CAIRO-Al-Qaida’s longtime No. 2 leader, a doctor from a prominent Egyptian family who worked with Osama bin Laden for decades, has succeeded the slain terrorist as head of the global network, the group said Thursday. Ayman al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday, has long brought ideological fire, tactics and organizational skills to al-Qaida. The surgeon by training has promoted the use of suicide bombings and independent terror cells that have become the network’s trademarks. He is believed to be living somewhere near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida…
Continue reading …Dual-screen LG Android phone shows up in the wild, poses more questions than it answers
June 16, 2011 No Comment
A little shindig held by Orange in the UK has unearthed a T-Mobile-branded LG device that we’ve never seen before. It features a display of moderate size and resolution, which slides up to reveal a split QWERTY keyboard and yet another color display. The hidden visualizer is apparently used as an app-launching shortcut repository, though other details remain frustratingly light. Kineto Wireless were the company to bring this unannounced LG handset to the party, along with a bunch of others intended for the US market, and the rep on hand dropped the name Flip II to the Pocket-lint sleuths. There’s also the possibility that what we’re eyeing is the LG Maxx Q, which has popped up on a recently leaked T-Mo USA roadmap , though that Android 1.6 wallpaper could mean that this is just an aged prototype that never saw the light of retail day. Which would be a darn shame, if you ask us. Give the source link a bash for more pictures. Dual-screen LG Android phone shows up in the wild, poses more questions than it answers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Joanne Fraill pleaded guilty to contempt of court after contacting defendant, causing multimillion-pound drugs trial to collapse The first juror to be prosecuted for contempt of court for using the internet has been sentenced to eight months in jail. Joanne Fraill, 40, admitted at London’s high court using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant already acquitted in an ongoing multimillion-pound drug trial in Manchester last year. Fraill, from Blackley, Manchester, also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart’s boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating. Sewart was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after also being found guilty of contempt. When the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, announced her eight-month sentence, Fraill said “eight months!” and put her head on the table in front of her and cried. Fraill, a mother of three with three stepchildren, sobbed uncontrollably with her head in her arms, and the judge announced a short adjournment “for everyone to calm down”. Sentencing Fraill, the judge said in a written ruling: “Her conduct in visiting the internet repeatedly was directly contrary to her oath as a juror, and her contact with the acquitted defendant, as well as her repeated searches on the internet, constituted flagrant breaches of the orders made by the judge for the proper conduct of the trial.” Later Sewart said: “I really feel for the woman [Fraill]. She’s got kids. She apologised and she’s not a bad lady. I really feel for her.” Fraill hugged relatives who were also crying before she was led away to start her sentence. Knox, Sewart’s 35-year-old partner, is applying for his conviction to be overturned on the basis of alleged jury misconduct. He was jailed for six years after being found guilty of paying a police officer to disclose information on drug dealers. Fraill and Sewart were found guilty of contempt at the high court on Tuesday , in a case heard by the lord chief justice, sitting with Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Holroyde. Fraill admitted emailing Sewart while the jury was still deliberating in the drugs trail in August last year because she felt “empathetic” and saw “considerable parallels” between their lives. Sewart, who was acquitted at the trial in Manchester, admitted knowing that Fraill was a juror in the trial when she added her as a Facebook friend during jury deliberations. Sewart asked her in a Facebook chat on 3 August “what’s happenin with the other charge??”, to which Fraill responded by asking her to clarify her question. Fraill then wrote: “cant get anyone to go either no one budging pleeeeeese don’t say anything cause jamie they could all miss trial and I will get 4cked to0.” The solicitor general, Edward Garnier QC, acting on behalf of the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, accused Fraill and Sewart of acting in “plain contempt of court”. Fraill, a mother of three, sobbed and rocked back and forth as details of her Facebook conversation and internet research were read out in the high court. Peter Wright QC, acting on behalf of Fraill, denied his client acted out of a “cavalier disregard” for the judicial process and told the court how the breach had left her “depressed, isolated and in utter despair”. Wright said Fraill was “distraught and inconsolable” at what had happened and “terrified” at the prospect of imprisonment. A psychiatric report on Fraill, whose husband was also in court, reveals a “most unhappy adolescence, a troubled adult life” and “domestic misfortune on a very considerable scale”, Wright said. •
