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Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide.

Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

During a 1968 presentation by Douglas Engelbart marking the public debut of a mouse, Engelbart used a control console designed by Jack Kelley of Herman Miller that included a keyboard and an inset portion used as a support area for the mouse.

A variety of mousepads exist with many different textured surfaces to fit various different types of mouse technologies. Vinyl board cover, because of its tackiness, was a popular mousepad surface around 1980.[citation needed]

Mouse Pads

KABUL – Hamid Karzai was declared the winner by default Monday in Afghanistan's fraud-marred presidential election, increasing the pressure on President Barack Obama to end his marathon deliberations at a time when a scaled-down version of his commander's ambitious plans is gaining support.
Obama welcomed Karzai's election with as much admonishment as praise, telling America's partner in war that he expects a more serious effort to end corruption in his government and ready his nation to defend itself when international troops ultimately withdraw.
"I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter," Obama said in describing his congratulatory phone call to Karzai. The U.S. president said that when Karzai offered back assurances, Obama told him that "the proof is not going to be in words. It's going to be in deeds."
Afghan politicians with ties to Karzai said they expected him to try to restore credibility abroad by offering Cabinet posts to supporters of his chief rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
But Obama's words appeared to be a sharp warning to Karzai that the American public would not support a significant increase in resources unless it is satisfied that a credible Afghan government is fully committed to tackle the problems of corruption and bad governance which have swelled insurgent ranks.
The messy end to the election left the United States and its partners with the difficult task of helping the Karzai government restore legitimacy both at home and abroad. Public support for the war is already dropping in the U.S. and other countries with troops in Afghanistan. The image of a fraud-stained Afghan partner does little to reverse the slide.
Karzai was declared the winner one day after Abdullah dropped out of the scheduled Nov. 7 runoff. Abdullah said the election would not have been fair and accused the Karzai-appointed Independent Election Commission of bias.
The election now decided, House Republican leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama has no reason to wait any longer to decide whether to accept recommendations by his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for up to 80,000 more troops.
"The White House has no further pretext for delaying the decision on giving Gen. McChrystal the resources he needs," Boehner said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged that Karzai's win is a factor in the coming decision but did not say the timetable for an announcement has changed.
"I think the decision ... still will be made in the coming weeks," Gibbs said.
Obama is considering several options to increase the number of troops fighting in Afghanistan, including Gen. Stanley McChrystal's preference of about 40,000 additional U.S. forces next year. U.S. officials have told The Associated Press that a scaled-down version of that request is gaining favor but that no final decision has been made.
Adding fewer forces than McChrystal really wants at the outset could give the administration additional flexibility later, officials have said. The option carries political risks, however, since Democrats weary of the war will rue any increase in the U.S. fighting force while giving McChrystal less than full measure opens the White House to criticism from the right that it is undercutting U.S. troops.
Abdullah's decision to withdraw from the runoff brought huge relief to organizers who were scrambling to hold the election before the onset of Afghanistan's harsh winter. Afghan and international officials feared a wave of bloody violence on polling day after the Taliban threatened attacks against anyone who took part.
Karzai initially won a majority of votes in the first-round balloting last August. But fraud investigators threw out nearly a third of his votes, dropping him below the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright. Under intense U.S. pressure, he reluctantly agreed to accept those findings and agree to a runoff.
The commission chairman, Azizullah Lodin, declared that Abdullah's move Sunday to withdraw meant the president won a majority of the votes cast among the dozens of other candidates in the first round and proclaimed him the winner.
"This has been a difficult election process for Afghanistan, and lessons must be learned," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Monday during a surprise visit to Kabul. "Afghanistan now faces significant challenges and the new president must move swiftly to form a government that is able to command the support of both the Afghan people and the international community."
In Washington, two U.S. officials involved in the strategy discussions said a flawed second round would have left Karzai with even less credibility. Abdullah's move to highlight fraud charges puts pressure on Karzai to move vigorously to combat corruption.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not announced his decision on strategy and troops.

"We're prepared to work with this partner, who was elected according to Afghan laws in an election that was conducted by Afghan institutions, and we have a big stake in Afghanistan," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "The international community has a big stake in Afghanistan and we stand ready to support them as they go forward."

An Afghan close to Karzai said the president was under strong international pressure to include Abdullah supporters and others from outside his campaign in the new government. He said Karzai was unhappy with the pressure because he feared a government with so many critics would be unwieldy and "nothing will get done." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to discuss the issue publicly.

Karzai turned down a power-sharing deal offered on the eve of Abdullah's announcement, according to Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the talks.

Nevertheless, several Afghan politicians with ties to Karzai said they expect him to offer some Cabinet posts to Abdullah's supporters and others outside his campaign now that he has been declared the winner.

"We are speculating that there will be or already has been some kind of agreement or consensus for the sake of national unity to give some posts to Dr. Abdullah and his close associates," said Khalid Pashtun, a prominent lawmaker. "I would think, however, that it is a good possibility that he could be offered the foreign ministry and perhaps also finance and education."

Pashtun's brother Yusuf Pashtun, Karzai's minister of urban affairs, said he had no firm word on whether Cabinet posts would be offered to Abdullah but "my feeling is I would like to see him on the team."

During the campaign, Karzai rejected calls for a coalition but said he would support a "government of national unity," in effect giving former opponents state jobs or Cabinet posts but subordinate to him.

Opposition to formal coalition government runs deep among Afghans, who associate the term with the chaotic alliance of armed factions that tried to rule after the collapse of the pro-Soviet regime in 1992. The alliance broke apart, triggering a civil war that destroyed much of Kabul and paved the way for the rise of the Taliban.

Many of Karzai's fellow ethnic Pashtun supporters don't want to see him hand over too much power to Abdullah's mostly Tajik followers.

"He should not let Abdullah dictate demands," said Bismillah Afghan Mul, a member of the provincial council in Karzai's home province of Kandahar. "Karzai should have Abdullah in his Cabinet for the sake of national unity but he shouldn't give him whatever he wants."

Some Afghans not involved in politics questioned whether bringing former Karzai opponents into the Cabinet alone would address their concerns, including security, corruption and the lack of basic services such as clean water, electricity and roads.

"All these faces, whether President Karzai or Abdullah Abdullah, are familiar faces to the people of Afghanistan. They have always advanced their personal interests rather than the national interest," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Kandahar school teacher. "People in the south have lost their confidence and their trust in all these people and have no faith that anything will happen to make their lives better."

___

Vogt reported from Kabul, Gearan from Washington. Associated Press Writers Todd Pitman in Kabul, Kathy Gannon and Noor Khan in Kandahar, and Matt Lee and Ben Feller in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – Nicole Kidman conceded Wednesday that Hollywood has probably contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects.
The Oscar-winning actress said she is not interested in those kinds of demeaning roles, adding that the movie industry also has made an effort to contribute to solutions for ending the violence.
Kidman testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that is considering legislation to address violence against women overseas through humanitarian relief efforts and grants to local organizations working on the problem.
Asked by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., if the movie industry has "played a bad role," Kidman said "probably," but quickly added that she herself doesn't.
"I can't be responsible for all of Hollywood but I can certainly be responsible for my own career," she said.
Kidman appeared before the committee in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM, to promote the International Violence Against Women Act.
"In the real world, the laws go unenforced and impunity is the norm," she said.
The legislation has stalled in the past, but a sponsor, Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., said he and others plan to reintroduce it soon.
The Australian star told Congress that the U.N. women's fund needs more resources. "We need the money," she said.
Before the hearing began, a crowd of people lined the hall and around the corner to hear her speak.

