Meet DWTS Louis Astaire and Ginger Snap

Tonight on "Dancing with the Stars," "The Insider""s own Niecy Nash will strike the dance building with her partner Louis Van Amstel, and they"re presumption new personas for their foxtrot.

"The people who done this dance [their] signature [dance], to me, would be Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers," Niecy told "The Insider" at a operation session, going on to say, "I lovingly call him "Louis Astaire," and I call myself "Ginger Snap.""

"It"s going to be utterly an elegant, and still sassy, performance," Louis promises.

And when it comes to removing the votes to have it past the initial elimination, Niecy has no fear: "Everybody keeps revelation me, "I"m choosing by casting votes for you, Niecy," so as prolonged as they keep their phone bills paid, we"ve got a couple of votes in the can."

"Dancing with the Stars" front tonight on ABC.

Haiti assist bid injured by delayed U.N. reply

Tom Brown PORT-AU-PRINCE Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13pm EST Related News Haiti preserve puncture as sleet turns camps to mudThu, Feb eighteen 2010U.N. assist arch chides agencies on Haiti reliefThu, Feb eighteen 2010Sarkozy visits Haiti, unveils vital assist packageWed, Feb seventeen 2010Tarps, toilets are priorities for quake-hit Haiti: U.N.Mon, Feb fifteen 2010One month after quake, Haitians stick on to weep deadFri, Feb twelve 2010 < 1 / 7 >

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Clutching involuntary attack rifles, truckloads of U.N. infantry patrolled the streets of Haiti"s cracked collateral on the day after the trembler strike last month, clearly preoccupied to the wretchedness around them.

World&&&&Natural Disasters

Cries for assistance from people digging for survivors in collapsed buildings were drowned out by the bark of heavy-duty engines as the infantry plowed by Port-au-Prince but interlude to stick on rescue efforts, majority less lead them.

A usual steer since they were deployed in 2004, the U.N. infantry huddled in the shade of their canopied vehicles.

There were about 9,000 uniformed U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Haiti when the upheaval struck on Jan twelve and they were the judicious "first responders" to the mess in the bankrupt Caribbean country, whose notoriously diseased executive supervision was impressed by the scale of the tragedy.

Initially, however, nothing of the peacekeepers appeared to be concerned in hands-on charitable service in what puncture healing experts report as the vicious initial 72 hours after a harmful trembler strikes.

Their reply to the abominable pang was singular to you do security and seeking for looters after the bulk 7.0 upheaval intended majority of the collateral and took what Haitian President Rene Preval says could be as majority as 300,000 lives.

There was looting in the capital, but it paled in some-more aged with the astringency of the charitable crisis.

Horribly-injured patients flooded overstretched hospitals, forcing healing staff to confirm that patients to yield and that were already as well far left to try saving.

"Doctors played God," pronounced Tyler Marshall, a maestro former Los Angeles Times match operative with an general assist organisation that helped out in a tent city erected at the tallness of the destruction on the drift of Port-au-Prince"s University Hospital, the country"s largest.

Scores of U.N. crew died in the quake, together with Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. mission that was set up in 2004. That helps insist what majority have criticized as a glacially delayed kickoff of service operations after one of history"s misfortune healthy disasters.

But in the days and weeks that followed it mostly seemed that lessons from alternative disasters were abandoned in Haiti as fears of rioting or anarchy overshadowed concerns about removing assist out quickly.

The U.N."s tip charitable assist official, John Holmes, is between those who have chided service agencies, together with the United Nations itself, for you do as well small to assistance Haiti.

"We cannot ... wait for for for the subsequent puncture for these lessons to be learned," Holmes wrote in a trusted email initial published on the website of the biography Foreign Policy.

"There is an obligatory need to progress significantly genius on the ground, to urge coordination, vital formulation and sustenance of aid," pronounced Holmes.

Edmond Mulet, behaving head of the U.N. mission, concurred in an talk that it played a singular charitable purpose in the initial couple of days after the trembler since the operations were effectively decapitated.

"At the unequivocally commencement it was unequivocally formidable since all the domicile was utterly broken and all the care of the mission was killed," Mulet told Reuters.

"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"

Mulet gained prominence for wielding an iron fist during a prior army as head of the U.N. mission when he led mostly Brazilian "blue helmet" infantry in a successful crackdown on Haiti"s heavily armed gangs.

And he has finished no tip about sophistry the competing needs of service operations with law enforcement, in his bid to lane down the some-more than 3,000 inmates who took value of the trembler to shun from the main prison.

"We are here additionally to yield security," he pronounced when asked about the mess of convoys of rifle-wielding U.N. infantry to poke for people trapped in the rubble of the busted capital.

"I still have to patrol, I still have to go after all these criminals and bandits that transient from the inhabitant penitentiary, the squad leaders, the criminals, the killers, the kidnappers. I cannot unequivocally confuse myself from you do that."

The service mission shifted in to higher rigging after U.S. infantry deployed in large numbers and set up a supply sequence to get food and disinfectant in to areas great out for aid.

But there were still majority bottlenecks and setbacks, mostly involving U.N.-linked food distributions hobbled by unsound organization, reserve and throng control.

Unfortunately, U.N. infantry in Haiti have over the years gained a repute for toughness and abuse some-more than for easing pang in the lowest nation in the Americas.

"The usually time I"ve seen one of these U.N. infantry burst out of the behind of a lorry was to kick up on somebody or take a shot at them," pronounced a piece of the U.S. Army"s 82nd Airborne Division, as he worked security during a new assist handout.

"These guys have since all of us in unvaried a bad repute here," he said, asking not to be identified.