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Shadow chancellor says move would put more money directly into people’s pockets and boost consumers feeling the squeeze from rising prices and rising taxes Ed Balls has called for an emergency temporary cut in VAT to kick-start an economy he said was performing worse than any of its major competitors. In his lengthiest policy speech since taking on the role of shadow chancellor, Balls offered no apology for Labour’s spending either ahead of or during the banking crisis to prevent recession tipping into depression. He admitted he was still relatively isolated in his view that the markets will tolerate a less aggressive approach to the deficit and said it was too early to say whether his judgment, or that of the chancellor, George Osborne, would be proved right. Many believe the outcome of the next election will hinge on which man is right. Balls said the economic evidence so far was pointing in his direction, arguing: “Looking at growth across the EU over the last six months compared to the previous six months, we have gone from the top end of the economic growth league table to fourth from bottom, with only Denmark, Greece and Portugal below us. “While policymakers in the US are worried that their recovery is slowing down, the US has nevertheless still enjoyed growth of 1.2% over the last six months, compared to our zero.” Accusing Osborne of being inflexible in the face of the evidence, he insisted the markets would tolerate a change of course. And he said the VAT cut would put more money directly into people’s pockets and boost consumers feeling the squeeze from rising prices and rising taxes, especially pensioners and those on low and fixed incomes. He added: “The inevitable increase in consumer confidence would help the struggling retail sector. It would help to push down inflation, and so reduce the risk of a recovery-choking interest rate rise later this year “And it would give the flatlining economy the jump-start it so urgently needs, boost jobs and help us get the deficit down for the long term. “The risk is that George Osborne will wreak long-term, as well as short-term, damage on the British economy by creating a vicious circle of permanently lower business investment, lower income and lower employment, which in turn requires bigger tax increases and deeper spending cuts to get the deficit down.” Balls said the “scale of the fiscal hit to demand and growth in Britain this year is unprecedented”, adding that, a year ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility “forecast growth of 2.6% in 2011 – they now predict just 1.7%”. He said: “Unemployment forecasts for the next four years have all been revised upwards. Inflation forecasts for the end of 2011 have risen sharply from 1.6% to 4.2%. with a further increase next year, and the result of this slower growth, higher unemployment and higher inflation is that the government will have to borrow a further £46bn more than forecast after the spending review.” He said he had become convinced that the plan to eradicate the structural deficit in this parliament “was primarily about electoral politics – rapid tax rises and spending cuts chiefly designed to fit a political timetable that gets the pain over early [and] makes Labour take the blame”. Balls added that he was astonished Osborne had not thought more carefully about the “fork in the road” when he came to office last May. He said: “He did not hesitate in making a rash and headlong lunge down the path of rapid deficit reduction. But while he might have been expected to carefully contemplate the fork in front of him and consider the consequences of his decision, George Osborne said, ‘rapid deficit reduction is the priority, there is no choice – the markets demand it, the faster we cut, the better for confidence, no alternative is possible, and anyone who says otherwise is a deficit denier.’” Ed Balls Economic policy Tax and spending Labour George Osborne Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Economics Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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2pac dont go 2 sleep aros1one mix Inmate admits to shooting Tupac Shakur in 1994 2Pac – Pain [Pac-Side.com] myles_rondo says: “When i talk about money all you see is the struggle…I tell you im livin large you tell me its trouble” RIP 2pac
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At the National Pinball Museum in Washington, DC, the history of the game with its rolling metal balls and noisy flippers is a passion for David Silverman. But the AP’s Lee Powell says it may be game over for the fledgling museum. (June 16)
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Tehran says Rasad launch is to help produce high-res maps but move prompts concern over nuclear ambitions Iran has launched a satellite into orbit, state television reported, a move likely to raise concerns among those who fear Iran’s intentions and nuclear development programme. The report said the locally produced satellite, called Rasad, or observation, was launched successfully by a Safir missile on Wednesday. There was no independent confirmation of the launch or of the satellite achieving orbit. If successful, it would be the second satellite Iran has put into orbit. The first, named Omid, was launched in 2009 . The Iranian TV report said the new satellite is designed to produce high-resolution maps. Iran’s decade-long space programme has alarmed the west because the same technology that allows missiles to launch satellites can be used to fire warheads. Israel, the US and other nations allege that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies. The TV report said the Rasad satellite, developed by Iran’s aerospace agency, weighs 15.3kg and has been designed to orbit the Earth 15 times a day at a height of 160 miles. “Our glorious scientists successfully put Iran’s first image-collecting satellite into orbit,” the TV report said. Iran has made a series of claims about advances in its ambitious space programme in recent years. In 2010 , Iran announced it had successfully launched a rocket carrying a mouse, turtle and worms into space. Iran has also said it aims to put a man into orbit within 10