WASHINGTON – The rush to implement a tax credit for first-time homebuyers opened the program up to potential fraud by people who hadn't bought a home or already owned one, Congress was told Thursday.
J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, questioned the eligibility of some 100,000 claims out of the 1.5 million who have sought to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit incorporated in the economic stimulus package enacted last February.
He said claimants include those who could possibly be illegal immigrants and that 580 people seeking $4 million from the first-time homebuyer credit were under the age of 18. The youngest taxpayers receiving the credit were 4 years old, his office said.
George and an Internal Revenue Service official testifying before a House Ways and Means Committee subcommittee stressed that many of the questioned claims may eventually be found to be legitimate after further examination.
But the hearing raised a yellow flag as Congress considers whether to extend, or even expand, the popular program that is set to expire at the end of November.
The top Republican on the panel, Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr., of Louisiana, said that while the issue of extending the credit was not the purpose of the hearing, "every time Congress creates a new refundable credit ... the incentive for fraud is magnified."
Linda Stiff, IRS' deputy commissioner for services and enforcement, agreed that "any time that there is an opportunity to receive cash back, it tends to attract people that might have an intent to defraud the government." She said the agency "will vigorously pursue those who filed fraudulent claims."
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., chairman of the oversight subcommittee, said he had introduced legislation to improve the IRS' administration of the program, including giving it the authority to look at prior returns to determine eligibility and requiring that taxpayers provide documented proof of a home purchase.
Currently, applicants must fill out a separate IRS form, but do not have to supply documentation.
The tax credit is "a vital part of our economic recovery efforts. We must ensure that we are administering the credit accurately," Lewis said.
George said more than 19,000 people filed 2008 tax returns or amended returns claiming the credit for homes they had not yet purchased. Those claims amounted to $139 million and it was not clear that the IRS planned to go back to verify that those purchases actually took place, he said.
He said his office had identified another $500 million in claims, by some 74,000 taxpayers, where there were indications of prior home ownership.
The homebuyer credit was a key element of the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February. Under the measure, low- and middle-income first-time homebuyers purchasing a home between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30 of this year could claim a credit of up to $8,000 on their 2008 or 2009 income tax return.
George said the IRS has implemented computer programming to reject claims from people who have not yet purchased a new home. He also acknowledged that the agency has installed filters to catch claimants who had entered information on tax returns indicating they may have owned a home in the three previous years. Those could include deductions for home mortgage interest or real estate taxes.
While the program has widespread support in Congress, there are growing concerns about the costs. The cause, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., "is a worthy one." But "I hope we can find ways to pay for it."
Critics have also characterized the program as a subsidy for people who would have bought a new home regardless of the tax credit. The National Association of Realtors has estimated that one-fourth of those who have claimed the credit, about 350,000, would not have purchased their homes without the credit.

PARIS (AFP) –
President Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son Jean, at the centre of a bitter row over alleged nepotism, on Thursday abandoned his bid for a job managing France's wealthiest business district.

"I will not go for the presidency" of the EPAD agency overseeing development in La Defense district west of Paris, where top French firms are headquartered, the second-year law student told France 2 television.

Jean Sarkozy, who said he would still seek election to the board running the area, slammed critics who he said waged a campaign of "manipulation and disinformation" against him.

The blond-haired fledgling politician, dubbed "Prince Jean" by the press, said he wanted to avoid a "tainted victory" and any "hint of favoritism."

His decision is a setback for his father, who had defended his son -- even saying he had been "thrown to the wolves" -- despite concern among his own rightwing supporters who feared a voter backlash.

Opposition Socialist party spokesman Benoit Hamon said Jean's decision showed that "the president of the republic has retreated under the pressure of the indignation of an immense majority of the French."

The row over Jean Sarkozy began just days after Sarkozy faced a major row over his culture minister, Frederic Mitterrand, who was forced to defend himself on prime-time television over a book describing his sex tourist past.

Sarkozy junior is an elected councillor in Neuilly, the rich Paris suburb that catapulted his father to prominence 30 years ago, and he leads the right-wing majority in the Hauts-de-Seine regional council.

But his bid for the La Defense job drew howls of derision and protest across France and beyond. Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, said the attempt was the "act of a monarch."

The Socialists had formally urged the president "to abandon this disastrous project that has already made France a laughing stock among democracies."

Jean Sarkozy has risen from a little-known Sorbonne University student to a major player in his father's former fiefdom in less than two years. But he has always rejected suggestions his father was behind his meteoric rise.

An online petition launched by a local opposition leader calling on Sarkozy junior to withdraw his candidacy for the La Defense EPAD job quickly gathered thousands of signatures.

"Finish your law studies, gain experience in business and one day, perhaps, you can re-apply for a position once held by your father," said the petition launched by the centrist Democratic Movement.

A Twitter feed on the Internet drew hundreds of sarcastic comments suggesting, for instance, that Jean Sarkozy was now ripe to succeed Ban Ki-moon as UN secretary general.

Former Socialist prime minister Laurent Fabius commented ironically: "Europe's biggest business district is in need of a strong legal mind. And Mister Sarkozy is a second year law student.

"That's a very, very strong factor."

Home to 2,500 head offices for such giants as Total and Societe Generale bank, La Defense employs more than 150,000 people in the complex of skyscrapers on the western edge of Paris.

The area is slated for expansion with the construction of the ultramodern Signal Tower designed by architect Jean Nouvel, while the government also wants to extend EPAD's remit to take in half of neighbouring communist-ruled Nanterre.

Jean Sarkozy last year married Jessica Sebaoun, heiress to the big electronics retailer company Darty. The couple are awaiting their first baby, a boy.

Sarkozy has an older brother, rap music producer Pierre, from his father's first marriage and a half-brother, 11-year-old Louis, from Sarkozy's second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, whom he divorced last year.

Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.

Some Bösendorfer pianos extend the normal range downwards to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can be flipped down to cover the keys in order to avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard. On others, the colours of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).

Piano Lessons

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
A group of top US acts including REM and Pearl Jam on Thursday expressed outrage that loud music was being blasted at Guantanamo detainees as part of "terror" interrogations.

They said they were filing a lawsuit in a bid to declassify documents on the use of the music, and joining the "National Campaign to Close Guantanamo" which was launched by former US military generals and lawmakers hoping to shut the prison at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The musicians launched "a formal protest of the use of music used in conjunction with torture that took place at the prison and other facilities and announced they were supporting an effort seeking the declassification of all secret government records pertaining to how music was utilized as an interrogation device," the group said.

The musicians include Trent Reznor and Tom Morello, whose music with the bands Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine have already been linked to interrogations at the prison, according to previously released government records.

"Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured -- from waterboarding to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts -- playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums," said Morello.

"Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney's idea of America, but it's not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," he added.

Retired general Robert Gard said he sympathized with the musicians "whose music was used without their knowledge as part of the Bush administration's misguided policies."

A 2004 Defense Department report cited by the group detailed an interrogation method known as the "futility" technique, which included playing the music of Metallica and Britney Spears to detainees.

President Barack Obama vowed on his second day in office to shutter the facility, a magnet for global criticism of US tactics in the Bush administration's "war on terror," by January 22, though White House aides say they face an uphill fight to keep that promise.

