Rome's Colosseum remains open despite damage reports

Officials at the Colosseum ruins in Rome have confirmed that the popular attraction will remain open to tourists as normal, despite reports of damage to the structure earlier in the week.

The Italian news agency Ansa reported that pieces of the 2000-year-old amphitheatre, regarded as one of the most impressive feats of architecture in the Roman Empire, had fallen on Christmas Day, as well as on Tuesday.

However, the director of the Colosseum, Rossella Rea, was quick to downplay the sighting, while the culture ministry also insisted that "nothing had collapsed since the 18th century."

When contacted by Telegraph Travel, officials at the Colosseum said the attraction was open as normal and that there were no plans to close.

An employee at the Rome Tourist Board also said the site was safe to visit.

The Colosseum, which costs ?12 (?10) to enter, attracts up to two million tourists each year and is one of the most visited sites in the the city, second only to the Vatican.

A restoration project on the structure, which used to seat 50,000 spectators in Imperial Roman times, is due to take place in spring 2012.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/564440/s/1b63f7e5/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Ctravel0Ctravelnews0C898440A70CRomes0EColosseum0Eremains0Eopen0Edespite0Edamage0Ereports0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Air strike kills 35 in southeast Turkey: officials (Reuters)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) ? Turkish warplanes killed at least 35 people in an air strike in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border overnight, apparently mistaking smugglers for Kurdish militants, a pro-Kurdish party and local officials said on Thursday.

Turkish warplanes strike militant targets regularly in the region in their battle against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, and have stepped up raids after a PKK attack in August.

"We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned. The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region. This kind of incident is unacceptable. They were hit from the air," said Fehmi Yaman, mayor of Uludere in Sirnak province.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said in a statement 35 people had been killed, adding that party leaders were heading for the area.

The Turkish government was not immediately available for comment.

Smuggling is an important source of income for locals in provinces along the Iraqi border, with many villagers involved in bringing fuel, cigarettes and other goods from Iraqi villages on the other side of the border.

PKK militants also cross the border in these areas.

"There were rum ours that the PKK would cross through this region. Images were recorded of a crowd crossing last night, hence an operation was carried out," a Turkish security official said.

"We could not have known whether these people were (PKK) group members or smugglers," he said.

Television images showed a line of corpses covered by blankets on a barren hillside, with a crowd of people gathered around, some with their head in their hands and crying.

People loaded the corpses onto donkeys which were led down the hillside to be loaded into vehicles to be taken to hospital in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.

Security sources said those killed were carrying canisters of diesel on mules and their bodies were found on the Iraqi side of the border.

They said those killed were from Uludere on the Turkish side of the border on what was a regular smuggling route.

The Firat news agency, which has close ties to the PKK, said that 17 people were still believed to be missing. It said those killed were aged around 17-20.

The PKK, regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, launches attacks on Turkish forces in southeastern Turkey from hideouts inside the remote Iraqi mountains.

Turkey and Iran have often skirmished with rebels in the region and Turkish leaders vowed revenge in October with air and ground strikes after the PKK killed 24 Turkish soldiers in raids on military outposts in southeastern Turkey.

It was one of the deadliest attacks since the PKK took up arms in 1984 in a conflict in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111229/wl_nm/us_turkey_iraq_airstrike

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7 hurt as bombers target Islamic school in Nigeria

Six children and a teacher were wounded when assailants threw a homemade bomb at an Islamic school in a predominantly Christian area, police in Nigeria said Wednesday.

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The attack took place in the city of Sapele, as about 50 children were gathered for an Arabic class.

Delta State police spokesman Charles Muka said that the attackers drove by a school and threw homemade explosives into a classroom Tuesday morning.

Story: Nigeria fears more bombs after 39 killed in Christmas attacks

The wounded children were all aged younger than nine, Reuters reported. At least one was aged four.

Investigators suspect a local vigilante group was behind the incident, Muka added.

The latest incident follows coordinated attacks by radical Islamist militants on Christmas Day, which killed at least 39 people.

Video: Deadly bombings strike Nigeria (on this page)

Analysts say the attacks risk reviving sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.

The radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram? has claimed responsbility for the church attacks. Boko Haram aims to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria.

Many northern Nigerian Christians fear the Christmas Day bombings could lead to a religious war in Africa's most populous country.

Meanwhile, a family of four was killed in a machete attack on Wednesday in Nigeria's ethnically and religiously mixed Plateau state ? on the threshold of the country's largely Muslim north and its mostly Christian south.

