California's Excellent Automotive Tech Schools | Divine Writers

Automotive tech schools offer students with the guidance they require to become successful business professionals in the auto industry. Delivering professional accreditations in anything from automotive and motorcycle technology to crash repair, these common tech schools teach a mix of maintenance, engineering, and metallurgy skills. Classwork is enhanced with hours and hours of personalized training with extremely accomplished teachers, to ensure that each trainee develops the skills essential to secure employment.

Automotive Trade Programs in California

California has a pair of the top auto tech schools in the nation in WyoTech and UEI College, and more than twenty terrific online vocational school programs. This provides an outstanding chance for anyone who has thought of starting a career as a service technician, repairer or automotive mechanic. A analysis of the previously mentioned automotive tech schools appears below.

WyoTech (Sacramento, Fremont and Long Beach)

One of the big names in auto technology certification, WyoTech features three locations in California: Sacramento, Fremont and Long Beach. Each is furnished with the top, state-of-the-art technology, highly-trained trainers, and top-level facilities intended to make sure every student receives the very best training. All three offer associate degrees in Advanced Diagnostics, Applied Service Management and Electrical Technology, in addition to degrees and diplomas in 15 specialized fields.

Course availability may differ from one campus to the next, but many classes can be taken part-time in the evening by people who are fully employed or carry other commitments. Financial assistance and work placement programs are also part of WyoTech .

UEI College (Gardena Campus)

The Automotive Technician training course provided by UEI College is truly unparalleled. The sole downside for California inhabitants is that it is actually available only at the Gardena campus. For everyone who lives in Southern California, however, this is very good news since the program provides accreditations in a number of skilled fields in very high demand in local automotive shops.

The school?s courses in onboard computerized engine control, fuel injections, and emissions are usually as technologically advanced as any on the market. Students who earn qualifications in just one of these career fields are certain to find employment quickly ? and at a fair wage.

Online Programs

If your choice is to pursue a qualification via an online technical school course, you?ll not have any problem locating a good one. Recognized vocational colleges like Ashworth College, Stratford Career Institute and Lincoln Technical Institute all furnish students with fantastic, self-paced training in a online learning setting.

How Much Do Auto Trade Schools Cost?

The conventional automotive trade school may be finished in one year or less, however that doesn?t imply it?s cheap. Education is expensive, and automotive technology education is no exception to this rule with tuitions running between $25,000 and $30,000. Needless to say, high-caliber automotive tech colleges like WyoTech and UEI College supply substantial financial aid plans along with other forms of assistance to make sure that college students have the ability to graduate quick and start their careers.

Are you ready to enroll at one of the automotive mechanic schools mentioned in this article? Then visit the author?s site on trade schools in California to find out how!

Source: http://www.divinewriters.com/2011/11/californias-excellent-automotive-tech-schools/

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Need cash? Pawn shops edge into mainstream

NEW YORK?? Pawn shops are beckoning from the shadows.

At a time when banks have shut their doors on those with bad credit, a growing number of borrowers are pawning their jewelry, electronics and other valuables to make ends meet.

Consumer advocates say the development is concerning because the interest rates on loans from pawn shops can be as high as 20 percent a month. But pawn shop operators say they provide a critical lifeline to a group with few other options.

"It's a short-term loan ? it's designed to bail someone out and be done with it," said Ed Bean, who owns Suffolk Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Boston.

A common misconception is that pawn shops simply buy the various knickknacks that customers bring in. But the more lucrative aspect of the industry is issuing loans against those belongings. Customers often prefer borrowing over selling as well because it lets them hold onto what may be their only tickets to cash in the future.

What's key about loans from pawn shops is the lack of judgment; a credit check isn't required and they don't have an impact on credit scores. The transaction takes just a few minutes in many cases.

A pawn shop owner simply eyeballs the merchandise a customer brings in and offers a loan amount on the spot. If the customer repays the loan within 30 days, the belongings can be reclaimed. The customer can also opt to extend the loan; many borrow against the same items over and over.

If a customer fails to repay the loan, the shop can put the collateral up for sale.

The National Pawnbrokers Association says its members are reporting record growth as a result of persistently high unemployment, coupled with soaring gold and metal prices. The group says the popularity of the shows "Hardcore Pawn" on truTV and "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel are opening up the industry to a broader customer base as well.

Although the vast majority pawn shops are independently owned, the latest quarterly profits at the three publicly traded pawn store operators reflect the growth the industry is enjoying. Cash America International Inc., Ezcorp Inc. and First Cash Financial Services Inc. each reported net incomes that were up at least 25 percent from a year ago, helped by rising demand for loans.

"The opportunities for short-term cash have dried up," said Eric Fosse, who heads North American operations for Ezcorp, based in Austin, Texas. "Banks have basically abandoned our customer base and their neighborhoods."

Since the start of the downturn, banks and credit card companies have moved to reduce risk and maximize profits by stepping up their courtship of big spenders with sparkling credit. According to the latest data from credit reporting agency TransUnion, the bulk of credit card offers are still going to those with a credit score of at least 700.

Such economic conditions are pushing more borrowers into the position where their only options are loans from pawn shops, Fosse said.

The average amount of a pawn loan has nearly doubled to $150 since the downturn began. That's partly because a spike in precious metal prices means gold jewelry is fetching higher prices. But it also speaks to the changing customer base, said Emmett Murphy, a spokesman for the National Pawnbrokers Association, based in Keller, Texas.

That shift toward the mainstream is also the spin behind Pawngo.com, which launched this summer with funding from the founders of Groupon. The site is targeting a more middle-class customer base and has made about $3 million in loans since June. Founder Todd Hillis says the average loan amount is $2,000.

Rather than haggling at the counter of a pawn shop, the site's customers fill out an online form describing the items they want to pawn (including a picture is optional) and receive an email offer for a loan amount. If they accept, they print a FedEx shipping label and overnight mail the items free of charge. Once the items are received and validated, the loan amount is deposited into the customer's bank account.