Continue reading …Michael Gove unveils plan to convert weakest primary schools into academies
June 16, 2011 No Comment
Education secretary targets schools that have fallen below the government’s minimum standard, with the weakest 200 being converted from September 2012 The 200 weakest primary schools in England will be placed under new management by 2012, the education secretary Michael Gove will say on Thursday. It is the most direct interference in primary schools by a government that has, so far, been mainly focused on intervention on secondary schools. The education secretary wants as many schools as possible to become academies in the belief that the system has transformed secondary education and could do the same for primary schools. The weakest 200 primary schools will be converted from September 2012. The announcement coincided with reports that an accounting blunder by the Department of Education has left many existing academies with more funding than they are entitled to, prompting Gove to claim that the coalition government had inherited a “flawed system” from Labour. Gove made the case for extending academy status to primaries to raise standards. He said the process could involve “significant change” in terms of staffing, and in some cases the headteacher would be removed. “Sometimes, yes, the headteacher will go, but in other circumstances it will be the case the staff will remain the same but the leadership that’s provided by another school will help those who have been struggling for far too long to improve,” he told BBC Breakfast. “It’s not intended to be anything other than a helping hand upwards for the staff in the school, but above all the children, who have to be our first concern.” This “sponsored academy” programme is in addition to the 1,200 schools that have already applied to convert to academy status (“converter academies”). Gove is to target those that have, for five years, fallen below the government’s “minimum floor standard” (less than 60% of the children reaching a basic level in English and Maths at 11, and where children make below-average progress between seven and 11). He said: “Every year we ask young people to sit tests at the end of primary school in English and mathematics. These are schools where more than 40% of students haven’t been getting to the right level, and they haven’t been getting to that level for more than five years. “So yes, these schools will know themselves the difficulties that they’ve been in, and starting from 2012, from September 2012, these schools will be converted into academies.” He insisted the change would “strip out bureaucracy” for teachers and give them more freedom to vary the school day and change the curriculum. “Ultimately the people who make schools better are teachers not bureaucrats and that’s what the academy model incarnates,” he added. Local authorities with particularly large numbers of struggling primaries will be identified for urgent collaboration with the Department for Education. On the basis of 2010 results, there are about 1,400 primary schools below the primary minimum floor standard. Of those, about 500 have been below the floor for two or three of the last four years. A further 200 have been below standard for the last five years and 120 of those have been below the floor for more than a decade. The funding of academies came under scrutiny as it emerged that an accounting blunder by the Department of Education has left many academies with more funding than they are entitled to, leaving the prospect of many having large sums of money “clawed back”. Gove blamed “mistakes” by local authorities for the overpayments which saw some academies receive hundreds of thousands of pounds they were not entitled to. The Financial Times reported the error was particularly pronounced in Hampshire, where academies had been given an extra £300 per pupil, worth around £300,000 a year to the average secondary academy. Pressed on the report on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Gove said initially he found the report “a bit perplexing”, before conceding there was a problem. “There have been individual mistakes made by local authorities in the calculation of their section 251 returns,” he said. Asked whether officials in the Department for Education had been responsible for any of the mistakes, he replied: “Not that I am aware of.” But pressed again, he said they had been working with a “flawed” system inherited from the former Labour government. “What we are actually working with is a funding system which was designed by the last government which is flawed,” he said. “There is a problem with the financing of all schools because of the funding mechanism that was designed by the last government.” He added: “Every year money is clawed back in this way.” Gove will use a speech in Birmingham to make the case for academy primary schools, citing the shift of political and economic power to Asia. “We have just suffered the worst financial crisis since 1929,” he will say. “Our economy is weighed down by a huge debt burden. Europe has major problems with debt and the euro. “Meanwhile there is a rapid and historic shift of political and economic power to Asia and a series of scientific and technological changes that are transforming our culture, economy and global politics. “If we do not have a school system adapting to and preparing for these challenges – a school system that is not only adapting to the amazing revolution of iTunesU, whereby Harvard and Oxbridge publish their most valuable content free, but is also able to adapt to the unknown revolutions ahead — then we will face even worse crises in the years ahead. Justifying his intervention, Gove will state “there is only so much you can do between 11 and 16,” arguing that the fate of a pupil may well be settled by the time they reach secondary school. “The education debate in this country has not confronted reality. Education systems across the world are improving faster than England. We have to set our sights higher. We should no longer tolerate a system in which so many pupils leave primary school without a good grasp of English and maths, and leave secondary school without five good GCSEs. We want all parents to have a choice of good local schools. “Evidence shows that the academy programme has had a good effect on school standards. Heads and teachers should run schools and they should be more accountable to parents instead of politicians. We must go faster and further in using the programme to deal with underperforming schools.” Michael Gove Primary schools Schools Education policy Patrick Wintour Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Boston Bruins have won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1972, beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 7 of the finals. Tim Thomas capped a spectacular playoff run with 37 saves in the Canucks’ hostile home arena, and Patrice Bergeron scored two goals as the Bruins…
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• European stock markets slide • Euro hits three-week low against the dollar • Greek bond yields hit nearly 30% World stock markets fell sharply again on Thursday as the imminent prospect of a Greek debt default gripped investors. Greece’s bonds also hit record levels after Wednesday’s violent riots piled fresh pressure on an Athens government already on the edge. There was also concern that Europe lacks the firepower to bring the ongoing debt crisis under control, with a member of the European Central Bank (ECB) warning that the existing rescue package needs to be doubled to €1.5 trillion (£1.3tn). In London, the FTSE 100 shed 63 points at the start of trading to 5679, a drop of more than 1%. Just three shares were higher, as the blue chip index hit its lowest level since 17 March. European markets also suffered losses. France’s CAC dropped by 1.5%, led by French banks which have large exposure to Greek debt, while the German DAX was 0.7% lower. Earlier, the panic in Greece touched Asia, with Japan’s Nikkei dropping by 1.7% to 9411.28 in a nervy session. The euro also suffered, hitting a three-week low against the dollar, as traders warned that a Greek default would have catastrophic consequences for the global markets. “With Greek sovereign debt squarely back on the agenda, risk appetite amongst traders is very much off and equities are coming under sustained pressure as a result,” said Cameron Peacock of IG Markets. “A new government is set to be formed in Athens today against a backdrop of civil unrest and the big concern is that politics gets in the way of the second tranche of the bailout, in turn forcing a debt restructuring in the eurozone,” Peacock added. George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, announced on Wednesday night that he would seek a vote of confidence on a new government after offering to resign. He hopes to create a new national unity coalition with opposition conservatives, in an effort to stabilise the country. Bond traders, though, continued to view Greek debt as hugely risky. The yield, or effective interest rate, on Greek two-year bonds hit 29.468%, a lifetime record. The cost of insuring Greek debt against collapse spiked, with the five-year credit default swap leaping 124 basis points to a record high of 1,850bp, according to Markit. That means it would cost €1.85m to insure €10m of Greek debt. “The impasse within the institutions of the EU, as well as the political and social upheaval within Greece, has roiled the markets,” said Gavan Nolan, director of credit research at Markit. European leaders have been debating their next move in the Greek crisis for several weeks, after it became clear that the country needs a second bailout. However, it is unclear how a plan can be drawn up that will save Greece from default. One option is to restructure of some of its €330bn debt, with lenders agreeing to defer repayments. Credit rating agencies, though, have warned that such a plan would be treated as a default. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities, does not believe that this debt “reprofiling” is feasible. “I still fail to see why an investor would want to agree to extend maturities rather than get paid back in full and on time,” said Jenkins. “If the choice is extend or default then it could be argued that it is not a voluntary decision and certainly the rating agencies will regard it as a default.” Earlier, ECB governing council member Nout Wellink predicted that the European bailout fund should be doubled to €1.5tn, to stave off the risk of a new Greek bailout triggering renewed crisis in Ireland and Portugal. “If you take these risks, you need to build a safety net,” Wellink told Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. “If ratings agencies see a rollover (of Greek debt) as a partial default, contagion to other peripheral eurozone countries will occur.” European debt crisis Europe Market turmoil Stock markets Greece Europe Bonds Euro Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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