There was no immediate suggestion the killings had any link to Sunday's church bombings.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45803443/ns/world_news-africa/

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Anne Hathaway Shows Off Her Golden Pipes at Kennedy Center Honors

Some thought that Anne Hathaway would never live down the lukewarm reviews that she and James Franco received after hosting the 83rd Academy Awards. But the talented 29-year-old actress has rebounded quite nicely, thank you very much.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/anne-hathaway-sings-tribute-meryl-streep-34th-annual-kennedy-center-honors/1-a-414147?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aanne-hathaway-sings-tribute-meryl-streep-34th-annual-kennedy-center-honors-414147

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Cuban MBAs? A Spanish School Hopes to Train Havana's Future Moguls (Time.com)

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Am?ricaEconom?a.

(HAVANA) -- Even before Cuba began cracking its doors open to capitalism, Paulino Garcia always displayed an entrepreneurial spirit. He spent two years at a university in the Soviet Union before returning to his native Cuba to continue his law studies at the University of Havana. After working for a firm called Climex, Garcia eventually managed to open his own restaurant in 1996, thanks to a new law introduced that allowed people to work for themselves.

"I built it from nothing, and with a lot of sacrifice," Garcia says. "I really wanted to have my own restaurant."

When Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino told Jos? Luis Mendoza, the president of the Catholic University (UCAM) in Murcia, Spain, that all of the administrators and owners of small businesses in Cuba needed to go to business school, he was thinking about people like Garcia. (See how the Catholic Church is making a comeback in Cuba.)

At the end of 2010, Raul Castro's government changed the rules and opened up the economy to a small amount of private business. In November, it announced that barber shops and small cafeterias would become private, and that he would allow an expansion in the number of small restaurants like Garcia's. Now people are starting to realize that running a business requires more than just intuition and common sense.

"The cardinal was reflecting on this need, and our president offered to help fill it," says Gonzalo Wandosell, the vice-dean at the Business Management School at UCAM.

The classes began on Sept. 26 in a symbolic building: the old seminary of San Carlos and San Ambrosio, founded in 1689 and home to the Cultural Center of Father Felix Varela. Wandosell indicated that the 45 founding students come from both state-run companies and private companies, and that there is no requirement for students to be Catholic. "They are engineers, lawyers and economists."

The Church's role in the new MBA program has been substantial. Since 1959, the Cuban clergy has been enemy No. 1 of the revolution, although the Church-state relationship has improved substantially since then, especially after Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit. (See pictures from Fidel Castro's years in power.)

On the other hand, the financing for the project has come from a Spanish university, the colonial power up until 1898, which many Cubans still refer to as the Motherland. The connections between the two countries didn't chill in the wake of the Communist revolution, with Spanish investment in Cuba still strong today.

In contrast to the costly programs in other countries, the Cuban MBA is free for students, with the costs covered by the University and donations from businesses in Murcia.

According to Wandosell, the Spaniards are taking care of the instructors' salaries and travel expenses, while the Church "supplies the buildings and coordinates with local instructors," as their director, father Yosvani Carvajal, said.

It isn't the first program of its type attempted Cuba. The Argentinian Business School ADEN tried it first, and was followed by a series of other high-profile trials and failures.

The innovation in the UCAM program is that it is the only one directed exclusively towards entrepreneurs and sole proprietors. That is not the case at the MBA program at the University of Havana, where students must be employed by an official state business to be accepted. (See "Cuba's Big Layoffs: What to Do with the Unemployed?")

Not Recognized at Home
Majel Reyes Quesada, an MBA student with a Bachelor's degree in English, said he had practical reasons for wanting to do the program. "I see myself doing something in the future, with the possible new economic opening," he said. "Maybe I'll create a small business."

This is a typical student profile, and it can explain the pragmatic character of the curriculum. "In Spain we would call it professional master's degree," explains Wandosell. "It offers advanced training in business management, but is very orientated toward small and very small businesses and cooperatives, which are the type of enterprises that are being started in Cuba."

In spite of the recent reforms, there are still substantial obstacles for potential entrepreneurs on the island nation. On the one hand, the list of authorized activities precludes Cubans from opening businesses likely to grow large. For example, a book-repair shop is ok, but a publishing house is not. An artisan bricklayer can open his or her own business, but not a construction company. No such company can open while Cuba's constitution specifies that "the economic system is based on socialist principles." (See "Cuba?s Communist Codgers Keep Control.")

In addition, there is no credit or micro-credit system. Without any access to start-up funds, entrepreneurship opportunities remain limited; and finding funding can be a major obstacle even for people with family abroad. And although the Communist Party passed a resolution during their most recent congress to liberalize the wholesale markets, the reforms have yet to be implemented.

Is this the back door to Cuba's capitalist tradition? Father Carvajal offers the Church's non-ideological position: "It is for Cuba's benefit. The graduates are for Cuba."

