What really sets MI - Ghost Protocol apart from your garden variety potboiler are the outstanding action sequences. Actual location shooting at three locales: Moscow, Dubai and Mumbai, highlight set pieces with astonishing stunts. Each individual display would have provided sufficient excitement independently, but put together and there's scarcely time to breathe. When the team initially attempts to infiltrate the Kremlin, the operation is giddy with disguises, gadgets and humor. There's a hallway screen that's an ingenious technology that Benji and Ethan use to remain undetected in the fortified complex. Later, accessing a security room at the Burj Dubai from the outside of the skyscraper is a heart pounding spectacle. Ethan wears a pair of electronic friction gloves that enable him to climb the glass exterior of the Burj. You'll gasp at the difficulty of the mission.That MI - Ghost Protocol is far and away the best one yet, has got to be one of the biggest surprises of 2011. Some credit should go to Director Brad Bird for breathing new life into this series. Best known for writing and directing modern animated classics The Incredibles and Ratatouille, his facility for storytelling is clearly an asset here. There has been care to create personalities that seem human so when they're hanging by an arm off the side of the tallest building in the world, we genuinely feel scared. When Jeremy Renner's character is required to leap down a vertical cooling tunnel wearing a magnetic suit that will allow him to float, you can see the uncertainly on his face before he jumps. Those subtle touches are endearing because they make these individuals easier to identify with. These aren't indestructible automatons, these are real human beings and we care about them.
Beyond the Arc: Georgetown's win over Louisville on Wednesday is the sort of thing we'll be seeing a lot of this season in the Big East, a league stocked with good teams, but no great ones beyond Syracuse.
The total link site for the news and information junkie: Libertarianism. Property Rights. Government Corruption. Chicago Mob. Struggle Against Socialism. Union Corruption. Pension Meltdown. Blacked Out History. New York Mob. Higher Education rip-offs. Housing Crash. Rent-seeking. Obama-Chicago Democratic Machine. Gun Control Monopolists. The Ron Paul Revolution. Organized Crime...Other Politically Incorrect matters of interest.
Dorasan, South Korea ? At this major gateway between South and North Korea, tomorrow's funeral in Pyongyang for North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il evokes memories of when North Korean troops poured south in the first days of the Korean War.
Against a distant backdrop of ridges stripped bare by desperate North Koreans looking for firewood, people wonder if North Korea?s new leader, Kim Jong-il?s third son and heir, Kim Jong-un, thrust into power while in his late 20?s, might foment more trouble to divert attention from political instability at home.
?Kim Jong-il?s death is one thing, but what worries me is the condition of North Korea now that he?s gone,? says a clerk in the spacious ?immigration office? near the last station on the unused line going North. ?It?s going to be dangerous up there. No one knows what will happen.??
RELATED: 4 questions about 'dear successor' Kim Jong-un
A grizzled guard who fled south with his parents as a boy in the days after the invasion echoes that fear. ?They would blame everything on the South,? he says, looking over the vast train station, an edifice in glass, steel, marble, and granite. Several times a day, near-empty trains bring curiosity-seekers and workers on the way to the Kaesong economic zone, a complex of more than 100 small factories staffed by about 50,000 North Koreans several miles above the demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreans ever since the Korean War. ?They could do anything.?
Significance of the widows in blackOn the eve of Kim Jong-il?s funeral, however, the immigration center was crowded as two widows in black, with relatives and retainers, arrived after spending the better part of two days in North Korea. They had gone, they said, only to express condolences before the glass-enclosed coffin of Kim Jong-il in the same memorial hall in Pyongyang that contains the embalmed remains of his long-ruling father, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
Still, there is no doubt of the significance of the visit of Lee Hee-ho, the 90-year-old widow of Kim Dae-jung, the South Korean president who initiated the Sunshine policy of reconciliation with the North, and Hyun Jeong-eun, whose husband had committed suicide in 2003 after his indictment for channeling payoffs to bring about the June 2000 summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il.
?Kim Jung-un thanked them for traveling so far,? said an aide to Lee Hee-ho as she stood, proud but silent, along with two of her late husband?s sons ? the elder by his first wife, the youngest her own ? who had accompanied her to Pyongyang.
Ms. Lee and Ms. Hyun exchanged no other words with Kim Jong-un, but images from North Korean television show the warmth of the welcome ? Kim Jong-un shaking hands repeatedly with both of them.