Reflecting the economy's impact even on upper-income customers, Hillis said customers are mailing in luxury jewelry collections and Louis Vuitton purses.

"It's not your typical brick and mortar pawn shop where they're taking in home electronics and video game systems," he said.

The interest rates are also on the lower end of the industry at between 3 to 6 percent a month. But the costs still add up. Pawngo loans come in three-month installments, so on a $2,000 loan, customers would pay back $2,360 after three months.

The interest rates pawn shops can charge vary widely depending on the state. In New York City, where the industry trades primarily on jewelry and loans tend to be larger, the cap is 4 percent a month. In the South, where loans tend to be smaller with many customers bringing in items such as power tools or lawn mowers, caps can be as high as 20 percent. Fees for storage could also apply in some regions.

Such costs are why pawn shops should be considered a last resort, according to Jean Anne Fox, director of financial services at Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.

Loans from pawn shops can also hook users into a cycle of debt because those living on tight means are prone to extending loans if their financial situations don't improve. The risk is not as high as with other types of loans, however, since pawn loans tend to be smaller and are easier to repay, she said.

Loans from pawn shops are also more merciful because they don't trigger a sequence of financial repercussions, Fox notes.

"It's a form of high-cost credit," she said. "But if you don't repay the loan, you surrender the item and the transaction is over."

Even though going to a pawn shop may seem expensive to those with good credit, Bean of Suffolk Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Boston also notes it's a way for many to keep the lights on at home.

"It's still the business that it is, and it can't be picture perfect," Bean said. "We're not a genteel jewelry shop. But people can come in and expect that it will be efficient and we will be polite."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45421460/ns/business-retail/

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Media bias helped Gambia's Jammeh win election: AU (Reuters)

BANJUL (Reuters) ? Gambian President Yahya Jammeh benefited from a strong media bias and greater financial resources than his rivals to secure a new five-year term in elections, the African Union said on Saturday.

Former military coup leader Jammeh scored a landslide 72 percent victory to extend his 17 year-rule over the tiny West African country, criticized for alleged human rights abuses and press-muzzling.

"Although provision was made for equal access of all political parties and candidates to the public media, the actual coverage was strongly weighted in favor of the candidate of the ruling party," the AU observer mission concluded.

"The gross imbalance in the financial and material capability of the candidates may have resulted in the lack of adequate visibility of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Independent candidates," it said of his main challengers.

However the continental grouping found that there were no acts of intimidation during voting on Friday and concluded that despite the failings, "the results are a true reflection of the will of the sovereign people of The Gambia."

Results showed Jammeh won 470,550 votes, while his closest rival Ousainou Darboe got 114,177 votes, or 17 percent, Carayol said. Independent candidate Amath Bah scored 11 percent. Many analysts saw the incumbent's victory as a foregone conclusion.

Darboe has urged Gambians to reject the election as rigged, while Bah complained of insufficient access to media and funds to campaign properly.

One of Africa's most controversial rulers, Jammeh announced in 2007 that he had a herbal concoction that cured AIDS, but only on Thursdays, a claim derided by health experts. He has been criticized for reported threats to human rights groups and a 2008 order for all homosexuals to leave Gambia.

Jammeh's standing abroad has been further strained by spats with Senegal and Guinea, while the West African body ECOWAS said this week it would not send an observer mission to the polls because it doubted they would be free and fair.

Gambia is one of only handful of African states not to have diplomatic ties with China because of its recognition of Taiwan.

(Reporting by Pap Saine; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wl_nm/us_gambia_elections

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China power plants fined for pollution violations (AP)

SHANGHAI ? China has ordered fines for eight coal-fired power plants accused of violating pollution limits and in some cases, falsifying emissions data.

The power plants, in seven provinces, are affiliated with China's biggest power utilities, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and National Development and Reform Commission, said in a notice Thursday.

China is the world's largest polluter, relying on coal to supply about three-quarters of its surging electricity generation. Controlling pollution from power plants is a priority in its effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The plants were ordered to fix the problems by the end of the year. The agencies also ordered the withdrawal of subsidies paid to the companies for reducing carbon emissions.

The plants were found to have exceeded limits on sulfur dioxide emissions in 2010. In some cases, operators had disabled pollution control or emissions monitoring equipment, along with fabricating data to avoid punishment.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection's statement did not say how much the plants, some of which are affiliated with big power producers such as China Guodian Corp., China Huadian Corp., China Power Investment Corp. and China Datang Corp., were fined.

A report by the official Xinhua News Agency said the maximum fine for fabricating emissions data was 50,000 yuan ($7,900). Fines for violating limits on sulfur dioxide emissions ranged up to 100,000 yuan ($15,800).

China's government has pledged to reduce emissions by rejecting construction projects that pollute too much and developing new technologies to curb greenhouse gases.

But widespread violations and lax enforcement have limited progress in cleaning up the country's polluted skies.

Beijing has focused its emissions control efforts on three key air pollutants ? ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. It recently reported that sulfur dioxide emissions totaled 11.14 million tons in January-June, down 1.74 percent from a year earlier.

Annual sulfur dioxide emissions by the eight plants caught violating emissions standards totaled 94,427 tons, the government said.

China has set a goal for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions during 2011 to 2015 ? the span of its current five-year plan ? by 8 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_pollution

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?Personal Finance Experts? vs ?Personal Finance Bloggers?: Who ...

By Ginger on November 24th, 2011

Did you catch CNN Money this afternoon?? Or what about the latest financial expert featured on Oprah?? Did their advice speak to your situation, personally?

Good, I didn?t think so either.

One of the issues I take with some of the ?personal finance experts? out there today is that none of the advice is truly personal. Their approach is often too generalized because they are catering to a large audience which means they lack true accessibility to people that need personalized advice.