At the end of their program, the MBA students will have a degree recognized in the European Union, but not in their own country. The Education Ministry will not officially sanction the program until it is paired with a Cuban university.

Also from Worldcrunch:

German Court Rules Muslim Student Disturbed the Peace by Praying
-- S?ddeutsche Zeitung

What the World Owes Greece: A Different Look at the Financial Crisis
-- Die Welt

EU to Restrict Sale of Lethal Injection Drug to U.S.
-- S?ddeutsche Zeitung

Video: Eyeing a Cuba Travel-Shift Policy

Photos: Hidden Havana

View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111227/wl_time/08599210228000

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2012: Fear no supernova

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2011) ? Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion -- as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime -- another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth.

Astronomers estimate that, on average, about one or two supernovae explode each century in our galaxy. But for Earth's ozone layer to experience damage from a supernova, the blast must occur less than 50 light-years away. All of the nearby stars capable of going supernova are much farther than this.

Any planet with life on it near a star that goes supernova would indeed experience problems. X- and gamma-ray radiation from the supernova could damage the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful ultraviolet light in the sun's rays. The less ozone there is, the more UV light reaches the surface. At some wavelengths, just a 10 percent increase in ground-level UV can be lethal to some organisms, including phytoplankton near the ocean surface. Because these organisms form the basis of oxygen production on Earth and the marine food chain, any significant disruption to them could cascade into a planet-wide problem.

Another explosive event, called a gamma-ray burst (GRB), is often associated with supernovae. When a massive star collapses on itself -- or, less frequently, when two compact neutron stars collide -- the result is the birth of a black hole. As matter falls toward a nascent black hole, some of it becomes accelerated into a particle jet so powerful that it can drill its way completely through the star before the star's outermost layers even have begun to collapse. If one of the jets happens to be directed toward Earth, orbiting satellites detect a burst of highly energetic gamma rays somewhere in the sky. These bursts occur almost daily and are so powerful that they can be seen across billions of light-years.

A gamma-ray burst could affect Earth in much the same way as a supernova -- and at much greater distance -- but only if its jet is directly pointed our way. Astronomers estimate that a gamma-ray burst could affect Earth from up to 10,000 light-years away with each separated by about 15 million years, on average. So far, the closest burst on record, known as GRB 031203, was 1.3 billion light-years away.

As with impacts, our planet likely has already experienced such events over its long history, but there's no reason to expect a gamma-ray burst in our galaxy to occur in the near future, much less in December 2012.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Cf2sqv0Ncn0/111228084228.htm

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A GOP county leader in Iowa calls for moratorium on attack ads (Washington Post)

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Women's football revolution continues

WOMEN?S football in Wales is set for the next stage in its evolution, with a fully national league set for launch next season.

Welsh Football Association competitions secretary Andrew Howard confirmed the 2012/13 season will see the current northern and southern conferences merge to form a new 12 club league.
?

Two new clubs will be promoted from the four regional leagues - which include the Dave Smith North Powys Ladies? League - at the end of the current campaign.

The next step in women?s football in Wales forms part of the Welsh FA?s (FAW) development plan and was announced at a meeting at Newtown last week by outgoing league secretary John Deakin and his successor Gwyn Derfel.

Howard confirmed: ?The new league will be a national set-up with 12 clubs and a 22 game programme. All the current northern and southern conference clubs have backed the national league proposal, which will commence next season.
?

?The champions of the league will be nominated to represent Wales in UEFA competition the following season.?

Currently the region is represented by Llanidloes Town and Aberystwyth Town in the northern conference, along with Caernarfon Town, Northop Hall and Wrexham.

The five clubs will join southern counterparts Caerphilly Castle, Newcastle Emlyn, Swansea City, Trefelin and UWIC in forming the new league with two vacancies.

Howard said: ?There will be two places for new clubs wishing to join the league and this will be decided with an end of season play-off.

?The North Powys Ladies? League candidate would play the North Wales Ladies? League applicant, with the two Southern League representatives also meeting in a play-off to decide who went up.?

Currently Llanrhaedr, Llanfyllin Town and Meifod are challenging perennial champions Llanidloes Town for the North Powys Ladies? League title.

However Howard confirmed national league members will no longer be eligible to compete in the North Powys league.

Welsh FA Trust development officer Tim Broome said: ?This is great news for the game and I am delighted such a well run community club like Llanidloes Town will be members.?

Source: http://www.countytimes.co.uk:80/news/108989/women-s-football-revolution-continues.aspx

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NKorea pointing to heir's uncle playing key role (AP)

PYONGYANG, North Korea ? North Korea is showing the uncle and key patron of anointed heir Kim Jong Un wearing a military uniform with a general's insignia ? a strong sign he'll play a crucial role in helping the young man take over power and uphold the "military-first" policy initiated by his late father, Kim Jong Il.

