Saturday, December 31, 2011

Rival Priests Brawl in Bethlehem Church Fight

A multisource video news analysis service that highlights nuances in reporting from media outlets around the world.

(Image Source: euronews)


BY ADNAN S. KHAN

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
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Prayer and blessings were replaced with brooms and bats when some 100 priests got into a brawl in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

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The fight broke out between Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic members over the boundaries of their respective jurisdictions within the church. As this Telegraph video shows the fight became quite intense and came to a stop only after baton-wielding policemen entered the fray.


The fight broke out while the church was being cleaned in preparation for Orthodox Christmas on January 7th. But USA Today says the incident is nothing new.
?

?Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics share the administration of the church, which oftens leads to jurisdictional disputes.?
?

According to the BBC, the 1,700-year-old church is in deteriorating condition largely because the priests cannot decide how to divide the cost of upkeep. BBC also adds, similar incidents have plagued other holy sites as well.
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"Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, has also seen similar incidents.?
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No one was seriously injured according to authorities. Euronews notes being men of the cloth, also came in handy in the aftermath of the violence.
?

?Police separated the rival groups, and no arrests were made because they are all ?men of God? according to a lieutenant colonel in the city?s force.?
?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Newsy-world/~3/epOlvKj8trE/rival-priests-brawl-in-bethlehem-church-fight

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Chicago Tribune: Cardinal defends comparing gay parade organizers to Ku Klux Klan

Setting off a new round in his dispute with gay right activists, Chicago?s Cardinal Francis George has issued a statement defending his recent comparison of the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan.

George?s initial comments came in connection with a controversy over whether next summer?s gay pride parade would interrupt morning services at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Lakeview neighborhood.

That dispute was resolved last week, but the cardinal?s KKK comparison ? and his new explanation of those comments ? have kept the controversy boiling.

Read the complete story(Some news sites require registration)

Source: http://pewforum.org/Religion-News/Chicago-Tribune--Cardinal-defends-comparing-gay-parade-organizers-to-Ku-Klux-Klan.aspx

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Russia: Nuclear submarine fire finally out (AP)

MOSCOW ? Firefighters extinguished a massive fire aboard a docked Russian nuclear submarine Friday as some crew members remained inside, officials said, giving assurances that there was no radiation leak and the vessel's nuclear-tipped missiles were not on board.

Military prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether safety regulations were breached. President Dmitry Medvedev summoned top Cabinet officials to report on the situation and demanded punishment for anyone found responsible.

The fire broke out Thursday at an Arctic shipyard outside the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk where the submarine Yekaterinburg was in dry-dock. The blaze, which shot orange flames high into the air through the night, was put out Friday afternoon and firefighters continued to spray the vessel with water to cool it down, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Russian state television earlier showed the rubber-coated hull of the submarine still smoldering, with firefighters gathering around it and some standing on top to douse it with water. Most modern submarines' outer hulls are covered with rubber to make them less noisy and more difficult for an enemy to detect.

Seven members of the submarine crew were hospitalized after inhaling poisonous carbon monoxide fumes from the fire, Shoigu said.

An unspecified number of crew remained inside the submarine during the fire, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. He insisted there never was any danger of it spreading inside the sub and said the crew reported that conditions on board remained normal.

Konashenkov's statement left it unclear whether the crew were trapped there or ordered to stay inside.

There has been no radiation leak from the fire, the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry said, and Norway's Radiation Protection Authority across the border reported it has not measured any increased radioactivity.

The governor in Finnmark, Norway's northeastern province that borders Russia, and the radiation agency complained about the Russian response.

"There have been problems to get clear information from the Russian side," Gunnar Kjoennoey told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. "We have an agreement to exchange information in such cases, but there has been no information from the Russian side so far."

Russia's military says the blaze started on wooden scaffolding and then engulfed the sub's outer hull. The vessel's nuclear reactor had been shut down and its nuclear-tipped missiles and other weapons had been unloaded before dry-dock repairs, it said.

Toxic fumes from the blaze had spread to the town of Roslyakovo where the shipyard is located, but officials said there was no need to evacuate local residents.

The Interfax new agency quoted the former director of the biggest shipyard in the area as saying the fire was probably caused by the failure to take proper safety precautions, such as coating the scaffolding with special sprays to make it fire-resistant.

"It was either lack of professionalism or an attempt to save money that has turned into huge losses," Nikolai Kalistratov said.

The Yekaterinburg is a Delta-IV-class nuclear-powered submarine that normally carries 16 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. The 166-meter (548-feet) vessel has a displacement of 18,200 tons when submerged.

The chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, led a team of senior military officials to Roslyakovo to oversee the emergency response.

The damage from the fire could be so massive that the submarine would need to be scrapped, the Interfax news agency reported Friday. But Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of the nation's military industries, said that the submarine will rejoin the navy after repairs.

The Russian navy suffered its worst accident in August 2000, when the Kursk nuclear submarine exploded and sank during naval maneuvers, killing all 118 crew members aboard.

A 2008 accident at the Nerpa nuclear-powered submarine killed 20 Russian seamen and injured 21 others when its fire-extinguishing system activated in error and spewed suffocating Freon gas.