Haiti"s wrecked infrastructure and bad ride links finished it formidable to get assist out and keep it flowing, but that frequency finished the incident opposite from that in alternative new disasters around the globe.

"POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE"

"The lowest and the majority exposed people lend towards to live in the regions that are strike the majority by healthy disasters," pronounced Solomon Kuah, an puncture healing medicine formed in New York who outlayed 4 weeks in Port-au-Prince after the quake.

There are no arguable estimates for the series of survivors who died from injuries due to unsound healing supplies.

But Henriette Chamouillet, the World Health Organization"s deputy in Haiti, pronounced all from staff shortages to bureaucracy and a miss of make-up lists embroiled the smoothness of containers full of medicines from Port-au-Prince"s airfield to doctors on the ground.

Port-au-Prince sits usually 700 miles off the seashore of Miami, that is home to a large Haitian-American community, and it seemed ludicrous that so couple of the U.S. infantry rushed there spoke French or were accompanied by translators.

One retaining picture of pell-mell food distributions came when U.S. helicopters offloaded boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a site in the capital. Many Haitians non-stop them up usually to toss them afar in offend since no French or Creole-language instructions were enclosed with the assumingly invalid packets of dust, explaining that they indispensable to be churned with H2O as piece of their preparation.

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has touted the Haiti service mission as "the largest and majority successful general poke and rescue bid ever fabricated in history."

But some-more than 6 weeks after the upheaval hit, the mission is still mostly in an puncture reply mode. The U.N."s World Food Program is tying the food rations to 55-pound (25 kg) bags of rice and the Haitian supervision estimates that a million upheaval survivors are still vital in the streets in temporary encampments with no using H2O or toilets.

Doctors are roughly finished traffic with dire injuries but reconstruction for a little 40,000 amputees and rebuilding Haiti"s health infrastructure are between long-term challenges.

"This is unequivocally a mess of Biblical proportions," pronounced Lewis Lucke, who was the USAID executive in Iraq prior to entrance to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.

U.N. and alternative officials have pronounced the tellurian reply to Haiti"s upheaval was quicker and some-more in effect than in alternative new disasters, together with the Asian tsunami that killed 226,000 people in thirteen countries in Dec 2004.

But experts contend the United Nations has a lot to sense from smaller, some-more nimble healing groups similar to International Medical Corps, or IMC, and Paris-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, along with charities some-more experienced in distributing aid, such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services.

Kuah, who concurrent service efforts for IMC, a California-based organisation that had rarely learned doctors treating patients in Haiti twenty-three hours after the trembler struck, stressed the "need for speed" when it comes to saving lives.

"When you ask yourself if there were ways you could have prevented some-more mortalities or discontinued additional mortality, with earthquakes, in particular, it"s some-more timing than anything else," pronounced Kuah.

(Additional stating by Catherine Bremer, Jackie Frank, Patricia Zengerle, Mica Rosenberg and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

World Natural Disasters

Haiti assist bid injured by delayed U.N. reply

Tom Brown PORT-AU-PRINCE Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13pm EST Related News Haiti preserve puncture as sleet turns camps to mudThu, Feb eighteen 2010U.N. assist arch chides agencies on Haiti reliefThu, Feb eighteen 2010Sarkozy visits Haiti, unveils vital assist packageWed, Feb seventeen 2010Tarps, toilets are priorities for quake-hit Haiti: U.N.Mon, Feb fifteen 2010One month after quake, Haitians stick on to weep deadFri, Feb twelve 2010 < 1 / 7 >

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Clutching involuntary attack rifles, truckloads of U.N. infantry patrolled the streets of Haiti"s cracked collateral on the day after the trembler strike last month, clearly preoccupied to the wretchedness around them.

World&&&&Natural Disasters

Cries for assistance from people digging for survivors in collapsed buildings were drowned out by the bark of heavy-duty engines as the infantry plowed by Port-au-Prince but interlude to stick on rescue efforts, majority less lead them.

A usual steer since they were deployed in 2004, the U.N. infantry huddled in the shade of their canopied vehicles.

There were about 9,000 uniformed U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Haiti when the upheaval struck on Jan twelve and they were the judicious "first responders" to the mess in the bankrupt Caribbean country, whose notoriously diseased executive supervision was impressed by the scale of the tragedy.

Initially, however, nothing of the peacekeepers appeared to be concerned in hands-on charitable service in what puncture healing experts report as the vicious initial 72 hours after a harmful trembler strikes.

Their reply to the abominable pang was singular to you do security and seeking for looters after the bulk 7.0 upheaval intended majority of the collateral and took what Haitian President Rene Preval says could be as majority as 300,000 lives.

There was looting in the capital, but it paled in some-more aged with the astringency of the charitable crisis.

Horribly-injured patients flooded overstretched hospitals, forcing healing staff to confirm that patients to yield and that were already as well far left to try saving.

"Doctors played God," pronounced Tyler Marshall, a maestro former Los Angeles Times match operative with an general assist organisation that helped out in a tent city erected at the tallness of the destruction on the drift of Port-au-Prince"s University Hospital, the country"s largest.

Scores of U.N. crew died in the quake, together with Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. mission that was set up in 2004. That helps insist what majority have criticized as a glacially delayed kickoff of service operations after one of history"s misfortune healthy disasters.

But in the days and weeks that followed it mostly seemed that lessons from alternative disasters were abandoned in Haiti as fears of rioting or anarchy overshadowed concerns about removing assist out quickly.

The U.N."s tip charitable assist official, John Holmes, is between those who have chided service agencies, together with the United Nations itself, for you do as well small to assistance Haiti.