Just as important were breakfast and lunch meetings with senior officials, notably Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Supreme People?s Assembly, a job that makes him titular head of state. It was not clear, however, if they also met Jang Song-thaek, brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il, who is thought to be the single most powerful figure ? a de facto regent calling the shots, or at least tutoring the inexperienced Kim Jong-un on the ways of power in his country.
What to look for at the funeralThe line-up of those at the funeral, who shows up on North Korean TV, who?s standing next to whom, whose photographs appear in the next edition of Rodong Sinmun, the party paper, will provide vital clues as to individual power and influence. For true Pyongyang-watchers, those revelations will be the most important aspect of another day of mass grieving and funeral pageantry.
South Korean officials in Seoul were politely upbeat about the visits ? the only condolence delegations permitted to go to Pyongyang by the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak. Park Sun-jin at the unification ministry said the government would ?promote and continue inter-Korean exchanges? in hopes they would ?lead to reconciliation between the two side.?
One anonymous official, however, is less sanguine. ?Without the Sunshine policy of Kim Dae-jung, North Korea would not exist in its current form,? he says. ?It is natural they are treated with great respect in Pyongyang."
RELATED: 4 questions about 'dear successor' Kim Jong-un
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Queensland needs to add 250 new ambulance officers every year to avoid a repeat of the situation that left badly burned celebrity chef Matt Golinski waiting 30 minutes for treatment, the ambulance union says.
Just one paramedic was available to attend a Sunshine Coast house fire that left Mr Golinski severely burned, and claimed the lives of his wife and three daughters.
The Ready, Steady Cook star remains in a critical but stable condition in Royal Brisbane Hospital with burns to more than 40 per cent of his body.
Ambulance officials say they did the best they could for the Golinski family, getting to the fire within nine minutes of learning there were injuries.
But Jeanette Temperley, spokeswoman for the union United Voice, told AAP the government could do better, as it was under-delivering by several hundred on its promised staffing numbers.
"There was a promise made about five years ago for 1000 officers over four years," Ms Temperley told AAP.
"We got 625 and then we got another 50 this year.
"We were looking at 250 a year to keep up with population growth and the ageing population and 50 doesn't cover it.
"I would be wanting the 250 a year."
A police officer had to drive the ambulance to the local hospital while the intensive care paramedic worked on Mr Golinski, who was later transferred to Brisbane.
Ms Temperley said it was "not ideal" for a police officer to drive an ambulance, but it was an accepted practice.
"It's fairly common practice in remote areas that emergency services work together," she said.
"We have no problems with that."
Records show Mr Golinski, 39, waited almost 30 minutes before being treated by a paramedic.
It took 27 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from the first call, which was a standard request to support a fire crew at the blaze.
It was already en route when it got word there was a patient to treat.
Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts was confident the service had done its best.
Ms Temperley said paramedics were under constant pressure because of a lack of resources and said the response time was not uncommon.
"We'd be concerned that an ambulance takes that long, but it's not unusual," she said.
"They are stretched (on the Sunshine Coast) as they are everywhere in the state."
Police say there was nothing suspicious about the blaze that claimed the lives of Mr Golinski's wife Rachel, and their daughters Starlia, 13, and 12-year-old twins Sage and Willow.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) ? Third-party political money is already pouring into Ohio again after the state had one of the most expensive election fights ever in November.
Nearly $55 million was raised in a battle over public worker collective bargaining rights that ultimately saw a union victory last month.
Now political groups have begun funneling money into the 2012 Ohio U.S. senatorial race, with political action committees targeting Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone has spent approximately $1.5 million in media buys since November to defeat Brown in 2012, according to Ohio Democratic Party officials.
J.P. Fielder, communication director for the Chamber, told Reuters he could not verify the $1.5 million number but confirmed the group was already involved.
"This is the earliest we have ever gone into an election," he said, adding that the Chamber plans more media buys in the state. "We will be very intense across the country but especially in Ohio," Fielder said.
According to Justin Barasky, Ohio Democratic Party press secretary, "More third-party money has been spent in an effort to defeat Sherrod Brown to date than any other Senate candidate in the country."
Pointing to a National Journal ranking of Brown as the Senate's most liberal member last year, Fielder said, "We are holding Sherrod Brown accountable for a record which is more liberal than the state of Ohio."
Another non-Ohio based group spending money in an effort to defeat Brown is the Virginia-based Crossroads GPS. Nate Hodson, director of state and regional media, told Reuters the group has spent $800,000 for two advocacy television ads in 2011.