___

Jan M. Olsen contributed to this report from Copenhagen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_submarine_fire

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Wedgewood in Team Canada net against Czechs

',
container = $('#drop-panel-container'),
contents = $(container).html();

if (isIE8) {

$(container).replaceWith(f+contents+b)

}



}

function dropPanelSetUp(data) {
/* buttons should be a dataobject of strings representing IDs
the hide and show functions are expecting IDs so passing a class will result in a
failure.

click as the action is assumed for now

the data object should look like this:

{ masterlistener:(string[dom id]),
panel:(string[dom id]),
eventgroup1:{ button:(string[dom id]),
content:(string[dom id]),
offset:{x:(int),y:(int)},
on_state_class: ''(string)
},
eventgroup2:{ button:(string[dom id]),
content:(string[dom id]),
offset:{x:(int),y:(int)},
on_state_class: ''(string)
} ... etc
}

The drop panel nodes should be placed so they share the same offset parent as the buttons that activate it.

NOTE: IE8 Got-chya: the ID for the panel is hard coded into the IE8 rouned corners code.
If you have changed the ID for the drop panel and are having trouble with IE8
change the ID in the template string in this function: ie8DropPanel()

*/



var speed = 300,
panel = $('#'+data.panel),
buttons = [];



for (var i=1,eg; eg=data[('eventgroup'+i)]; i++) {

var bp = $('#'+eg.button).position(), //button position
ph = $('#'+eg.button).height(), //button height
panelPos = [bp.top+ph, bp.left, eg.offset];
on_state_class = eg.on_state_class;

buttons.push([$('#'+eg.button),$('#'+eg.content),panelPos,eg.button,on_state_class]);

}



$('#'+data.masterlistener).bind('click',{speed:speed,panel:panel,buttons:buttons},function(event){

var org = event.target,
speed = event.data.speed,
panel = event.data.panel,
buttons = event.data.buttons,
panel_open = isPanelOpen(panel);




for (var i=buttons.length-1, b; b=buttons[i]; i--) {
/*
* b[0] = button DOM object
* b[1] = content DOM object
* b[2] = the display co-ord object:
* [0] = top (int)
* [1] = left (int)
* [2] = offset object
* {x,y}(int,int)
* b[3] = button ID (string)
* b[4] = button 'on' class
*/

var button_id = b[3],
same_content = isSameContent(panel,b[1]);

if ( $(org).attr('id') === button_id || $(org).parents('#'+button_id).attr('id')){

if(!same_content) {

hideAllContent(buttons);
movePanel(panel,b[2]);

if (panel_open) {

showContent(b[1],b[0],b[4]);

} else {

showContent(b[1],b[0],b[4]);
showPanel(panel,speed);

}

} else {

hidePanel(panel,speed,b[4]);

}

}

}

function isPanelOpen(panel) {


return ($(panel).css('display').toLowerCase() === 'block');
}

function isSameContent (panel,content) {

return ($(content, panel).css('display').toLowerCase() === 'block');

}

function movePanel(panel,b) {
// b[0] top, b[1] left, b[2] {x,y}

$(panel).css({
'top': (b[0] + b[2].x)
});
$(panel).css({
'left': (b[1] + b[2].y)
});

}

function showPanel(panel,speed) {

$(panel).slideDown(speed);
}

function hidePanel(panel,speed) {

$(panel).slideUp(speed, function() {hideAllContent(buttons);});


}

function showContent(content, button, btn_class) {
$(content).show();
$(button).addClass(btn_class);
}

function hideContent(content) {

$(content).hide();

}

function hideAllContent(buttons) {

for (var i = buttons.length-1, b; b=buttons[i]; i--) {
$(b[1]).hide();
$(b[0]).removeClass(b[4]);
}

}


})


}


return {

ieRoundedCorners:ieRoundedCorners,
ie8DropPanel:ie8DropPanel,
dropPanelSetUp:dropPanelSetUp
}



})();



var headerNavication = (function($,cw) {

var nav_item_list = $('.cw-header .main-nav ul.main > li'),
channel_id_list = '',
channel,
sub_channel;

var findChannel = function () {

var winloc = isIE ? document.URL.split('/') : document.documentURI.split('/') ,
channel_id = winloc[3],
sub_chanel_id = winloc.length > 5 ? '/'+winloc[4]+'/' : '',
reg_sub_find_id = new RegExp(sub_chanel_id,'ig'),
reg_removed_id = /^nav-/i;


for (var i=nav_item_list.length-1,n; n=nav_item_list[i]; i--) {

if ( channel_id === $(n).children('a').attr('id').replace(reg_removed_id,'') ) {
var list = $(n).children('ul').children('li');

if (sub_chanel_id.length > 0) {

for (var j=list.length-1,l; l=list[j]; j--) {

if (reg_sub_find_id.test($(l).children('a').attr('href'))) {
break;
} else {
l = false;
}

}

}

break;

}

}

findChannel = function () {
return [n,l];
}

return [n,l];

}

var init = (function() {
channel = findChannel()[0] || nav_item_list[0];
sub_channel = findChannel()[1];

if (sub_channel) {
highlightSubChannel();
}

clearNav();

if(isIE) {

cw.ieRoundedCorners();

if(isIE8) {
cw.ie8DropPanel();
}
}

if ($('#handle-header').attr('id')) {
cw.dropPanelSetUp({
masterlistener: 'handle-header',
panel: ('drop-panel-container'),
eventgroup1: {
button: 'btn-newspapers',
content: 'panel-newspapers',
offset: {
x: 5,
y: 0
},
on_state_class: 'newspapers-dropdown-on'
},
eventgroup2: {
button: 'btn-networks',
content: 'panel-networks',
offset: {
x: 5,
y: 0
},
on_state_class: 'networks-dropdown-on'
}
});
}

//need to check state of search radio buttons since firefox doesn't reset to the default checked radio button
if($('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp:checked').attr('id') != null){
$('.cw-header #header-search-form').attr('action','http://canadacom.yellowpages.ca/search/');
$('.cw-header #header-search-string').attr('name','what');
$('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp').siblings('label').removeClass('selected');
$('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp').next().addClass('selected');
}

eventSetUp();