As North Korea prepares for Kim Jong Il's funeral Wednesday, it is also warning South Korea against barring visits to Pyongyang by civilian groups hoping to pay respects, saying the obstruction will lead to "catastrophic consequences" for relations between the rivals.

While millions continue to mourn Kim Jong Il, North Korea is offering hints about Kim Jong Un's rise and the future composition of his inner circle. North Korea began hailing Kim Jong Un as "supreme leader" of the 1.2-million strong military over the weekend as it ramps up its campaign to install him as ruler.

Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was unveiled in September 2010 as his father's choice as successor, will be the third-generation Kim to rule the nation of 24 million.

Koreans should become "eternal revolutionary comrades" with Kim Jong Un, "the sun of the 21st century," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Sunday in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

State television showed footage Sunday of a uniformed Jang Song Thaek and his nephew Kim Jong Un paying their respects before Kim Jong Il's body, which is lying in state at Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it was the first time Jang, usually seen in business suits, had been shown wearing a military uniform on state TV.

Jang, a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, is the husband of Kim Kyong Hui, younger sister of Kim Jong Il and a key Workers' Party official. South Korean lawmakers say intelligence officials have predicted that Jang and his wife will play larger roles supporting Kim Jong Un.

The new titles, a public show of support from top military leadership and the symbolic appearance of Jang in uniform send strong signals that North Korea will maintain Kim Jong Il's "military first" policy for the time being.

North Korea is in official mourning until Kim Jong Il's funeral Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.

South Korea has permitted only two groups with ties to North Korea to visit and pay condolences ahead of the funeral and has rejected demands by several others.

The South Korean groups, led by the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and a business leader whose late husband had ties to the North, plan to cross the heavily fortified border Monday for a two-day trip, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.

On Saturday, Kim Jong Un again visited the palace where his father's body is lying in state ? this time as "supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces" and accompanied by North Korea's top military brass, according to KCNA.

Earlier, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper urged Kim Jong Un to accept the top military post: "Comrade Kim Jong Un, please assume the supreme commandership, as wished by the people."

Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather led the country under different titles, and it remains unclear which other titles will be bestowed on him.

Kim Jong Un was promoted last year to four-star general and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. He had been expected to assume a number of other key posts while being groomed to succeed his father.

His father's death comes at a sensitive time for North Korea, which was in the middle of discussions with the U.S. on food aid and restarting talks to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program. Chronically short of food and suffering from a shortfall in basic staples after several harsh seasons, officials had been asking for help feeding its people even as North Koreans prepared for 2012 celebrations marking the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and the late father of Kim Jong Il.

Also, animosity with South Korea still lingers after two incidents blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans last year.

Calls to rally behind Kim Jong Un, dubbed the "Great Successor" in the wake of his father's death on Dec. 17 from a heart attack, come amid displays of grief across North Korea.

On Sunday, the North's state TV repeatedly showed footage of wailing uniformed soldiers, many with shaved heads, and other citizens professing their tear-choked longing for Kim Jong Il as they visited mourning sites.

In Pyongyang, workers at drink kiosks handed steaming cups of water to shivering mourners, including children bundled up in colorful, thick parkas. State media said the drinks were arranged at the instruction of Kim Jong Un, who ordered officials to take special measures to protect the health of mourners.

"Deeply moved by the measures, all of the Korean people feel that Kim Jong Un is the leader of the people, as great as Kim Jong Il," KCNA said.

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and AP Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee contributed to this report. Follow on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean and twitter.com/APKlug.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111225/ap_on_re_as/as_kim_jong_il

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Samhain's in the Air Tonight [ooc]

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

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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.

Samhain's in
the Air Tonight

Halloween in Danvers again. It's a year-round bonanza of fun, even the adults are dressing up and going around the neighborhood. The teenagers, on the other hand, are all dressed up in their costumes, partying wherever they can find that's well beyond the reach of adults. The Ripley twins are just two of the many who go out on dares on this spooky night. Who doesn't want to have a nice little scare on this time of year? With just a little liquid courage in their systems, they dare each other on how long one can last in the barn without running outside. Little did they know that this first time visit to the barn would change everything.
The Ripleys are descendants of a witch who escaped prosecution from the Salem Witch Trials. Danvers is Salem Village; it all comes flooding back to them as soon as they find that some of their relatives, and even their closest friends, are witches. At the stroke of 12:10, they both turn eighteen, and their latent powers come out into the "open". Their "open". With the revelation and a want for a normal life on their minds, will they accept their heritage or just choose to remain ordinary?--------------------
Ripley Twins
(? [available]
? [played by wednesdaysun])

Witches (includes men, people, includes men.)