We Need More Coaches (real people), Not Experts

Experts tend to preach and throw the advice at the people receiving it without any consideration for the individual situation they speak about.? Every one?s situation is different, right?? So why do we flock to experts? Rarely are they able speak to our lives the way someone who had the time to sit down and review our situation would.

Over the summer, I had an opportunity to sit and meet with a financial coach who reviewed my situation personally gave me advice based on my situation.? That?s something I really needed because my situation, is just that-my situation.? After spending what seemed like years sifting through certified financial planners who only wanted to set me up with the next best fee based investment account, I gave up.? They just didn?t get it.? I needed someone who got me and it was truly the best decision that I made for myself and for my finances.

Personal Finance Bloggers vs Personal Finance Experts

Recently, a ?personal finance expert? confessed to me that she doesn?t mingle with personal finance bloggers since they dilute her message and dance in her space.? She felt this was a threat to her brand being that we essentially discuss the same issues.? Looking at her social media profiles, I could easily see why.? She spent more time promoting herself and ?her brand?, rather than finding a way to intimately communicate with her audience about their financial issues.

This is something I have always taken issue with and just one of the reasons why I started this blog.? While Suze Orman is someone I?ve admired since the age of 11, I wanted to lend a more personal voice to the personal finance blogosphere.? Where these experts often miss the mark is they spend too much time talking at and preaching to their audience while never sharing much of their own experiences.

One of the reasons why personal finance bloggers are so popular (IMHO) is that readers are able to connect with them because we are just like you.? We talk about our daily struggles because we aren?t perfect. Some of us even tell our readers how much debt we owe, savings in the bank and what we spent this past weekend.

That?s what people want to see.? Experiences which look like theirs, not another book with regurgitated and refashioned financial advice like ?save more? and ?spend less?.? My advice to the experts?? Get real with your audience and help them see that you?ve been in their shoes while addressing their situations personally.

Become Your Own Money Expert

One of the things I value since starting this blog is the awareness about myself and the things I?ve learned along the way based on my own experience.? I don?t need Suze yelling at me telling me how silly I am for wanting to take that trip to Costa Rica because I am in debt.? I also don?t need a financial website for women to tell me about my money in intellectually insulting lipstick chatter while selling me blushes and blowing me kisses.? I want it straight with no chaser.? And, I think the best place to get it is through my own experience while sharing it with others.

You already have the answers, don?t wait for a ?personal finance expert? to be the ?be and end all? for your finances.? It doesn?t take an Ivy League MBA to help us understand why we should spend less and save more.?? Sure, you may pick up one of their books to learn the basics but everything else is basically about your experience and the lessons learned from it.

What are your thoughts?? Who are you listening to and why?? Do personal finance experts have your attention?

?

Source: http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/personal-finance-experts-vs-personal-finance-bloggers-who-are-you-listening-to/

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THG Presents: The 10 Biggest Turkeys of 2011!

Happy Thanksgiving to all from The Hollywood Gossip!

What would this holiday be without family, food, football and reflection upon the things we appreciate most ... in the case of THG, that means some of the turkeys we have had the privilege, the honor and the burden of covering in the past year.

We are talking some fowl individuals here ... real bird brains.

Without further ado, THG's Top 10 Turkeys of 2011 ...

Who will win the 5th Annual Spencer Pratt Thanksgiving Turkey Award!?

10. President Obama and GOP presidential candidates (tie). On a day when we share the blessings this nation has provided us, we'll also share the blame for a polarized electorate and a federal government destined for perennial gridlock.

9. Taylor Armstrong. Refining shamelessness, one episode at a time.

8. Gloria Allred. Loudmouth lawyer for accusers in seemingly every random celebrity scandal always wants to talk turkey ... and gobble up publicity.

7. Dr. Conrad Murray: He killed Michael Jackson, people. Michael Jackson.

6. Snooki. Effing Snooki. If you know who she is, we don't need to explain.

5. NBA Players. The only segment of the 1% that elects not to work. Idiots.

4. Kris Jenner. Call her an entertainment mogul. Call her a mom-ager. Call her a she-pimp for her own evil spawn. By any name, she's an embarrassment.

3. Charlie Sheen. Always one to ruffle feathers, the Two and a Half Men star went off the rails, lost his job, then lost his freaking mind! Through it all, he raked in the cash money, riding the gravy train and lughing all the way to the bank. God Bless America.

2. Lindsay Lohan. Year after year, this girl gets into legal jams like it's her job. What is her job, come to think of it? We forgot. All we know is that anyone else with a rap sheet that lengthy would be getting a good stuffing today ... IN JAIL!!

1. Ashton Kutcher. Sheen's replacement proved to be half a man at best, cheating on Demi Moore with assorted skanks, blaming gossip blogs, Tweeting a defense of Joe Paterno and personifying the term douche, which is like a 2011 version of turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at THG!!!!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/thg-presents-the-10-biggest-turkeys-of-2011/

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Nicki Minaj Announces Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

'Heeeee's baaaacccckkkkk,' MC tweets Tuesday night, revealing that next project is due Valentine's Day.
By James Dinh

Nicki Minaj
Photo: FilmMagic

Let the good news roll in for Young Money! Not only is Drake predicted to top the Billboard albums chart with his latest effort, Take Care, but labelmate Nicki Minaj announced Tuesday night that her new album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, will drop in stores on Valentine's Day 2012.

After thanking her 7 million-plus followers on Twitter for celebrating Pink Friday's one-year anniversary, the recent American Music Awards winner hyped up her fans for a very special announcement. "Its only right to announce it on the anniversary of Pink Friday right barbz???" she wrote.

While the Young Money raptress planned a Ustream chat session with fans, the MC eventually just tweeted the big news because of technical difficulties. "Pink Friday : ROMAN RELOADED will be released on Valentines Day, 2012. Heeeee's baaaacccckkkkk," she wrote. "Its not called Roman Reloaded. Its called PINK FRIDAY : ROMAN RELOADED!!!!!! 4 WORDS!!!! Love u guys soooo much!!! VALENTINES DAY biittcchh!"