}())


function highlightSubChannel() {

if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/cfl/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .cfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/grey-cup-2011/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .cfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/nfl/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .nfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else $(sub_channel).addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
}

function clearNav() {

clearTabs();
$(channel).children('ul').show();
$(channel).css('background-position', 'bottom right');

}

function eventSetUp() {


$('.cw-header .main-nav ').bind('mouseleave', function(event){

if (isIE) {

if ($(event.relatedTarget).parents('.main-nav').length 0)?"" + value.substring(0,pos) + "" + value.substring(pos, term.length) + "" + value.substring(pos + term.length) + "":value.substring(0, term.length) + "" + value.substring(pos + term.length) + ""; }, scroll: false, selectFirst: false }); });

Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F71/~3/x_ShENoh2dg/story.html

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Badwater Basin: Death Valley microbe may spark novel biotech and nanotech uses

ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2011) ? Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals. But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.

They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.

In a basin named Badwater on the edge of Death Valley National Park, Bazylinski and researcher Christopher Lef?vre hit pay dirt.

Lef?vre is with the French National Center of Scientific Research and University of Aix-Marseille II.

In a recent issue of the journal Science, Bazylinski, Lef?vre and others report that they identified, isolated and grew a new type of magnetic bacteria that could lead to novel biotech and nanotech uses.

Magnetotactic bacteria are simple, single-celled organisms that are found in almost all bodies of water.

As their name suggests, they orient and navigate along magnetic fields like miniature swimming compass needles.

This is due to the nano-sized crystals of the minerals magnetite or greigite they produce.

The presence of these magnetic crystals makes the bacteria and their internal crystals--called magnetosomes--useful in drug delivery and medical imaging.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy and the French Foundation for Medical Research.

"The finding is significant in showing that this bacterium has specific genes to synthesize magnetite and greigite, and that the proportion of these magnetosomes varies with the chemistry of the environment," said Enriqueta Barrera, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

While many magnetite-producing bacteria can be grown and easily studied, Bazylinski and his team were the first to cultivate a greigite-producing species. Greigite is an iron sulfide mineral, the equivalent of the iron oxide magnetite.

"Because greigite-producing bacteria have never been isolated, the crystals haven't been tested for the types of biomedical and other applications that currently use magnetite," said Bazylinski.

"Greigite is an iron sulfide that may be superior to magnetite in some applications due to its slightly different physical and magnetic properties. Now we have the opportunity to find out."

Researchers found the greigite-producing bacterium, called BW-1, in water samples collected more than 280 feet below sea level in Badwater Basin. Lef?vre and Bazylinski later isolated and grew it leading to the discovery that BW-1 produces both greigite and magnetite.

A detailed look at its DNA revealed that BW-1 has two sets of magnetosome genes, unlike other such bacteria, which produce only one mineral and have only one set of magnetosome genes.

This suggests that the production of magnetite and greigite in BW-1 is likely controlled by separate sets of genes. That could be important in the mass production of either mineral for specific applications.

According to Bazylinski, the greigite-producing bacteria represent a new, previously unrecognized group of sulfate-reducing bacteria that "breathe" the compound sulfate rather than oxygen as most living organisms do.

"With how much is known about sulfate-reducing bacteria, it's surprising that no one has described this group," he said.

Working with Bazylinski and Lef?vre on the project are David Pignol of the French National Center of Scientific Research and University of Aix-Marseille II; Nicolas Menguy of Pierre and Marie Curie University, France; Fernanda Abreu and Ulysses Lins of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Mihaly P?sfai of the University of Pannonia, Hungary; Tanya Prozorov of Ames Laboratory, Iowa; and Richard Frankel of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Science Foundation.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. C. T. Lefevre, N. Menguy, F. Abreu, U. Lins, M. Posfai, T. Prozorov, D. Pignol, R. B. Frankel, D. A. Bazylinski. A Cultured Greigite-Producing Magnetotactic Bacterium in a Novel Group of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria. Science, 2011; 334 (6063): 1720 DOI: 10.1126/science.1212596

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111227142623.htm

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

ConocoPhillips, Chevron watch oil rise above $100

Thinkstock

Rising tensions in the Middle East, particularly a threat today from Iran that it might close the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers passing through, also pushed crude oil prices higher on Tuesday.

ConocoPhillips?

Rising tensions in the Middle East, particularly a threat today from Iran that it might close the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers passing through, also pushed crude oil prices higher on Tuesday. CNN Money said the ?Iranian threat came in response to a recent tightening of Western sanctions against Iran that attempt to limited the amount of oil that country can export.?

The Associated Press?

The AP report noted that the ?National Retail Federation now expects a 3.8 percent increase in holiday sales, up from its original forecast of 2.8 percent made in September.?

Consumer spending represents about 70 percent of the nation?s economy, ?so an uptick in spending could boost growth and demand for oil,? added the AP report.

ConocoPhillips?

Rising tensions in the Middle East, particularly a threat today from Iran that it might close the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers passing through, also pushed crude oil prices higher on Tuesday. CNN Money said the ?Iranian threat came in response to a recent tightening of Western sanctions against Iran that attempt to limited the amount of oil that country can export.?

The Associated Press?

The AP report noted that the ?National Retail Federation now expects a 3.8 percent increase in holiday sales, up from its original forecast of 2.8 percent made in September.?