LOS ANGELES – A shake-up in Katherine Jackson's legal team left her unrepresented during a hearing Thursday to clarify the power two attorneys have over her pop star son's estate, but it didn't stop the judge from issuing orders upholding those powers and adding new ones.
The new authority given the administrators by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff included not having to seek permission from the judge to make routine decisions on various administrative matters involving the estate of Michael Jackson.
Earlier Thursday, Katherine Jackson replaced her team of probate lawyers with a new attorney, Adam Streisand.
Attorneys for the estate told Beckloff he would not appear because some of Katherine Jackson's former attorneys had not formally relinquished their role in the case.
Streisand said after the hearing he will need to review the case before commenting on Beckloff's ruling or his strategy for the case.
Katherine Jackson is one of the main beneficiaries of her son's estate and has already been named permanent guardian of his three children, who range in ages from 7 to 12.
Her former attorneys repeatedly talked about challenging the adequacy of the estate's administrators, attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain. But Beckloff noted none of those objections have been filed, and he was concerned about frequent delays posed by Katherine Jackson's former attorneys.
"The family came to a a decision that they felt they needed a different perspective and a fresh look at how this case was being approached," Streisand said Thursday. "I answer to nobody but Mrs. Jackson."
Streisand is no stranger to high-profile celebrity estate cases. He has represented clients in the probate cases of Anna Nicole Smith, Ray Charles and Marlon Brando.
Beckloff earlier this month granted Branca and McClain the authority to handle numerous creditors' claims and lawsuits facing the estate. But attorneys for the men and Katherine Jackson couldn't agree on the wording of Beckloff's order, so a hearing was called to clarify it.
The judge allowed the administrators a new set of powers that will allow them to handle routine transactions — such as striking business deals and making additional payments to Katherine Jackson and the children — provided they are uncontested.

However, the remaining vast tracts of unsettled land were often used as a commons, or, in the American west, "open range." As degradation of habitat developed due to overgrazing and a tragedy of the commons situation arose, common areas began to either be allocated to individual landowners via mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and Desert Land Act and fenced in, or, if kept in public hands, leased to individual users for limited purposes, with fences built to separate tracts of public and private land.

Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's property, including the front border, with a gate to obtain access to the property. However, in many parts of North America, fences are commonly used only on the borders between properties that back onto each other (on the side away from the street) and along the sides of properties up to the point where the house begins. Such fences are often made of chainlink and do not prevent people from seeing into neighboring yards. They may be intended to mark property lines or to keep dogs in, or out of, yards. The front yards in such neighborhoods are often open to the street.

http://www.vikingfence.com/

NEW YORK – The new president of the National Organization for Women has some harsh words for men she believes are behaving badly — among them, director Roman Polanski and talk show host David Letterman.
First, Terry O'Neill condemned as "dangerous" suggestions by some Hollywood luminaries that Swiss authorities were wrong to detain Polanski for possible extradition to the U.S. He faces a charge dating from 1978 of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
O'Neill then fired another salvo after Letterman's on-air revelation — prompted by an alleged extortion attempt — that he had sex with women working on his "Late Show." She contended Letterman had created a poisonous workplace environment.
Elected as NOW's leader in June, O'Neill has plenty of other issues on her plate, including health care reform. But she says badly behaved men are at the core of why women are unequal.

A race and its name are often associated with the place of origin, the means of transport and the distance of the race. As a couple of examples, see the Dakar Rally or the Athens marathon.

Single-seater (open-wheel) racing is one of the most popular forms of motorsport, with cars designed specifically for high-speed racing. The wheels are not covered, and the cars often have aerofoil wings front and rear to produce downforce and enhance adhesion to the track. In Europe and Asia, open wheeled racing is commonly referred to as "Formula", with appropriate hierarchical suffixes. In North America, the "Formula" terminology is not followed (with the exception of F1). The sport is usually arranged to follow an "international" format (such as F1), a "regional" format (such as the Formula 3 Euro Series), or a "domestic", or county-specific format (such as the German Formula 3 championship, or the British Formula Ford).

High Performance Driving Schools

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –
A suspected suicide car bomb ripped through a police building in an army garrison of Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar on Friday, killing up to 11 people, police said.

It was the second bomb attack in Peshawar in 24 hours, striking a day after 40 people died in a wave of militant attacks against security targets in Pakistan's eastern city Lahore and the country's volatile northwest.

"I have counted 11 dead bodies and 13 wounded in the emergency unit of the hospital," police official Mohammad Gul told AFP by telephone from the main government-run hospital in Peshawar.

Ambulances screeched through the streets, sirens blaring as rescue teams rushed to the scene of the attack, where TV footage showed smouldering wreckage and a damaged brick wall.

Police at the scene earlier put the death toll at seven with detainees in custody at the police building among the wounded.

"There are seven killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb blast. There are some prisoners among the injured," said senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan.

North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Navid told Pakistan's state PTV it was an apparent suicide attack, with the bomber driving a car.

The bomb ripped through the police-run Central Investigation Agency (CIA) building in Peshawar -- the largest city in northwest Pakistan which lies on the fringes of the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Navid slammed the attack as a reaction to military operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the semi-autonomous tribal belt and parts of the northwest where radicals have carved out sanctuaries.

Fantasy baseball is a game where players manage imaginary baseball teams based on the real-life performance of baseball players, and compete against one another using those players' statistics to score points. It is the oldest form of fantasy sports, and arguably one of the most difficult and time-intensive due to the 162-game season of the MLB and the inconsistency of players.

The landmark development in fantasy baseball came with the development of Rotisserie League Baseball in 1980. Magazine writer/editor Daniel Okrent is credited with inventing it, the name coming from the New York City restaurant, La Rotisserie Française, where he and some friends used to meet and play. The game's innovation was that "owners" in a Rotisserie league would draft teams from the list of active Major League Baseball players and would follow their statistics "during the ongoing season" to compile their scores. In other words, rather than using statistics for seasons whose outcomes were already known, the owners would have to make similar predictions about players' playing time, health, and expected performance that real baseball managers must make. Because Okrent was a member of the media, other journalists, especially sports journalists, were introduced to the game. Many early players were introduced to the game by these sports journalists, especially during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike; with little else to write about, many baseball writers wrote columns about Rotisserie league.

Fantasy Baseball

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in August, suggesting less stress on the labor market and improvements in consumer spending and the broader economy in the coming months, a report released on Wednesday showed.

Planned job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell to 76,456 last month, down 21 percent from 97,373 in July, according to a report released by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

While the rate of layoffs has slowed, the cumulative number of job cuts has climbed to 1.07 million from January through August, 60 percent higher than the same period a year earlier.

But August's layoffs were the second smallest monthly total so far in 2009, the firm said. It also marked the sixth time in the past seven months that job cuts fell from the prior month.

"That does not necessarily mean that there will be a sudden surge in job creation as 2010 gets underway, but we will at least be heading in the right direction," said John Challenger, the firm's chief executive, in a statement.

The planned job cuts in August were led by government and non-profit sector, which announced 38,586 layoffs, as it has struggled with falling tax receipts.

While the federal government has been one of the few employers creating jobs, the U.S. Post Office said last month it aimed to reduce 30,000 or roughly 4.6 percent of its payroll mostly through early retirement buyouts.

"Fortunately, the job cuts by the post office are not indicative of a coming surge in federal government downsizing. Rather, the cuts are tied to falling mail volume as more Americans rely on e-mails," Challenger said.

An encouraging sign is job cuts outside the government are steadily shrinking. If monthly job cuts stay near or below 100,000, "it will be a strong indication that the economy and job market are improving," he said.

HELSINKI (Reuters) –
The world's largest handset maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE) unveiled on Thursday its first phone running on Linux software, aiming at improving its offering at the top end of the market.

The focus of cell phone business has shifted to services and software following Apple (AAPL.O) and Google's (GOOG.O) entrances to the market in the last two years.

