieber fun club - http://Bieber.Pizda.Net

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]]> http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/stock-futures-up-as-europe-approves-greece-deal-210202201221/feed 0 CME Group ups stake in Dubai commodities bourse http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/cme-group-ups-stake-in-dubai-commodities-bourse-210202201221 http://Qazvin.pizda.net/en/cme-group-ups-stake-in-dubai-commodities-bourse-210202201221#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:41 +0000 admin The CME and Oman Investment Fund, the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, both injected an undisclosed amount into a recapitalization of the DME, which trades the Oman oil futures contract.CME’s stake in DME will rise to 50 percent from 25 percent, while Oman Investment Fund’s holding goes to 29 percent from 25 percent, the companies said on Tuesday.The DME is pushing the Oman contract as a benchmark for markets east of Egypt’s Suez canal, arguing that much of the world’s crude comes from the region and should be priced in the Middle East. Its target is for the Oman contract to eventually challenge established global benchmarks, Brent and U.S. crude futures.We strongly believe the Omani crude contract is an outstanding proxy for the Middle Eastern crude. It make lot of sense. It has good correlations, Gary Morsches, managing director, energy for CME Group said in a conference call to reporters.The DME is appealing to national oil companies in the Gulf to win their backing for the contract. Other market players have also called for a third benchmark.Non-OPEC oil producer Oman uses the DME contract to set its crude price.CME operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the 164-year old Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange.The CME taking a bigger stake basically means they’ll start getting serious about market making. The CME wanted to get serious about this contract, but financially there wasn’t much in it for them, a Dubai-based trader speaking on condition of anonymity said.STAKE DILUTION0The deal dilutes positions in DME held by top banks, oil traders and the ruler of Dubai’s investment vehicle, Dubai Holding DUBAHC.UL. The holding company, which is undergoing debt restructuring at key units, will not be participating in the recapitalization program. Its 25 percent stake was reduced to 9 percent as a result. The fresh funds came from CME and OIF. The other strategic investors were diluted as part of the infusion, DME Chief Executive Thomas Leaver told reporters on Tuesday. Dubai Holding was diluted … it wasn’t a buyout but just a dilution of shares, he said. The CME, Omani fund and Dubai Holding set up the DME in 2007 as a joint venture along with oil and financial firms like Shell (symbol_RDSa.L_2RDSa.L), Vitol VITOLV.UL, Goldman Sachs (symbol_GS.N_4GS.N) and JPMorgan (symbol_JPM.N_5JPM.N). The latter group will now hold a combined 12 percent stake after the recapitalization.In 2011, the DME delivered more than 145 million barrels of crude oil, a year-on-year trading volume growth of 19 percent, according to the statement.Average daily volumes rose to 3,505 contracts, while physical delivery of the DME Oman contract also grew through 2011, with an average of 12. 15 million barrels of crude oil delivered each month, the statement said.
~Europa News - News Europa- http://www.ieuropa.net

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