Consumer spending represents about 70 percent of the nation?s economy, ?so an uptick in spending could boost growth and demand for oil,? added the AP report.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_18/~3/aN8ysBk6Foo/conocophillips-chevron-watch-oil-rise.html

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Joe Lieberman: "I don't think Congress has ever been as bad as it is today." (The Christian Science Monitor)

Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Elected to the Senate in 1988, he ran as an independent in 2006 after losing Connecticut's Democratic primary. He spoke at the Dec. 13 Monitor breakfast in Washington.

Why public approval of Congress is so low:

"Because I don't think Congress has ever been as bad as it is today. Here is a time of very serious, painful economic hardship ... and a debt that is threatening our future, national debt, and we really haven't done anything about it."

Whether members of Congress are using non-public information for personal financial gain:

"I don't have any evidence that there is insider trading by members of Congress.... A lot of people around the country ... think there is.... It is very important that Congress make clear with legislative action that members of Congress ... are covered by insider-trading laws."

President Obama's response to Iran's capture of an American spy drone:

"I wish that we had found a way to at least go in and destroy it.... It would have been very difficult to rescue it.... I say that with humility because I wasn't in the [White House] Situation Room...."

US policy toward Iran:

"I don't think we have done enough to support regime change. It needs to be done artfully because it is not one of those cases where we want to go in and start endorsing opposition" candidates.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich saying the Palestinians are an "invented" people:

"To me, the important fact is, the Palestinians are a people today and any resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has to be between two peoples, two nations."

Calls for the Transportation Security Administration to create passenger advocates at airports to deal with complaints about searches:

"It is worth thinking about, but I am not jumping to endorse it.... I am an admirer of TSA."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111225/ts_csm/437874

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Bug: Silverlight failed to render larger canvas (if width is > 2100) in Microsoft Windows Phone 7

I'm working with Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta -ENU.?

Silverlight failed to render Larger canvas (if width is > 2100) in Microsoft Windows Phone 7

Below is the test case


MainPage.xaml

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
?? ?xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
?? ?xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
?? ?xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
?? ?xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
?? ?xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
?? ?xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
?? ?mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="480" d:DesignHeight="800"
?? ?x:Class="WindowsPhoneApplication2.MainPage"
?? ?FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
?? ?FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"
?? ?Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"
?? ?SupportedOrientations="Portrait"? Orientation="Portrait"
?? ?shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True">

?? ?<!--LayoutRoot contains the root grid where all other page content is placed-->
?? ?<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
?? ??? ?<Grid.RowDefinitions>
?? ??? ??? ?<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
?? ??? ??? ?<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
?? ??? ?</Grid.RowDefinitions>

?? ??? ?<!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title-->
?? ??? ?<StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="24,24,0,12">
?? ??? ??? ?<TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="MY APPLICATION" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/>
?? ??? ??? ?<TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="page name" Margin="-3,-8,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>
?? ??? ?</StackPanel>

?? ??? ?<!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->
?? ??? ?<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" >
?? ??? ??? ?<Canvas Margin="44,49,108,101" Width="333" Height="444">
?? ??? ??? ??? ?<ScrollViewer Height="363" Background="#00CE4242" ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" Canvas.Left="35" Canvas.Top="17" Width="251">
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<Canvas Height="247" Width="4000" Background="#FFD04444">
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<StackPanel Height="170" Canvas.Left="8" Canvas.Top="30" Width="3008" Background="#FF787BA3" Orientation="Horizontal">
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<Rectangle Stroke="Black"? Width="2200" Margin="0,8,0,26">
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<Rectangle.Fill>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.962,0.474" MappingMode="RelativeToBoundingBox" StartPoint="0.007,0.463">
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<GradientStop Color="Black"/>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<GradientStop Color="White" Offset="0.916"/>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<GradientStop Color="#FFFFEA00" Offset="0.964"/>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="1"/>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?</LinearGradientBrush>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?</Rectangle.Fill>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?</Rectangle>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?<Rectangle Fill="#FFD85731" Height="24" Stroke="Black"? Width="400"/>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?</StackPanel>
?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?</Canvas>
?? ??? ??? ??? ?</ScrollViewer>
?? ??? ??? ?</Canvas>
?? ??? ?</Grid>
?? ?</Grid>
</phone:PhoneApplicationPage>

MainPage.xaml.cs


namespace WindowsPhoneApplication2
{
??? public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
??? {
??????? public MainPage()
??????? {
??????????? InitializeComponent();
??????? }
??? }
}

Regards,
Somnath Panja
IT Professional, Microsoft Technologies (.Net, SQLServer, IIS, SharePoint). Currently working on-C,C#,VB,ASP.net,JavaScript,JQuery, Silverlight,WPF, XBAP and SharePoint.

www.visifire.com

Source: http://forums.silverlight.net/p/191720/442782.aspx/1?Bug+Silverlight+failed+to+render+larger+canvas+if+width+is+gt+2100+in+Microsoft+Windows+Phone+7

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Monday, December 26, 2011

One billion holiday wishes

As a new year dawns, 1 billion people worldwide face difficult challenges. But hundreds of organizations are working tirelessly to help.

The holidays are a time for putting others before yourself. And with the recent announcement that the world?s population has surpassed 7 billion, there are a lot more "others" to consider this year.

Skip to next paragraph

Nearly 1 billion people in the world are hungry, for example, while almost the same number are illiterate, making it hard for them to earn a living or move out of poverty.

One billion people ? many of them children ? have micronutrient deficiencies, decreasing their ability to learn and live productive lives.

?IN PICTURES: Food security in Africa

But there are hundreds and hundreds of organizations working tirelessly in communities at home and abroad to fix these problems.

One billion hungry

Although the number of undernourished people worldwide has decreased since 2009, nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night. This number is unacceptably high. Malnutrition contributes to the death of half a billion children under the age of five every year, and in Africa alone, one child dies every six seconds from hunger.