Nokia also unveiled a new Solutions business unit, which aims to better tie together its phone operations and new mobile Internet services offering.

The Finnish firm has been looking for business opportunities from offering services like music downloads or games to cell phone users as the handset market itself is maturing, but so far its offerings have gained limited traction.

"As Nokia announces the software platform that will drive its future services aspirations it created a dedicated solutions unit -- the challenge will be to ensure that all these elements work in harmony in the face of fierce competition from Apple and Google," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

Nokia has kept its overall market share stable, close to 40 percent, but it has lost share among more expensive models to the likes of Apple.

High-end products are important for Nokia because the company has not only lost market share there but its average selling prices have declined faster than the industry average.

Goldman Sachs expects Nokia's value share (a measure reflecting average prices as well as underlying market share) for phones costing more than $350 to decline to 13 percent this year from 33 percent just two years before.

THE LINUX BET

Analysts see Linux as a key for Nokia to gain back ground in the coming years.

The Finnish firm has dabbled with Linux since 2005, using it in "Internet tablets" -- sleek phone-like devices used to access the Web that have failed to gain mass-market appeal in part due to their lack of a cellular radio.

The new N900 model, with cellular connection, touch screen and slide-out keyboard, will retail for around 500 euros ($712), excluding subsidies and taxes.

Nokia's workhorse Symbian operating system controls half of the smartphone market volume -- more than its rivals Apple, Research in Motion (RIM.TO) and Google put together.

Nokia said Linux would work well in parallel with Symbian in its high-end product range.

"This is in no way putting Symbian in jeopardy," Anssi Vanjoki, head of sales at Nokia, told Reuters.

"Open source Symbian is going to be our main platform, and we are expanding and growing it the best we can, both in terms of functionality as well as distribution ... populating more and more of our product line with Symbian," he said.

The new model will use ARM's (ARM.L) Cortex-A8 processor.

"If you look at the energy management properties we have in ARM, at least today, they are clearly better, miles and miles better, than what we have in Intel architecture," Vanjoki said, adding the company would not count out using Intel processors in the same product range later.

Linux is the most popular type of free, or so-called open source, computer operating system available to the public. It competes directly with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which charges for its Windows software and opposes freely sharing its code.

($1=.7024 Euro)

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and Rupert Winchester)

FRANKFURT – German consumers' confidence in their economy — Europe's largest — continued to rise as growth and income expectations for September increased from August, a leading survey said Thursday.
The Nuremberg-based GfK research group said its forward-looking Consumer Climate Survey rose to 3.7 points for September from 3.4 points the previous month as more people expected an economic recovery.
The group said reports from across Germany suggest the downward spiral in the German economy has ended, but that on a long-term comparison consumer sentiment remains at a relatively low level.
"The consumer climate is currently proving to be a significant support to the German economy, as the recently published figures from the Statistisches Bundesamt (Federal Statistical Office) confirm," the GfK wrote in its report.
That data showed Germany's economy grew in the second quarter for the first time since last year, with real private consumer spending rising 0.5 percent compared with the same period last year.
"There is no denying that the German consumer proved to be surprisingly robust this year," Andreas Rees, a UniCredit economist, wrote in a research note. "However, in our view, this has little to do with supernatural events, but so far, sound fundamentals for private households."
Rees warned that while consumer spending will rise again in the third quarter, it will see a backlash from declining auto sales as the government's cash-for-clunkers program runs dry. Furthermore, more cars being sold now means less cars will be sold in the future.
The Federal Statistical Office said in a separate report Thursday that German consumers spent euro36 billion ($51 billion) on motor vehicles during the first half of the year, thanks to the government's scrapping premium, which pays consumers euro2,500 if they trade in a car at least nine years old and by a more efficient one.
The scrapping premium contributed to a 0.1 percent increase in household expenditure in the first half of the year, compared to the first six months of 2008. Without the increase from passenger cars, consumer spending would have fallen 1 percent for the period, the agency said.
Rees also warned that inflation may start rising again and the labor market will deteriorate further, which will put a crimp on disposable income and consumer spending.
"To be crystal-clear: The major driver for the German economy will not be Mr. Average Citizen, but once again export-dependent companies. In the fourth quarter 2009 and the first quarter 2010, we expect consumer expenditures to shrink," Rees said in his report.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, fell into recession last year as the global crisis sapped demand for its exports.
The number of jobless have crept up recently, although the impact of the crisis has not yet been dramatic because many employers have used short-time working arrangements to preserve jobs.
The GfK said economic expectations have continued to rise since the beginning of the year. The indicator increased for the fifth straight time, by 6.5 points for the month to minus 7.5 points, and is 14 points higher compared with September 2008.
"Inflation is disappearing and consumers have more money in their pockets, which is being expressed by a rise in income expectations. Stable or even falling prices, as well as an ongoing, relatively steady labor market, have also resulted in an improvement in the propensity to buy," the GfK wrote in its report.
The group said income expectations had continued to rise in September after their return to positive territory in July. The reading is now at 8.8 points, a 7 point increase since August, and a 25 point increase on the year ago period.
On Wednesday, Germany's Ifo Business Climate Survey, conducted by the Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, said its reading of German business sentiment rose to 90.5 points in August from 87.4 points in July. Participants' expectations for the economy also improved in August, to 95 points from 90.4 points in July.
The GfK is based on around 2,000 consumer interviews conducted each month.

___

On the Net:

http://www.gfk.com

DETROIT (Billboard) –
Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith, former members of Panic! At the Disco, are anything but panicked as they prepare for life after a schism that cut the band in half.

The two severed ties amicably in July with guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker, who have started a new group called the Young Veins.

"Luckily it didn't end badly," frontman Urie told Billboard.com. "We all understand we wanted to do different things and were just pulling each other's strings in different directions. I think we were very fortunate that we're all still very good friends and were able to come to this amicable agreement."

Now Urie and drummer Smith, who are finishing up a run opening for Blink-182 with some hired hands, are plotting their next move. They have a new single out, a song called "New Perspective" -- which Urie wrote about nine months ago after waking from "an intense, really lucid dream" -- that was recorded for the soundtrack to the film "Jennifer's Body."

Urie said he and Smith have about 10 other songs ready to consider for Panic's third album. "Some stuff sounds like Frank Sinatra," Urie said, "and some stuff sounds ... kind of like the Who, and some stuff is just rock, and it's a lot of fun to play. We really want to spend a lot of time writing and just messing around with ideas in the studio."

They'd like to record the album this fall and have it out "by the beginning of next year, February or something." Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus has agreed to produce at least one track.

"There's always a bit of nerves that come with expectations and new situations," Urie said. "But, really, Spencer and I are just trying to get back to where we used to be, and we're looking forward to doing more tours and writing new songs and meeting new people and having all these new experiences.

"The future should be exciting, you know? It shouldn't be a nerve-wracking experience."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

More recent "old school" or "demostyle" MOD music, although sample-based, continues the style of the chiptunes used in these intros; new compositions in this style can still be regularly found at www.chiptune.com or www.chip-on.com (new chiptunes from old computers/formats can be found here as well).

Sweden has ever since year 1980 been prominent in the chiptune scene, as well as the demo scene, video games and generally in the musical popular culture. Possibly, this is because of an early high degree of computerization and music that attracted a lot of attention. In 2001, Johan Kotlinski (Role Model) created the music program Little Sound DJ for Gameboy, which quickly gained a lot of attention in Europe and the United States.

