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DutchNews.nl - Ernst & Young commissioned to investigate match fixing in Holland.
  Link to Article
  Source: WT news feed
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:57
  Ernst & Young commissioned to investigate match fixing in HollandWednesday 30 January 2013
  The health and sports ministry has commissioned Ernst & Young, together with two professors, to investigate reports of match fixing in Dutch sport, free newspaper Spits reports on Wednesday.
  Sports law professor Marjan Olfers and criminology professor Toine Spapens will lead the project, which will last three months, the paper said.
  Sports minister Edith Schippers decided last summer to set up the investigation, following on from a hotline she had set up for athletes to report bribes.
  The researchers will talk to athletes, officials, sports associations and gambling bodies in an effort to find out if the problem exists or is widespread in the Netherlands.
  Real chance
  Last June, Labour MP Jeroen Recourt told the NRC there is a 'very real chance' that Dutch football is embroiled in major match fixing. The MP said tips point to corruption centering on the Jupiler League (first division).
  Recourt claimed to have being given 'multiple' tips about match fixing in the Netherlands but declined to give further information.
  In 2010, European football body Uefa said it had not found any evidence of match fixing in the Dutch first division, following reports two matches were under investigation.
  Earlier storiesVery real chance of match fixing in the Netherlands, says Labour MP
  (C) DutchNews.nl
VIDEO-Lateline - 31/01/2013: UN diplomat survived being held hostage by Al Qaeda
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:46
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  Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  Broadcast: 31/01/2013
  Reporter: Tony Jones
  Robert Fowler, a former senior UN diplomat in Niger, who was held hostage by Al Qaeda for 130 days, tells how he lived to tell his story.
  TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Very few Westerners have direct experience of the Al Qaeda fighters operating in the deserts of North Africa but after the bloody hostage crisis in Algeria this month and the rebel incursion that threatened to overthrow the government in Mali, those who have are being urgently sought.Robert Fowler's first-hand knowledge of what's been described as the fastest growing Al Qaeda franchise in the world came at a terrible price.
  The Canadian-born UN special envoy was kidnapped by the group and held for 130 days. He wrote a book about that ordeal titled A Season in Hell.
  Robert Fowler joins us now from the Canadian capital of Ottawa. Thanks for being there.
  ROBERT FOWLER, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA: Hello Tony.
  TONY JONES: Can you start by telling us what you were doing and how you were kidnapped?
  ROBERT FOWLER: Well, Tony, I retired from the Canadian public service in '06 and in the summer of '08 the secretary-general of the UN asked me to take on this task of special envoy to Niger and my task was to get the Tuareg rebels and the Government of Niger to agree to sit down and talk about a peaceful end to a rebellion then ongoing in Niger.
  TONY JONES: So how were you kidnapped because you weren't kidnapped by the Tuareg rebels as we know.
  ROBERT FOWLER: No that's quite right I was on my third visit to Niger in the middle of December '08. We'd had meetings all day on a Friday and there were more meetings the following week.
  We had the weekend with not much to do and it I decided to visit the area around the capital of Niamey. And I was heading back into town on Sunday evening about 5:30. We were on one of the few paved roads in the country. We were going quickly in a UN vehicle and a truck passed us going much more quickly, slewed in front of us forcing our driver to a stop.
  We were - within moments there were two AK47s pointed at us from about four metres away. We were quickly thrown into the back of the other truck and the whole thing perhaps took about 40 seconds and we began what I called my descent into hell which is a four-day, 1,100km journey due north across the lower bit of Niger and right up the eastern border of Mali deep into the Sahara Desert.
  TONY JONES: How did you find out that the kidnappers were actually Al Qaeda?
  ROBERT FOWLER: About 12 hours after our kidnappings, just before dawn, we - the driver who by the way is much on the internet these days as an Ansar Din commander in Mali, a fellow whose told us his name was Omar - there were three Omars so this one was Omar One - he rolled under his truck to speech - to sleep.
  We were told to lie down. My back was damaged so I couldn't lie down. I was pacing up and down. There was a sentry brewing up tea in the sand. He looked up to me and said, "Have you figured out who we are yet?" I asked him the question you posed a moment ago and said, "Are you perchance the people I'm negotiating with?" He said, "Of course not. I told you I was Senegalese. No, we are Al Qaeda." That was not one of the better moments.
  TONY JONES: By your own account from that moment you prepared yourself for death actually or the possibility of being murdered by these guys. You imagined the Internet footage of yourselves being killed. How did you actually live with that fear? It must have been quite terrifying.
  ROBERT FOWLER: It was. It was. I thought it would end like your media colleague Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002 with a knife at his throat in a tent and that my family and friends would watch it on YouTube as apparently some 300,000 people have watched Mr Pearl's execution.
  How do you live with it? If you'd asked me that in the abstract before I would have had no idea how to answer but of course we were bureaucrats and we had rules and we had a game plan and the pretence of those things helped us get through it but there really wasn't a moment in those 130 days that was worry-free.
  TONY JONES: Tell us what you learned about these men because this group, the group they belong to, has become now so critical in this interplay of forces in the Maghreb, in between Algeria and Mali and the terrible sort of consequences of what's going on there at the moment. Tell us what you found out about them.
  ROBERT FOWLER: Indeed, Tony, my principal captor, not the guy who grabbed me by the roadway in the south but indeed his boss, the head of the cell or battalion or they call it katiba, was a fellow called Mokhtar Belmokhtar and he is the one who perpetrated this horror at the Ain Amenas gas facility a couple of weeks ago in Algeria. So it's the same gang, the same battalion of Al Qaeda that did that.
  There's a great debate among secure-ocrats as to whether these guys are, on the one hand, bandits flying a flag of Islamic convenience, or on the other, latter-day Robin Hoods doing a little banditry to feed the cause. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is the second.
  Yes, I know that Mr Belmokhtar is known on the internet as Monsieur Marlboro and I think it's quite possible that he has a hand in or benefits from all the illegal traffic across the Sahara, traffic in cigarettes, traffic in arms, traffic in drugs, traffic in people.
  But I'm quite convinced as well that he is doing that to nourish the cause. He was known as a sort of quarter master general of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda's predecessors which go back 20 years.
  All this began in 1992 in Algeria after a failed attempt at democracy. After the first tour of elections - they do it like the French with two tours - after the first tour it was clear that the Islamist party was going to win and the army stepped back in and said, "That's enough of democracy."
  The Islamists then got the gun and they formed an army, that was an insurgency. They were first of all the Islamic Salvation Front then they were the Armed Islamic Group then they were the Group for Preaching and Combat and in the fall of '06 they began negotiating with the boys in the Tora Bora about taking out effectively an Al Qaeda franchise which was sealed in January '07.
  After they took out that franchise they became more aggressive towards foreigners, including foreigners in their sights as well as the government of Algeria, and they began using suicide bombings.
  But they are the most focused group of young men I have ever encountered. I have had a fair amount to do with soldiers and I'm sure it's not the case in Australia but in Canada soldiers sort of tend to think about and talk about cars and girls and sports and these guys would not have understood a single word of that conversation.
  They were dressed in rags, they didn't want cool stuff, they weren't interested in neat shoes or sunglasses or nickel-plating their kalashas, they were focused on their jihad. They believed jihad was the sixth pillar of Islam and they fully expected to die in jihad which would take them instantly to paradise beside those rivers of milk and honey.
  TONY JONES: Of course the terrible spectre we see now is of this group becoming vastly better armed than they had been in the past, not only because they put together vast sums of money through kidnapping and so on but also because of the flow of weapons from Libya after the fall of Gaddafi. Just how big a threat are they now, do you believe?
  ROBERT FOWLER: First of all there's absolutely no doubt that the looting of Gaddafi's obscenely excessively stocked armouries which we the attackers of the Libyan regime did nothing to prevent, those weapons and both the sophistication and the quantity of those weapons have now polluted one of the most unstable areas in the world across an 8,000km strip from the Atlantic ocean to the Indian Ocean and rendered that whole area much more unstable.
  My captor, the guy who did this horror in Algeria two weeks ago, Belmokhtar, gave an interview with Mauritanian television in which he asked the interviewer, "Surely you agree it was logical that I would take advantage of those weapons." Tony, I have to agree with him, yes, it was logical. And he's barely taking ...
  TONY JONES: Robert, sorry can I just interrupt you there because we're now seeing a French military intervention in Mali. The Algerians are talking to the British, the Algerians have the biggest army in the region if they get involved, that could be one way of defeating these people. But how can you stop them?
  Their ultimate aim is to create a caliphate. They're highly motivated and now heavily weaponised as you said and they've got other resources as well. Can you stop them by Western military intervention or is that going to fall into the same sort of traps the West found in Afghanistan and Iraq and to some degree Libya?
  ROBERT FOWLER: Tony, first of all I think it's important not to talk in absolutes. In other words, stop them, destroy them, defeat them. Probably no is the answer.
  Did the British stop, defeat, destroy the IRA over 40 years of fighting in Northern Ireland? The answer is no.
  I think it is indeed possible to seriously degrade them, diminish them to the point that the improved Malian army, along with the local African regional force, might be able to handle the threat, the diminished threat that they represent.
  But let's bear in mind that these guys have been fighting the Algerian - the huge army that you spoke of - for 20 years and the Algerians have not defeated them.
  Another point I should make is there is a debate about whether these different jihadi organisations in Africa are all joined up or not. In other words is Al-Shabaab in Somalia, is Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, pursuing the same aims as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb? And the answer is - hell yes.