No word on whether the project will be a reissue of her platinum-selling Pink Friday or a brand-new album, but based on Cash Money boss Birdman's talk of an early 2012 release for her sophomore effort, it appears to be the latter. He also dished that Minaj may even release a single before 2011 wraps up.

Roman Zolanski is just one of Minaj's many alter egos, and the news of his appearance on her forthcoming project is no surprise. Back in August, Minaj told MTV News that she wasn't interested in collaborating with anyone for her next project and that the vibe of the LP would revolve around a certain rap persona.

"I don't know, I don't think I'm hitting up anybody for features for this sophomore album," she revealed backstage at Britney Spears' Femme Fatale Tour. "Roman ... possibly. But I never give away all my secrets."

Are you exited to for Nicki's new album? Let us know in the comments!

Related Artists

• Nicki Minaj

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674880/nicki-minaj-pink-friday-roman-reloaded.jhtml

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Kenya's Somalia operation hits at humanitarian aid

Kenya's military is having battlefield success against Somali militants Al Shabab, but it is hindering access for humanitarian aid groups in the midst of worst famine in 30 years, aid groups say.

After a month-long intervention in Somalia, Kenya?s military can point to a string of battlefront successes against the Somali militant group Al Shabab.

Skip to next paragraph

Shabab strongholds in the southern Somali towns of Dhobley, Tabda, Beles Qoqaani and Ras Kamboni have fallen into Kenyan and Somali government hands over the past 36 days, and the once-impenetrable Shabab-held port city of Kismayu ? from which Shabab derives millions of dollars in ?taxes? on illegal smuggling syndicates ? has begun to look vulnerable. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing convoys of Shabab fighters rushing to defend Kismayu, while aid organizations say displaced Somalis are increasingly flowing north toward the government-held capital of Mogadishu ahead of the advancing Kenyan army.

But while battlefield successes may be good news for the Kenyan military and the Somali government, they are less beneficial to ordinary Somalis who were already faced with one of the worst famines in more than 30 years.

?We are deeply concerned by the impact of the intensification of the conflict in Somalia, which threatens to increase internal displacement and may also reduce the ability of aid organizations to provide life-saving assistance to people coping with famine,? said Valerie Amos, the United Nations? emergency relief coordinator, in a statement. ?All parties should refrain from actions that disrupt access and respect international humanitarian law.?

Kenya?s incursion into Somalia is only the latest flare-up in a two-decade long civil war that has sent millions of Somalis from their homes, and forced millions to rely entirely on international food aid for their survival. Somalia?s inability to come up with a government that can bring stability is not just a problem for the Somalis themselves; it also creates a safe haven for criminal gangs to engage in high-seas piracy, as well as a haven for small terrorist groups such as Al-Shabab to operate, and to launch terrorist attacks against Somalia?s neighbors. On July 10, 2010, Shabab took credit for a pair of suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed 64 people.

Kenya insists that it had planned its incursion into Somalia for months, and that it coordinates its activities with the Somali transitional government in Mogadishu. But the military operation followed swiftly after a string of kidnappings of Western tourists from the coastal town of Lamu, and Spanish aid workers from the border refugee camps in Dadaab.

One British woman, Judith Tebbutt, was kidnapped and her husband murdered on Sept. 10. A French tourist, Marie Dedieu, was kidnapped from her Lamu home a month later, and subsequently died from lack of medicines. Two aid workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres were kidnapped in mid-October. MSF has largely gone silent about its ongoing effort to secure the safe release of its colleagues, noting that press comments might hinder their release.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/0_EZDCQRSQ4/Kenya-s-Somalia-operation-hits-at-humanitarian-aid

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Mother of bomb plot suspect apologizes to NYers (AP)

NEW YORK ? The mother of a "lone wolf" accused of plotting to attack police stations and post offices with homemade bombs apologized to New Yorkers on Monday, even as questions arose about why federal authorities ? who typically handle terrorism cases ? declined to get involved in what city officials called a serious threat.

The mother of Jose Pimentel spoke to reporters outside her upper Manhattan home the day after her son was arraigned in state court on terrorism-related charges.

"I didn't raise my son in that way," Carmen Sosa said. "I feel bad about this situation."

She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, "I think they handled it well."

Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.

Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD's Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.

The FBI thought Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own," one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI's New York office and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.

Pimentel's lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.

"If the goal here is to be stopping terror ... I'm not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources," he said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop "all along" before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.

"No question in my mind that we had to take this case down," Kelly said. "There was an imminent threat."

Added Kelly: "This is a classic case of what we've been talking about ? the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city."

Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and "al-Qaida sympathizer" who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.

His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.

Using a tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had been watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, police said.

Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bomb materials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad and bombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.

The arrest marked the second time this year that the police department took the unusual step of working with a state prosecutor to bring a terrorism case. In May, two men were indicted on charges they told an NYPD undercover detective about their desire to attack synagogues.

A grand jury declined to indict Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh on the most serious charge initially brought against them ? a high-level terror conspiracy count that carried the potential for life in prison without parole. They were, however, indicted on lesser state terrorism and hate crime charges, including one punishable by up to 32 years behind bars.

Attorneys for Ferhani said hate crime charges and a rarely used state terrorism law were misapplied to what they have called a case of police entrapment.

State prosecutors insist that there's ample evidence that Pimentel went well beyond merely talking about terrorism ? and that he was acting on his own initiative.

"The people whom we're prosecuting have well crossed that line," Adam Kaufmann, head of the district attorney's investigative division, said Monday. "They've gone from sort of espousing an idea to creating a plan to act upon it."

At an arraignment where Pimentel was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said investigators have "countless hours" of audio and video in this case. And in a criminal complaint, an intelligence division detective alleges Pimentel told him after the arrest that he was about an hour away from finishing the bomb and felt Islamic law obligates all Muslims to wage war against Americans to avenge U.S. military action in their homelands.