But organizations such as the World Food Programme are using home-grown school feeding (HGSF) initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty. HGSF programs in Brazil, India, Thailand, Kenya, and other countries work to connect local producers with schools, helping to provide children with nutritious and fresh food while providing farmers with a stable source of income.

One billion tons of food wasted

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food ? a third of the total food produced for human consumption ? is lost or wasted each year. Within the United States, food retailers, services, and households waste approximately 40 million tons of food each year ? an amount that has been estimated to be enough to feed the close to 1 billion hungry people.

Thankfully, organizations around the world are working to educate people on the importance of preserving food. In New York City, City Harvest collects surplus food from food providers and distributes it to over 600 shelters and other agencies.

And in West Africa, farmers are using the power of the sun to dehydrate fruits such as mangoes and bananas. Experts estimate that, with nearly all of their moisture removed, the fruits? nutrients are retained for up to six months, allowing farmers to save the 100,000 tons of mangoes that go to waste each year.?

One billion micronutrient deficient?

Nearly 1 billion people suffer from micro-nutrient deficiencies, including lack of vitamin A, iron, and iodine. Between a quarter of a billion to half a billion children with vitamin A deficiencies become blind every year, and half of these children die within 12 months of losing their sight.

These problems could be fixed by ensuring access to nutritious foods. Organizations such as AVRDC ? The World Vegetable Center and the Developing Innovations in School cultivation (Project DISC) have been working to combat this problem.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/v6c92Utvqto/One-billion-holiday-wishes

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Turkey slams France over genocide debate (AP)

ISTANBUL ? Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own Friday, accusing France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria.

French lawmakers passed a bill Thursday making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide.

The deepening acrimony between two strategic allies and trading partners could have repercussions far beyond the settling of accounts over some of the bloodiest episodes of the past century.

Turkey was already frustrated by French opposition to its stalled European Union bid, and hopes for Western-backed rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia seem ever more distant ahead of 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian killings.

The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended military cooperation and ordered his country's ambassador home for consultations.

Turkey and France worked closely together during NATO's operation against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and had been coordinating policy on Syria and Afghanistan.

"What the French did in Algeria was genocide," Erdogan said Friday in a heavily personal speech, laced with criticism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said Algerians were burned in ovens.

"They were mercilessly martyred," he said.

Erdogan appeared to be referring to allegations that the French burned the dead in ovens after a 1945 uprising that began in the Algerian town of Setif. Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. French figures say up to 20,000.

The French bill's passage "is a clear example of how racism, discrimination and anti-Muslim sentiment have reached new heights in France and in Europe," Erdogan said. "French President Sarkozy's ambition is to win an election based on promoting animosity against Turks and Muslims."

France holds presidential elections in April.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the French vote was comparable with attempts by Mideast rulers to stifle free speech.

"Europe has philosophically and ideologically reverted to the Middle Ages," Davutoglu said at a conference of Turkish ambassadors in Ankara, the capital.

France formally recognized the Armenian killings as genocide in 2001, but had previously provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of euro45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

France is committed to human rights and respect for "historical memory," Sarkozy said in Prague, where he was attending the funeral of Vaclav Havel, the dissident who became president of the Czech Republic.

"France doesn't give lessons to anyone, but France also doesn't plan on taking them," Sarkozy said in a clip shown on France's LCI television. "I respect the convictions of our Turkish friends ? it's a grand country, a grand civilization ? and they must respect ours. To cede on one's convictions is always cowardice, and one always ends up by paying for cowardice."

Most historians contend the Ottoman killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first genocide of the 20th century. But the issue is dicey for any government that wants a strong alliance with Turkey, a rising power. In Washington, President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling the killings genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America said the French vote "reinforces the growing international consensus ? and the mounting pressure on Turkey ? for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_france_genocide

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

JW Grade A Hustler Releases 5 Sampled Tracks Off GIFTM Vol. 5

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JW Grade A Hustler! Today he released 5 Records (sampled tracks) off his upcoming Get It From The Muscle Vol. 5 ft. DJ Famous Amos as a Christmas gift for fans! Listen and download above – Get It From The Muscle Vol. 5 coming soon! CONNECT WITH JW GRADE A HUSTLER: www.twitter.com/JWGRADEAHUSTLER [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/jw-grade-a-hustler-releases-5-sampled-tracks-off-giftm-vol-5/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jw-grade-a-hustler-releases-5-sampled-tracks-off-giftm-vol-5

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Treasury: U.S. debt grew to $14.8 trillion in 2011

Politico
? December 24, 2011

By MJ Lee

The Treasury Department quietly released the balance of the U.S. government?s checkbook the Friday before Christmas, in a year-end report that showed the country diving deeper into the red with net liabilities of $14.8 trillion.

The government?s biggest liabilities for 2011 included $10.2 trillion in federal debt securities held by the public and $5.8 trillion owed to federal employees and veterans.

The government?s overall net liability is calculated by subtracting net assets from liabilities. In 2010, the figure was $13.5 trillion.

The Government Accountability Office?s auditor?s report stated that it could not express an opinion on the government?s annual financial statements, citing serious financial management problems at the Defense Department that made the department?s statements impossible to audit, the government?s ?inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernemtntal activity,? as well as its ?ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements.?

?Restoring fiscal sustainability will require substantial additional changes, including tax reforms to increase revenue and changes to make our entitlement programs sustainable over time,? Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a messaging accompanying the report.

He added, ?But these reforms, if done in a broad-based and balanced way and phased in over time to give Americans a chance to plan and adjust, will not impose an unfair or excessive burden on the citizens of this country.?

