The readers’ editor on … a day of too much pomp and circumstance Complaints to the Guardian’s readers’ editor, and the paper’s letters’ page, about the royal wedding coverage convey a general sense that the Guardian has betrayed a long-standing history of republicanism. Not so. Certainly not the “long-standing” bit, anyway. Ian Mayes , the paper’s first readers’ editor, who is now writing a history of the Guardian, tells me that it was only 11 years ago that the Guardian came out for a republic: “The Guardian’s first real trawl through the issue was a week of features starting 7 January 1995 under the general heading, “The New Republic: an important Guardian series on what Britain would be like without a monarchy”. A leader to launch it said: “This paper has always been agnostic about the monarchy and remains so.”
Continue reading …Transcript via Feministing below the fold. Who are the women who obtain abortions in the United States? You might be surprised. Almost one out of every three American women Will have an abortion by age 45. They come from all walks of life. They are women you know. Most women having abortions are in there Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Feministe Discovery Date : 04/05/2011 00:14 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …12-year-old boy reported killed as residents describe hearing gunfire and shelling President Bashar al-Assad has sent tanks deep into Syria’s third city, Homs, escalating a military campaign to crush a seven-week-old uprising against his autocratic rule. Syrians demanding political freedom and an end to corruption have held weeks of what they say are peaceful demonstrations in the face of government repression, despite a civilian death toll that has reached 800, according to the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah. On Sunday, residents in Homs said they heard machine-gun fire and shelling as troops made their first incursion into residential areas of the city of 1 million people, 100 miles north of Damascus. At least one person, a 12-year-old child, was killed when tanks and troops went into the Bab Sebaa, Bab Amro and Tal al-Sour districts of Homs during the night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “The areas have been under total siege since yesterday,” the organisation said. “There is a total blackout on the numbers of dead and injured. Telecommunications and electricity are repeatedly being cut in those districts.” Elsewhere, a witness said security forces killed at least two unarmed demonstrators when they fired on a night rally in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. Assad has made clear he will not tolerate dissent or risk losing the tight control his family has had over the country for the past 41 years. The pro-democracy upheaval that began in Deraa on 18 March, inspired by similar revolts across the Arab world, intensified on Friday across Hauran, an agricultural belt bordering Jordan to the south and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west. In the south, tanks swept into several towns on Sunday. A man was killed when security forces broke into his home in the southern town of Tafas, a rights campaigner in the region said. A Jordanian statesman, Adnan Abu Oudeh, said two models had emerged during the Arab democratic revolution. “Egypt and Tunisia, where there is an established concept of the state and of the army as an institution of the state … and the Libyan and Yemeni model. “Syria belongs to the latter,” said Abu Oudeh, who is a board member of the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution group. An opposition figure said that even if the half a million members of Syria’s army and other security forces, which are led by officers of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, continued to obey the 45-year-old president, he would not be able to crush the growing popular hostility to his rule. “The shocks of the military campaign are being absorbed,” he said. “We have seen that as soon as the army withdraws or lessens its presence in one area to crush people elsewhere, protests erupt in the area the forces had left. Assad is using Israeli tactics, but will not be able to occupy all of Syria with his loyalists.” Protesters are demanding political freedoms, an end to corruption and the departure of Assad. Syrian authorities have blamed the protests on “armed terrorist groups” they say are operating in Deraa, Banias, Homs and other parts of the country. The official state news agency said an “armed gang”, a term used of opponents of the government, had ambushed a bus near Homs and shot dead 10 civilian workers returning from Lebanon. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar Al-Assad Protest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Barclays sets aside £1bn to cover compensation • British Bankers Association drops case • Payment protection insurance wrongly sold to millions One of the UK banking industry’s most serious mis-selling scandals in decades is drawing to a close, after the banks abandoned their legal challenge against compensating customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance. Barclays became the first of the major UK banks to apologise for its role in the £9bn debacle as the British Bankers Association announced on Monday morning that it is dropping its appeal against tougher controls on how PPI is sold. With the legal battle over, UK banks will now begin in earnest the task of identifying victims and making redress. The move comes just four days after Lloyds Banking Group stunned the City by putting £3.2bn aside to cover compensation claims relating to PPI, which was wrongly sold to millions of customers since the late 1990s. This was roughly double the previous estimate. Barclays, which had a smaller share of the PPI market than Lloyds, is taking a £1bn provision to cover its PPI bill. Chief executive Bob Diamond said Barclays had decided to withdraw from the BBA appeal – as Lloyds did last week – to provide “certainty” for both customers and shareholders. “We don’t always get things right for our customers; when we get them wrong, we apologise and put them right. That’s our commitment to our customers, and it applies to the way in which we will deal with PPI complaints,” said Diamond. Royal Bank of Scotland has welcomed the BBA’s move. “We will update our customers and shareholders as soon as possible on the steps we agree with the FSA, the likely timeframe, and the anticipated costs of redress,” said RBS. “This is an important step for all UK banks in our efforts to restore the confidence and trust of consumers.” Analysts believe RBS will need to set aside around £1bn to cover its own PPI claims . Stephen Hester, chief executive of the company, admitted last week that the bank would need to make a provision in the second quarter of 2011 – the size of which was still being calculated – and indicated that the bank’s share of PPI sales was around a third of Lloyds, the market leader. PPI was meant to help policyholders keep up with their mortgage, credit card or loan repayments if they lost