"We cannot ... wait for for for the subsequent puncture for these lessons to be learned," Holmes wrote in a trusted email initial published on the website of the biography Foreign Policy.

"There is an obligatory need to progress significantly genius on the ground, to urge coordination, vital formulation and sustenance of aid," pronounced Holmes.

Edmond Mulet, behaving head of the U.N. mission, concurred in an talk that it played a singular charitable purpose in the initial couple of days after the trembler since the operations were effectively decapitated.

"At the unequivocally commencement it was unequivocally formidable since all the domicile was utterly broken and all the care of the mission was killed," Mulet told Reuters.

"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"

Mulet gained prominence for wielding an iron fist during a prior army as head of the U.N. mission when he led mostly Brazilian "blue helmet" infantry in a successful crackdown on Haiti"s heavily armed gangs.

And he has finished no tip about sophistry the competing needs of service operations with law enforcement, in his bid to lane down the some-more than 3,000 inmates who took value of the trembler to shun from the main prison.

"We are here additionally to yield security," he pronounced when asked about the mess of convoys of rifle-wielding U.N. infantry to poke for people trapped in the rubble of the busted capital.

"I still have to patrol, I still have to go after all these criminals and bandits that transient from the inhabitant penitentiary, the squad leaders, the criminals, the killers, the kidnappers. I cannot unequivocally confuse myself from you do that."

The service mission shifted in to higher rigging after U.S. infantry deployed in large numbers and set up a supply sequence to get food and disinfectant in to areas great out for aid.

But there were still majority bottlenecks and setbacks, mostly involving U.N.-linked food distributions hobbled by unsound organization, reserve and throng control.

Unfortunately, U.N. infantry in Haiti have over the years gained a repute for toughness and abuse some-more than for easing pang in the lowest nation in the Americas.

"The usually time I"ve seen one of these U.N. infantry burst out of the behind of a lorry was to kick up on somebody or take a shot at them," pronounced a piece of the U.S. Army"s 82nd Airborne Division, as he worked security during a new assist handout.

"These guys have since all of us in unvaried a bad repute here," he said, asking not to be identified.

Haiti"s wrecked infrastructure and bad ride links finished it formidable to get assist out and keep it flowing, but that frequency finished the incident opposite from that in alternative new disasters around the globe.

"POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE"

"The lowest and the majority exposed people lend towards to live in the regions that are strike the majority by healthy disasters," pronounced Solomon Kuah, an puncture healing medicine formed in New York who outlayed 4 weeks in Port-au-Prince after the quake.

There are no arguable estimates for the series of survivors who died from injuries due to unsound healing supplies.

But Henriette Chamouillet, the World Health Organization"s deputy in Haiti, pronounced all from staff shortages to bureaucracy and a miss of make-up lists embroiled the smoothness of containers full of medicines from Port-au-Prince"s airfield to doctors on the ground.

Port-au-Prince sits usually 700 miles off the seashore of Miami, that is home to a large Haitian-American community, and it seemed ludicrous that so couple of the U.S. infantry rushed there spoke French or were accompanied by translators.

One retaining picture of pell-mell food distributions came when U.S. helicopters offloaded boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a site in the capital. Many Haitians non-stop them up usually to toss them afar in offend since no French or Creole-language instructions were enclosed with the assumingly invalid packets of dust, explaining that they indispensable to be churned with H2O as piece of their preparation.

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has touted the Haiti service mission as "the largest and majority successful general poke and rescue bid ever fabricated in history."

But some-more than 6 weeks after the upheaval hit, the mission is still mostly in an puncture reply mode. The U.N."s World Food Program is tying the food rations to 55-pound (25 kg) bags of rice and the Haitian supervision estimates that a million upheaval survivors are still vital in the streets in temporary encampments with no using H2O or toilets.

Doctors are roughly finished traffic with dire injuries but reconstruction for a little 40,000 amputees and rebuilding Haiti"s health infrastructure are between long-term challenges.

"This is unequivocally a mess of Biblical proportions," pronounced Lewis Lucke, who was the USAID executive in Iraq prior to entrance to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.

U.N. and alternative officials have pronounced the tellurian reply to Haiti"s upheaval was quicker and some-more in effect than in alternative new disasters, together with the Asian tsunami that killed 226,000 people in thirteen countries in Dec 2004.

But experts contend the United Nations has a lot to sense from smaller, some-more nimble healing groups similar to International Medical Corps, or IMC, and Paris-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, along with charities some-more experienced in distributing aid, such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services.

Kuah, who concurrent service efforts for IMC, a California-based organisation that had rarely learned doctors treating patients in Haiti twenty-three hours after the trembler struck, stressed the "need for speed" when it comes to saving lives.

"When you ask yourself if there were ways you could have prevented some-more mortalities or discontinued additional mortality, with earthquakes, in particular, it"s some-more timing than anything else," pronounced Kuah.

(Additional stating by Catherine Bremer, Jackie Frank, Patricia Zengerle, Mica Rosenberg and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

World Natural Disasters lampshade for acne to phone help this mulls

George Osborne gives behind something couple of electorate knew they were losing

Ian King & ,}

National word is presumably the majority dubious taxation of them all. First theres the name, conjuring up a calming picture of a state-administered insurance scheme. That was positively the goal when, in 1911, David Lloyd George combined NI to account ill pay, incapacity and stagnation benefits. As the couple in between the turn of contributions and the turn of benefit has been eroded, NI has increasingly been seen as usually an additional form of income tax. That was since faith by Nye Bevan, the Labour apportion who, in 1948, scored equally state pensions in to the benefits to be saved by NI, admitting: The good tip of the inhabitant word account is that there aint no fund.