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2011/12/treasury-us-debt-grew-148-trillion-2011

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Baghdad Bombings (TIME)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/177805499?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Advance made in light slowing techniques

ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2011) ? In its latest issue, Nature Photonics, a journal published by the Naturegroup, includes an article by researchers from the Universitat Polit?cnica de Val?ncia on the most significant advances worldwide in the field of light-slowing techniques applied to microwave photonics, which open the door to integrating multiple functionalities into optical chips in the short and medium term, and also to marketing these functionalities.

The article, written by Jos? Capmany, Salvador Sales and Gasulla Ivana, from the optical and quantum communications group of the UPV's ITEAM institute, is included in the section "Technology Focus." It summarizes the work done in recent years by researchers from the UPV and other research centres within the European project GOSPEL, which aims at "governing the speed of light," using "innovative and pioneering" technologies.

Professor Jos? Capmany, the head of the UPV's ITEAM, explains that the possibilities that will arise in the telecommunications field if we can control the speed of light are really broad: "we will be able to make very versatile processors with a high bandwidth, to efficiently interconnect systems using optical fibres as a transmission medium, and, generally speaking, to improve performance in other fields of application, such as sensor development, the processing of high-resolution images for biomedical and space sector applications, and the manufacturing of high-precision parts."

Within the GOSPEL project, researchers from the UPV's ITEAM are working towards an efficient phase shifter that can be transferred to the industry, based on light slowing in semiconductors and optical fibres. About a year and a half ago, Professor Jos? Capmany's team, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark, achieved a world record in the telecommunications field by developing the first complete phase shifter with record bandwidth (50 GHz). It was a pioneering device for slowing down the pace and speed of light, thus improving the information transmission flow, avoiding congestion and ensuring optimum performance of the entire communication system.

In August this year, UPV researchers presented the first broadband radio frequency (RF) photonic phase shifter which is tunable and based on a single semiconductor element. Its advantages are that producing it will be cheaper and that it will provide a saving in energy consumption of up to 80%.

Future applications: biomedical imaging and quantum communications

According to the ITEAM researchers, although initially the microwave photonics field focused on applications closely related to telecommunications for defence, in recent years it is becoming increasingly oriented towards the civilian sector. In particular, an area of ??activity which arouses much interest is that of high bandwidth (1-2 Gbit/s) wireless access networks, in which optical fibre is combined with pico- and femtocells providing coverage. "These cells use antennas with a very low power consumption, which favours the deployment of telecommunication networks that are greener than current macrocell-based networks. High-speed information transmission through pico- and femtocells requires using a millimetre frequency band (60-100 GHz). And it indispensably requires using optical fibres, as a transmission medium to the antenna with a very low loss," says Jos? Capmany.

Among the emerging applications in which microwave photonics is to play an important role are biomedical imaging systems using optically generated waves in the terahertz band. "These waves can be used to examine samples and tissues without causing the damage that, for instance, X-rays cause; besides, they are able to find out more sophisticated information about processes involving molecules, radicals and ions," Jos? Capmany points out.

Another field of application is the so-called "Internet of things," in which a global network connects physical objects with virtual objects through the combination of data capture techniques and communication networks. An instance of this may be radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor networks.

Looking farther into the future, Capmany highlights the applications of microwave photonics in communications and quantum logic, "a field in which very promising advances are being made."

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221105641.htm

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Adobe releases EchoSign app for iOS, enables legally binding contracts to be signed with a 'click'

We're not going to twist your arm, but if you're sitting on some beachfront property that you're willing to deed over to your favorite Engadget writers, the folks at Adobe are making the process all too easy. The company is delivering a free app for iOS that enables EchoSign subscribers to attach legally binding signatures to virtually any document, all from the comfort of their preferred fruit-filled device. What's more, the software also allows users to send documents to others for a one-click stroke of the pen and track the status of said agreements with real-time updates. Now, please excuse us. We've got some aboveboard contracts to draft.

Adobe releases EchoSign app for iOS, enables legally binding contracts to be signed with a 'click' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/22/adobe-releases-echosign-app-for-ios-enables-legally-binding-con/

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Army: Some Arlington markers may need replacement

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) ? Thousands of grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery may need to be replaced or added to accurately account for the dead, following a meticulous Army review of each of the nearly 260,000 headstones and niche covers on the grounds.

In a report to Congress on Thursday, the Army found potential discrepancies between headstones and cemetery paperwork on about 64,000 grave markers ? about one in four.

Congress ordered the review last year following reports of misidentified and misplaced graves that led to the ouster of the cemetery's top executives.

The report found no further evidence of misplaced graves, though it cautioned that its review is not complete and that some errors could have gone undetected.

There are potentially thousands of minor errors, including misspelled names, or incorrect military ranks and dates of birth and death.

The Army compared information on every headstone to its internal records, scouring handwritten logs of the dead from the Civil War and a hodgepodge of other records to verify accuracy.

In an interview, the cemetery's executive director, Kathryn Condon, said reviews are ongoing and it's premature to try to estimate exactly how many headstones may need replacement.

To be sure, many of the 64,000 discrepancies will turn up no problem with a headstone ? it may be as simple as a typo on an internal record. And in many cases, the discrepancies are not errors at all but reflect past practices at the cemetery that are now considered outdated.

One of the biggest surprises uncovered by the review was that in most of the early 20th century, the cemetery did not include the name of a wife on a headstone when she was buried next to her husband. Under current practices, the name of the spouse is etched onto the back of the headstone.

Condon said the cemetery will correct that by adding the spouse's name to the gravesite. She said it is not only the right thing to do but is also required by law.