  One of my captors was a kid from Kunnawa, Nigeria. In yours and my terms he was a Boko Haram exchange officer working with Al Qaeda. So yes, they share the same aims, yes, they are linked up. There are all kinds of reports by the UN secretary-general of foreign fighters streaming into northern Mali and indeed there are reports of Boko Haram fighters in northern Mali and AQIM people in northern Nigeria.
  So yes, they are linked up and pose a very real threat that I think we must counter. We can't eliminate it because that's hard to do in insurgencies but we sure can diminish it.
  TONY JONES: One of the big questions being asked is whether the French have bitten off more than they can chew because, as you point out, the Algerians have been fighting an insurgency for 20 years.
  If the French get drawn into an insurgency in Mali or if these groups cause mass casualty terrorist attacks in France, what are going to be the consequences?
  ROBERT FOWLER: Let me be very clear on this, I think the French acted brilliantly. By that I mean I think they acted within about a 36-hour window and I think frankly there are very few Western countries that could mobilise and move that quickly.
  If they hadn't done it, as the jihadists surged southwards through that narrow neck of Mali, they would, I believe, have taken the capital and they would have spread outward from there and instead of the French having seven hostages in the hands of these guys, they would have - the 6,000 French citizens in the southern part of Mali and the many, many other Westerners would have been in extreme peril.
  So the West in the UN urged on by the French had been discussing a plan to deal with the northern Mali situation for five months over last fall. A plan that culminated in UN Security Council resolution 2085 of 20 December. The plan was characterised by the US ambassador to the United Nations, the almost secretary of state Susan Rice, as "crap".
  TONY JONES: Robert, we're nearly out of time and I just want to ask one final question. Just give us a kind of 30-second summary, if you can, of what you think is going to happen next.
  ROBERT FOWLER: All right, the French, after a slow beginning and some real military difficulty, have succeeded in retaking all the very few major towns and cities of northern Mali.
  They've taken back Gao, Timbuktu, Menaka and yesterday Kidal. The jihadists did not fight for those towns. They have now melted into the desert and the hard part now begins. Winkling them out of the desert.
  You made the comparison with Afghanistan. Whether we make it Afghanistan or not, I think it's really up to us. The important thing here is to maintain the aim, the aim is to degrade and diminish Al Qaeda. It's not to turn Mali into an Australian state or a Canadian province.
  TONY JONES: Robert Fowler, we'll have to leave you there. One thing that's absolutely clear is you don't suffer from Stockholm syndrome.
  Thank you for taking the time to join us.
  ROBERT FOWLER: It's a pleasure, Tony.
  Do you have a comment or a story idea? Get in touch with the Lateline team by clicking here.
Is Gabby Giffords Pretending to be Brain Damaged?!? This Seems Like a Total Act!
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:59
Experts warn of cloud snooping
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Europe
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:56
  31 January 2013Last updated at06:10 ETBy Jane WakefieldTechnology reporterLeading privacy expert Caspar Bowden has warned Europeans using US cloud services that their data could be snooped on.
  In a report, he highlights how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment Act (FISAAA) allows US authorities to spy on cloud data.
  This includes services such as Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud and Google Drive.
  He told the BBC this heralded a new era of "cloud surveillance".
  Foreign policyMr Bowden, former chief privacy adviser to Microsoft Europe, made a name for himself as a privacy advocate when the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) came into force in the UK in 2000.
  Parliament accepted some of the amendments proposed by Mr Bowden as the then director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.
  Now he has turned his attention to US legislation and has co-authored the Fighting Cyber Crime and Protecting Privacy in the Cloud report which was recently presented to the European Parliament.
  In it he said that FISAAA "expressly permits purely political surveillance", so that anyone with stored information relating to US foreign policy could find themselves of interest to the US authorities.
  "Anyone who, for example, belongs to a campaign group which may oppose some aspect of US foreign policy, whether it be the Iraq war or climate change," he said.
  The FISAAA was originally drafted in 2008, and was recently renewed until 2017. It was added on to existing legislation to take account of cloud computing, which was just emerging as a means of data storage.
  "What's amazing is that nobody really spotted it for four years," said Mr Bowden.
  "When FISAAA was extended to cover cloud computing, encrypting data to and from the cloud becomes irrelevant so it is surprising that nobody noticed this," he added.
  Tiny supercomputerAdam Mitton, a partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, agreed that the FISAAA could be a threat to privacy but questioned how much it was used.
  "In theory there is a clear threat to the privacy of European citizens, but in reality the fact that it is obscure suggests that the threat isn't as great as it might be perceived," he said.
  "If it was being used by an authority and having an impact on individual citizens, I think that the source of the information would come to light. The legislation is now five years old and I'm not aware of any case that has relied on it," he added.
  Storing data in the cloud is becoming hugely popular not just for consumers who use it to keep photographs and other personal data safe but for businesses which are increasingly using cloud services to offer back-end processing power.
  Under the FISAAA, US cloud providers can be compelled to release data from any citizen living outside of the US.
  "The fibre-optic cable that carries the data is split and a miniature supercomputer scans all the data in real-time with any material of possible interest being instantly copied to the NSA [National Security Agency]," said Mr Bowden.
  The court order is made in secret and remains secret - meaning it would not show up in things such as Google's transparency reports, which aim to document data requests from governments around the world.
  "We have long known that the Americans can spy on foreign data but FISAAA extends this to reach inside the data centre. It allows the authorities to enact surveillance on a mass scale because it is wired into the infrastructure," Mr Bowden said.
  A hearing on the European Parliament's findings of the report is due next month.
Porn Star Ron Jeremy In Intensive Care After Suffering Aneurysm
  Link to Article
  Source: Radar Online
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:55
  Porn star Ron Jeremy is in intensive care at a Los Angeles hospital Thursday recovering from surgery after suffering an aneurysm near his heart, RadarOnline.com has learned.
  Jeremy's agent, Mike Esterman, says in an email to The Associated Press that Jeremy, 59, had a heavy feeling in his chest Wednesday and drove himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where doctors diagnosed the problem.
  PHOTOS: Sneak Peek Of Amanda Seyfried As Linda Lovelace
  Jeremy is one of the best-known ''and more outrageous '' names in the porn industry, having appeared in more than 2,000 adult films and in the reality TV series The Surreal Life.
Fed keeps $85 billion-a-month bond purchase plan
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  Source: WT news feed
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:55
  WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday maintained its aggressive easing policy stance in light of downside risks to the outlook. In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed said it will keep buying $85 billion a month in mortgage bonds and Treasurys. The Fed said that economic activity has "paused in recent months" due to weather and other transitory factors. The Fed did not say how long the bond purchases would last. The vote was 11 to 1. Kansas City Fed president Esther George dissented, saying the Fed's loose policy stance could lead to financial imbalances and higher inflation.
  Read the full story:Fed maintains aggressive easing stance
David Cameron arrives in Libya on surprise visit
  Link to Article
  Source: The Guardian World News
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:51
  David Cameron meets Libyans in Martyr Square, Tripoli. Photograph: Patrick Wintour
  David Cameron has arrived for a surprise one-day visit to Tripoli in Libya despite recent threats to the British embassy and consulates.
  He flew from Algiers in a personal statement of support for the Arab spring and the new Libyan government, which is struggling to assert its authority against militias and lack of resources.
  He promised to do more to help the country, which has battled to develop a functioning democracy after decades of dictatorship.
  He was due to meet the recently appointed prime minister, Ali Zaidan, who is trying to construct a government of national unity and disband the militias that dominate the country.
  In a sign of his concern for civil order, Cameron on his arrival at the airport travelled in a heavily armed 16-vehicle convoy to visit a sprawling police training college outside Tripoli. Greeted by a band replete with bagpipes, he received strong applause and shouts of "God is great" when he pledged: "In building a new Libya you will have no greater friend than the United Kingdom. We will stand with you every step of the way."
  David Cameron addresses Libyan police recruits at a college outside Tripoli. Photograph: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty ImagesUrging the recruits '' arraigned in front of him in a sunlit courtyard '' to stick to their job, he said: "There is no real freedom, no real democracy, no real chance of prosperity without proper security. There is no real freedom without honour and honesty," adding: "The most important pledge you make is to uphold the law and fight corruption."
  Amid tight security he then walked through Tripoli's main square, Martyr Square, the site of the start of the revolution against Muammar Gaddafi nearly two years ago. He met some of the young revolutionaries that led the uprising, as well as bemused locals.
  Cameron was greeted by jostling crowds and Libyans taking photos of him as he discussed the fate of the revolution just 100 yards from Gaddafi's old palace. He was in the square for about 15 minutes in a relatively relaxed walkabout.
  Cameron with Libya's interior minister, Ashour Shuail. Photograph: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty ImagesThe prime minister met Mervat, who photographed some of the abuses during the revolution. She is working for the ministry of missing persons and martyrs. He also met Abdul-Rahman, who has Libyan-UK dual nationality and was the co-founder of the Libyan Youth forum.
  Cameron visited Tripoli and Benghazi with the then French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, in September 2011 in the wake of Gaddafi's fall, receiving a hero's welcome. The Nato-sanctioned no-fly zone operated by France and UK cleared the way for the uprising. This second visit has been planned for months and is designed to show the prime minister is willing to tackle the consequences of the revolution he helped spawn.
  In a sign of deterioration in the country, the Foreign Office has warned in recent days of threats to the British embassy in Tripoli and advised Britons to leave Benghazi because of a threat of attack. The same warning was issued to German and Dutch citizens.
  There is a growing fear that Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with weapons flooding the streets and jihadi militants ready to disrupt civil order. The central government has little authority beyond Tripoli.