Voice Chips

WASHINGTON – With hopes growing ever dimmer for a bipartisan accord, White House and Democratic leaders are considering a wide range of strategies for getting a health care bill passed when Congress returns from its summer recess.
Some are blunt. Some are complex and technical. All are problematic.
Insiders say it's impossible to confidently predict which plan, if any, will prevail after lawmakers return the day after Labor Day. Will Democrats simply try to roll over minority Republicans. Will they try such uncertain paths as asking moderate Democrats, or perhaps a retiring Republican, to let a bill reach the Senate floor even if they plan to vote against it.
Possible outcomes, according to congressional and White House officials:
• A bipartisan agreement.
Still the preference of President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, prospects have dimmed this month as top Republicans have sharply criticized key Democratic goals. Most notably, the chief GOP negotiator — Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa — signaled he would not support a bill, even if he liked it, unless most of his fellow Republicans signed on. That seems highly unlikely.
A truly bipartisan bill would draw significant numbers of House and Senate Republicans, and it surely would be among the least-ambitious scenarios under discussion. It might include widely supported measures such as barring insurers from refusing to cover pre-existing medical conditions, and allowing people to carry their insurance from job to job. But it would not include a public insurance option, hefty subsidies to help the poor buy insurance and other priorities of the left.
Political insiders see little hope for a truly bipartisan bill emerging from the current negotiations.
• A 60-Democrats strategy.
This Democrats-only strategy presumably would produce the most robust, far-reaching changes to the health care system. Liberals say that if Republicans won't play ball, there's no point in compromising the agenda Obama campaigned for, including a public insurance option and coverage for nearly all Americans.
But this approach has many hurdles, and insiders consider it a long shot. Senate filibuster rules would force Democrats to persuade each of their 58 members and two independent supporters to vote down the 40 Republicans on issue after issue. Some moderate Democrats would balk on issues they oppose. And two liberal Democrats — Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts — are seriously ill and often absent.
Even if the Senate passed a bill with Democratic votes only, conservative House Democrats might band with Republicans to reject it as too expensive.
A Democrats-only approach would fuel Republican accusations of heavy-handed overreaching by Obama and his allies. But it would energize the president's liberal base.
• A handful of Republicans.
Even if the negotiations involving Grassley collapse, it's possible that a tiny number of GOP senators will join nearly all the Democrats in passing a bill that includes most of Obama's priorities. Maine's Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are mentioned most often.
But they would face enormous pressure not to break ranks and provide the crucial 60th vote to overcome an otherwise solid GOP opposition. And if they did, the resulting bill still would be seen as a Democratic creation, undermining its acceptance by many Americans.
Handicappers give this scenario a less than 50-50 chance.
• Strong-arm tactics.

If they're willing to play true hardball, Senate Democrats still could pass a health care bill without amassing 60 votes on some contentious points.

The "reconciliation" process lets the 100-member Senate pass budget-related items, under tight restrictions, with a simple majority of votes. But items that arguably are unrelated to the budget could be challenged and possibly subjected to the 60-vote threshold.

Democrats could submit one big bill and fight to keep as many provisions as possible from falling victim to a 60-vote requirement. Or they could split the package in two:

One bill, dealing with spending questions, could pass under reconciliation rules with as few as 50 votes. The other bill would require 60 votes, and it would be subject to mischievous amendments. But it might include widely popular provisions such as protecting insurance buyers who have pre-existing conditions.

Senate experts differ on how many of Obama's priorities, such as a public insurance option, would fail under the reconciliation process. But everyone agrees the strategy would severely worsen the already testy relationships between Republican and Democratic senators.

Because it is complex, unpredictable and divisive, reconciliation is unpopular with many Democrats, not to mention Republicans. But Capitol insiders say Democratic leaders will use it before accepting full-blown defeat, and some see it as the likeliest outcome.

• Modified all-Democrats approach.

This approach would require Democratic solidarity at some point, but it could be portrayed as a procedural matter rather than a more highly charged policy question.

The crucial votes would occur after the House and Senate had passed separate bills, sent them to a powerful "conference committee" and then prepared to give the reconciled (and possibly much-changed) product a final yes-or-no vote in each chamber.

The first key is to get the House and Senate to pass their own bills, even if they differ widely. The Senate version probably would be more constrained than the House version, in order to attract enough GOP support to overcome filibusters.

House-Senate negotiators might make the final package closer to the House's more liberal version. That would anger Senate Republicans, and perhaps some moderate Democrats, who could threaten a filibuster on the last showdown vote.

But Obama and his allies could urge the centrist Democrats, in the name of party loyalty, to reject a filibuster even if they plan to vote against the bill itself. If Byrd or Kennedy could not provide the crucial 60th vote, it might come from a retiring Republican who concludes that a huge issue such as overhauling health care deserves an up-or-down vote.

Such a senator might be George Voinovich of Ohio, said Norm Ornstein, who has written about Congress for years at the American Enterprise Institute.

This multi-pronged scenario would yield something "closer to a third or quarter of a loaf than the full package" that liberals want, Ornstein said. But with the Senate's 40 Republicans able to use the filibuster, and the House's conservative Democrats able to block a bill they consider too costly, that's probably the most Obama can hope for, he said.

Nothing.

All the above options may fail, and partisan clashes could kill the bid to overhaul health care altogether. Top lawmakers consider this unlikely. Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, and they should be able to produce at least a modest bill that Obama could tout as a victory, with hopes of coming back for more in later years.

Passing no bill at all would severely wound Obama's image, exasperate liberals and drag Congress' reputation for effectiveness lower. The political fallout might be hard to predict, however. The blame for failing to make even modest improvements to U.S. health care might stick to Republican critics of Obama as well as Democrats who used their majorities for naught.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Charles Babington covers the White House for the Associated Press.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Scientists in California are using computer scans to help unwrap the mysteries of a more than 2,500-year-old mummy.
The mummy, believed to be an ancient Egyptian priest named Irethorrou, belongs to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
On Thursday, it was in a lab at Stanford University Medical School undergoing tests that could help determine what Irethorrou looked like and how he died.
The tests could also help piece together what life was like in Egypt in an era just before the Persian conquest, when the last native Egyptian dynasty ruled.
Irethorrou's mummy will be the centerpiece of an exhibit starting in October at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco. The exhibit will incorporate findings from the computer scans.
___
On the Net:
Stanford University Medical School: http://med.stanford.edu/
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: http://www.famsf.org/index.asp

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized differently due to insulin resistance or reduced insulin sensitivity, combined with relatively reduced, and sometimes absolute, insulin secretion. The defective responsiveness of body tissues to insulin almost certainly involves the insulin receptor in cell membranes. However, the specific defects are not known. Diabetes mellitus due to a known specific defect are classified separately.

Various hereditary conditions may feature diabetes, for example myotonic dystrophy and Friedreich's ataxia. Wolfram's syndrome is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder that first becomes evident in childhood. It consists of diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy, and deafness, hence the acronym DIDMOAD.