A former federal prosecutor praised the police and state prosecutors for going through with the investigation and charges.

"A person who puts out conspiratorial information and then takes steps to build a bomb should not be walking the streets of New York," whatever his mental state or his interactions with an informant, said Michael Wildes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who worked on terrorism-related cases. "Considering the facts that have been revealed to the public, the decision was done well, in this instance, to go ahead with this case and for the FBI not to be the lead agency."

Publicly, NYPD and federal officials claim they have a strong working relationship. But behind the scenes, there has been tension ever since the department mounted its own aggressive anti-terrorism effort, including undercover investigations targeting potential homegrown threats.

The effort is needed, NYPD officials say, because the city remains a prime terrorist target a decade after the Sept. 11 attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there have been at least 14 foiled plots against the city, including the latest suspected scheme.

The most serious threats came from Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad, who tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010 and is now serving a life sentence, and Najibullah Zazi, who targeted the subway system a year earlier. Zazi pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.

___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_bomb_plot

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Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog: Longevity Insurance

? Lasting Last Words | Main | How the Wealthy Feel About Their Wealth ?

November 21, 2011

Longevity Insurance

Longevity Insurance is a way to protect against the risks of living too long. You give money to an insurance company in exchange for an immediately activated stream of income for your lifetime. New York Life has recently come up with an updated version of longevity insurance where they defer the stream of income.

There are two ways this deferred method can be used. First, you can prepay for an annuity in advance and it will be cheaper because you might die before you begin to collect. Also, the insurance company will be investing your money over a longer period of time. ?Second, you can use it strictly as an insurance policy. You wouldn?t begin to collect the money until a date far in the future, so if you live past your life expectancy, you will have enough money to cover you. This allows you to spend your retirement more freely because you know that your insurance will provide for you later. Again, though, there is a risk that you will die before you see any of your insurance money.

Other risks involved with using these annuities include: giving up a lot of money up front and possibly dying before you can collect, inflation considerations, and the future financial stability of the insurance company.

See Tara Siegel Bernard, Longevity Insurance: Buying Down the Risks of Living Too Long, The New York Times, June 28, 2011.

Special thanks to?Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.

November 21, 2011 in Elder Law | Permalink

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Source: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2011/11/longevity-insurance.html

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In NH, Obama pushes for payroll tax cut extension (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. ? Confronting Republicans, President Barack Obama on Tuesday dashed into the home of the nation's first presidential primary, urging GOP lawmakers to support a payroll tax cut next week and stand by their own pledges not to increase taxes.

Obama sought to steal the spotlight from Republican presidential contenders who have blanketed the political battleground with anti-Obama messages while tending to a state expected to be heavily contested in the next year's general election.

"The next time you hear one of these folks from the other side ... talking about raising your taxes, you just remind them that ever since I've got into office, I've lowered your taxes, haven't raised them," Obama said at a high school gymnasium. "That's worth reminding them."

The president said "in the spirit of Thanksgiving," Democrats in Congress would offer Republicans another chance next week to consider a plan to extend and expand the cut in payroll taxes that fund Social Security. Obama said it would save the typical middle class family about $1,000 in taxes.

"Don't be a Grinch. Don't vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays," Obama said.

Even as he sought to draw a bright line with Republicans over taxes, Obama was reminded about the unhappiness among some in the Occupy Wall Street movement. As he began to speak, Obama was briefly interrupted by protesters who screamed, "Mic check!" and then chanted, "Mr. President ? over 4,000 protesters, over 4,000 protesters, have been arrested."

Obama paused to let the demonstrators speak. "No, no, no. That's OK," Obama said. The crowd then sought to drown out the protesters with chants of "Obama!"

Working the crowd after the speech, Obama was handed a note from the protesters that amounted to a script of their chant. Captured in photographs, the note said peaceful demonstrators had been arrested while "banksters" destroy the economy "with impunity."

The note urges Obama to stop the assault on protesters' First Amendment rights and says his "silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable."

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, meanwhile, was airing his first TV ads in the Granite State, a spot sharply critical of Obama's economic record. The former Massachusetts governor also ran ads in New Hampshire newspapers that say to Obama, "I will be blunt. Your policies have failed."

Traveling to New Hampshire, White House spokesman Jay Carney swiped at the ad, which plays audio of Obama from the 2008 presidential campaign declaring "if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

Obama, however, was quoting the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a distinction the ad doesn't make and that alters its meaning. In fact, the Romney campaign statement announcing the ad includes Obama's full quote: "Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

"Seriously? I mean, an ad in which they deliberately distort what the president said?" Carney said. "It's a rather remarkable way to start. And an unfortunate way to start."

New Hampshire, with only 4 electoral votes, has been a key target in recent presidential elections. Republican George W. Bush carried the state in 2000, but Democrats took it back in 2004. Obama lost the 2008 New Hampshire primary in a surprise to Hillary Rodham Clinton but bounced back to win the state in the general election.

Billy Shaheen, a longtime Democratic operative in New Hampshire and the husband of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said Republicans' huge gains in the state during the 2010 midterm elections served as a wake-up call for the state's Democrats.

"After the 2010 election, New Hampshire got a taste of what the tea party can do, and it's not happy. I think an undercurrent exists that's ready to be tapped for the 2012 election," he said. "We're not proud of what has been going on in the state capitol, and we're getting ready. We let our guard down in 2010, but we've come too far to go back."

The president's trip followed the collapse of a special congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee, which failed to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in cuts. Democrats had hoped to tuck the payroll tax extension, as well as a renewal of unemployment benefits, into the supercommittee agreement.

With that option seemingly off the table, the White House plans to make a full-court press for a separate measure to extend the payroll tax cut before it expires at the end of the year ? and set up Republicans to be the scapegoat if the measure doesn't pass.

The White House says a middle-class family making $50,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $1,000 if the payroll tax cuts are not extended.