their job or became ill, and was sold alongside these financial products. Many customers, though, bought PPI even though they would not be able to claim, or were even sold it without their knowledge. The Financial Services Authority has now imposed much tighter controls on how PPI is sold. Borrowers must now be informed that the insurance is an optional extra, and cannot be approached until at least seven days after they have signed up for their loan or credit card. The banks, through the BBA, had attempted to prevent these rules being applied retrospectively, saying this was a point of principle, but suffered defeat in the high court last month. They had been given until Tuesday to decide whether to seek leave to appeal. In a statement, the BBA said: “In the interest of providing certainty for their customers, the banks and the BBA have decided that they do not intend to appeal. “We continue to believe that there are matters of important principle which we will be taking forward in other ways with the authorities.” Banking Barclays Lloyds Banking Group Royal Bank of Scotland Bob Diamond Graeme Wearden Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Frustrations are running high for a south Memphis, Tennessee resident whose home is flooded due to the rising Mississippi River. He’s frustrated with nature and the apparent lack of help from the government. (May 8)
Continue reading …WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has pressed Pakistan to probe how Osama bin Laden managed to live for years under the nose of its military, saying he must have been supported by locals. Obama stopped short of saying the Pakistani government was involved, but the White House called on Islamabad to help counter growing mistrust by granting US investigators access to three of bin Laden's widows who are in Pakistani custody and could have vital information on Al-Qaeda. “We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan,” Obama told the CBS show “60 Minutes” in speaking on the matter for the first time. “But…
Continue reading …Reporting from Cairo— Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad appeared determined to stop persistent antigovernment protests Sunday, with clashes in several cities leading to several deaths, scores of injuries and hundreds of arrests, activists said. A 12-year-old boy was reportedly killed in the western city of Homs, where other protesters were injured and dozens were arrested, activists said. In the eastern oil city of Deir Alzour, two protesters were shot and killed by security forces during a night rally, according to Ammar Qurabi, chairman of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, who is based in Cairo. Protesters reported…
Continue reading …There’s no denying the ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard looks fantastic, and The Tech Report didn’t spare praise for its military-grade components or five-year warranty in a recent review, but the publication also reports that the standout feature — that component-cooling “Tactical Jacket” — may hurt more than it helps. The plastic shroud has been re-dubbed “Thermal Armor” since our last run-in , but that doesn’t change the result: ASUS doesn’t ship the primo slab with a dedicated cooling fan, so component temperatures can actually go up ten degrees Celsius when wearing the shroud with a system under heavy load. Of course, cooling depends on a number of factors, but we were hoping the Sabertooth’s unique coat would be a positive one. Back to the drawing board. ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard sheds its skin, feels better without it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 May 2011 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …El último atentado de Ben Laden contra el sentido común-4ªPARTE Nudy.. Na Radogoszczu Hees cusub Somaliweyn- Saado Cunaabi-daawo Aid Trap – Somalia : LaserVision.Org.UK 25 Responses to “Aid Trap – Somalia ”. fmoham01 says: May 8, 2011 at 11:45 pm. USC = United Somali Congress. The rebel group that overthrew the existing government and went on a mission to ethnically cleanse many Somali clans from the … Madaxweynaha Raas Caseyr state of somalia oo mamnuucay dhamaan … Waxaa maanta ka soo baxay wareegto Madaxweynaha mammulka Raas Caseyr State Of Somalia (Eng: Faarax Maxamud Yusuf Dooxajoog), wareegtadaas oo ku wajahneyd marin biyoodka calamigaa ee Raas Caseyr waxuu Madaxweynu uu wareegtadiisa ku … Is United States Preparing for Action in Somalia .wmv – Voltaire www.uruknet.info AFRICOMs First War: US Directs Large-Scale Offensive In Somalia Rick Rozoff March 13, 2010 Over 43 people have been killed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in two days of fighting between Shabab (al-Shabaab) insurgent … Reysal wasaaraha somalia iyo wafdigii lasocday ayaa goor dhaw … Reysal wasaaraha somalia iyo wafdigii lasocday ayaa dadka ay lakulmeen wakaa kamid ah dad somalia ah oo ku sugaayay garooka uu ka dagay reysal wasaaraha iyuo wafdigii losocday ayaa isgacan qadeen dadka soomaaliyeed ee sugaayay inta uu … Madaxweynaha Raas Caseyr State of Somalia oo Mamnuucay Dhamaan … Waxaa maanta ka soo baxay wareegto Madaxweynaha mammulka Raas Caseyr State Of Somalia (Eng: Faarax Maxamud Yusuf Dooxajoog), wareegtadaas oo ku wajahneyd. Trojanman420 says: RT @EmilyMillerDC : Obama refers to The Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia as the Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down.”
Continue reading …Sony Play-Station Network DOWN?! Ps3 Jailbreak 3.60 with USB Stunned Gamerz Sony Delays PlayStation Network Reactivation | Innovativ … i4u writes “Earlier this week chatter in an IRC network led to speculation of a third attack on Sony’s network . For its part, the company steadfastly promised that at least some services would resume by the end of this week. … Sony Delays PlayStation Network Reactivation | MX510 i4u writes “Earlier this week chatter in an IRC network led to speculation of a third attack on Sony’s network . For its part, the company steadfastly promised that at least some services would resume by the end of this week. … Sony Ponders Reward Offer As It Insists PSN's Security Was Up-to … “The previous network for Sony Network Entertainment International and Sony Online Entertaiment used servers that were patched and updated recently, and had multiple security measures in place, including firewalls,” said Patrick Seybold … Sony delays PSN restart as hackers post customer details online … Sony delays PSN revival … to steal customer data from Sony’s network again this weekend and post it online. … UPDATE 2-Sony removes data posted by hackers, delays PlayStation restart. Posted by admin at 10:25 pm Tagged with: Auto, … Sony Delays PlayStation Network Reactivation – Philip Fiore's … i4u writes “Earlier this week chatter in an IRC network led to speculation of a third attack on Sony’s network . For its part, the company steadfastly promised that at least some services would resume by the end of this week. … tolga_bilgin says: @casper_fb kahrolsun sony network !!
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