But NI is some-more than usually income taxation by an additional name. Paid not usually by employees, but additionally employers, it can additionally be seen as an additional form of corporation taxation and, whilst wakeful of their own contributions, electorate never notice those of their employers or think of them as entrance out of their pay, making it a undiluted secrecy tax. That was spotted, curiously, by that physical condition tax-cutter, Nigel Lawson, who in his 1985 Budget private the roof on employers contributions.

In the 1992 choosing campaign, Labour scored equally itself in knots after indicating that it would lift the roof on employees contributions, permitting the Conservatives to advise of a taxation bombshell. Ten years later, in a typically complicated move, Gordon Brown essentially did lift contributions for employees, employers and the self-employed. It is partly because the sum taxation take during the past decade has risen by 46 per cent but the take from NI has risen by roughly half as most again.

The big subject is how well the Tories plan goes down with voters. Apart from the self-employed, businesses cannot vote, so arguably they could have got some-more crash for their sire with alternative some-more transparently inexhaustible measures.

Related LinksOsborne hopes TV discuss will progress ToriesGeorge Osborne: posh and useless

And in pledging to tell an NI climb nonetheless to be introduced, George Osborne is giving electorate behind something most of them probably had no thought they were about to lose. And most will consternation what spending cuts the Tories have in mind to compensate for the proposal.

Few people believed Alistair Darling last week when he pronounced potency gains mitigated the need for some-more swingeing spending cuts. Fewer still will believe that Mr Osborne can lift off this magnitude but severely spiteful services.

Chris McGrath Gio Ponti has designs on infinite richesRacing Sport

The woman monarch of Dubai was informed to the British racing companionship prolonged prior to the worlds economists motionless that his impetus and glamour were a flattering frail pledge opposite the outrageous debts accumulating in his homeland.

As such, it was no warn to listen to Sheikh Mohammed reply to remarkable be scared in the batch markets last year with one of those rather predicting aphorisms to that he is so delightfully prone. It is the fruit-bearing tree, he said, that becomes the aim of stone-throwers.

Certainly, it would be unchanging with the story of his bloodstock sovereignty for Dubai to persist by the predicament not usually with insusceptibility to scepticism, in others, but additionally with redoubled ambition, on the own account. Those collected here for the richest foe assembly in story contingency leave to alternative fields of imagination the settlement either they fiddle as Rome burns.

Most racing professionals, after all, still think that the Prime Minister is that bounder Lloyd George. They can frequency be approaching to endorse either the monumental promptness of Dubais growth not prolonged ago crowned by the tallest construction on the world is a pitch of rare attempt or hubris in 21st century man.

However impudent their testimony, it will sojourn utter in the enthusiasm. Good grief, if you contingency blow $2bn (�1.34bn) on something, by all equates to have it a racecourse. Meydan, the new theatre for the Dubai World Cup, is positively the worlds majority wealthy sporting facility. If you embody the unavoidable oppulance hotel, the billowing grandstand extends entirely a mile long. It could swallow the one at Ascot and still have room for the Albert Hall. And whilst there has never been a foe worth some-more than $6m, the purse for the big one tonight has been arrogant to $10m. One competence roughly suppose an additional adage turn here to be glut in all things.

Anyhow, the big bucks have on trial analogous foe from each point of the compass, not slightest dual Newmarket raiders in Twice Over and Gitano Hernando and one from Manton in Crowded House.

The switch from mud to a fake lane might not stop the Americans, however, with Gio Ponti (5.45) seeking great worth right away following a excusable relapse in his prep race. Only Zenyatta could kick him in the Breeders" Cup Classic, and he had formerly won 4 uninterrupted Grade Ones on an synthetic surface, mud and turf.

Youmzain, the three times Arc runner-up, is behind for an additional crack at the Sheema Classic, whilst the Japanese move a well-regarded filly in Buena Vista, but Anmar (4.35) looks tantalizing at 25-1 as usually second fibre for Godolphins new, second trainer. Presvis (3.55) can endorse himself one of the benchmark operators in the Dubai Duty Free, whilst Rocket Man (3.15) can frustrate a clever internal goal in Gayego in the alternative Group One. Perhaps Godolphins key curtain of the night, however, is Mendip (2.35) in the UAE Derby.

Back at home the resumption of Flat racing on territory gladdens the heart, as always, and the William Hill Lincoln facilities a white-knuckle ante-post play on Penitent. He is unexposed and positively in the right hands, but the worth has left right away and Tiger Reigns (3.10) could pay off connections" calm with this easily raced four-year-old.

Turf account: Chris McGrath

*Nap

Redford (2.35 Doncaster)

Made an eye-catching begin for his new fast when finishing fast from the back in a Listed foe on the all-weather a fortnight ago, and has prolonged looked the sort to penchant sprinting.

*Next Best

Mount Hadley (2.00 Doncaster)

Nearly landed a play initial time out last spring, confirming that he goes well uninformed over a true mile, and still feasibly treated with colour on the most appropriate form of his youth.

*One To Watch

Khachaturian (D McCain Jnr) set as well clever a gait when fifth to stablemate Ballabriggs at Cheltenham. His great jumping should win copiousness of chases.

*Where The Moneys Going

The Package is 14-1 from 16-1 with Paddy Power for the John Smiths Grand National.

Cybersecurity needs tellurian rules: British lawmakers

William Maclean, Security Correspondent LONDON Thu March 18, 2010 10:05am EDT

A lady browses web at an Internet cafeteria in Madrid May 23, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Andrea Comas

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe"s online security would most appropriate be served by building tellurian cyber regulation, finale stream "ad hoc" general efforts, British lawmakers pronounced on Wednesday, echoing industry calls for worldwide rules.