Diabetic Test Strips

WASHINGTON – The violence-scarred elections in Afghanistan provided a stage for the Taliban to show war-weary Americans and Afghans that it has rebounded and can strike — even after eight years of war.
For President Barack Obama's policies, the timing couldn't be worse.
With memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dimming, Americans are tiring of the conflict. New polling shows a majority — 51 percent — of those surveyed now believe the war is not worth the fight, an increase of 6 percentage points in a month.
Obama's answer to the mounting skepticism is to say that, in a way, the war has just begun. The final push to wipe out America's Taliban and al-Qaida enemies is not eight years old but really got started when he took office and ordered 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan.
In short order, he also installed a new commander and persuaded Pakistan to join the U.S. in what on Thursday he called a pincer movement to squeeze the enemy astride the common border.
Obama's ability to recast the public debate at home — to get people to look past the cost and the deadly violence there — may matter more in the long run than who won or lost the Afghan presidency.
Obama has not wavered from his campaign pledge to take the fight to the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He argues that the true danger to Americans lies in the towering peaks and vast deserts of those countries. The Bush administration, he asserts, wasted precious time, treasure and blood in Iraq.
Before then, he argues, problems in both countries were allowed to fester. As a result, the Taliban retook huge swaths of Afghanistan, and al-Qaida was comfortably ensconced on the Pakistan side of the mountainous border.
"We've got to make sure that we are really focused on finishing the job in Afghanistan. But it's going to take some time," the president said on a talk-radio program Thursday. He gave a nod to the election, saying it "appears to be successful" despite the "Taliban's efforts to disrupt it." Initial reports show 26 Afghans were killed in Taliban attacks on Election Day.
The Bush administration used earlier elections in Afghanistan and Iraq as evidence of success of its war policies. This White House isn't getting that boost.
The White House has been particularly reticent to talk about the Afghan vote, where the turnout appears to have been significantly lower than in the first-ever direct election of a president there in 2004. The administration is deeply aware of the country's long history of bloody uprisings against past leaders who were seen as place men for foreign powers.
While Obama took office having publicly expressed disappointment in President Hamid Karzai over his ineffectiveness and a background noise of corruption surrounding his administration, he has not spoken of a preference for Thursday's outcome.
Karzai's strongest challenger is his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, who may show well when the votes are counted because of heavier turnout in the ethnically Tajik northern part of the country. The turnout was spotty in the Pashtun south where Karzai has major support. If neither Karzai, Abdullah nor any of the other 34 candidates wins 50 percent in the first round, there will be a runoff. Final results of the Thursday vote will not be known until Sept. 3.
Regardless of the Afghan vote or the diminishing support for the war back home, a White House strategy review is due out in mid-September, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is widely expected to press for a significant further increase in forces for his new counterinsurgency campaign.
Just three years ago the U.S. had about 20,000 forces in the country. Today, it has triple that, on its way to 68,000 by year's end when all of the 17,000 newly deployed are in place.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll this week showed, however, that only 24 percent of Americans support that move, with 45 percent saying the force should be decreased.
The domestic political course for Obama's overall Afghan strategy and for a further troop increase, thus, is growing ever more difficult to navigate.
And in a sparkling bit of political irony, backing for the war remains strongest among Republicans and conservatives who support the conflict by 70 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Steven R. Hurst reports from the White House for The Associated Press and has covered foreign affairs for 30 years, including 12 visits to Afghanistan.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – The release from prison Thursday of the only person ever convicted in the 1988 bombing that killed 270 people aboard a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland angered and outraged victims' relatives, who said they were left feeling wronged again.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was released Thursday after serving eight years of a life sentence in a Scottish prison. Scottish officials said the former Libyan intelligence officer's prostate cancer was advancing and that they were bound by Scottish values to release him. He was recently given only months to live.
"I think it's horrible," said Kara Weipz of Mount Laurel, whose 20-year-old brother Richard Monetti was a Syracuse University student aboard the flight. "I don't show compassion for someone who showed no remorse."
The bombing turned the families of some of the 270 victims into activists who became deeply versed in terrorism policy, international relations, airline security and victim compensation.
The families, which organized as Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, has evolved from communicating through phone trees to keeping in touch through Facebook.
From the beginning, many were bitter that neither the United States nor other nations spoke out more strongly about the attack, although the White House on Thursday said Scotland should not have released him.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the United States had repeatedly asked Scotland to keep al-Megrahi in custody. "On this day, we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live every day with the loss of their loved ones," Gibbs said.
The State Department released a brief statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is on vacation, saying she is "deeply disappointed" by the decision.
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., issued a statement saying that it's the victims who deserve compassion, not al-Megrahi.
"I think it's appalling, disgusting and so sickening I can hardly find words to describe it," said Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, N.J., whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora died in the attack.
Cohen and other relatives said they believe he was released so world leaders could appease Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi because access to his nation's oil is so important.
"Lockerbie looks like it never happened now," she said. "There isn't anybody in prison for it."
The Times of London reported that al-Megrahi was to return to Libya in Gadhafi's jet — something else the victims' families saw as an affront.
"As I'm watching him now (on television) getting ready to board a plane and go home to a parade, I'm getting angry," said Joanne Hartunian of Delmar, N.Y., who lost her daughter Lynne, a student at the State University at Oswego, N.Y. "And I didn't want to get angry. I didn't want to waste any more time thinking about this man."
Loulie Canady of Morgantown, W.Va, whose 25-year-old daughter Valerie was taking Flight 103 home to get married, also watched on television as the convict departed Glasgow. "I'm just sick at heart," she said.
In a way, Thursday's release closes the legal saga.
"Twenty years later, this is the last sad chapter where government leaders have no moral backbone," said Bert Ammerman of River Vale, whose brother Tom was killed on the flight.
Still, the victims group intends to go on.

Bob Monetti, a brother of Richard Monetti, said relatives of the victims would meet Friday to discuss what to do next. He said they expect to join protests next month when Gadhafi is scheduled to visit New York.

Rosemary Mild, of Severna Park, Md., whose 20-year-old daughter Miriam Luby Wolfe was a victim, wrote a book about the experience. She's now planning a new edition to add material about al-Megrahi's release.

Peter Sullivan, of Akron, Ohio, was a high school classmate of victim Mike Doyle in Cherry Hill, N.J., and his college roommate at the University of Dayton.

He said the criminal case does not have to end: "I would like to see the United States expeditiously indict al-Megrahi and seek his extradition for trial in the U.S. for the murder of 189 innocent Americans."

Not all the relatives thought the release was wrong.

"This is just one little thing that says this is not going to hurt any of us for him to be released and go die with his family," said Caroline Stevens of Little Rock, Ark., whose son Sandy Phillips, died in the bombing. "We've got to look at one another in a more compassionate way and not rely on war and revenge and all that."

___

Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela in New York; John Raby in Charleston, W.Va.; Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y; Jim Hannah in Dayton, Ohio; Shawn Marsh in Trenton, N.J.; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md.; and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
US President Barack Obama said Monday he was "deeply troubled" by reports of an apparent suicide attack on a police compound in southern Russia that killed at least 20 people.

"I am deeply troubled about reports of a suicide bombing today in Nazran, Ingushetiya that has resulted in the tragic loss of at least 20 lives and 138 injured," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

"There can be no justification for such an act of terrorism. This latest attack highlights the concerning increase in violence in the region affecting officials and civilians alike. Our condolences go out to the government of Russia and the families of victims," said the US president.

Russian officials said a truck packed with explosives rammed through the gates of a police compound and blew up in an apparent suicide attack in Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia.

The blast occurred as police officers lined up for roll call at the start of their morning shift. It killed and wounded officers in the compound and local residents in homes nearby, officials said.

A total of 138 people sustained injuries in the blast, including 10 children between five and 12 years old, said a regional spokesman for the emergency situations ministry in Rostov-on-Don, Oleg Grekov.

In a move underscoring the seriousness of the situation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced hours after the attack that he had sacked the region's top policeman and issued a stern command to his interior minister to restore order in the region's law enforcement.

"This terrorist act could have been avoided," a stern-faced Medvedev said on state television.

Ingushetia is one of seven administrative territories known as "republics" that constitute the North Caucasus region in southern Russia, long the most unstable part of the country.