  One militia, Ansar al-Sharia, is believed to have been behind the 11 September attack on the US consulate in the city that killed four Americans including the ambassador. Security and government officials have been victims of a wave of assassinations.
  Critics of the Anglo-French intervention, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, claim that those who backed the removal of Gaddafi had not thought sufficiently about the aftermath.
  British officials acknowledge that the Libyan government badly needs help to shore up its authority as an administration, including a functioning civil police and integrated army. Many militias operating in cities are only willing to join the Libyan National Army as a unit, and the government has done little to disband them.
  There are well over 1,000 armed groups in the country. There is also concern that the Libyan revolution is destabilising the wider region. After Gaddafi fell many Tuareg fighters loyal to the former dictator fled the country, returning to Mali, and have been central to the initial collapse of the Mali government in the north. Cameron freely admits the removal of dictators can reveal hidden fractures in society, but says the only answer is a mixture of openness and effective government. In his talks with the government he will promise to stand by the Libyans and to improve governance, including a package on policing and defence aid.
What Cutting Defense Really Means
  Link to Article
  Source: ccampeador
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:49
  OPINIONJanuary 29, 2013, 7:15 p.m. ETBy MICHAEL O'HANLONHow much more, if at all, should the U.S. cut its military budget as part of comprehensive deficit-reduction efforts?
  A typical observer can be forgiven some confusion on this issue. Even the recent history of defense spending isn't clear. Some say that the 2011 Budget Control Act cut $487 billion from the military over the next 10 years, while others claim that the armed forces will lose nothing from their core budget because the budget was bloated before 2011 anyway. In fact, the most accurate figure for cuts under current law is $350 billion over 10 years, as measured relative to a standard Congressional Budget Office baseline that assumes modest growth for inflation.
  Further confusing the issue are competing arguments over how damaging additional cuts may be. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has voiced adamant opposition to any further reductions that would take annual defense spending much below $550 billion. Yet as a White House official in the 1990s he was content with a $400 billion annual budget (all figures are adjusted for inflation).
  Meanwhile Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has questioned whether the U.S. could remain a superpower if the military loses another $500 billion (or 8% of its budget) over the next 10 years. Yet in 2010 the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles and Rivlin-Domenici commissions endorsed cuts of that very magnitude.
  Given all this, many doves will favor more cuts, arguing that the U.S. still outspends China 3-to-1, accounts for more than 40% of all global military expenditures, and spends more than it did during the Cold War. By contrast, hawks will tend to emphasize that the world remains dangerous and the U.S. will soon spend just 3% of GDP on its military, when Cold War norms were two to three times that amount. Rather than resolve the impasse by such sweeping arguments, however, it would be better to link budget numbers to strategies and capabilities.
  The starting point for doing so is the Obama administration's current military plan, which incorporates only the $350 billion in cuts from the Budget Control Act. The plan scales down the military from about 1.5 million active-duty uniformed personnel to 1.4 million, the pre-9/11 level that is two-thirds the Cold War norm. The plan also chips away at modernization programs but preserves most major ones (with one or two notable exceptions), and it levels off various forms of military pay and benefits. Still, most troops will continue to be compensated better than private-sector cohorts of similar age, education and technical skill.
  Building on this plan, there are two basic ways to proceed now: a tactical approach and a strategic one.
  Tactical cuts would stay with the basic national-security strategy of the Obama administration but look for additional economies within it. This is the thinking that Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), Rep. Chris van Hollen (D., Md.) and some others have espoused of late. Additional cuts might take defense spending down another $100 billion to $200 billion over a decade (though some savings might be counterbalanced by higher-than-expected costs elsewhere in the Pentagon budget). For example, in addition to another necessary round of base closures:
  ' The active-duty Army and Marine Corps could shrink somewhat below their 1990s levels, rather than staying slightly above those levels as current plans dictate.
  ' To get by with its current 286-ship fleet (or less) rather than increase its numbers, the Navy could employ innovative approaches such as ''sea swap,'' by which some crews are rotated via airplane while ships stay forward-deployed longer.
  ' The military could scale back its intended purchases of F-35 joint strike fighters'--good but expensive planes'--by roughly half from its current intended buy of nearly 2,500 airframes.
  ' Rather than design a new submarine to carry ballistic missiles, the Navy might simply refurbish the existing Trident submarine or reopen that production line.
  ' The military could further streamline compensation, close some stateside commissaries and exchanges, and modestly increase military health-care premiums while scaling back pensions.
  The other approach'--necessary if big cuts like those proposed by the Simpson-Bowles commission are to happen'--would require a more profound strategic shift. This wouldn't emasculate the country, deprive it of superpower status or force the abandonment of any allies, but it would mean accepting substantially greater risk. I would oppose these larger cuts but can imagine three scenarios for carrying them out:
  ' Cut the active-duty Army and Marine Corps by 25%, depriving the U.S. of the capacity to conduct anything much more than one large ground operation at a time.
  ' Gradually return military compensation'--now $25,000 greater per person than at the start of the Bush administration'--to 2001 levels, including considerable cuts in both benefits and base pay.
  ' Finally, eliminate the F-35 program rather than cut it in half.
  Together with the more modest economies described above, these initiatives could produce $500 billion in 10-year savings'--the same amount that would be dictated if ''sequestration'' goes into effect in the absence of a budget deal in Congress.
  Others may see different ways to realize these kinds of savings, but it is time we stopped tossing around big budget numbers like chips in a poker game or pretending that magical reforms in Pentagon operations can yield huge savings quickly and painlessly. Possible savings mean changes in American military capability and, quite possibly, changes to U.S. national security.
  Mr. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is author of ''Right-Sizing Defense Cuts'' in the new Brookings briefing book ''Big Bets and Black Swans.''
  A version of this article appeared January 30, 2013, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: What Cutting Defense Really Means.
  Link'...
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323277504578189883132379830.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Mali conflict: Timbuktu celebrates end of Islamist rule
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:49
  31 January 2013Last updated at06:42 ETBy Thomas FessyBBC News, TimbuktuYacouba Toure and a couple of his friends have gathered around his crackling radio in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, soon after French-led troops captured it from militant Islamists.
  They are sitting on the dusty steps of a hair salon, feet tapping to the rhythm of music.
  "Music is a pleasure for us," Mr Toure says.
  "We can now dance and do whatever we want: We can walk together with women, we can shout, we're the young people of Timbuktu, this is what we like doing."
  Music was banned under the strict Islamic law that militant Islamists imposed when they took over the ancient desert city last year.
  Continue reading the main story''Start QuoteWe can chit-chat with our brothers, our friends, and even our boyfriends''
  End QuoteKaria CisseTimbuktu residentAll traditional folklore and ceremonies that make Malian culture vibrant were declared blasphemous.
  Other people soon join Mr Toure's little gathering, and a man offers to make some tea.
  The militants banned men and women from mixing in public.
  Now, Karia Cisse, who is passing by with a basket full of smoked fish on her head, grabs a cup.
  "We can chit-chat with our brothers, our friends, and even our boyfriends," she says.
  "It's a real pleasure, we're so happy. I want to thank God."
  Residents of Timbuktu can again enjoy the simple things they were used to, before the city fell under Islamist control 10 months ago.
  Reprisal attacksThey can also dress the way they want to. Women have swapped the full black niqab, or full-face veil, for colourful local pagnes, a piece cloth wrapped around the body to form a skirt.
  Most of them wear a thin scarf over their head, just as they had in the past.
  There is an incredible feeling that the people are slowly coming back to life here.
  However, many have also been quick to vent the frustration and anger built up over months, which, they say, felt like a lifetime.
  Continue reading the main story''Start QuoteThey threw me in and whipped me''
  End QuoteSalaka DjikkeTimbuktu residentScenes of looting on Tuesday revealed the deep inter-communal grievances and raised concerns about possible reprisal attacks.
  Dozens of people were out in the streets breaking into shops owned by ethnic Arabs and Tuaregs, whom they accuse of having collaborated with the militant Islamists.
  Weapons and boxes of ammunition were pulled out of at least one shop.
  However, most Arabs and Tuaregs have already left Timbuktu in fear of violence.
  But it is also time to uncover the wounds inflicted by the militants.
  In the city centre, a local bank had been turned into the headquarters of the Islamic police.
  The symbol of the jihadis - marked with a Koran, an AK-47 rifle and a cutlass that militants had cemented into the wall - has been taken down.
  A tiny cash machine attached to the building around the corner was used as a cell.
  Continue reading the main storyTreasures of TimbuktuTimbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries700,000 manuscripts had survived in public libraries and private collectionsBooks on religion, law, literature and scienceAdded to Unesco world heritage list in 1988 for its three mosques and 16 cemeteries and mausoleumsThey played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa; the oldest dates from 1329Islamists destroyed mausoleums after seizing the city"They threw me in and whipped me," says Salaka Djikke, 25.
  Ms Djikke was arrested at around 23:00 on New Year's Eve as she went for a romantic ride on her boyfriend's motorcycle.
  When they arrived in front of his house, her boyfriend saw four jihadis coming at them. She did not see them and got off the bike.
  "He drove off and got away, but they rushed at me and whipped me."
  Ms Djikke was sentenced to 95 lashes. It was carried out in a public place, all for being caught with a man she was not married to.
  Her boyfriend managed to escape and reached the capital, Bamako. He could have been stoned to death had he been arrested.
  Despite the scars she bears, Ms Djikke says that she does not regret taking the risk.
  "If they didn't hurt you, they'd hurt your sister or your brother. They terrorised the population," she says.