American Crossroads has spent tens of millions of dollars to defend and elect Republican candidates to federal office and counts former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie as advisers.
A conservative group for older Americans, 60 Plus, and the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee have also spent close to $1 million between them against Brown, the Democratic Party says.
Out of state interest in Ohio's politics hit a peak this year with the large contributions coming into the state on both side of the "Issue 2" collective-bargaining fight, a November ballot measure that brought the repeal of restrictions on public employee unions passed by the Republican-controlled legislature.
Groups in favor of restricting union bargaining rights, including the Alliance for America's Future, spent about $730,000 in the month leading up to the Ohio's election and a Washington-based group, Citizens United, paid $100,000 for a media buy right before election day.
On the pro-union side the National Education Association spent $1.4 million and among others the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees contributed around $1 million each to We Are Ohio, the main organization supporting repeal.
In the end, the union forces heavily outspent pro-business groups who had backed the legislation.
We Are Ohio was responsible for around $42 million in spending, compared with about $12 million for Building a Better Ohio, which supported keeping the restrictions on unions.
* Says Yanukovich about to give up strategic asset
* Ukraine under pressure from alternative transit routes
KIEV, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko warned President Viktor Yanukovich in an open letter from jail on Monday against selling gas pipelines to Russia, saying such a move would strip Kiev of leverage with Moscow.
Ukraine has sought to negotiate cheaper Russian gas supplies for more than a year and government and industry sources say Moscow insists on getting a stake in Ukrainian pipelines that ship Russian gas to Europe.
Kiev has so far refused to do this but Yanukovich's government is in a difficult position as the price of gas is rising under the current agreement, stretching state finances at a time of global economic downturn.
Ukraine subsidises gas and heating supplies to households so dropping the subsidies would mean political suicide for Yanukovich's Party of the Regions as it prepares for a parliamentary election in October 2012.
"...Don't you dare sell the gas shipping network," Tymoshenko wrote. "This is our last strategic resource."
Yanukovich, who narrowly beat Tymoshenko in the February 2010 presidential election, has accused her of betraying national interests by brokering a 2009 gas deal with Russia under which Ukraine pays a price linked to that of oil. ? Continued...
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -Former playing greats Romario and Ronaldo have announced a plan to donate 32,000 free tickets to disabled fans to watch matches at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Romario, a World Cup winner in 1994 who has since been elected to the Brazilian parliament, had requested the free tickets from the organizing committee. The former Brazil striker, who has a daughter with Down syndrome, had tears in his eyes as he announced the giveaway Friday.
He said the decision was "a great victory."
Romario was joined by former teammate Ronaldo, the highest scorer in World Cup history and two-time winner, who is a member of the 2014 organizing committee.
The measure involves donating 500 tickets to disabled people for each match at the 2014 tournament.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Man United won't overspend
Despite the threat posed by Manchester City, Alex Ferguson insists he will resist calls for Manchester United to go on a spending spree in the January transfer window.
FANatics
Chandler: What demons possess men to rush the playing field and attack athletes? And lately athlete-fan field interaction has taken a darker turn.
CHRIS EVANS Q&A ON DETAILS.com Is Chris Evans the luckiest man alive? Details.com chatted exclusively with the Captain America star this month. The face of Gucci Guilty Intense discussed his sexy video with Evan Rachel Wood, his plans for the Holidays, and how he gets in shape for all those comic-book movies. Some select quotes [...]
Director J.J. Abrams is gearing up for a mid-January start date for the sequel to his highly successful Star Trek pic, and details on the project are starting to trickle down. While one of the neater aspects of the 2009 flick was Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock with the help of a very convenient time-travel aspect, we now have word that no cast members from the original Star Trek series will be popping up in the sequel (sorry William Shatner). Sources tell Showbiz 411 that Abrams has no plans to include any original cast members in the sequel.
While it?s not exactly mind-blowing information, I think it?s wise to stick with Abrams? rebooted cast. Nimoy?s inclusion in Star Trek was a nice way to bridge the gap between the other films and Abrams? take, but there?s no need to dwell on the past in future installments; we?re happy to follow the new cast in original, separate stories. Following Benicio Del Toro?s departure from the flick, Edgar Ramirez is now the frontrunner to take on the villain role. The untitled Star Trek sequel opens in 3D on May 17th, 2013.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? A growing number of families in the United States are struggling to put food on the table as poverty rises in major cities, a new survey showed on Thursday.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors' 2011 hunger and homelessness survey found all but four of the 29 cities surveyed reported an increase in requests for emergency food assistance during the period between September 2010 and August 2011.