The spectacular attacks have fueled fears that the situation in Ingushetia, which neighbors Chechnya, may quickly be getting beyond the control of federal authorities.

Moscow has struggled to impose the Kremlin's authority in the volatile North Caucasus region, which has been the site of two full-fledged wars in Chechnya and countless attacks since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Violent attacks by militants on Russian law enforcement personnel have become an almost daily occurrence in Ingushetia.

PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) –
US President Barack Obama warned Monday that victory in Afghanistan would be neither "quick" nor "easy," days before an election there marred by rising Taliban violence.

"The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight," Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars service organization in the southwestern state of Arizona ahead of Afghanistan's presidential election on Thursday.

"We won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy," Obama said, explaining his strategy of intensifying the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan was now taking effect.

The president defended the war as a necessary conflict which was "fundamental" to the defense of American people in depriving Al-Qaeda of a safe-haven to plot follow-on attacks to the September 11 strikes in 2001.

Obama noted an upsurge in "fierce" fighting in Afghanistan, but vowed to constantly adapt US tactics and ensure the troops have the tools and equipment they need to do the job.

He did not, however, offer detailed insight into the evolving war strategy, which has seen troops and billions of US dollars pour into the country since the new US president took office in January.

US troop levels, currently 62,000, are set to reach 68,000 in coming months, more than double the number in place at the start of the year, and analysts predict the head of US and NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal, may ask for more.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates left open the possibility of eventually sending more forces to Afghanistan but warned US resources were currently deeply stretched with more than 130,000 troops still in Iraq.

Obama has already ordered an additional 21,000 servicemen to Afghanistan ahead of Thursday's elections, in line with his strategy of turning the US focus from Iraq to a conflict he says poses a greater security threat.

In unveiling his strategy earlier this year, Obama declared the US goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

But to meet this narrowly defined goal, the president is backing an elaborate village-by-village fight while building up the Afghan state from the ashes of 30 years of war.

Earlier, in Afghanistan, top candidates in the presidential race held rallies attended by thousands of cheering supporters.

Seventeen million voters will go to the polls to elect a president for only the second time in Afghanistan's history. They will also elect 420 councilors in 34 provinces, in a huge logistical operation handicapped by rampant insecurity.

President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled Afghanistan since the US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001, is the front-runner but a strong campaign by former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah may force a run-off.

Security fears, already acute, were heightened by a massive suicide bomb attack outside NATO headquarters near the US embassy in Kabul on Saturday, which killed seven Afghans and hurt almost 100 others.

Afghanistan is expected to mobilise all available 300,000 Afghan and foreign security forces to protect voters, while the Taliban have threatened to attack polling stations, escalating their bid to derail the polls.

Earlier on Monday, US Afghan war ally Britain said the war in Afghanistan was "winnable," despite its military death toll there recently passing 200 and an poll showing a majority of Britons oppose the fight against the Taliban.

There is a similar type of lingerie/sleepwear known as the babydoll. Both terms describe short, loose-fitting, sleeveless fashions. Typically, though, babydolls are more loose-fitting at the hips and are generally designed to more resemble a young girl's nightgown (although many modern varieties only vaguely follow this definition adding various sexualizing features which, of course, would only be appropriate for an adult).

Many people now believe that all corsets are uncomfortable and that wearing them restricted women's lives, citing Victorian literature devoted to sensible or hygienic dress.[citation needed] However, these writings generally protested against the misuse of corsets for tightlacing; they were less vehement against corsets per se. Many reformers recommended "Emancipation bodices", which were essentially tightly-fitted vests, like full-torso corsets without boning. See Victorian dress reform.

Site

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Unspeakable acts happened to a woman and her young son one balmy June night in the projects. On that, everyone can agree.
As many as 10 masked teenagers terrorized the then 35-year-old Haitian immigrant and her 12-year-old son in their home. It will be up to a jury being selected this week to determine whether the assailants included two suspects whose trial begins Tuesday.
Police say Nathan Walker, now 18, and Tommy Lee Poindexter, now 20, were among the group that sexually assaulted and beat the woman and her son after barging into their apartment in a public housing complex minutes from downtown West Palm Beach.
Even defense attorneys agree this will be a tough case to win — solid evidence, DNA, fingerprints and a co-defendant set to testify against the others.
Walker and Poindexter have pleaded not guilty to all charges, including sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary. Others are still being sought, and the investigation remains open.
Details of the crime itself are enough to make a jury emotional.
It was June 18, 2007, when police say the teens burst into the woman's apartment. Nothing but sheer terror can describe what happened next.
For three hours, the victims say, they endured horror as the mother was gang-raped and sodomized and her son beaten in another room.
Then, the mother was forced to perform oral sex on her son at gunpoint.
Afterward, they were doused with household cleansers, perhaps in a haphazard attempt to scrub the crime scene. The solutions burned the boy's eyes.
The woman would later describe how she and her son sobbed in the bathroom, too shocked to move. Then, in the dark of night, they walked a mile to the hospital because the attackers stole their phones.
Authorities say DNA evidence found on condoms inside the apartment and fingerprints identified the defendants as the culprits.
Walker and Poindexter will stand trial together, though each will have separate juries.
Two others — now 16-year-old Avion Lawson and now 17-year-old Jakaris Taylor — were set to stand trial in September.
However, Lawson pleaded guilty last week to all 14 charges, including sexual battery, burglary, kidnapping, grand theft and promoting sexual performance of a child.
"He's very sorry for what he did," Lawson's attorney, Bert Winkler, told a judge last week as the guilty plea was entered. "He's taking responsibility for everything he did and is going to cooperate fully with the state and testify if called."
Lawson, like the others, faces a maximum 11 life sentences plus 50 years, according to sentencing guidelines. While the judge has broad discretion, he still faces up to 50 years in prison at the least.
Winkler did not return telephone messages or e-mails from The Associated Press. Taylor's attorney also did not return messages seeking comment. Poindexter's lawyer and prosecutors declined to talk about the case.

Walker's attorney, Robert Gershman, acknowledged all the evidence makes the trial tough to win.

"And it will be difficult to seat a jury of fair people in this case because the allegations are such that they'll hear them, and there is automatically going to be a presumption against my client, no question," Gershman said.