Normal people

As for other roles, you're free to make a witch or a normal person. This is character-driven, and I won't tolerate godmodding or the like when it comes to manipulating powers.
--------------------

Here's the OOC post for this roleplay! :) Any little discussion, brainstorming, randomness, will be kept here only.

wednesdaysun

Member for 2 years

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GOP Leaders Agree to Extension of Social Security Tax Cut?AARP

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In an abrupt about-face, House Republican leaders Thursday agreed to a two-month extension of a Social Security payroll tax cut and federal unemployment benefits, GOP aides said.

See also: AARP to Congress: Keep doctors in Medicare program

The move reflects a bowing to demands by the Senate and President Barack Obama and appears to all but assure 160 million workers aren't hit by a 2 percentage point increase in the payroll tax on Jan. 1.

It also would renew jobless benefits for almost 2 million people without jobs for more than six months and spare doctors from a big cut in Medicare payments. House Republicans were to hold a telephone conference call on the developments later Thursday.

House Republicans balked at the bipartisan Senate bill earlier this week, and their leaders, as recently as Thursday morning, had insisted that the Senate begin talks on a one-year measure passed by the House last week. The Senate passed a 2-month extension on Saturday.

The decision came swiftly after the top Republican in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, urged the House to accept a short-term measure.

Also of interest: Medicare in the crosshairs.>>

Source: http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/news-12-2011/house-accepts-tax-terms.html

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IMEC working with holograms, mirrored pixels to prevent 3D movie headaches

Let's face it, 3D movies are amazing but there are times when you'll walk away with a killer headache. A group of researchers at IMEC believes that holographic video might be the best way around this problem and has been working on a means of constructing holographic displays by shining lasers on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) platforms capable of moving up and down like small, reflective pistons. Here's the cool part: each pixel would have a spring-like mechanism attached to it that could be moved by applying voltage to it. In the first stage of the technology, a laser is bounced off a MEMS-less chip containing an image, the diffracted light interfering to create a 3D picture. From here, the team can adjust the image by replacing pixels with small, mirrored platforms that can alternate their direction to create a moving projection. It gets technical after this, but you can take a gander at the video after the break for a full demo and explanation.

Continue reading IMEC working with holograms, mirrored pixels to prevent 3D movie headaches

IMEC working with holograms, mirrored pixels to prevent 3D movie headaches originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XpmeLMFYYqA/

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10. Vietnam sack German coach after SEA Games failure

HANOI: The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) have fired German coach Falko Goetz , deemed responsible for the failure of the national team at the SEA Games last month.

?In every country of the world, the coach is responsible for a defeat of the national team,? Nguyen Lan Trung, VFF vice-president told AFP, adding that the executive committee voted unanimously for his departure.

Despite a promising start to the tournament Vietnam?s Under-23 national team failed to make the podium at the SEA Games in Indonesia, a disgrace to a country passionate about football but constantly in despair over the poor results of the national team.

The VFF general secretary Tran Quoc Tuan submitted his resignation last week, but it was rejected.

According to the newspaper Tuoi Tre on Friday, the VFF would pay Falko Goetz US$66,000 to end his two-year contract which he signed in June.

Goetz, a 49-year-old former Bayer Leverkusen player, became the eighth foreign coach of Vietnam since 1995 after the departure of Portuguese Henrique Calisto. ? AFP

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Nicaragua vs Costa Rica at UN court on river works (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands ? Nicaragua has filed a suit at the U.N.'s highest court seeking to stop Costa Rica from building a road along the banks of the San Juan river that it claims is destroying the environment.

The legal action is the latest in an ongoing dispute between the two countries over rights to the ecologically sensitive river that forms a common border.

Nicaragua claims the construction threatens water quality and aquatic life.

The suit at the International Court of Justice filed Thursday comes just nine months after the same court ordered both countries to pull their armed forces out of the area.

In the earlier case, the court refused Costa Rica's demand to order Nicaragua to halt dredging, saying it was unclear it was causing irreparable damage.

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Georgia and Rene talk about how to plan for stress-free travel and go over gadgets, accessories, and apps that can help you relax and enjoy your time on the road, in the air, and away from home. This is ZENandTECH! Our podcast feed: Audio | Video Download...

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Video: New Home Sales Tick Up

Joseph LaVorgna, Deutsche Bank, offers insight into the strength of the U.S. consumer given the uptick in November new home sales.

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US offers $10 million for al-Qaida financier

WASHINGTON?? The United States on Thursday established a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Yasin al-Suri, accused of operating from Iran as a facilitator and financier for al-Qaida.