  "Even living under Sharia, it shouldn't be a crime to fall in love with another person," she says.
Mister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships
  Link to Article
  Source: ccampeador
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:47
  By Helena BachmannJan. 31, 2013
  Why is Tina Turner switching from American to Swiss citizenship? The legendary singer, a longtime Zurich resident, told the Blick newspaper that she has been very happy in Switzerland and ''can't imagine a better place to live.'' But some observers believe she may be one of thousands of American expatriates who have taken the drastic and irrevocable step of giving up their citizenship because of what they consider to be the unjust and discriminatory taxation practices of their government.
  While Turner has indicated nothing other than a practical decision behind the switch, it comes at a time when American expats all over the world are turning in their passports in record numbers to avoid double taxation and other financial burdens imposed on them by Uncle Sam. According to government figures, nearly 1,800 Americans relinquished their passports in 2011, a process that requires a special application and a $450 ''exit fee.'' True, that number is just a drop in the bucket, considering that an estimated 6 million U.S. citizens currently live abroad. But the numbers are growing dramatically '-- a sevenfold increase since 2008, and that is not counting thousands of applications waiting to be processed in U.S. consulates and embassies around the world.
  The U.S. is the world's only industrialized nation that taxes citizens who live overseas, even if their income is generated in a foreign country and they never return to America. And while high-profile cases like that of Turner or that of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin (who renounced his American citizenship last year to become a resident of Singapore) catch public attention, the vast majority of expatriates affected by double taxation and increasingly draconian filing rules are middle-class or retired, or those who have never lived or worked in the United States at all, but were born to American parents overseas.
  Even though expatriates can claim a $97,000 exclusion on their U.S. taxes, most Americans who work in high-cost nations earn salaries far exceeding this amount, for which they already pay hefty income taxes in their countries of residence.
  ''I became increasingly frustrated by the necessity to file in two countries,'' says Peter Dunn, an Anchorage, Alaska native who now lives in Toronto and renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011. Dunn became even more outraged when the IRS insisted on taxing his Canadian Tax-Free Savings Accounts, which are similar to the tax-free Roth IRAs in the U.S. ''I could not live with the abuse of America taxing me even though I could not receive any services or benefits of living in the U.S.,'' he adds.
  In addition to the burden of double taxation, expats must deal with a myriad of increasingly complex and confusing IRS rules, like the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), which requires expatriates to report all foreign accounts exceeding $10,000, including those held jointly with their non-American spouses. Stiff financial penalties are imposed for non-compliance.
  (MORE:Switzerland: Are Its Days as a Tax Haven for Foreigners Over?)
  While filling out this form, Genette Eysselinck, a North Carolina native who lives in France, included the details of her accounts held jointly with her Belgian husband, as required by the IRS. ''When I realized how distressed he was over my breach of confidence, I decided the only recourse left was to renounce my nationality,'' she says. Eyssenlick gave up her American citizenship last year.
  Another law that affects expatriates is the Foreign Assets Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which will go into effect in July and require all foreign banks to report to the IRS information about accounts held by Americans. While this new regulation aims to prevent tax evasion, it also makes life difficult for millions of law-abiding expats.
  ''FATCA is the straw that broke the camel's back,'' says Jackie Bugnon, director of American Citizens Abroad (ACA), a Geneva-based expatriate advocacy group. Because this legislation forces local banks to invest in expensive new infrastructure in order to comply with the IRS rules, ''access to foreign financial institutions is being shut off and Americans abroad are treated like criminals,'' she adds.
  Switzerland-based Amy Webster experienced the bias first-hand when she and her Swiss husband encountered difficulties getting a mortgage due to her U.S. citizenship. ''This was infuriating and humiliating,'' she says. ''These unfair regulations imposed by the U.S. government are having adverse effects on the lives and wellbeing of U.S. citizens living in this country.''
  Webster notes that while she understands ''the political motivation of the current administration to chase tax evaders and punish banks that contributed to such transactions, I am outraged that these regulations have impacted honest and hard-working citizens.''
  One way to stave off the surge in renunciations, ACA's Bugnon points out, is to tax expatriates on the same basis as non-resident aliens, who maintain a tax home in a foreign country and benefit from the same tax laws as American citizens within U.S. territory. That's the proposal the ACA will push during the Overseas Americans Week, to be held in Washington D.C. the week of February 11.
  Unless this change happens soon, disgruntled expats will continue to turn their backs on America, perhaps singing Tina Turner's old hit, aptly titled, ''Goodbye, so long.''
  Link'...
  http://world.time.com/2013/01/31/mister-taxman-why-some-americans-working-abroad-are-ditching-their-citizenships/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true
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Nigeria/Cote d'Ivoire: We Will Eat Nigeria Like Super Fried Chickens, Ivorian Eboue Boasts
  Link to Article
  Source: AllAfrica News: Latest
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:46
  Galatasary of Turkey and Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire defender, Emmanuel Eboue, has boasted that his country will eat the Super Eagles of Nigeria like 'super fried chicken' when they meet on Sunday in one of the quarter finals matches in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations holding in South Africa.
  Eboue, who through his twitter handle @TheRealEboue, congratulated Nigeria shortly after the Super Eagles defeated Ethiopia to reach the knock-out stages but was quick to caution Nigeria not to celebrate to much as the Elephants are coming for them.
  The former Arsenal player maintained that Eagles were no match to his side. His first tweet read: "Congrat to Nigeria. Don't celebrate too much cuz we are coming for you. We are going to eat you like fufu".
  Minutes later, the Ivorian defender tweeted again: "Sorry guys, point of correction. We are going to eat Nigeria like #SuperFriedChickens."
  From then on, it has been an unending tweet tirade on not just the Eagles as a team but Nigeria in its entirety, a situation that has seen some twitter users arguing that Eboue was being impersonated.
  Some of the tweets read:
  "@TheRealEboue I see ppl saying I hv pride by saying we wud eat Nigeria like fried chickens, it's not pride guys, it's hardwork & passion 4 my country"
  "@TheRealEboue: In Nigeria team, some of your best strikers like martins, yakubu & odewinge are not in the team. Why? No peace, passion, & humility"
  "@TheRealEboue: Ivory has some of the top players in d world, and when our country calls. We go. We go back home and play. Nobody is a big boy. So shut it"
  "@TheRealEboue: A country where mikel obi is your best player & captain . Out of 150million people. You sure have a problem super chickens"
  "@TheRealEboue: With all due respect 2 mikel, he is a good player but not Okocha, Samson,yekini,Oliseh, adepoju. Your football association is a joke"
  "@TheRealEboue: When keshi was in Togo, he dropped adebayor. He is in Nigeria and drops the best player. He is a manger he should be able to work on their ego"
  @TheRealEboue: I have said enough on this matter. I was so angry. Speak to me when your national television can broadcast the game. Have a good day
  @TheRealEboue: Keep fooling yourself and calling yourselfs the giant of africa. You are nothing but the soil of Africa we all work on now.
  @TheRealEboue: You guys are jokers. Your institutions are comedy clubs. You have so many resources & man power yet you are always falling short.
  @TheRealEboue:Oh sorry Nigeria, I even heard your country owns the first African television and you cannot even televise the game to the masses
  @TheRealEboue: Drogba, Yaya,kolo, Zakora, gervinho,KaLou, and myself and all other players. We are all the same. One unity and family. Country comes 1st
  @TheRealEboue: I have said enough on this matter. I was so angry. Speak to me when your national television can broadcast the game. Have a good day
  @TheRealEboue: If we don't beat you in the game, it means you are lucky. But trust me, we are going to deal with you so much , you would be eating grass
  @TheRealEboue: Why don't you speak to your NFA that cant grow a good soccer academy & produce players to last for a decade instead of new faces every week
  @TheRealEboue: Blame me, i don't care. I would say my mind. You can even blame me Ghana can show the game to the masses and NTA cannot . Cover your face
  TheRealEboue: My last word for Nigerians . Do not cry for me , cry for yourselves. In the true spirit of sport , I love you all . Don't get too emotional."
Spain: Top Popular Party officials shown to receive payments on the side.
  Link to Article
  Source: WT news feed
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:45
  The ruling Popular Party's internal accounting between 1990 and 2008, to which EL PAS has had access, shows that the conservative grouping's leading members were paid regular sums of money aside from their official salaries. The files, kept by former PP treasurers lvaro Lapuerta and Luis Brcenas, comprise a series of incoming items in the form of donations from companies, especially construction firms, and outgoing expenses, which include the payments to party leaders.
  Among those who received payments on the side, according to the accounts kept by Brcenas, is Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The PP president first appears listed in 1997, with sums of money next to his name that consistently add up to 25,200 euros a year, divided either in quarterly or six-monthly payments, and continuing up to 2008.
  The party's current secretary general, Dolores de Cospedal, also figures in the papers, with two entries of 7,500 euros next to her name in the second half of 2008, immediately after she had been ratified in her post by the PP convention in June of that year. De Cospedal has publicly denied knowledge that these payments were made by Brcenas to party officials.
  Mariano Rajoy, who was asked by this newspaper to comment on this story, declined to do so via a spokesperson. The prime minister said that he will not make any comment until he has seen the results of internal and external audits, ordered by him into the party's finances in the light of the revelation earlier this year that Brcenas had kept millions of euros in a Swiss bank account.
  The secret ledgers also include regular payments of similar quantities to those noted down next to Rajoy's name for previous PP secretary generals (ngel Acebes, Javier Arenas and Francisco lvarez-Cascos), leading figures Rodrigo Rato and Jaime Mayor Oreja, and the party's deputy leaders.