Accounting for the forgotten spouses alone will require thousands of corrections, officials said. In some cases, replacement headstones will be made. In cases where the headstones are considered historic, footstones will be added.

The Army and a team of 70 analysts are undertaking painstaking reviews of every case where they find a potential discrepancy to ensure that records are made accurate. Those reviews are expected to be completed in the summer.

The process began with a hand count, using simple mechanical clickers, of every gravesite ? 259,978 to be exact. (More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington, but some grave markers have two or more names.) Then, during the summer, members of the Army's ceremonial Old Guard unit used iPhones to photograph the front and back of every headstone, so the information could be compared against internal records.

Officials cited Christian Keiner, a Civil War veteran from New York who died in 1919, as a typical example. The headstone reflected only his name, but internal records showed that his wife, Caroline Keiner, had also been buried there in 1915. In addition, the internal records spelled Caroline Keiner's name as "Kiner." Officials reviewed handwritten Census records from 1900 and Civil war-era military and pension records to confirm that "Keiner" was indeed the correct spelling.

John Schrader, co-chair of the Gravesite Accountability Task Force, said recordkeeping methods varied widely over the cemetery's 147-year history, from handwritten logs to index cards, to typewritten forms and two different computer databases. That sometimes compounded problems, as transcription errors were common. To avoid those problems, all of the old records have been scanned and digitized, rather than transcribed, to avoid introducing further errors, he said.

The sheer size of the cemetery also made the task difficult. It is the second-largest cemetery in the country as well as a tourist site that draws more than 4 million visitors a year, all while conducting nearly 30 burials a day, some with full military honors.

The most significant part of the review, Condon said, is that the cemetery for the first time has a single, reliable database that will allow officials to fix past mistakes and plan for the future.

The cemetery is currently testing an interactive, web-based version of its database that will allow visitors to click on a digital map to see gravesites and learn who is buried there, ensuring the cemetery's records are open and accessible going forward.

"We'll have 300 million American fact-checkers," Schrader said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-22-Arlington%20Cemetery/id-10d7321b37bc49e9941d16b7672f9617

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Japan releases 40-year nuke plant cleanup plan (AP)

TOKYO ? Japan released a lengthy roadmap Wednesday to clean up and fully decommission a nuclear plant that went into meltdown after it was struck by a huge tsunami, a process the government said would take as many as 40 years.

Nuclear crisis minister Goshi Hosono acknowledged that decommissioning three wrecked reactors plus spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was an "unprecedented project," and that the process was not "totally foreseeable."

"But we must do it even though we may face difficulties along the way," Hosono told a press conference.

Trade Minister Yukio Edano promised that authorities would move through the process "firmly while ensuring safety at the plant."

He also vowed to pay attention to the concerns of tens of thousands of residents displaced by the crisis when the plant was knocked out by Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

Under the plan, approved earlier Wednesday following consultation with experts and nuclear regulators, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start removing spent fuel rods within two years from their pools located on the top floor of each of their reactor buildings.

After that is completed, TEPCO will start removing the melted fuel, most of which is believed to have fallen through the bottom of the core or even down to the bottom of the larger, beaker-shaped containment vessel, a process that is expected to be completed 25 years from now. The location and conditions of the molten fuel is not exactly known.

Completely decommissioning the plant would require five to 10 more years after the fuel debris removal, making the entire process up to 40 years, according to the roadmap.

The process still require development of robots and technology that can get much of the work remotely because of extremely nigh radiation levels inside the reactor buildings.

The decades-long process also would place an enormous financial burden on TEPCO. The ministers said that the total cost estimate can not be provided immediately, but promised that there will be no delay because of financial reasons.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced last Friday that the plant has achieved "cold shutdown conditions," meaning the plant had been brought to stability in the nine months since the accident.

The announcement officially paves the way for a new phase that will eventually allow some evacuees back to less-contaminated areas currently off limits.

Experts say the plant 140 miles (230 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo is running with makeshift equipment and remains vulnerable to cold weather and earthquakes.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_nuclear_crisis

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Poll: Is it Election Day yet? (Politico)

A whopping seven in 10 Americans can?t wait for the presidential campaign to be over, according to a new poll Friday.

The Iowa caucuses aren?t for 17 days, but 70 percent of Americans say they already wish campaign season was done, a USA Today/Gallup poll released Friday shows. Slightly over one-fourth of Americans, or 26 percent, disagree with the majority of those polled and say they can?t wait for the presidential campaign to begin.

Continue Reading

And campaign fatigue is even greater in 12 swing states key to the election ? 75 percent of residents in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin want it to be over. Only 21 percent of those living in these swing states say they are looking forward to the presidential election season with anticipation, the poll found.

As for Republicans and Democrats, there?s finally some bipartisan agreement on an issue: 67 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans can?t wait for the 2012 presidential campaign to be over. Just 31 percent of Republicans are looking forward to its kickoff, and only 27 percent of Democrats say they feel the same.

The poll surveyed 1,034 adults from Dec. 6-7. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1211_70573_html/43932758/SIG=11m9m9lkk/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70573.html

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Want A Piece Of Founders Fund?s Latest $625M Fund? Start By Trying To Change The World

Screen Shot 2011-12-15 at 7.18.53 PMSome call them wackaloons, others visionaries, however any way you slice them the Founders Fund -- consisting of Partners Peter Thiel,?Luke Nosek,?Brian Singerman,?Derik Pridmore,?Lauren Gross,?Bruce Gibney,?Sean Parker,?Toby Prosky?and others -- is definitely an unconventional lot.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mNqvYBGWHLc/

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Japan declares Fukushima stable

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda: "This is a challenge to not only our nation but also the whole of humanity"

The crippled nuclear reactors at Japan's Fukushima power plant have finally been stabilised, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has announced.