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The bounty is the first offered for an al-Qaida financier and is aimed at disrupting a financial network that has operated from within Iran's borders since 2005, said Eytan Fisch, a senior Treasury Department official.

Robert Hartung, a senior State Department official, said that under an agreement between al-Qaida and the government of Iran, al-Suri had helped move money and recruits through Iran to al-Qaida leaders in neighboring countries.

Hartung said al-Suri, who is originally from Syria, also was known as Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil.

The U.S. Treasury Department in July blacklisted al-Suri and five other members of his network, exposing what the United States says are direct links between Tehran and the al-Qaida network.

Hartung said al-Suri's network serves as an important conduit for channeling both money and fighters from around the Middle East to al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

"He is a dedicated terrorist working in support of al-Qaida with the support of the government of Iran," Hartung said. "As a key fundraiser for the al-Qaida terrorist network, he is a continuing danger to the interests of the United States."

Since 1984 the U.S. Rewards for Justice program has paid more than $100 million to more than 70 people who provided credible information that either prevented terrorist attacks or helped bring accused terrorists to justice, the State Department's Hartung said.

Related story:

NBC: New evidence links Iran to terror group

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45768221/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Pilot told of icing before NJ crash that killed 5 (AP)

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. ? After a normal takeoff and a routine conversation with air traffic controllers about potential icing conditions, a small plane carrying two investment bankers and three others to Georgia headed off into the skies over New Jersey on Tuesday morning.

Minutes later, the high-performance Socata TBM-700 turboprop had spun out of control and crashed in a fireball on a busy highway, killing all five people aboard and narrowly avoiding dozens of cars and trucks speeding by.

Federal investigators were to resume searching the area for wreckage Wednesday morning. The debris was scattered over at least a half-mile, with one section found lodged in a tree a quarter-mile away. The crash closed both sides of busy Interstate 287 for hours on Tuesday.

The New York investment banking firm Greenhill & Co. said two of its managing directors, Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, and Rakesh Chawla, 36, as well as Buckalew's wife and two children, were on the plane. Buckalew was the registered owner of the single-engine plane and had a pilot's license.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday the plane wasn't required to have a black box, which would have recorded flight data, but they said investigators would be searching for other memory devices, including GPS, collision avoidance systems or any device with a recordable chip that might yield more information.

The NTSB didn't say what role icing may have played in the crash. But an audio recording available online of the pilot speaking to air traffic controllers in the minutes before the crash offered some early clues.

The pilot was told to maintain an altitude of 10,000 feet as he headed southwest over northern New Jersey as a controller warned him about the conditions in the clouds above ? specifically accumulations of ice particles known as rime.

"There are reports of moderate rime. ... If it gets worse let me know and when center takes your handoff I'll climb you and maybe get you higher," one controller said.

The pilot responded: "We'll let you know what happens when we get in there. And, yeah, if we could go straight through it, that's no problem for us."

Seconds later, another controller is heard telling a different pilot about reports of severe icing at 14,000 feet.

Ice can form on airplanes when temperatures are near freezing and there is visible moisture, such as clouds or rain. The ice adds weight to an aircraft, and rough accumulations known as rime interrupt the flow of air over wings. In extreme cases, a plane can lose so much lift that it falls out of the sky.

Several eyewitnesses to Tuesday's crash described an out-of-control descent.

Will Keyser, who works in maintenance at the Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown, is used to hearing small planes fly over en route to nearby Morristown Memorial Airport. He was near the 13th hole Tuesday when he heard a loud plane overhead.

"It didn't sound quite right," Keyser said, recalling how he and his co-workers all looked up simultaneously. "We kind of lost it in the clouds, it came out of the clouds on the other side of the course, and it didn't look right, it didn't look like the pilot had control."

Keyser said the plane pitched back and forth, and for a moment he thought it was a stunt pilot.

"It was kind of rolling and making circles ? 'cause I've seen air shows before ? so I thought: `Oh, OK;' but then he finally did a nosedive and we realized that was completely wrong."

Greenhill & Co. said Buckalew's wife, Corinne, and the couple's two children, Jackson and Meriwether, were traveling with him.

"The firm is in deep mourning over the tragic and untimely death of two of its esteemed colleagues and members of Jeff's family," the company said in a written statement.

A resident at Chawla's Manhattan apartment building remembered him as being constantly on the go, leaving early and getting home late. Arthur Yellin said that Chawla and his family were "wonderful people" and that the banker doted on his three children.