Technology&&&&Media

In a report, a cabinet of parliament"s top cover pronounced that formulating a usual European-wide approach, whilst a fascinating step in the right direction, was seen by most in the cyber village as "second best" to tellurian regulation.

Despite the borderless inlet of the Internet, general law of online security does not nonetheless exist, ensuing in a mixed abuses from small-scale burglary and temperament rascal to spying and mass attacks that close down a commercial operation or utility.

Amid flourishing regard over online crime and disputes over cyberspace pitting China and Iran opposite U.S. organisation Google, most governments go on to see the issue as a one of inhabitant security, an proceed experts contend is as well parochial.

Regulators need to track criminals opposite borders and safeguard they are prosecuted, a tough charge when criminals can make use of substitute servers to sojourn anonymous.

"The supervision and EU should be giving larger courtesy to how cyber-security could be grown on a tellurian basis," pronounced the inform by the House of Lords European Union Committee.

"Consideration needs to be since to the light growth of general manners that will effectively daunt the rising of substitute attacks from inside of the office of a little of the main users of the Internet."

ONLINE BOUNDARIES "DIFFICULT IF NOT FUTILE"

It pronounced EU members with the most appropriate grown online systems in Europe should enlarge a discourse on cybersecurity with non-EU countries, in sold the United States, Russia and China.

The inform quoted Britain"s Serious Organized Crime Agency, as observant in justification to the cabinet that the most appropriate resolution to preventing abuse of the Internet would be a tellurian one.

"The deception of bounds inside of Internet Governance is a difficult, if not futile, issue," SOCA told the committee.

The cabinet pronounced that tellurian initiatives that plunge into security threats right away were especially orderly "on an wholly ad hoc basis, with lax groupings of people from applicable tools of industry entrance together to residence sold incidents".

The inform pronounced Britain was pretty well stable opposite cybercrime, and the Internet itself was volatile as it was a network of networks with a decentralized management, so a fall in one place was doubtful to strike the complete system.

Restating a long-lived regard of London city planners, the cabinet pronounced that a disaster of the Thames Barrier would inundate the London Docklands and have a big stroke on the Internet.

"But the point regularly done to us was that the Internet itself would be equates to to ward off attacks robustly, and improved than any normal pick equates to of communication."

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

Technology Media

Colonel Stuart Tootal Brown is obliged for underfunding of troops

As one of those who participated in the advance of Iraq in 2003, I would design a small flattering difficult doubt of Gordon Brown at todays exploration in to the dispute with courtesy to the provisioning of the armed forces.

As the Chancellor, the right away Prime Minister was in conclusion obliged for the poignant underfunding of the infantry at a time when we were deploying for war. The awaiting of dispute in Iraq was well known about months in advance, but majority of the pack that we indispensable usually reached us only prior to we crossed the dried limit withdrawal us small time to sight with it. Some never arrived at all and a small of it, such as the Snatch Land Rovers we were forced to use, was really patently sub-optimal.

It is loyal that the apparatus incident in Afghanistan, in conditions of weapons systems, softened armoured vehicles and soldiers" particular pack has improved. But the effect of a decade of underfunding is still all as well straightforwardly strong in alternative vicious areas, such as helicopters; an area of scarcity identified in the Strategic Defence Review of 1998, but never done great notwithstanding the steady final of commanders; majority particularly in 2006 when UK infantry primary entered Helmand.

The Prime Minister contingency be pulpy on because this was authorised to happen. Additionally, he contingency be asked if he agrees that the benefaction buying complement still needs to be crook and some-more manageable to encounter the requests of commanders on the belligerent to safeguard they get the kit, in the right quantities, when they ask for it both prior to and during operations.

Finally, he contingency be asked, if he stays in energy after the subsequent election, either he will do something to move about much-needed remodel to the buying routine and counterclaim appropriation in the forthcoming, and prolonged overdue, Strategic Defence Review.

Colonel Stuart Tootal, who served in the advance of Iraq, went on to authority the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment during the primary pull in to Helmand, Afghanistan, prior to withdrawal the army

Disease-causing turn disrupts transformation of cells energy house

A turn in the protein mitofusin 2 had been well known to means one sort of CMT, a usual hereditary neurological commotion characterized by a loss of flesh tissue and prodigy in the limbs, that affects about 2.6 million people. In this study, a group of researchers lead by Robert Baloh, MD, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine, carefully thought about the purpose of mitofusin proteins in the cell to sense some-more precisely how the turn causes the disease.

Our investigate provides the initial justification that mitofusins without delay umpire the transformation of mitochondria in haughtiness fibers, Baloh said. Furthermore, the work suggests the basement for this sold form of CMT is the aberrant transformation of mitochondria in these fibers.

Mitochondria are energetic cellular appetite providers that ride to places in the cell where appetite is needed. All this wake up hinges on a array of molecular signals that umpire where mitochondria go.

Baloh and his colleagues used images of live cells taken from mice to investigate the transformation of mitochondria, that changed slower in cells with deteriorated mitofusin 2, suggesting that the protein without delay affects their transport. Until now, researchers had been uncertain as to either the monstrosity lay in their ride along, or connection to, haughtiness fibers.

This find places this sort of CMT in the ever-growing list of neurodegenerative diseases caused by ride problems and strengthens the probability of utilizing ubiquitous enhancers of this routine as care for opposite sorts of diseases, pronounced Vincent Timmerman, PhD, of the University of Antwerp in Belgium, who was independent with the study.