Republicans aren't wholly opposed to the extension. In fact, party members sent the White House a letter in September stating that extension of the payroll tax cut is one element of Obama's $447 billion jobs bill where the two sides may be able to find common ground.

Some Republicans worry that the extension would undermine the solvency of Social Security. Others oppose any effort to pay for the renewal by taxing the wealthy.

The issue could appeal to independent voters in low-tax New Hampshire. With Republican candidates led by Romney assailing Obama's record at every turn, the president and his surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden, are trying to rebut their economic message.

Recent polls have indicated that, if an election between Obama and Romney were held today, Obama would lose by roughly 10 percentage points.

It was Obama's first visit to New Hampshire in nearly two years and the president harkened back to a campaign event at Manchester High School nearly four years to the day, when an early snow storm forced him to leave early.

"I wanted to point out," Obama said, "we are keeping our promise. We are back."

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples and Holly Ramer contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Woman to begin Antarctic crossing, awaits weather

In this photo taken on Sept. 24, 2010 provided by the Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition, British adventurer Felicity Aston skis across Iceland during a pre-expedition training trip. Aston plans to ski by herself across the Antarctica, all the way to the other side of the frozen continent. If she manages to complete this journey of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) in late January, she'll become the first human person to cross Antarctica alone under her own power. She would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days. A charter flight from Chile will take her to a base in Antarctica on Friday Nov. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition/Kaspersky Lab)

In this photo taken on Sept. 24, 2010 provided by the Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition, British adventurer Felicity Aston skis across Iceland during a pre-expedition training trip. Aston plans to ski by herself across the Antarctica, all the way to the other side of the frozen continent. If she manages to complete this journey of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) in late January, she'll become the first human person to cross Antarctica alone under her own power. She would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days. A charter flight from Chile will take her to a base in Antarctica on Friday Nov. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition/Kaspersky Lab)

In this photo taken on Friday Nov. 4, 2011 provided by the Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition, British adventurer Felicity Aston poses for a photo by a map in Punta Arenas, Chile. Aston plans to ski by herself across the Antarctica, all the way to the other side of the frozen continent. If she manages to complete this journey of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) in late January, she'll become the first human person to cross Antarctica alone under her own power. She would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days. A charter flight from Chile will take her to a base in Antarctica on Friday Nov. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Kaspersky ONE Trans-antarctic Expedition/Kaspersky Lab)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? A 33-year-old British adventurer preparing for a historic solo crossing of Antarctica was waiting at a base camp for the weather to improve on Sunday in order to begin her long journey on skis.

Felicity Aston said she has been doing more than physical training to ready herself for the expedition.

"I've also been speaking to a sports psychologist about the mental aspect of it because so much of this is about where your head's at rather than your muscles and your physical fitness," Aston told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the base camp at Union Glacier.

She aims to become the first person to cross Antarctica alone using only muscle power. If she manages to complete the journey in late January as planned, she would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days.

"Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us so far," Aston said.

At the base camp, she said, "it's blue sky. It's quite warm relatively for Antarctica, but unfortunately the weather on the other side of the continent isn't good enough to fly, apparently."

"So we're sitting here waiting for the weather to improve," she said.

Aston has been to Antarctica before but said she is particularly thrilled that she will be climbing solo through the Transantarctic Mountains and onto the continent's vast central plateau.

"Being out there and effectively having Antarctica to myself ? or it will feel like that ? appeals to me," she said. "And just the completeness of it, you know, to ski from one side of Antarctica to the other and to find out what it's like to be out there on my own."

The ordeal she faces will be similar to that endured by Boerge Ousland of Norway, who made a 64-day trip across the continent in 1997. But he harnessed Antarctica's fierce winds by strapping himself to a parachute-like sail when they blew in his favor. On those days he could ski as far as 140 miles while towing a sled carrying about 400 pounds (nearly 900 kilograms) of supplies. At other times, his speed dropped to about 2 mph (3 kph) as he struggled through crevasse-laced terrain, he said.

"It was physically and mentally tiring. I crossed snow bridges not knowing if they would hold my weight. I had to go slowly and very carefully," he said.

Aston's previous travel adventures have included skiing across the Canadian Arctic and crossing the Greenland ice sheet. But this is her first solo expedition.

"I'm looking forward to finding out what it will be like to go that length of time without seeing anyone," she said. "There's a definite appeal to just getting going and how simple life becomes when all you have to worry about is eating, sleeping and skiing."

She needed to pack the bare essentials because she will be pulling her supplies behind her. Her food rations include porridge, freeze-dried dinners and plenty of chocolate, which in all she said will add up to more than 4,000 calories each day.

"There's a lot of chocolate involved in this. It's great," she said with a laugh. "I get to eat chocolate all day and I still manage to lose weight, so that's a bonus from my point of view."

____

AP Radio reporter Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Aston's expedition site: www.kasperskyonetransantarcticexpedition.com

Aston's Twitter site for tweets during her journey: www.twitter.com/felicity(underscore)aston

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-20-AA-Antarctica-Solo-Crossing/id-a28feb2cae764031a6dd6383d9d85e7d

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[OOC] Pairings~

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Love and it's consequences?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

So for the pairings, each guy is going to pick the top two girls he'd like his chachter with. One of them will be his mate, the other will be his true love. So even if some is picked twice, they dont have to fight over her. (fun as that may be.) One person will have them as their mate, the other will have her as their true love. I pick the mate/true love part.

Horseygirl

Member for 2 years

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A New Idea for Harry Potter :D

Alright since I spout out ideas like a fountain I wanted to share this HP roleplay idea with you guys. It is based off of a fanfiction I read once, but for the life of me I cannot find it again T~T

Anywho the plot is well. . .Simple-ish

*********

The world was once again set at peace when Harry Potter defeated Voldemort. Or so most thought, but what they didnt know was that somewhere deep in the room of prophecies was one so deadly that it could mean the existance of everything we know and love about Harry Potter may forever dissapear.