Half of those asking for emergency food assistance were people in families, while 26 percent were employed. The elderly accounted for 19 percent, with the homeless making up the remaining 11 percent.
This is the latest survey to underscore the magnitude of the damage inflicted by the 2007-09 recession.
Though the downturn ended 2-1/2 years ago, the recovery has been very slow by historical standards as households struggle to repair their balance sheets and unemployment is at an uncomfortably high 8.6 percent.
About 24.4 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed and employment remains 6.3 million jobs below its level in December 2007 when the recession started.
According to government data, a record 49.1 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010.
During that period, the number of households depending on food stamps - subsidies that help people cover the costs of groceries - soared 16 percent to 13.6 million.
The mayors' survey attributed unemployment, poverty, low wages and high housing costs as the main reasons behind the surge in demand for food assistance.
It found there was a 10 percent average increase in the amount of food being distributed by the cities and just over two-thirds of the cities reported a rise in the quantities they were handing out.
About 71 percent of cities said their total budget for emergency food purchases had gone up. Across the 29 cities, 27 percent of the people requiring emergency food assistance did not receive it, the survey found.
In 86 percent of the cities, food pantries and emergency kitchens had to reduce the quantities of food people could receive per visit or the amount of food offered per meal.
None of the cities expected demand for food assistance to decline over the next year. Many anticipated a drop in the resources to provide food assistance, citing cuts in government funding and declining food donations by the public.
The survey also found that homelessness increased by an average of six percent across the 29 cities.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
HORSHAM, Pa. ? Toll Brothers Inc.'s fiscal fourth-quarter net income slid 70 percent, partly because last year's quarter was helped by a large tax benefit.
Still, the performance topped analysts' expectations, and the luxury homebuilder's revenue climbed as home deliveries and net signed contracts increased. Toll Brothers also benefited from fewer cancellations.
Its shares rose 18 cents to $20.91 in morning trading Tuesday. They are up almost 60 percent from their 52-week low of $13.16 set in early October. Its shares peaked for the year at $22.42 in mid-February.
Homebuilders are a bellwether for the housing market and the economy. While new homes represent less than one-fifth of the total housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each new home creates an average of three jobs and generates $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Executive Chairman Robert Toll said that the company believes its prospective customers have the ability to buy but that a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy is holding people back from making purchases.
Horsham, Pa.-based Toll Brothers reported net income of $15 million, or 9 cents per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, down from $50.5 million, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier. Last year's results included a $59.9 million tax benefit.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of 5 cents per share.
For the quarter, revenue rose 6 percent to $427.8 million. That beat Wall Street's $424.3 million estimate.
Fourth-quarter home deliveries climbed 8 percent to 757 units. Signed contracts increased 15 percent to 644 units.
Toll Brothers said the average price of its quarterly signed contracts was $606,000, up from $565,000 a year ago.
The homebuilder's contract cancellation rate came in at about 7.9 percent, down from 8.8 percent in the prior-year period.
For the full year, Toll Brothers earned $39.8 million, or 24 cents per share, versus a net loss of $3.4 million, or 2 cents per share, in the previous year.
Annual revenue dipped 1 percent to $1.48 billion from $1.49 billion.
Toll Brothers predicts that it will deliver between 2,400 and 3,200 homes in fiscal 2012 at an average price of $550,000 to $575,000 per home.
Its main competition is smaller, private builders. As a result, it has gained a bigger slice of the market during the housing downturn as those builders languished.
Chief Financial Officer Martin Connor said in a statement that Toll Brothers can improve its earnings by boosting its community count, but that "significant margin improvement will only be achieved once we see the return of some urgency to the market, which should lead to increased sales prices and paces."
Last month Toll Brothers acquired privately held Seattle-area builder CamWest Development, marking its first expansion into a new state since before the housing crash. Toll Brothers said the acquisition will add to its earnings in fiscal year 2012, which began in November.
Toll Brothers has operations in 20 states and is the nation's largest builder of luxury homes. It also buys distressed real estate portfolios through a subsidiary.
Hey there, musicalsweets! I must admit, I love the username. xD Interesting avatar, too, by the way.