The authors additionally indicate that a associated protein called mitofusin 1 competence sometime offer to recompense for a deteriorated and malfunctioning mitofusin 2. Although mitofusins 1 and 2 are opposite proteins, they fool around identical purposes in a cell. Baloh and his group indicate that mitofusin 1 competence be means to perform the duty of mitofusin 2 and umpire the ride of mitochondria. Finding a approach to enlarge the levels of mitofusin 1 competence have healing goods for patients who have deteriorated mitofusin 2.

The investigate was upheld by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Neuroscience Blueprint Core Grant to Washington University, the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the ChildrenDiscovery Institute.

Layered graphene sheets could compromise hydrogen storage issues



Graphene -- CO shaped in to sheets a singular atom thick -- right away appears to be a earnest bottom element for capturing hydrogen, according to new research* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania. The commentary indicate stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for have use of in fuel cells and alternative applications.

Graphene has turn something of a luminary element in new years due to the conductive, thermal and visual properties, that could have it utilitarian in a range of sensors and semiconductor devices. The element does not store hydrogen well in the strange form, according to a group of scientists study it at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. But if oxidized graphene sheets are built atop one an additional similar to the decks of a multilevel parking lot, continuous by molecules that both couple the layers to one an additional and say space in in in between them, the ensuing graphene-oxide horizon (GOF) can amass hydrogen in larger quantities.

Inspired to emanate GOFs by the metal-organic frameworks that are additionally underneath inspection for hydrogen storage, the group is only commencement to expose the new structures" properties. "No one else has ever done GOFs, to the majority appropriate of the knowledge," says NIST idealist Taner Yildirim. "What we have found so far, though, indicates GOFs can hold at slightest a hundred times some-more hydrogen molecules than typical graphene oxide does. The easy synthesis, low cost and non-toxicity of graphene have this element a earnest claimant for gas storage applications."

The GOFs can keep 1 percent of their weight in hydrogen at a heat of 77 degrees Kelvin and typical windy vigour -- rounded off allied to the 1.2 percent that a little well-studied metal-organic frameworks can hold, Yildirim says.

Another of the team"s potentially utilitarian discoveries is the surprising attribute that GOFs vaunt in in in between heat and hydrogen absorption. In majority storage materials, the reduce the temperature, the some-more hydrogen uptake routinely occurs. However, the group detected that GOFs handle utterly differently. Although a GOF can catch hydrogen, it does not take in poignant amounts at next 50 Kelvin (-223 degrees Celsius). Moreover, it does not recover any hydrogen next this "blocking temperature"?suggesting that, with serve research, GOFs competence be used both to store hydrogen and to recover it when it is needed, a elemental order in fuel cell applications.

Some of the GOFs" capabilities are due to the joining molecules themselves. The molecules the group used are all benzene-boronic acids that correlate strongly with hydrogen in their own right. But by keeping multiform angstroms of space in in in between the graphene layers?akin to the approach pillars hold up a ceiling?they additionally enlarge the accessible aspect area of each layer, giving it some-more spots for the hydrogen to fasten on.

According to the team, GOFs will expected perform even improved once the group explores their parameters in some-more detail. "We are going to try to optimize the opening of the GOFs and try alternative joining molecules as well," says Jacob Burress, additionally of NIST. "We wish to try the surprising heat coherence of fullness kinetics, as well as either they competence be utilitarian for capturing hothouse gases such as CO dioxide and toxins similar to ammonia."

The investigate is saved in piece by the Department of Energy.

* J. Burress, J. Simmons, J. Ford and T.Yildirim. "Gas adsorption properties of graphene-oxide-frameworks and nanoporous benzene-boronic poison polymers." To be presented at the Mar assembly of the American Physical Society (APS) in Portland, Ore., Mar 18, 2010. An epitome is accessible at http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR10/Event/122133

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http://www.nist.gov

Bit Defender

Homeschoolers win U.S. haven right away face deportation

Citing a European court ruling, U.S. immigration authorities are arguing in an appeal that a family that fled Germany and gained asylum in Tennessee claiming their government persecuted them for homeschooling should be returned to their home country.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has lodged an appeal of Judge Lawrence Burman"s grant of asylum to the family of Uwe and Hannelore Romeike.

reported in January when the federal immigration judge said in his ruling, "We can"t expect every country to follow our Constitution. The world might be a better place if it did. However, the rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate."

Find out why public schools don"t always provide the best result for children, get "The Little Book of Big Reasons to Homeschool"

The decision in the Memphis, Tenn., hearing granted permission to Romeike and their five children to remain in the U.S., according to the Virginia-based HSLDA, which has been working on the family"s case.

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earlier reported on the details of the family"s situation.

"This decision finally recognizes that German homeschoolers are a specific social group that is being persecuted by a Western democracy," Mike Donnelly, staff attorney and director of international relations for HSLDA, said at the time.

"It is embarrassing for Germany, since a Western nation should uphold basic human rights, which include allowing parents to raise and educate their own children."

But today, the HSLDA called it a "deeply disturbing" development for ICE to appeal Burman"s decision.

The appeal, submitted to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Fairfax, Va., claimed homeschoolers are too "amorphous" to be a "particular social group," the HSLDA said.

Further, the agency claims, the U.S. "law has recognized the broad power of the state to compel school attendance and regulate curriculum and teacher certification."

ICE sought application of the Konrad case in the European Court of Human Rights that "the public education laws of Germany do not violate basic human rights." The ruling elaborated that parents had no right to direct the education of their own children because that was a responsibility of the state.