  The accounts, which also include other kinds of expenses, such as training courses, show final balance figures for each year. The books corresponding to the years 1993 to 1996 inclusive were not included in the documents seen by EL PAS.
  The periodical payments began in 1997, a year after Aznar had led the PP into government
  The periodical payments to leading party members are first registered in 1997, a year after then-party leader Jos(C) Mar­a Aznar had led the PP into government for the first time in its history. Among the notes for the first months in the 1990 ledger and during two months in 1997, payments to ''J. M.'' are present. All of the outgoing payments recorded in 1990 are listed next to the same initials.
  Among the donors listed as having given money to the party are businessmen implicated in the G¼rtel kickbacks-for-contracts scandal, which has seen several PP officials resign from their posts in regional and municipal administrations. One of those noted as having made donations is Pablo Crespo, the number-two man in Francisco Correa's PP-linked corruption network, who has since become a target of the ongoing judicial probe into G¼rtel. Alfonso Garc­a Pozuelo, the owner of the building company Constructora Hispnica, and Valencian assembly speaker Juan Cotino, are also shown to have given money to the party treasurers. Like Crespo, both were later accused of wrongdoing in the G¼rtel case.
  According to Brcenas' bookkeeping, every year part of the total quantity of donations received was set aside and paid into a bank account at Banco de Vitoria (absorbed by Banesto in 2003). The fact that only part of the money received ended up being transferred to this bank account under the heading ''donations'' could imply that the Popular Party was engaged in illegal financing in as far as it was not declaring all of its income.
License will lead to faster-charging batteries for phones, electric vehicles
  Link to Article
  Source: Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:45
  Vorbeck Materials has licensed an enhanced battery technology that was developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and could reduce the time it takes to charge cell phones and other battery-powered devices from hours to minutes. Pictured here is a PNNL lab test for lithium ion batteries.
  (Phys.org)'--An enhanced battery technology that can potentially reduce the time it takes to charge cell phones, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices from hours to minutes is the subject of a commercial license agreement between Battelle and Vorbeck Materials Corp. of Jessup, Md. Battelle operates the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
  The agreement will allow Vorbeck to bring lithium batteries incorporating Vor-X graphene technology to market for use in consumer portable electronic and medical devices, tools and electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and are widely used in electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones, and to power electric cars and trucks.
  "Today, a typical cell phone battery takes between two and five hours to fully recharge, and an electric vehicle has to be plugged in most of the night to recharge," explained John Lettow, president of Vorbeck Materials. "The pioneering work done by Vorbeck, Princeton University, and PNNL is leading to the development of batteries that recharge quickly, reducing the time it takes to charge a smartphone to minutes and an electric vehicle to just a couple of hours."
  Lettow noted the research effort also could lead to the development of batteries that are more stable, have a longer life and store larger amounts of energy.
  "We are very pleased to add this substantial portfolio of graphene-based battery technologies, developed with PNNL and Princeton, to our already very strong graphene patent portfolios in conductive inks, printed electronics, composite materials, and energy storage," added Lettow.
  "This license is the culmination of a substantial investment of laboratory-directed research and development funds, innovative work by our researchers and a proactive patenting strategy recently deployed at PNNL," said Cheryl Cejka, the national laboratory's director of technology commercialization. "PNNL is a leader in linking research to real-world impact, so we are thrilled to see a company like Vorbeck bring our technology to US consumers."
  Electronics and auto manufacturers would like to develop the next generation of batteries using low-cost materials such as titanium dioxide to replace the more expensive materials used today. But titanium dioxide on its own doesn't perform well enough to serve as a replacement.
  Recently, PNNL researchers collaborated with Vorbeck to develop a method for building tiny titanium oxide and carbon structures and then demonstrated that small quantities of Vor-X graphene'--a good electronic conductor made from ultra-thin sheets of carbon atoms'--can dramatically improve the performance of the batteries, especially with respect to how rapidly the batteries can be charged.
  Structural analysis studies of the material were conducted with scientists at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE national user facility located at PNNL. When they compared how well the new combination of electrode materials charged and discharged electric current, the electrodes containing graphene outperformed the standard titanium dioxide by up to three times.
  Lettow noted the Vorbeck-PNNL team recently received a grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, to develop advanced battery chemistries, and has contracts with major manufacturers for graphene-based printed electronics and battery systems. "As a result, Vorbeck anticipates continued breakthroughs, new patents and rapid commercialization of the new technology in consumer goods," he said. "Prototypes of Vorbeck's battery technologies were already on display earlier this month at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."
  Provided byPacific Northwest National Laboratory
EurActiv.com | ..
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:42
  Three Russian companies bid for Greece's gas assets
  Published: 03.04.2012If Gazprom is prevented from acquiring Greece's gas assets, two other Russian companies will also be in the race to help it get the deal, the Russian daily Vedomosti writes today (3 April).
  The Gazprom 'helpers", as Vedomosti calls them, are Sintez, a small company reportedly valued at $150 million ('‚¬112 million) owned by Leonid Lebedev, and an investment fund called Energiya, headed by Igor Yusufov, a former minister of energy and current member of the Gazprom Board of Directors.
  Among the other bidders are the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), the Czech state energy company CEZ group, Edison and Eni of Italy, Spain's Enagas and Gas Natural, the Chinese gas-distribution company ENN, Israel's energy holding Israel Corp., Mitsui of Japan, Algeria's Sonatrach, Vopak of the Netherlands, Greece's GEK Terna, and the Mytilineos and Motor Oil (M2M) consortium.
  Greece expects to obtain no less than '‚¬2 billon euro from the auction. DEPA, the public gas supply corporation of Greece, has been estimated at '‚¬1 billion in value and DEFSA, a fully owned subsidiary of DEPA, is estimated at '‚¬500 million.
  However, due to the strategic importance of Greece as a route of the Southern gas corridor, expected to bring gas to Europe from sources other than Russia, the companies could be sold at a higher price.
  DEPA, as part of the consortium of the Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector (ITGI), was the unsuccessful bidder for the gas from the Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan, as SOCAR selected the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). Both projects run trough Greek territory (see map).
  Vedomosti quotes Sintez CEO Andrey Korolev saying the company would bid mainly with borrowed funds. He added that his company's bid had better chances than Gazprom and Socar, under the EU's Third energy package, which requires ownership unbundling of the supply and the pipeline network.
  However, Korolev didn't make it a secret that if successful, his company would "take Gazprom as a partner".
  Gazprom declined to comment. Mikhail Korchemkin, Director of East European Gas Analysis expressed doubts that either Sintez or Energiya would help Gazprom obtain the deal, as these companies are too obviously in favour of Gazprom, which sells its gas at a price that is "far from being the more competitive on the market".
  It remains unclear when the tender results will be announced.
Race between Nabucco and TAP pipeline hots up.
  Link to Article
  Source: WT news feed
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:41
  Both pipeline projects appear to be at an advanced stage of preparation. At first sight, they don't appear as competitors, since Nabucco West - a 1,326-km pipeline with a 122-cm diameter - is planned to take the gas from the Turkish border across Bulgaria to Romania and Hungary to the gas hub of Baumbarten near Vienna. [see map]
  TAP, or Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, with a length of 800 km and also with a 122-cm diameter, will take gas from the Turkish border across Greece and Albania, with an offshore section reaching Santa Foca, at the ''heel'' of the Italian peninsula. [see map]
  But apparently the gas which will come upstream from Shah Deniz II in 2017, when both pipelines would be ready to carry it, is enough only to fill one of them. In a more distant future, when gas would be available from other sources such as Iraq or Iran, two pipelines would make sense.
  But now it looks like the state-run gas company of Azerbaijan, SOCAR, by deciding which consortium to chose, would eliminate the other candidate.
  'Nabucco is the flagship'
  ''Nabucco remains the flagship project of the Southern Corridor,'' a company spokeswoman, Nayana Jayarajan, told EurActiv.
  The Southern corridor refers to various pipeline projects aimed at bringing gas to the EU from sources other than Russia.
  >> Read: Europe's southern gas corridor: The great pipeline race
  Jayarajan said that the project was at an advanced phase of development, including engineering preparations. Environmental assessments, she said, were already completed in Hungary, and "far advanced" in all other countries.
  Nabucco was also quite advanced in terms of the regulatory and legislative framework amongst participating countries, Jayarajan said.
  She stressed that the signing of the Cooperation Agreement and the Equity Option and Funding Agreements with the Shah Deniz Consortium last week in Vienna was "a clear mark of the gas producers' confidence in the project".
  Under a deal announced on 10 January, the Nabucco consortium offered the Shah Deniz group a 50% stake if it chooses the pipeline as its European export route.
  >> Read: Nabucco to become a real pipeline soon, owners say
  The next steps for Nabucco would be the finalisation of the engineering works and the environmental impact assessments, and to align the consortium's efforts with the Shah Deniz Consortium and TANAP - the proposed Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline, a project between Azerbaijan and Turkey for a '‚¬5.6-billion pipeline that will span 2,000km across Turkey to Europe.
  >> Read: Gas pipeline deal sidelines original Nabucco project
  The Nabucco consortium hoped to conclude an open season - the procedure through which clients book transport capacity - before the final investment decision, Jayarajan said.
  'TAP is more advanced'
  However, the story is different when heard from the mouth of Michael Hoffmann, who represents the TAP pipeline project.
  Hoffman told EurActiv that the TAP pipeline project was in a more advanced phase than Nabucco and insisted that media reports that TAP had proposed shares to Azerbaijan after Nabucco was not correct.