Anyways, nice to meet you! I'm called Sato around these parts, and welcome to RolePlayGateway! We're a vast and varied community of writers/storytellers just like you, so I'm more than confident that you'll find your niche and fit right in. As for being nerdy and weird? I'll give you a second to settle in. And then, just look around you. xD
What sort of video games do you like? Manga? Music?
Weather Underground Forecast for Monday, December 05, 2011.
A cold front will bring more wet weather to the East, while a blustery storm system drops across the Four Corners on Monday.
In the East, a cold front extending from southern Texas through the Great Lakes will move slowly eastward through the Eastern Valleys. As the system progresses, warm moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will lift along the boundary. This will lead to widely scattered showers with areas of moderate to heavy rainfall from the Gulf Coast through the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast. The heaviest areas of rainfall are expected to occur near waves of low pressure along this front in the Tennessee and southern Ohio Valleys. Expect a variety Flood Advisories and Watches as this system progresses.
To the west of this activity, the last of several storms will move through the Four Corners Monday. This system will bring strong winds, colder temperatures, and significant snow accumulations to the region. Generally snow accumulations of 5 to 10 inches are expected in the lower elevations of Colorado, with 10 to 16 inches in the higher elevations. Snow totals greater than a foot of snow are also likely in the northern mountains and east of the central mountains of New Mexico. Areas of blowing snow should be expected as north to northeast winds increase to 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Dangerous wind chill values are also expected with values ranging between 0 and 10 below zero Monday morning. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Sunday have ranged from a morning low of -8 degrees at Laramie, Wyo. to a high of 82 degrees at Inverness, Fla.
Pierre Bezukhov writes with some interesting news from the deep as reported in Nature: "In the deep ocean off the coast of Costa Rica, scientists have found a species of crab that cultivates gardens of bacteria on its claws, then eats them. ... The bristles that cover the crab's claws and body are coated in gardens of symbiotic bacteria, which derive energy from the inorganic gases of the seeps. The crab eats the bacteria, using comb-like mouthparts to harvest them from its bristles. ... [Scientists believe] the crab waves its claws to actively farm its bacterial gardens: movements stir up the water around the bacteria, ensuring that fresh supplies of oxygen and sulphide wash over them and helping them to grow."
Omar Kalair, ?the face of the Islamic finance industry in Canada,? and the sharia advisory board with whom he worked made off with $2 million in silver and gold immediately prior to his sharia compliant mortgage company going into receivership (bankruptcy).? Now Kalair is withholding documents from the receiver.? From CBC News last month:
The case provides further evidence that Islamic finance designed to keep Islamic clerics (who serve as sharia bank advisors) rolling in dough.? The 200 swindled families must be wondering why they selected ?ethical? financing for their homes.
28 November 2011Last updated at 05:40 ETBy Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News
As this year's UN climate summit opens, some of the developing world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters are bidding to delay talks on a new global agreement.
To the anger of small islands states, India and Brazil have joined rich nations in wanting to start talks on a legal deal no earlier than 2015.
The EU and climate-vulnerable blocs want to start as soon as possible, and have the deal finalised by 2015.
The UN summit, in Durban, South Africa, may make progress in a few areas.
"We are in Durban with one purpose: to find a common solution that will secure a future to generations to come," said Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's minister of international relations, who is chairing the summit.
But the process of finding that common solution, in the form of an agreement that can constrain greeenhouse gas emissions enough to keep the global average temperature rise below 2C, will entail some complex and difficult politics.
Developing countries will certainly target rich governments such as Japan, Canada and Russia over their refusal to commit to new emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, whose current targets expire at the end of next year.
They see this as a breach of previous commitments and of trust.
But some observers say small island states may begin "naming and shaming" developing countries that are also delaying progress.
They say the impasse should not delay talks on a new deal, arguing that to do so would be, in one delegate's wording, "the politics of mutually-assured destruction".
"They're on the edge of a mess," another delegate told BBC News, "and they may not be able to resolve this mess".
Seismic shift Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
The global response to climate change simply does not have time for advancing self-serving national interests?
End QuoteMark RobertsEIA
The politics of the UN climate process are undergoing something of a fundamental transformation.
Increasingly, countries are dividing into one group that wants a new global treaty as soon as possible - the EU plus lots of developing countries - and another that prefers a delay and perhaps something less rigorous than a full treaty.
The divide was evident earlier this month at the Major Economies Forum (MEF) meeting in Arlington, US - the body that includes 17 of the world's highest-polluting nations.