"In other words, it appears that ICE is arguing that U.S. judges should follow international law rather than U.S. law," the HSLDA said in an alert.

"American judges should use American law alone in making decisions about cases in American courts," said Michael Smith, president of the HSLDA. "Polls show that Americans by an overwhelming margin reject the idea of using international law in American courts to decide American cases. The use of international law in American courts is a threat to American justice and should be opposed."

ICE argued that the U.S. government simply could ban all homeschooling and that should disqualify the granting of asylum.

"ICE further asserts that Germany"s harsh treatment of homeschoolers is mere prosecution, not persecution. ICE lawyers wrote that "[e]ven were such fear[s] objectively reasonable, these sanctions would only amount to prosecution,"" the HSLDA said.

"ICE argues that the judge"s ruling is "speculative" because sanctions had been applied in a "limited number of circumstances" and that the Romeikes had failed to "make any effort to locate an acceptable alternative school.""

But the HSLDA said those claims had been argued in the Romeike case and shown to be false.

Michael Donnelly, a staff attorney for the organization and director of its International Relations division, said, "It is disappointing but not surprising that ICE has appealed."

He continued, "Judge Burman appropriately noted that homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, and his decision reflects U.S. law which upholds the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing their children as an enduring American tradition, entitling the family to protection from persecution.

"ICE argues that Germany"s denial of a parent"s right to homeschool for any reason is acceptable. It is shameful that ICE, and by extension the U.S. government, supports the persecution of German homeschoolers," Donnelly said.

ICE officials declined a request for comment.

HSLDA confirmed the persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has been intensifying over the past several years.

has reported on German homeschoolers who have been fined the equivalent of thousands of dollars, have been threatened with jail and have even watched their children be confined to a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with "school phobia."

reported several years ago when police knocked on the door of the Romeikes and forcibly escorted their children to public school. Then reported again later when the family fled Germany, with the help of the Home School Legal Defense Association, and settled in the U.S.

The family members are living in Tennessee after they funded their flight partly by selling the grand pianos that belonged to Uwe Romeike, a music teacher.

The parents wanted to provide their children"s education because of content in modern German textbooks that violates the family"s religious beliefs. The family said the objectionable material includes explicit lessons on sex, the promotion of the occult and witchcraft and an effort to teach children to disrespect authority figures.

HSLDA officials estimate there are some 400 homeschool families in Germany. Virtually all of them are either forced into hiding or facing court actions.

Germany effectively has made homeschooling illegal because of laws dating back to the pre-World War II move as Hitler rose to power and tried to make raising and training children a responsibility of the government.

Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, previously wrote on the issue in a blog, explaining the German government "has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion."

As reported, the German government believes schooling is critical to socialization, as evident in its response to another set of parents who objected to police officers picking up their child at home and delivering him to a public school.

"The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling," said a government letter. "... You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. ... In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement."

Political asylum, HSLDA explained, is available to people already in the U.S. who fear persecution in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. HSLDA contended homeschoolers in Germany fit that description.

Lutz Gorgens, German consul general for the southeast U.S., has defended his nation"s public education requirements.

"For reasons deeply rooted in history and our belief that only schools properly can ensure the desired level of excellent education, we (Germany) go a little bit beyond that path which other countries have chosen," Gorgens said.

The Romeike family, from Bissinggen, Germany, fled to the U.S. in 2008.

Rather than being concerned about the welfare of the children, government officials sought to stamp out divergent views, the immigration judge had concluded. While Germany is a democratic country and a U.S. ally, the judge wrote, its policy of persecuting homeschoolers is "repellent to everything we believe as Americans."

The HSLDA has documented that in 2003 the highest administrative court in Germany ruled in the Konrad case it was allowable for parents who travel, such as circus performers, to homeschool children. But homeschooling was not allowed for reasons of conscience.

The nation"s highest criminal court said in the 2006 Paul-Plette case that the government could take custody of children whose parents wanted to homeschool for reasons of conscience.

In another case in which the HSLDA has been involved, German father Juergen Dudek was sentenced to 90 days in jail for homeschooling, a penalty later reduced to a $300 fine.

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Previous stories:

Homeschoolers on run win U.S. asylum

Paperwork delays decision on family"s future

Paperwork delays decision on family"s future

"Persecuted" homeschoolers seek asylum in U.S.

Asylum hearing set for homeschooling family

Homeschoolers seek asylum from Nazi-era law

Will homeschooling parents end up behind bars?

Homeschooling parents to appeal prison terms

Parents sent to jail for homeschooling

Government chases homeschool family

Judge: Homeschooling like driving drunk

Amendment protecting parental rights urged

Courts offer homeschoolers zilch, expert says

Court upholds Nazi-era ban on homeschooling

Parents sent to jail for homeschooling

Parents losing custody for homeschooling kids

Girl sent to psych ward for homeschooling, parents billed

Prosecutor wants homeschool parents jailed

Homeschool family reaches England

Parents race to escape before court takes kids

Truancy hearing targets homeschooling mom

Homeschoolers facing $6,300 fine

American missionaries targeted for deportation

Courts offer homeschoolers zilch, expert says

Court gives Melissa back to family

Western homeschoolers need political asylum from democracy

3 families face fines, frozen accounts

"Youth worker" lies about homeschool student

5 "well-educated" kids put in state custody

Girl, 15, begs to return to homeschooling parents

Psych tests ordered for homeschooling parents

3rd Reich homeschool prohibition defended

Homeschool family told to give up 5 other kids

Homeschooler"s parents allowed 1 visit a week

Court-ordered foster care replaces psych ward

Homeschool student disappears from psych ward

"Psych ward" homeschooler case goes international

Court upholds Nazi-era ban on homeschooling

Constitution threatened by homeschool case

Opposition red shirts try to win over Thai collateral

Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:43pm EDT

* Thousands-strong anti-government rally expected

Stocks&&&&Currencies&&&&Financials

* Activists want new elections, seek to attract middleclass

* Investors confident PM will weather storm, boost stocks

By Martin Petty

BANGKOK, March 20 (Reuters) - Thousands of oppositionactivists prepared to fan out across Thailand"s capital onSaturday in a bid to win the hearts of Bangkok"s middle classesand recruit them for their anti-government campaign.