  >> Read: Afrer Nabucco, TAP too proposes shares to Azerbaijan
  ''TAP signed a cooperation agreement with the Shah Deniz consortium members in June 2012. TAP then signed a funding and equity agreement with them on 1 August 2012 '' Nabucco West signed the same agreements on 18 January 2013. In addition, TAP agreed and initialled a shareholder agreement with Shah Deniz in November 2012, which outlines how the company is managed with the new shareholders incorporated, including SOCAR,'' Hoffman said, concluding: ''Nabucco West are less advanced, and don't think that they have agreed a shareholder agreement.''
  Jayarajan said that there would be a shareholder agreement signed between the shareholders of Nabucco and the shareholders of the Shah Deniz consortium after the positive final route decision.
  The TAP official also said that negotiations were progressing ''extremely well'' on the intergovernmental agreement, and that it was ''highly likely'' that in mid-February, the intergovernmental agreement for TAP will be signed between the three host governments (Greece, Albania and Italy).
  Asked if TAP and Nabucco West could co-exist, he said that for the initial phase, 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year (bcm/y) were expected from Shah Deniz. The capacity of Nabucco West allows for a scalable transport between 10 and 23 bcm/y, while TAP is designed to expand transportation capacity from 10 to 20 bcm/y, depending on supply and demand.
  ''It therefore looks likely that only one pipeline can be selected in June,'' Hoffman said. Asked about risks involved from the privatisation of the Greek gas companies DEPA and DESFA, he was categorical that the issue could not affect TAP.
  As cash-strapped Greece is selling many of its state assets, three Russian companies including Gazprom are bidding to acquire the Greek gas companies DEPA and DESFA, out of a total of 17 bidders from 12 countries.
  >> Read: Three Russian companies bid for Greece's gas assets
  ''TAP will build a new pipeline in Greece so that the privatisation of DESFA / DEPA will not affect us,'' Hoffmann said.
Denmark rules that both men and women's haircuts must cost the SAME PRICE
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:32
  Board of Equal Treatment effectively ruled price differences were illegalHairdresses have called the decision absurd, warning of 'pricing chaos'The decision has been appealed and a court will decide if salons need a new way to charge for servicesBy James Rush
  PUBLISHED: 12:39 EST, 21 January 2013 | UPDATED: 12:40 EST, 21 January 2013
  Denmark, which like its Nordic neighbours prides itself on promoting equal treatment for men and women, has taken gender equality all the way to the beauty salon.
  A ruling last month by Denmark's Board of Equal Treatment effectively stated that price differences between men's and women's haircuts were illegal.
  It ordered a salon advertising women's haircuts for 528 crowns - £59 - and men's haircuts for 428 crowns - £48 - plus an extra fee for long hair, to pay 2,500 crowns - £281- to a woman who had filed a complaint.
  Hair-raising decision: Denmark's Board of Equal Treatment effectively ruled last month that price differences between men's and women's haircuts were illegal
  Now, a trade organisation for hairdressers has called the decision absurd, saying it will become a nightmare to set prices for customers and warning of 'pricing chaos'.
  'It takes, quite simply, longer time with women,' said Connie Mikkelsen, chairwoman of the Danish organisation for independent hairdressers and cosmeticians.
  The board's decision has been appealed and a court will determine whether hairdressers need to find a new way to charge for their services, in the length of time, or the standard of the cut.
  'Measuring time will lead to a discussion of hair length - what is medium length, and what is long. It will end in a series of conflicts with customers,' Mikkelsen said.
  Nordic countries consistently hold some of the highest rankings in global gender equality indices.
  Denmark ranked seventh out of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index which benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health criteria.
  'Pricing chaos'? A court will now determine whether hairdressers need to find a new way to charge for their services after the board's decision was appealed
Concealed Handguns Are A Major Problem! Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:31
Should Gun Owners Have To Buy Liability Insurance? : Planet Money : NPR
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:29
  Note: We originally published a version of this post a few weeks ago. We are republishing it now to coincide with our story airing today on Morning Edition.
  All kinds of proposals to reduce gun violence have been floated recently. One idea that has gotten the attention of economists is liability insurance. Most states require car owners to have liability insurance to cover damages their vehicles cause to others; some economists think we should require the same of gun owners.
  We reached out to a few economists to get their thoughts.
  Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, wrote:
  The real problem with gun ownership is that they involve "externalities," which is economist-speak for the fact that your gun may be used to hurt others. For instance, when Nancy Lanza purchased her Bushmaster AR-15, she probably weighed the benefits of owning the gun'--the joy of ownership'--with the price (about $800). But it's unlikely she considered the loss, pain and grief that might follow if it were used by her son to kill 26 innocents. When people fail to consider the broader social costs of choices like buying a gun, they're more likely to do them, and society suffers.
  The economic answer is simple: Make potential gun-owners take account of these potential social costs. One way to do this would be to charge an annual license fee for each gun you keep. Research by economists Phil Cook and Jens Ludwig suggests that the typical social cost of one more gun-owning household is somewhere between $100 and $1800 per year. While that's a wide range, if we set a gun ownership license fee this high, it would force gun owners to face the true social costs of their choices, which would lead many fewer to buy guns.
  Another even more powerful approach is to recognize that the problem isn't guns per se, but gun violence. Thus, instead of taxing guns, we should tax gun violence. Basically, this is the same as saying that we should make gun owners liable for any damage their guns do. Not only would this discourage some people from buying guns, it would lead those who do keep guns to be more careful with how they're stored. Indeed, greater care would surely have kept Adam Lanza out of his mother's cache. The problem though, is that Nancy Lanza is neither with us to pay the damages her gun caused, nor could she afford to pay for the enormous damage her gun wrought in Newtown. And so the only way this solution works is if guns required mandatory liability insurance, much as we force car owners to buy insurance for the damage their machines wreak.
  It's the sort of careful solution that would enable people who enjoy hunting to continue with their passions, but also push them to take the sorts of precautions that we all wish the Lanza household had taken. If the gun lobby were smart, and if they really are interested in being socially responsible while keeping their weapons, they would be pushing hard for this sort of policy.
  Next, Russ Roberts, a research fellow at the Hoover institution and host of EconTalk:
  Is it a good idea to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance that would cover damages caused by the guns they own? In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, such policies seem like nothing more than common sense. The cost of the insurance would deter some from owning guns or at least from owning an arsenal as the cost of insurance would presumably rise with the size of one's collection. And there is a certain logic to requiring insurance. When a person purchases a gun, she may not consider the possible harm that might come to others from the eventual use of the gun. Adding the cost of insurance might make the purchaser bear the full cost of the gun in the future which could easily exceed the purchase itself. After all, registering a car requires insurance on the grounds that cars can cause involuntary harm to others. The insurance forces the driver to bear those costs that might come to pass that are borne by others in an accident.
  But the logic is not quite as neat as it might appear. Many people already buy and own guns illegally without license or registration. Adding the cost of insurance would further discourage honest gun ownership. That would make matters worse not better. And is it so obvious that all guns are harmful to others and that gun ownership should be made more expensive to every owner? When an honest law-abiding citizen uses a gun in self-defense, it often protects those nearby who are unarmed. Perhaps gun ownership should be subsidized for honest people. I don't think this is a good idea, but raising the cost of gun ownership, particularly for good and honest people who are likely to use a gun only in self-defense, is not a free lunch.
  What is really behind the call for liability insurance is the natural urge to make it harder for people to own guns. Such a law might do some good if it made dishonest and violent people less likely to own guns. But liability insurance makes gun ownership more expensive for honest, law-abiding people while encouraging dishonest and dangerous people to own guns in ways we cannot see.
  And, Robert Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University:
  Gun ownership, even in the hands of responsible people, increases the risk of death and serious injury to others. In cases involving multiple deaths, few gun owners could afford to compensate victims' families for their losses, just as most automobile owners couldn't afford to compensate the families of accident victims. With automobiles, we require all vehicle owners to carry liability insurance. A similar approach would help with firearms.
  Nothing in the constitution grants people the right to expose others to serious risk without compensation. Insurance sellers are skillful at estimating the risks posed by drivers with specific characteristics, and we could expect them to be similarly skillful at assessing the risks posed by gun owners. Requiring liability insurance isn't a total solution to the problem of excessive risk, either for autos or for guns. But in both cases, it's a positive step.
As Music Streaming Grows, Royalties Slow to a Trickle
  Link to Article
  Source: LIVE@LEEDS
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:26
  BEN SISARIO 01/28/13 NY Times
  Like plenty of music fans, Sam Broe jumped at the chance to join Spotify two summers ago, and he hasn't looked back.
  Spotify, which began streaming music in Sweden in 2008, lets users choose from millions of songs over the Internet free or by subscription, and is increasingly seen as representing the future of music consumption. Mr. Broe, a 26-year-old from Brooklyn, said that having all that music at his fingertips helped him trim his monthly music budget from $30 to the $10 fee he pays for Spotify's premium service.
  ''The only time I download anything on iTunes is in the rare case that I can't find it on Spotify,'' he said.
  A decade after Apple revolutionized the music world with its iTunes store, the music industry is undergoing another, even more radical, digital transformation as listeners begin to move from CDs and downloads to streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and YouTube.
  As purveyors of legally licensed music, they have been largely welcomed by an industry still buffeted by piracy. But as the companies behind these digital services swell into multibillion-dollar enterprises, the relative trickle of money that has made its way to artists is causing anxiety at every level of the business.