When a death eater finds this prophecy and casts the dark mark at it the world suddenly is turned upside down. Muggles, Muggle-born, and Half-blood wizards were being slaughtered by the millions. Some were used as servents, forced to get married and have children so that the Dark Lord would never run out of servents to serve him.

There is hope though, in the many refugee camps all around the world. Such as Grimmwauld place and The Burrow, where many Muggles and Witches/Wizards are safe from the tyranical reign of the Dark Lord.

********

(Anybody who died in the books is still alive. Save the Potters of course who had to die otherwise this role play would not exist.)

Any whom here are some of the Canons you can play.

Refugee Order of the pheonix Canons:
Sirius Black:
Remus Lupin: Taken
Andromeda Tonks:
Nymphodora Tonks:
Ted Tonks:
Albus Dumbledore:
Aberforth Dumbledore:
Severus Snape:
Alice Longbottom:
Frank Longbottom:
Rubeus Hagrid:
Alaster "Mad-Eye" Moody:
Arthur Weasley:
Molly Weasley:
Kingsley Shacklebolt:
Minerva McGonagall:
William "Bill" Weasley:
Fleur Delacour:
Charlie weasley:

Other Canon Refugee's:
Fred Weasley:
George Weasley:
Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley:
Ron Weasley:
Hermione Granger: Taken
Luna Lovegood:
Neville Longbottom:

*****
Tom Riddle/Voldemort/Dark Lord:

*****

Death Eaters Canons

Bellatrix Lestrange:
Draco Malfoy:
Lucious Malfoy:
Peter Pettigrew:
Bartemius "Barty" Crouch, Jr.:
Regulus Arcturus Black:

****

Other:

(Tell me if I missed anyone and I will add them. I'm just too lazy to look up a full list of characters.)

ALSO NOTE: Everything that happened in the books never happened, including things before harry potters times. Which is why you can see some dead characters on the playable canons list.

****

Rules:

I will allow romance between OC and Canon characters, but it cannot dominate the role play.
Must be able to post at least a paragraph.
Up to four characters per person.

****

OC character spots:
(Unlimited amount, but I would love if you guys also at least played one cannon.)

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Apple vs. Samsung current U.S. product lines

Interesting comparison by Minimally Minimal of Apple vs. Samsung product strategies, including their current U.S. device lines. (Spoiler: 3 vs. 134). No doubt there’s a debate to be had about when both lack of and way too much choice become frustrating. Hit the link below for more. Source:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/DXSOrV84mqk/story01.htm

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Egyptians protest at army, clashes kill at least 12 (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? At least 12 people were killed in clashes between security forces and crowds protesting against Egypt's ruling military council in some of the worst violence since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

With just a week before voting in the first free parliamentary election in decades, the confrontations in the capital Cairo and other cities raised worries about how smooth voting will be.

Protesters camped out for a third night on Monday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 28-day uprising that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule. [ID:nL5E7MK0N3]

Egyptians elect a new parliament in a staggered vote that starts on November 28, but even when the assembly is picked, presidential powers remain with the army until a presidential poll, which may not happen until late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.

Teargas has rained down on demonstrators and police have beaten them with batons in a bid to end the protest. Angry protesters brandished spent shotgun cartridges and bullet casings on Sunday, although police denied using live rounds.

Police backed by army officers fired salvoes of gas canisters and charged demonstrators in the square as darkness fell on Sunday, temporarily sending protesters fleeing.

They burned down banners and Internet video clips, which could not be independently checked, showed police beating protesters with sticks, pulling them by the hair and, in one case, dumping what appeared to be a corpse on piles of rubbish.

But demonstrators swiftly regrouped in sidestreets and returned to take control of the square.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and who leads the army council, has become a target of protests.

"The people want the toppling of the Field Marshal," protesters frequently chanted.

"I don't want Tantawi ... I am staying tonight," said Ayman Ramadan, a data entry employee, said early on Monday morning.

State television said at least 10 people were killed on Sunday, raising the death toll since Saturday, when clashes erupted, to at least 12. Hundreds have been wounded.

SWIFT TRANSITION

The demonstration that began on Friday was initially led by Islamists, angry at a bid by the army-backed cabinet to lay down principles for a new constitution that would have kept the army out of the control of a future civilian government.

But since then, the protest has largely been driven by the same youthful activists who galvanized Egyptians to bring down Mubarak, putting national pride before religion.

One of those groups, April 6 youth movement, told Egypt's state news agency it would stay in Cairo's Tahrir and continue sit-ins in other cities until its demands were met, including a call for a presidential vote no later than April.

Other demands include replacing the current cabinet with a national salvation government and an immediate investigation into the clashes in Tahrir and trial of those implicated in it.

Presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist, told protesters in Tahrir: "We are demanding as the minimum that power be handed over within six months."

The army has denied any desire to cling onto power and says it will not let any violence delay the parliamentary poll. It insists it can ensure security during the vote.

"We are all insisting on having the election on time -- the government, parties and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," cabinet spokesman Mohamed Hegazy told Reuters.

But analysts say a surge in violence in voting, a common feature of elections in Mubarak's era of rigged polls, could undermine the assembly's legitimacy if the result is questioned and deepen public frustration at the army's handling of the transition.

Presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Abdallah al-Ashaal denounced violence against protesters and called for a national salvation government, state news agency MENA said.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, urged Egypt's interim authority to halt the violence.

"I urge calm and restraint and condemn the use of violence in the strongest terms," she said.

British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt condemned the clashes and said the deaths were "deeply regrettable."

Liberal groups are dismayed by the military trials of thousands of civilians and the army's failure to scrap a hated emergency law. Islamists eyeing a strong showing in the next parliament suspect the army wants to curtail their influence.

Analysts say Islamists could win 40 percent of parliamentary seats, with a big portion going to the Muslim Brotherhood.