NEW YORK – At St. Francis Preparatory School this fall, the auditorium will double as a sick room. New York City might make students wash their hands several times a day. There will be a unit on swine flu in health class.
In the weeks after the swine flu outbreak that began at the Queens parochial school, New York City became a viral epicenter and focus of the nation's fears of the illness, sickening as many as 1 million, killing 47 people and closing dozens of public and private schools.
While educators and health officials decide how best to ward off a stronger strain of the virus in the fall, St. Francis Assistant Principal Patrick McLaughlin said his students may have already learned from experience to be vigilant.
He already noticed the changes: Sharing water bottles at school suddenly became a major transgression. And in 25 years of teaching health class, McLaughlin had never seen students get so excited about communicable diseases.
"I don't want them to come to school being afraid," McLaughlin says, standing by neat rows of empty classroom chairs. "But I do want that awareness ... that knowledge, that it's out there. It could come back. Be ready for it."
No one wants to call the city's outbreak a blessing, but the spring's out-of-season flu invasion did provide a peculiar kind of gift. Now New York City's Health Department and schools are trying to take advantage of the lead time — preparing for a fall season that is expected to be even worse.
The details of the city's swine flu plan are still being finalized by a Health Department panel.
And like St. Francis Prep, the city's public schools are largely waiting to follow the lead of the agency, which hopes to have its recommendations by the first day of school, said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.
The wait for a plan is taking too long for Cathy Cahn, Parent-Teachers' Association president at P.S. 205, who says Mitchell Weiner, the assistant principal who became the city's first swine flu fatality, was a friend.
"How easily that could happen in any building," she said. "I would like to know: How are we going to keep our kids healthy?"
Weiner's family has since filed court papers saying they plan to sue the city, claiming it was negligent in its response to the outbreak and that schools established no procedures for coping with the illness. The mayor has said the city did nothing wrong.
Farley warned the fall will likely be worse than the surprise round of illnesses in the spring. But with any luck, the new flu season will simply be a matter of more people sick — not more people sicker than anyone was before.
"Most people can recover on their own, alone at home," Farley said. "And then they should stay home so they don't spread the infection to others."
There are signs that students have already learned lessons the hard way about spreading the virus.
Like many of her classmates at St. Francis, Abby Opam's early brush with swine flu likely left her immune to any fall outbreak — but the experience has changed how she's looking at her first year of college at New York University.
"Instead of going there for a few hours during the school day, you're going to be surrounded by kids all the time, living in a dorm," she said.
"I'm being more careful to not, like, share drinks or, you know, get too touchy with people — especially with so many new people from different parts of the country."
Federal officials have said the nation's schools should only close as a last resort this year. Closings at dozens of schools last year kept thousands of children at home; officials worried about the burden on working parents who had to arrange impromptu child care or stay home with their kids.

Previously, those struck ill were advised to stay home for a week after their fever broke. But this school year, children will be told they can return to school 24 hours after their fever is gone and they're feeling better.

St. Francis Prep is planning a health assembly for its 2,700 students at the start of the year to impart the basics: Wash your hands. Don't share drinks and utensils. If you get sick, stay home.

School officials are determined not to repeat the scene of feverish students lined up by the dozen in hallways outside the school nurse's office, coughing on healthy students who were walking from class to class. So the school's auditorium has been assigned special status as a sick room.

Officials are still contemplating whether enough vaccination shots are available for all the city's schoolchildren. If so, Farley says, the Health Department would prefer that family doctors handle students' inoculations, although flu clinics in schools are also a possibility.

Schools might also institute routine checks, Farley said, asking students whether they are experiencing fever or respiratory symptoms, then putting them in a designated room until they can be picked up by their parents.

The panel that's determining the finer points of city policy even considered requiring students to wash their hands several times a day, said Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, the city's flu coordinator who is heading up the team. But the measure hasn't been adopted yet because the panel wants to give schools discretion to choose policies that work best for them, he said.

At St. Francis, where fluorescent corridor lights reflect brightly off the newly waxed and buffed hallways, administrators are waiting to start a fresh year. They're prepared with extra equipment this time around. After the chaos of last year, the school received donated sterilization equipment, and the school nurse bought touch-forehead thermometers to make mass triage easier.

And McLaughlin, the assistant principal, has at least one virus-related development to look forward to. He's planning an entire unit in health class based around swine flu.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Against a backdrop of deep fiscal distress, several California lawmakers rewarded their employees with pay hikes during the first half of the year, an Associated Press review of legislative pay records showed.
At least 87 California Assembly staff members received raises totaling more than $430,000 on an annualized basis, even as the state faced a growing budget deficit that led to furloughs and pay cuts for many other government workers and steep reductions in core services.
The review of records obtained under the state Legislative Open Records Act found that salary bumps went to three employees in the office of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Democrat who leads the 80-member chamber, and three to staff members of the Democratic caucus she oversees.
In the 40-member Senate, nine staffers had a boost in pay, leading to an annualized increase of $152,000.
Aides to several members of the Assembly and Senate said some of the increases were not raises in the traditional sense. Rather, they described the higher pay as extra compensation for employees who were working more hours.
In the Assembly, 39 employees received pay increases of 10 percent or more. Of those, 15 saw increases of 20 percent or more.
In the Senate, seven of the nine who received increases saw their pay rise by 10 percent or more as they began working more hours, according to staff.
Five Assembly staffers and two Senate staffers who already made $100,000 a year or more saw their pay rise.
The Assembly had 1,206 employees on its payroll as of June, said Shannon Murphy, a spokeswoman for Bass. Of those, about 7 percent had received pay increases, the AP review found.
Murphy said the Assembly's annual payroll had decreased by $1.3 million in June from a year earlier, with 15 fewer employees.
The Legislative Open Records Act allows the Legislature to be far more restrictive in its release of information than other state agencies, which are covered under a separate law, the California Public Records Act.
Both houses of the Legislature refused the AP's request to make the payroll records available electronically. Details of their spending are not listed in the annual budget the governor signs, as they are for other state agencies and departments, meaning there is no way to cross-check the information the Legislature provides.
The first six months of the year represents a period in which lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were grappling with a deepening budget deficit that eventually forced them to make some $30 billion in cuts over a two-year period to education, health care, state parks and other programs.
At the same time the Legislature was awarding pay increases, some 200,000 state government employees had been furloughed two days a month, equivalent to a 9 percent pay cut. That has since been increased to three days, or a nearly 15 percent pay cut.
During that period, Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, awarded a total of $41,000 in annualized pay increases to her staff, the highest total increase for any member of the Legislature.
That included 20 percent pay boosts for three of her employees and a 15 percent increase for her chief of staff, Lucy Krohn, bringing her annual wage to $110,640.
Joe Kocurek, a spokesman for Saldana, said the lawmaker's elevation this year to a leadership role and to chairwoman of the Legislative Women's Caucus made the pay increases necessary. He said several staff members had not received raises in two years, while others were promoted to higher positions.
"We felt it necessary to maintain experienced and dedicated staff rather than lose them to other opportunities," Kocurek said in an e-mailed statement.

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said legislative leaders should recognize that California's turbulent finances have put them under a microscope. They should not contribute further to their poor image among taxpayers, he said.

"There may be a few exceptions, but just generally they have to be thinking more about PR than thinking about their staff," he said. "Of course, it's an infinitesimal amount of money in the big picture, but it's the symbol of it. It doesn't matter what they've cut."

Murphy, spokeswoman for the Assembly speaker, said the Assembly has cut $42 million from its budget over a 2 1/2-year period, including nearly 13 percent from its $149.4 million 2009-10 budget. She said that was more than the 10 percent Schwarzenegger asked legislative leaders to cut this fiscal year and more than the state Senate trimmed.

Murphy defended the pay increases by saying legislative employees are working harder than ever. She said the cuts in the Assembly's 2009-10 budget are nearly double what would have been saved by furloughing staffers three days each month.

"The pay adjustments going to Assembly staff, who have taken new jobs or duties, are about 1 percent of the reductions we've made," Murphy said. "The Assembly's budget is down, the number of Assembly staff positions is down and the Assembly payroll is down."

The state Senate has cut less on a percentage basis than the Assembly. It is expected to cut $9.6 million of its $111.3 million annual budget in the current fiscal year, said Jim Evans, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

The AP's review showed there were nine pay increases in the Senate during the first six months of 2009.

"The Senate is on a strict hiring freeze and salary freeze. Any change of salary has been due to an increase in the number of hours the employee is working," said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Steinberg.

Documents from Schwarzenegger's office showed the administration payroll falling from 154 employees earning a total of $955,746 a month to 147 employees earning $825,157 at the end of June, as employees were ordered to take two-a-month furlough days.

"We believe that just as the administration has been doing, all parts of state government need to cut back," said Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's spokesman. "The governor believes we should continue to look for ways to cut back but is confident the Legislature shares that priority."