  Late last year, Zoe Keating, an independent musician from Northern California, provided an unusually detailed case in point. In voluminous spreadsheets posted to her Tumblr blog, she revealed the royalties she gets from various services, down to the ten-thousandth of a cent.
  Even for an under-the-radar artist like Ms. Keating, who describes her style as ''avant cello,'' the numbers painted a stark picture of what it is like to be a working musician these days. After her songs had been played more than 1.5 million times on Pandora over six months, she earned $1,652.74. On Spotify, 131,000 plays last year netted just $547.71, or an average of 0.42 cent a play.
  ''In certain types of music, like classical or jazz, we are condemning them to poverty if this is going to be the only way people consume music,'' Ms. Keating said.
  The way streaming services pay royalties represents a major shift in the economic gears that have been underlying the industry for decades.
  From 78 r.p.m. records to the age of iTunes, artists' record royalties have been counted as a percentage of a sale price. On a 99-cent download, a typical artist may earn 7 to 10 cents after deductions for the retailer, the record company and the songwriter, music executives say. One industry joke calls the flow of these royalties a ''river of nickels.''
  In the new economics of streaming music, however, the river of nickels looks more like a torrent of micropennies.
  Spotify, Pandora and others like them pay fractions of a cent to record companies and publishers each time a song is played, some portion of which goes to performers and songwriters as royalties. Unlike the royalties from a sale, these payments accrue every time a listener clicks on a song, year after year.
  The question dogging the music industry is whether these micropayments can add up to anything substantial.
  ''No artist will be able to survive to be professionals except those who have a significant live business, and that's very few,'' said Hartwig Masuch, chief executive of BMG Rights Management.
  Spotify has 20 million users in 17 countries, with five million of them paying $5 to $10 a month to eliminate the ads seen by freeloaders.
  In a recent interview, Sean Parker, a board member, said he believed Spotify would eventually attract enough subscribers to help return the music industry to its former glory '-- that is, to the days before Mr. Parker's first major enterprise, Napster, came along.
  ''I believe that Spotify is the company that will make it succeed,'' said Mr. Parker, who is also a former president of Facebook. ''It's the right model if you want to build the pot of money back up to where it was in the late '90s, when the industry was at its peak. This is the only model that's going to get you there.''
  As the largest music market, the United States has been a critical proving ground for streaming companies, but competition is also quickly spreading globally. Deezer, a French on-demand service, has announced plans to be in more than 100 countries. And localized streaming services have also sprouted up: Anghami, for example, serves listeners in the Middle East, and the Indian music market has Dhingana and Saavn.
  For the biggest pop stars, hit streams can provide substantial revenue. Last week, a Google executive said in a company earnings call that Psy's viral video sensation ''Gangnam Style'' had generated $8 million from YouTube, where it had been watched 1.2 billion times, yielding a royalty of about 0.6 cent a viewing.
  Many musicians whose work does not reach the top of the charts, however, are not as sanguine.
  Complicating the issue, each type of service pays different rates. Pandora's are set by law. Spotify declined to comment on its rates, but according to a number of music executives who have negotiated with the company, it generally pays 0.5 to 0.7 cent a stream (or $5,000 to $7,000 per million plays) for its paid tier, and as much as 90 percent less for its free tier.
  The companies behind streaming are ballooning quickly. Pandora, with 67 million regular users, is publicly traded, with a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion, and Spotify's investors have reportedly valued the company at $3 billion. Yet so far they have contributed relatively little to the American recording industry's $7 billion in annual revenue.
  In its last four reported quarters, Pandora paid $202 million in ''content acquisition costs,'' including licensing fees, and Spotify recently announced that it has paid $500 million in royalties since its inception. Downloads, by comparison, had $2.6 billion in sales in 2011, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
  For those whose income depends on royalties, the biggest concern has been whether streaming cannibalizes CD and download sales by offering a cheap or free alternative.
  Cliff Burnstein, whose company, Q Prime, manages Metallica and other major acts, said that even if streaming hurts sales, all is not lost as long as the number of paying subscribers continues to climb rapidly.
  ''There is a point at which there could be 100 percent cannibalization, and we would make more money through subscriptions services,'' Mr. Burnstein said. ''We calculate that point at approximately 20 million worldwide subscribers.''
  Metallica recently announced an exclusive deal with Spotify.
  If those subscriber ranks grow, royalty rates will also climb, recapitulating a process seen whenever new technologies have been introduced, said Donald S. Passman, a top music lawyer and the author of the book ''All You Need to Know About the Music Business.''
  ''Artists didn't make big money from CDs when they were introduced, either,'' Mr. Passman said. ''They were a specialty thing, and had a lower royalty rate. Then, as it became mainstream, the royalties went up. And that's what will happen here.''
  This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
  Correction: January 31, 2013
  An article on Tuesday about the royalties paid by streaming music companies like Spotify gave an incorrect estimate of the potential earnings of a song on Spotify's paid tier. Spotify generally pays 0.5 to 0.7 cent a stream for the paid tier, which results in $5,000 to $7,000 per million plays, not $5,000 to $8,000. The article also described the $7 billion American recording industry incorrectly. That figure was its annual revenue in 2011 '-- not its ''bottom line,'' which refers to net profit, not sales.
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  Tags: digital streaming, royalties, Spotify
  This entry was posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Gordon ziet droom in rook opgaan
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  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:50
  Gordon ziet droom in rook opgaan - Priv(C) | Het laatste Priv(C) nieuws leest u op Prive.nl van De Telegraaf [prive]Uw browser ondersteund geen javascript of javascript staat uitgeschakeld. Hierdoor kunnen er cookies geplaatst worden waar u geen toestemming voor heeft gegeven.
Symantec Gets A Black Eye In Chinese Hack Of The New York Times
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:41
  Having your email hacked and malicious software spread on your servers for months may be embarrassing. But being outed as the antivirus vendor that failed to catch the vast majority of that malware is likely more humiliating still.
  The New York Times reported Wednesday that the paper has been the subject of a sophisticated attack by Chinese hackers for the last four months, following its reporting on the private wealth of China's prime minister Wen Jiabao. The story offers a rare and detailed post-mortem of what appears to be the work of a team of well-trained infiltrators who systematically and stealthily gained access to and collected the news outfit's private information as the paper dug into a subject perceived as highly sensitive by the Chinese government.
  One fact, however, will be of particular concern to the world's largest antivirus firm, Symantec: Out of the 45 different pieces of malware planted on the Times' systems over the course of three months, just one of those programs was spotted by the Symantec antivirus software the Times used, according to Mandiant, the data breach response firm hired by the Times. The other 44 were only found in Mandiant's post-breach investigation months later, according to the Times' report.
  Symantec, which sells the widely-used Norton Antivirus, declined to comment for the Times' story, citing a policy of not speaking about clients' cases, and the company didn't respond to my request for comment either.
  It may come as little surprise that antivirus programs largely fail to detect the type of custom-built malware the Times' hackers used, as opposed to previously-seen strains of malicious software often re-deployed by less sophisticated cybercriminals. A study by the Times' breach response firm, Mandiant, in 2010 found that only 24% of the custom malware it found on its clients' systems hadn't been detected by antivirus. And another analysis performed by the security firm Imperva along with the Technion Israeli Institute of Technology found that antivirus managed to detect only 5% of new threats, and that it took an average of four weeks for antivirus firms to identify a new piece of malicious code. ''Although vendors try to update their detection mechanisms, the initial detection rate of new viruses is nearly zero. We believe that the majority of antivirus products on the market can't keep up with the rate of virus propagation on the Internet,'' their paper reads.
  Symantec's track record in the Times appears worse still. But it's worth noting that its peers would likely have been equally useless: The security firm actually outperformed most of its competitors in the most recent tests by German antivirus testing firm AV-Test, which gave Symantec a rating of 5.5 out of 6 for protection of Windows 7 in its latest enterprise antivirus analysis, a better score than McAfee, Kaspersky, or Microsoft.
  It's not clear exactly what lesson companies can draw from the Times' penetration. The paper's chief security officer Michael Higgins says he suspects the breach began with a highly-targeted email sent to unwitting employee and containing an infected link or attachment''a difficult sort of attack to prevent. But at the very least, it shows that antivirus protection alone barely represents a speed bump to determined hackers.
  Read the Times' full story about its hacker infiltration here.
Exclusive: Iran crude oil exports rise to highest since EU sanctions
  Link to Article
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:45
  Exclusive: Iran crude oil exports rise to highest since EU sanctionsTop News
  Exclusive: Iran crude oil exports rise to highest since EU sanctions
  Wed, Jan 30 20:35 PM EST
  By Emma Farge and Humeyra Pamuk and Alex Lawler
  GENEVA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's crude oil exports in December leapt to their highest level since European Union sanctions took effect last July, analysts and shipping sources said, as strong Chinese demand and tanker fleet expansion helped the OPEC member dodge sanctions.
  Exports rose to around 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, according to two industry sources and shipping and customs data compiled by Reuters on a country-by-country basis and corroborated by other sources and consultants.
  The sources said they expected exports to dip in January from the December peak ahead of new U.S. sanctions.
  Western sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's disputed nuclear program halved Iran's oil exports in 2012 from 2.2 million bpd in late 2011, leading to billions of dollars in lost revenue and a plunge in the Iranian currency.
  But continuous robust demand from top buyer China and others such as India and Japan, as well as the purchase of new tankers, allowed the Islamic Republic to unexpectedly boost exports late last year.
  The United States and the EU are hoping the economic pressure will force Iran to address international concerns about its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but the West suspects is for making weapons.