An earthquake and tsunami in March knocked out vital cooling systems, triggering radiation leaks and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Mr Noda's declaration of a "cold shutdown" condition marked the stabilisation of the plant.

The government says it will take decades to dismantle it completely.

The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Blasts occurred at four of the reactors after the cooling systems went offline.

Workers at the plant, which is operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), have been using sea water to cool the reactors. Waste water has built up and some contaminated liquid has been released into the sea.

A 20km (12m) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant.

'Battle not over'

"The nuclear reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown and therefore we can now confirm that we have come to the end of the accident phase of the actual reactors," Mr Noda told a news conference.

Continue reading the main story

Reaction

Retired teachers Yuji and Tetsuko Takahashi are among the tens of thousands of people forced to abandon their homes around the Fukushima plant. They were planning to watch the prime minister's announcement on the television. The set was donated to them by well-wishers like everything else in their government-provided Tokyo apartment - even the clothes on their backs.

"Even when we are told it has been shut down I can't believe it," says Tetsuko. "From the start the government officials have lied to us. One of the top officials said on TV that there was no meltdown, but it happened. The actual situation is much, much worse than we were told from the beginning."

The couple's main goal now is to return home, to get out of the 26th floor apartment and back to the garden they love. The exclusion zone could remain in force for years, but they are willing to brave the contamination. "We are old, 67 and 61," says Tetsuko . "So maybe the radiation would make the risk of getting cancer higher, but it would take five or 10 years. We are going to die before we get seriously ill."

"We are now moving from trying to stabilise the nuclear reactors to decommissioning them.

"The Japanese government promises to clarify the roadmap from here and do our utmost, while ensuring we operate the nuclear reactors as safely as possible, to decommission them."

The "battle is not over", he said, adding that the next phase would focus on the clean-up operation, including decontaminating the ground around the plant.

With the reactors stable, Mr Noda said the government would review the evacuation zones established in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Earlier this year, the government said it was aiming for a cold shutdown by the end of the year.

This is where water that cools nuclear fuel rods remains below boiling point, meaning that the fuel cannot reheat.

Tepco has also defined it as bringing the release of radioactive materials under control and reducing public radiation exposure to a level that does not exceed 1mSv/year at the site boundary.

Speaking to cabinet ministers of his nuclear task force earlier on Friday, Mr Noda said: "We can now maintain radiation exposure at the periphery of the plant at sufficiently low levels even in the event of another accident."

But some nuclear experts have said that the repairs made to the plant after the accident are makeshift and could break down without warning.

Forty years

More than 80,000 people had to leave the area, but radiation levels in some places remain too high for them to return home.

Earlier this week, the government said it could take up to 40 years to fully decommission the plant and clean up surrounding areas.

Spent fuel rods and melted fuel inside the reactors must be removed. Waste water must also be safely stored.

Contamination has been found in foodstuffs from the region including rice, beef and fish, while radioactive soil has also been found in some areas.

Some experts have also warned that the plant could be further damaged if a powerful aftershock were to strike.

Engineers are also continuing to encounter new problems - last week Tepco officials confirmed that 45 cu m (1,590 cu ft) of water had leaked into the sea from a crack in the foundation of a water treatment facility.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-16212057

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

World's shortest woman wants to be Bollywood star (omg!)

Guinness World Records adjudicator Rob Molloy, right, and Dr. Manoj Pahukar of Wockhardt hospital, second left, measure Jyoti Amge at a press conference in Nagpur, India, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Amge, 18, was declared shortest woman in the world measuring 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) by the Guinness World Records. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

AGPUR, India (AP) ? A high school student in central India was recognized as the world's shortest woman by Guinness World Records on Friday as she turned 18, saying she hopes to earn a degree and make it in Bollywood.

Jyoti Amge stood just 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) tall ? shorter than the average 2-year-old ? when Guinness representatives visiting from London measured her at a ceremony attended by about 30 family and friends in the town of Nagpur, in Maharashtra state.

A teary-eyed Amge, dressed in one of her finest saris, called the honor an "extra birthday present" and said she felt grateful for being small, as it had brought her recognition. After receiving a plaque, she and her guests cut a birthday cake.

"I have put Nagpur on the world map. Now everyone will know where it is," said Amge, who says she dreams of one day becoming a Bollywood film star as well as pursuing a university degree after she finishes high school this year.

"I want to be an actor," she said.

She measured 7 centimeters (2.76 inches) shorter than the 22-year-old American Bridgette Jordan, who had held the title since September.

"Jyoti encourages us all to look beyond mere size and to just celebrate our differences," Guinness adjudicator Rob Molloy said.

This was not Amge's first Guinness record. Until Friday she was considered the world's shortest teenager, but in turning 18 qualified for the new title. She has grown less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) in the last two years, Guinness said in a statement, and will grow no more due to a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia.

Her teenage title brought the chance for multiple Guinness-sponsored trips to Japan and Italy for tours and meetings with other record holders, she said.

The title of shortest woman in history continues to be held by Pauline Musters, who lived in the Netherlands from 1876 to 1895 and stood 61 centimeters (24 inches) tall.

Jyoti Amge smiles after getting the title of the shortest woman by the Guinness World Records adjudicator Rob Molloy, in Nagpur, India, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Amge was declared the shortest woman in the world measuring 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) by the Guinness World Records. (AP Photo/ Manish Swarup)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_worlds_shortest_woman_wants_bollywood_star105024752/43924865/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/worlds-shortest-woman-wants-bollywood-star-105024752.html

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