Authorities said a dog aboard the plane also was killed.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Shawn Marsh and Beth DeFalco in Trenton, David Porter in Newark, Christopher Hawley and Cristian Salazar in New York, and Leonard Pallats in Atlanta.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_re_us/us_plane_crash_highway

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Razer Blade gaming laptop delayed until mid-to-late January due to SSD upgrade

Eagerly waiting to get your hands on that nearly $3,000 Razer Blade gaming laptop? Then we're afraid we've got a bit of bad news. Razer confirmed this week on its Facebook page that the initial batch of shipments have been delayed until mid-to-late January (much like the also-delayed Tiamat gaming headset). That's due to a last-minute hard drive upgrade from the standard 320GB HDD to a 256GB SSD -- a switch that Razer says it's been able to do without increasing the $2,799 list price, but which it can't do without incurring a delay (it promises it'll be worth it). To keep the peace with gamers, Razer says it will gladly throw in a free Razer Orochi Blade Edition gaming mouse with your Blade laptop order -- details on receiving it can also be found on the company's Facebook page linked below.

Razer Blade gaming laptop delayed until mid-to-late January due to SSD upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Powerful Ga judge facing ethics probe resigns (Providence Journal)

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Kim Jong Il's Most Dangerous Legacy: A Thriving Nuclear-Export Business (Time.com)

Kim Jong Il's death leaves the Korean peninsula and the rest of East Asia in a period of great uncertainty. But one of Kim Jong Il's most dangerous legacies has security implications well beyond the region: he leaves behind a thriving nuclear weapons export business that must now be stopped.

There has been mounting evidence in recent years that North Korea has set up an illicit nuclear export business to Syria, Iran and potentially elsewhere. Syria's Al-Kibar nuclear reactor, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 2007, closely resembled a North Korean facility used to produce plutonium for bombs, and one western diplomat told me that several senior North Korean technicians were killed in the raid. (See photos of Syria's nuclear reactor destroyed in 2007.)

North Korea and Iran's sharing of technology for missiles that could be used to deliver nuclear warheads is so extensive that some analysts say it is only appropriate to view it as operationally a joint missile program. No one knows if North Korea is also helping Iran with nuclear weapons design, and it's possible it has other, yet-to-be-detected clients as well.

North Korea shares little similarity or ideology with Syria or Iran; its dealings are largely profit-driven. For its clients, DPRK provides a black market to purchase sensitive nuclear technology without detection by the international community. The nightmare scenario is that Pyongyang would even sell fissile material -- the key ingredient for nuclear bombs -- to terrorists if the price is right.

Most nonproliferation experts find this scenario unlikely as it would be quickest route imaginable to have your country bombed and possible invaded. However, the Syrian and Iranian cases show that DPRK has been happy to sell the technology needed to produce fissile material, and the missiles needed to deliver it.

What's not clear is how much this network relied on support or at least authorization from Kim Jong Il. But reports from North Korean defectors once involved in the tripartite proliferation network suggest it is highly sophisticated and involves many different layers of officialdom. It may work something like this: North Korean state trading companies working directly for the DPRK regime set up branch offices in mainland China. These companies contract private Chinese firms to send purchase orders to the local subsidiaries of European industrial machinery companies, who have set up shop in China specifically to cash in on China's growing domestic market. (See photos of the busy life of Kim Jong Il.)

These domestic orders, of course, are not subject to export controls, so without knowing it, western subsidiaries sell dual-use technology -- industrial tool and dye equipment, for example -- directly to private Chinese firms, who then use their established routes to transport the goods to North Korea. In terms of sales, North Korea state trading companies are also contracting private Chinese firms to move sensitive goods through Southeast Asia (including Myanmar) and on to clients in the Middle East.

The success of this network is an unintended consequence of China's North Korea strategy, which has placed a high emphasis on a stable regime succession to Kim Jong Il's son, Kim Jong Un. The strategy is understandable: regime collapse in North Korea would send a flood of refugees across the border into some of the poorest provinces in China. Beijing may also believe that economic reform and party-to-party institution building can help reform North Korea and bring it in from the cold. Maybe so, but in the meantime this policy has created more opportunities for North Korea to increase its illicit activity through the mainland.

Unfortunately, enlisting China's help in cracking down on the use of private Chinese firms by North Korean entities -- even now that Kim Jong Il is dead -- is a lost cause for the U.S and its allies. China's port security and trade monitoring resources are woefully unmatched by the volume of trade in China today. Even more importantly, corruption at local levels is still a major problem.

The Proliferation Security Initiative, launched in 2003 as a voluntary organization of nations cooperating to prevent the shipment of proliferation-sensitive technologies, has proven to be an increasingly effective tool for combating North Korean smuggling. It has led to the interdiction of several North Korean shipments of missile and WMD components, most recently the turning around by the U.S. Navy of a Belize-flagged North Korean Vessel in June suspected of transporting missile technology on its way to Myanmar (and then on possibly to the Middle East). In the short term, the PSI should be continued. What's more, we should encourage PSI states -- and China -- to offer monetary rewards that lead to the interdiction of North Korean consignments. Mercenary traders, after all, can often be bought when they cannot be stopped. (Read "China's Stake in a Stable North Korea.")