  Salar Moradi, oil market analyst at oil and gas consultancy FGE, estimated that Iran shipped more than 1.4 million bpd of crude oil in December and forecast that exports would remain between 1.1 million and 1.3 million bpd in the first quarter of 2013.
  This represents an increase from a low point of less than 900,000 bpd in September and suggests monthly revenues worth approximately $4.7 billion based on December Brent prices.
  "They (Iran) bought a number of tankers from China and can now do more deliveries ... It's taken some pressure off Iran and facilitated tanker traffic and we are seeing higher exports to China," he told Reuters this week.
  The second industry source said the rise in exports to near 1.4 million bpd was a result of traditional buyers finding new ways to secure shipping insurance.
  But, like FGE, he estimated that they would fall slightly to around 1.3 million bpd in January.
  CHINESE THIRST
  Chinese data showed the country bought 593,400 bpd of Iranian crude in December, the second-highest level of daily imports in 2012, a rise that Chinese officials also attributed to an easing of shipping delays.
  Previously, Iran's tanker fleet had struggled to meet delivery schedules to China because EU measures in July barred Europe-based insurers from covering tankers that carry Iranian oil.
  "China is saying let's up the numbers because no one is doing anything about it, and it looks like Obama has made a political decision not to go to war with Iran," said a senior source with a large independent trading house, referring to U.S. President Barack Obama.
  Elena McGovern, oil and gas analyst at Business Monitor International, said: "The implications of preventing Chinese imports from Iran would be too damaging to the (U.S.-China) bilateral relationship. I would be very surprised if Obama were to take China to task on Iranian imports."
  India's imports of Iranian crude were up 29 percent in December from November at around 275,000 bpd, according to tanker arrival data.
  Tracking Iranian shipments has become increasingly difficult as companies have sought to conceal tanker movements from Western governments by turning off satellite signals.
  Estimates of the Islamic Republic's monthly crude exports can vary considerably and are frequently revised.
  NEW SANCTIONS LOOMING
  A fresh round of U.S. sanctions coming into force next month could cap Iran's exports in the coming months as some buyers balk at the prospect of falling foul of the measures.
  From February 6, U.S. law will prevent Iran from repatriating earnings it gets from its shrinking oil export trade, a powerful sanction that the U.S. officials say will "lock up" a substantial amount of Tehran's funds.
  "We continue to engage in close consultations with our international partners on U.S. sanctions with the objective of maintaining pressure on Iran to comply with its international obligations," said U.S. State Department spokesman John Finn.
  "Month-to-month variability in crude oil purchases is not unusual," he added.
  The International Energy Agency in December forecast a drop in Iranian exports to around 1 million barrels per day in late 2012 and early 2013.
  But no matter how many rounds of sanctions are in effect, they are never watertight. Iran found creative ways to market its products and managed to sell more than 1.3 million tonnes of its fuel oil last summer, generating revenues equal to up to a third of its crude exports.
  However, the latest data showed fuel oil exports have also taken a dip from the average 648,000 tonnes from July to October.
  Exports fell to approximately 230,000 to 330,000 tonnes in December, Salar Moradi said, although he attributed this partly to higher domestic consumption in winter as utilities switch to fuel oil to replace gas used to meet heating requirements in the country.
  In a more conservative estimate, data from a firm tracking Iranian fuel oil shipments showed that December exports were around 150,000 tonnes.
  Condensate exports also fell by around 300,000 tonnes from November to 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes in December, data from the same firm showed. A Dubai-based analyst said condensate exports might come under further pressure as Iran's biggest customer in the Middle East has decided to reduce its purchases.
  Dubai government-owned Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) has started importing condensate from Qatar to replace sanctioned Iranian oil and is close to finalizing deals with other producers, the company said on Sunday.
  Still, some analysts think Iran will continue to find ways to safeguard against significant drops in its oil revenues.
  "What we have seen is that when Iran is pushed to a do-or-die situation, they have looked for creative solutions to get around sanctions," said McGovern.
  "The system will always find a way to cope."
  (Reporting by Emma Farge, Humeyra Pamuk in Dubai; additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Manash Goswami in Singapore; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood and Lisa Shumaker)
  Exclusive: Iran crude oil exports rise to highest since EU sanctionsTop News
  Exclusive: Iran crude oil exports rise to highest since EU sanctions
  Wed, Jan 30 20:35 PM EST
  By Emma Farge and Humeyra Pamuk and Alex Lawler
  GENEVA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's crude oil exports in December leapt to their highest level since European Union sanctions took effect last July, analysts and shipping sources said, as strong Chinese demand and tanker fleet expansion helped the OPEC member dodge sanctions.
  Exports rose to around 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, according to two industry sources and shipping and customs data compiled by Reuters on a country-by-country basis and corroborated by other sources and consultants.
  The sources said they expected exports to dip in January from the December peak ahead of new U.S. sanctions.
  Western sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's disputed nuclear program halved Iran's oil exports in 2012 from 2.2 million bpd in late 2011, leading to billions of dollars in lost revenue and a plunge in the Iranian currency.
  But continuous robust demand from top buyer China and others such as India and Japan, as well as the purchase of new tankers, allowed the Islamic Republic to unexpectedly boost exports late last year.
  The United States and the EU are hoping the economic pressure will force Iran to address international concerns about its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but the West suspects is for making weapons.
  Salar Moradi, oil market analyst at oil and gas consultancy FGE, estimated that Iran shipped more than 1.4 million bpd of crude oil in December and forecast that exports would remain between 1.1 million and 1.3 million bpd in the first quarter of 2013.
  This represents an increase from a low point of less than 900,000 bpd in September and suggests monthly revenues worth approximately $4.7 billion based on December Brent prices.
  "They (Iran) bought a number of tankers from China and can now do more deliveries ... It's taken some pressure off Iran and facilitated tanker traffic and we are seeing higher exports to China," he told Reuters this week.
  The second industry source said the rise in exports to near 1.4 million bpd was a result of traditional buyers finding new ways to secure shipping insurance.
  But, like FGE, he estimated that they would fall slightly to around 1.3 million bpd in January.
  CHINESE THIRST
  Chinese data showed the country bought 593,400 bpd of Iranian crude in December, the second-highest level of daily imports in 2012, a rise that Chinese officials also attributed to an easing of shipping delays.
  Previously, Iran's tanker fleet had struggled to meet delivery schedules to China because EU measures in July barred Europe-based insurers from covering tankers that carry Iranian oil.
  "China is saying let's up the numbers because no one is doing anything about it, and it looks like Obama has made a political decision not to go to war with Iran," said a senior source with a large independent trading house, referring to U.S. President Barack Obama.
  Elena McGovern, oil and gas analyst at Business Monitor International, said: "The implications of preventing Chinese imports from Iran would be too damaging to the (U.S.-China) bilateral relationship. I would be very surprised if Obama were to take China to task on Iranian imports."
  India's imports of Iranian crude were up 29 percent in December from November at around 275,000 bpd, according to tanker arrival data.
  Tracking Iranian shipments has become increasingly difficult as companies have sought to conceal tanker movements from Western governments by turning off satellite signals.
  Estimates of the Islamic Republic's monthly crude exports can vary considerably and are frequently revised.
  NEW SANCTIONS LOOMING
  A fresh round of U.S. sanctions coming into force next month could cap Iran's exports in the coming months as some buyers balk at the prospect of falling foul of the measures.
  From February 6, U.S. law will prevent Iran from repatriating earnings it gets from its shrinking oil export trade, a powerful sanction that the U.S. officials say will "lock up" a substantial amount of Tehran's funds.
  "We continue to engage in close consultations with our international partners on U.S. sanctions with the objective of maintaining pressure on Iran to comply with its international obligations," said U.S. State Department spokesman John Finn.
  "Month-to-month variability in crude oil purchases is not unusual," he added.
  The International Energy Agency in December forecast a drop in Iranian exports to around 1 million barrels per day in late 2012 and early 2013.
  But no matter how many rounds of sanctions are in effect, they are never watertight. Iran found creative ways to market its products and managed to sell more than 1.3 million tonnes of its fuel oil last summer, generating revenues equal to up to a third of its crude exports.
  However, the latest data showed fuel oil exports have also taken a dip from the average 648,000 tonnes from July to October.
  Exports fell to approximately 230,000 to 330,000 tonnes in December, Salar Moradi said, although he attributed this partly to higher domestic consumption in winter as utilities switch to fuel oil to replace gas used to meet heating requirements in the country.
  In a more conservative estimate, data from a firm tracking Iranian fuel oil shipments showed that December exports were around 150,000 tonnes.
  Condensate exports also fell by around 300,000 tonnes from November to 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes in December, data from the same firm showed. A Dubai-based analyst said condensate exports might come under further pressure as Iran's biggest customer in the Middle East has decided to reduce its purchases.
  Dubai government-owned Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) has started importing condensate from Qatar to replace sanctioned Iranian oil and is close to finalizing deals with other producers, the company said on Sunday.
  Still, some analysts think Iran will continue to find ways to safeguard against significant drops in its oil revenues.
  "What we have seen is that when Iran is pushed to a do-or-die situation, they have looked for creative solutions to get around sanctions," said McGovern.
  "The system will always find a way to cope."
  (Reporting by Emma Farge, Humeyra Pamuk in Dubai; additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Manash Goswami in Singapore; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood and Lisa Shumaker)
"Did Israel Has Any Choice But To Bomb These Truck Convoys?"
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:46
VIDEO-Hitler says NEIN (Metal remix) - YouTube
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  Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:44