The red-shirted supporters of ousted former Prime MinisterThaksin Shinawatra were mobilising in convoys of motorcyclesand pickup trucks to hand out leaflets and draw in Bangkokresidents for their push for new elections.

The mass rally, which drew up to 150,000 people lastSunday, has so far been peaceful, boosting investor sentimentand helping to lift Thai stocks .SETI to a 20-month high.

Foreign investors have in the last month pumped 35.5billion baht ($1.09 billion) into the bourse, one of Asia"scheapest, much of that based on confidence that Prime MinisterAbhisit Vejjajiva"s government will ride out the storm.

Although fatigue and the sizzling Bangkok sun has persuadedmany protesters to return to their rural provinces, tens ofthousands have remained in the capital for a rally leaders saidwould continue for at least another two weeks [ID:nSGE62I0ET].

"We are asking Bangkok people to join our non-violentmovement if they hate double standards and hypocrisy," WengTojirakarn, a protest leader, told the crowd on Friday.

The "red shirts" say big businessmen, royal advisers, armygenerals and court judges have colluded to undermine electedgovernments, and want people in the city of 15 million to jointheir rally and help return power to the people. They say the Oxford-educated Abhisit, who enjoys the backingof an influential establishment elite and the politicallypotent military, is illegitimate and should step down. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^ Take-a-Look at the political crisis, click [ID:nTHAILAN D] Scenarios of possible outcomes, click [ID:nSGE62D00C] Q+A about the "red shirts", click [ID:nSGE62D00D] Analysis on the protests, click [ID:nSGE62F040] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The "red shirts" believe that by broadening their supportbase, the mostly grassroots movement stands a better chance ofprolonging the rally and bringing down the government.

THAKSIN STIGMA

Abhisit has been blocked from his office and parliament andhas taken refuge at a military base. He insists the country istoo divided to face a general election right now.

Analysts said the "red shirts" had earned many sympathisersin six days of non-violent rallies but face an uphill struggleto bring the politically powerful middle classes fully onboard.

Many in the capital remain staunchly opposed to Thaksin, aformer telecommunications tycoon derided by opponents as acorrupt autocrat who abused power to enrich his familybusiness.

Pitch Pongsawat, a political scientist at ChulalongkornUniversity, said many residents sympathised with the movement,but chafed at the prospect of being labeled a Thaksinsupporter.

"They have many followers in Bangkok, but these people areambivalent because of the stigma of Thaksin," he said.

"The Thai media is their obstacle, it portray the "redshirts" as blind followers of Thaksin, which means if you jointhem, you approve of Thaksin."

Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, andhas delivered rousing video-link addresses to the "red shirts",many of whom brought him two landslide election wins and remainloyal because of his populist policies. (Editing by Ron Popeski)

Stocks Currencies Financials

Ovarian medical operation mom has spectacle baby in diagnosis that could spell finish of menopause

A woman left infertile by cancer has had a "miracle" second baby in a world first.

Stinne Bergholdt froze tiny strips of ovarian tissue before undergoing gruelling treatment for bone cancer in 2004.

After beating the disease, some of the pieces were grafted back into her body and with the help of fertility drugs she gave birth to a baby girl, Aviaja, in 2007.

Enlarge

Medical marvel: Stinne Bergholdt with her daughters Aviaja (L) and Lucca. She was left infertile by cancer but had tiny strips of ovarian tissue grafted back into her body. She then conceived, first using fertility drugs and then naturally

But it has emerged that she then fell pregnant again naturally, and has given birth to a second daughter, Lucca.

She is the first woman in the world to have two babies following the complex transplant.

The technique may keep eggs fresh for up to 40 years, the journal Human Reproduction reports.

But although Mrs Bergholdt went through the menopause earlyfollowing her cancer treatment, medical experts strongly warned againstwomen using the procedure to put off the menopause indefinitely.

Dr Allan Pacey, a University of Sheffield fertility expert, said: "Noone in their right mind would do that.

"It"s too dangerous and too involved."

Enlarge

Stinne with her youngest child, Lucca, who she described as a "miracle"

But he predicted that the technique would play a bigger andbigger role in helping women undergoing cancer therapy have a family.

Mrs Bergholdt, 32, of Odense in Denmark, gave birth for thesecond time in September 2008, but the success has only just been madepublic.

She said: "When I found out I was pregnant for the first timeI was of course very happy and excited - but also very afraid andsceptical.

"My cancer had been diagnosed very late ... so I also wonderedif it was really true that I was completely recovered from it. Thesecond time we hadn"t been working on it - we thought we neededassistance like the first time.

"We had an appointment at the fertility outpatient clinic totalk about the possibility of a second baby, but it turned out that Iwas already pregnant - naturally. It was indeed a miracle."

Mrs Bergholdt"s doctor, Professor Claus Yding Andersen, of theUniversity of Copenhagen, said yesterday: "This showed that theoriginal transplanted ovarian strips had continued to work for morethan four years and that Mrs Bergholdt still has the capacity toconceive and give birth to healthy children."