But analysts say predicting a result is tricky, given the vast number of new parties and voices in Egypt's political landscape.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/wl_nm/us_egypt_protests

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So Weird To Remember (talking-points-memo)

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Marjorie Cohn: GOP Candidates Advocate Torture

At last week's debate, Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann defended waterboarding. Cain said, "I don't see it as torture. I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique," which is what the Bush administration used to call its policy of torture and abuse. Bachmann declared, "If I were president, I would be willing to use waterboarding. I think it was very effective. It gained information for our country." And after the debate, Mitt Romney's aides told CNN that he does not think waterboarding is torture.

President Obama correctly retorted, "Waterboarding is torture." He added, "Anybody who has actually read about and understands the practice of waterboarding would say that is torture -- and that's not something we do, period."

The United States has long considered waterboarding to be torture. Several federal court opinions refer to waterboarding as torture. Our government prosecuted, convicted and hung Japanese military leaders following World War II for waterboarding. The U.S. War Crimes Act defines torture as a war crime.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and John Yoo have all admitted participating in decisions to waterboard detainees, knowing that interrogators would carry out their orders. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, commanders all the way up the chain of command to the commander-in-chief can be prosecuted for war crimes if they knew or should have known their subordinates would commit them and the commanders did nothing to stop or prevent it. Therefore, Bush, Cheney, and Yoo have admitted to the commission of war crimes.

But by refusing to investigate them for their admitted torture, the Obama administration has given the Bush officials a free pass.

Moreover, Bachmann was wrong when she claimed torture is effective. Former high level FBI interrogators, including Ali Soufan and Dan Coleman, say the person being tortured will say anything to get the torture to stop -- even providing false information. The best results, interrogators add, are obtained with humane methods.

Obama also accurately noted that waterboarding "is contrary to America's tradition, it's contrary to our ideals. That's not who we are. That's not how we operate. We don't need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism. We did the right thing by ending that practice. If we want to lead around the world part of our leadership is setting a good example."

Unfortunately, during his hearing to be confirmed as CIA director, David Petraeus told Congress there might be occasions in which we must return to "enhanced interrogation" to get information. Alarmingly, that comment signaled that the Obama administration may return to the use of torture and abuse. That would be unacceptable.

Marjorie Cohn is editor of 'The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse' (NYU Press 2011).

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/waterboarding-torture_b_1102507.html

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London protesters defy deadline to remove tents (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Anti-capitalist protesters defied a deadline to remove their tents from outside St Paul's Cathedral on Thursday, heralding a new phase in their legal stand-off with officials in London's financial district.

Dozens of protesters held a minute's silence before cheering and wiggling their fingers in the air in their trademark gesture as the bells of the 17th-century cathedral struck 6 p.m., the deadline by which authorities had told them to pack their bags.

The City of London Corporation, which owns much of the land on which the 200 tents were pitched a month ago, will now begin legal proceedings in the High Court.

The corporation has followed different methods from New York authorities which used riot police to kick out Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in a surprise pre-dawn raid on Tuesday.

"'Occupy' is an idea and you cannot evict an idea," London organizer Ronan McNern said.

The corporation had suspended its legal proceedings two weeks ago but on Wednesday officials attached legal notices to the tents, giving their occupants 24 hours to end a demonstration that has shaken the Church of England, the Anglican mother Church, and embarrassed senior politicians.

City officials will start legal proceedings in the High Court in the next few days, a corporation source told Reuters.

Lawyer John Cooper, representing the demonstrators, said he would work to ensure his clients' interests were "fearlessly defended."

The cathedral is one of London's most popular tourist attractions. It was the venue of the 1981 wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles and the funeral of World War Two leader Winston Churchill in 1965.

The cathedral, which unwittingly found itself at the center of the dispute after police blocked the demonstrators' attempt to camp outside their intended target, the nearby London Stock Exchange, will continue to keep its legal procedures on hold.

After losing two senior clerics over its handling of the issue, it has embarked on a policy of negotiation with the protesters, even though it faces disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

"We understand the Church is in a difficult position," a corporation spokesman said. "What they do with their own land is an issue for them. We are looking after the public highway."

(Writing and additional reporting by Avril Ormsby; editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/wl_nm/us_britain_occupy

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Wall Street drops on nerves, S&P falls below key level (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks fell sharply in early afternoon on Thursday as nervous investors bailed out of the market, after the S&P 500 broke a key technical level.

There was no clear trigger for the sell-off. A number of sources cited talk about lack of progress in talks with the U.S. "supercommittee" charged with dealing with the nation's debt problems. No specific news has been released.

Losses accelerated around 1,225 on the S&P 500, which was described as a key technical level. The S&P 500 lost 1.1 percent in a span of 10 minutes after breaking that level.

"There was a flurry of futures trading and some technical levels where some sell-stops were triggered. Technically speaking 1,225 was kind of a key level, then the 100-day moving average was 1,222," said Michael Marrale, managing director, and head of sales trading at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

Declines in materials and energy shares accelerated with losses in oil and metals prices

Technology shares also dragged on the market, and the Nasdaq was down more than 2 percent at its session low. The S&P technology index (.GSPT) dropped 2.5 percent while the S&P energy index (.GSPE) fell 1.9 percent and the S&P materials index (.GSPM) declined 2.5 percent. U.S. crude futures prices slid more than 3 percent to $99.17 a barrel.

"Pretty much everything's for sale. There's a move toward cash, and bond prices are (up)," said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets, in Baltimore.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 144.78 points, or 1.22 percent, at 11,760.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was down 19.32 points, or 1.56 percent, at 1,217.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 49.44 points, or 1.87 percent, at 2,590.17.

Earlier, Spanish bond yields hit 6.98 percent, their highest level since 1997, at a 10-year auction, while a French bond auction also drew high yields.

The 7 percent mark for bond yields is viewed by investors as unsustainable, as both Greece and Portugal were forced to seek bailouts after yields hit similar levels.

Investors have worried that the debt problems could tip the global economy into another recession, which would hurt U.S. growth, even though data here has suggested economy is picking up.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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