North Korea is a backward, broken country with a dysfunctional economy. But its leaders are expert survivors and remarkably apt at getting what they need; we should not assume that this will change with Kim Jong Il's pasing. With two nuclear weapons tests already complete, North Korea has clearly learned how to construct a black market, full-service nuclear weapons program. There is growing evidence that they will now help any country that can pay to do the same.

The death of Kim Jong Il should focus the West's attention on stopping the spread of North Korean technology. Cutting off the supply would buy us time to fight the other half of the battle. In countries and regions where the demand for nuclear weapons remains strong, we must do more to address the underlying issues that cause countries to seek nuclear weapons in the first place.

Harrell is a research associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Boston-based reporter for TIME.

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Commentary: Seasons in a Turbulent Year (Time.com)

"To every thing there is a season," proclaims the Book of Ecclesiastes. Using that biblical verse as a prism, 2011 achieves, if not quite a scriptural vision, then a poetic imperative. We have had the Arab Spring; the Summer of Europe's Indignation; Autumn was Occupied across the globe; and now, perhaps there is the onset of a long Russian Winter. Regime change swayed to the same rhythms as the seasons.

The meteorology of 2011 extended to an Indian Summer (the height of Anna Hazare's anticorruption campaign, which paralyzed New Delhi) and a yearlong Chinese deep freeze -- though it's always icy weather when it comes to democracy in the People's Republic. The only real warming Beijing has had recently was way back in 1989, when it was Spring in Tiananmen Square. (See "TIME's Person of the Year: The Protester.")

These designations, of course, do not strictly follow equinox and solstice. The Arab Spring began at the tail end of the fall of 2010, with the self-immolation of the Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi on Dec. 17, four days before the official beginning of winter, a full season away from spring. The indignados first put their outrage on display in Spain on May 15, with Europe fully warming to their sentiments only later in the summer as tear gas wafted across central Athens and riots broke out in disparate districts of London. The beginning of the Occupy movement almost coincided with the start of the fall -- but it was mostly evicted a month before the season ended. As for the Russian winter, well ... it's still technically autumn.

But there is resonance when we associate certain revolutions with specific seasons. Spring, for example, cast an optimistic light on the Arab revolts. Indeed, the Arab Spring is known in its own region as the Arab Awakening. But is that not what spring is -- an awakening, a rebirth? And does not the word uprising, almost pictographically, bring to the mind's eye a germinating seed? Spring is hoping that the best is yet to come. (See photos of the Occupy Wall Street movement.)

As bright as it is, summer is ambivalent, with an abundance of both light and fire. Perhaps it was the right time of year for Europe's down-and-out youth to see things for what they were, leading to boiling-hot outrage and indignation. Summer is the season of torpor in the continent. But the heat can kill.

The cooling down that comes with autumn signals transition and suited the fate of the Occupy movement, at least in its first manifestation. While there were moments of peppery confrontation over territory, the Occupiers from Wall Street to Oakland, Calif., and from Los Angeles to London seemed impermanent. Even as many fretted about the rigors of January in the parks and squares they occupied, their lack of philosophical cohesion contributed to their melting away weeks before the arrival of winter.

As for winter, it is the knee-jerk metaphor for anything Russian. But in this case, perhaps reflecting the cycle that began with the Arab Awakening, an omen of hope can be detected. For spring must follow winter, even in the Russia of Vladimir Putin. (See photos of protests and counterprotests in Russia.)

But hold on. These are animistic projections, born of our pathetic fallacy that somehow the cosmos reflects and echoes what humanity feels. Definitions meld into one another when they shouldn't. Reality, however, quickly disabuses us of these notions -- and not just through equinoctial calculations. Occupy has transformed not transitioned away with the fall. And the Arab Spring is now the Arab Year. It has outlasted its schedule by many months. Libya's internal brawl extended it into the summer and fall; and Syria is dragging it into a bloody winter. Meanwhile, Egypt has realized that its revolution is incomplete. The awakening has lost its spring. In 2012, we will need a clutch of fresh metaphors.

Perhaps the significance of the seasons of 2011 will be gnawed away by think tanks and historians. But, right now, as it comes to an end, 2011 continues to resound like an epic. It was a year in which the cataclysms were more than political, with tsunamis and floods and earthquakes. But when men and women decide that it is time to brave revolution, are they not manifesting some cosmic imperative as powerful as those acts of God? Their deeds should be commemorated for all seasons.

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