There, the UK and others argued that the Durban summit should agree to begin work on a new global agreement immediately, to have it in place by 2015, and operating by 2020 at the very latest.
The US, Russia and Japan were already arguing for a longer timeframe.
But BBC News has learned that at the MEF meeting, Brazil and India took the same position.
Continue reading the main story
DURBAN CLIMATE CONFERENCE
Summit will attempt to agree the roadmap for a future global deal on reducing carbon emissions
Developing countries are insisting rich nations pledge further emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol
Delegates also aim to finalise some deals struck at last year's summit
These include speeding up the roll-out of clean technology to developing nations?
? and a system for managing the Green Climate Fund, scheduled to gather and distribute billions of dollars per year to developing countries
Progress may also be made on funding forest protection
Brazil wants the period 2012-15 to be a "reflection phase", while India suggested it should be a "technical/scientific period".
China, now the world's biggest emitter, is said by sources to be more flexible, though its top priority for Durban is the Kyoto Protocol.
"The planet has no other sustainable alternative other than to ensure the continuity of the Kyoto Protocol, through a second commitment period starting in 2013," said Jorge Arguello, leader of the Argentinian delegation, which this year chairs the powerful G77/China bloc of 131 nations.
"The adoption of a second commitment period for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions under the Kyoto Protocol is not only a political imperative and a historical responsibility, but a legal obligation that must be faced as such."
Although the EU does not oppose a second commitment period, other developed nations do.
And as the US left the protocol years ago, nations still signed on account only for about 15% of global emissions - which is why there is so much emphasis on a new instrument, with some legal force, covering all countries.
Cooling wish
The US, Russia, Japan and Canada have all argued for delaying negotiations on this for various domestic political reasons.
But the news that big developing countries are also lobbying for a delay is likely to lead to fireworks in Durban.
Many of the countries most at risk from climate impacts want to cut emissions fast enough to hold the global average temperature rise from pre-industrial times under 1.5C.
Scientific assessments say that for this to happen, global emissions should peak and begin to fall before 2020, adding urgency to these nations' quest for a new and effective global agreement.
President Nasheed of the Maldives is virtually the only leader who has spoken openly of the need for major developing countries to begin cutting emissions soon.
Equating the need to develop with the right to emit greenhouse gases is, he has said, "rather silly".
But sources in Durban indicate that delegates from other small developing countries may join him before the fortnight elapses, and demand more of the big developing nations.
China, Brazil and India are also being blamed for blocking moves to phase out the climate-warming industrial HFC gases, which small island states tabled at the Montreal Protocol meeting in Bali last week.
"The global response to climate change simply does not have time for advancing self-serving national interests," said Mark Roberts, international policy advisor for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
Funding gap
Sources say, however, that there is real prospect of agreement in Durban on rules and mechanisms for a Green Climate Fund.
This would raise and disburse sums, rising to $100bn per year by 2020, to developing nations.
Continue reading the main story
Adaptation
Action that helps cope with the effects of climate change - for example construction of barriers to protect against rising sea levels, or conversion to crops capable of surviving high temperatures and drought.
There is no agreement on where the money should come from.
Developing countries say the public coffers of industrialised nations should be the main source, whereas western governments say the bulk must come from private sector sources.
That is unlikely to be resolved until the end of next year.
But finalising the fund's rules in Durban would be a concrete step forward.
Tim Gore, Oxfam's chief policy adviser, said UK Climate Minister Chris Huhne must push for "getting the money flowing through the Green Climate Fund that poor people need to fight climate change now.
"A deal to raise resources from international transport could be on the table, and Huhne must convince other ministers to strike it," he said.
However, there is widespread scepticism about the much smaller funds - $10bn per year - that developed nations are already supposed to be contributing under the Fast Start Finance agreement made in 2009.
Developing countries say only a small fraction of what has been pledged is genuinely "new and additional", as it is meant to be; and that little has actually materialised.
The summit may also see a row over the EU's imminent integration of aviation into the Emission Trading Schemen, which India and some other developing nations oppose.
NEW YORK ? A judge on Monday used unusually harsh language to strike down a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission over toxic mortgage securities, saying he couldn't tell whether the deal was fair and criticizing regulators for shielding the public from details of the firm's wrongdoing.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the public has a right to know what happens in cases that touch on "the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives." In such cases, the SEC has a responsibility to ensure that the truth emerges, he wrote.
Rakoff said he had spent hours trying to assess the settlement but concluded that he had not been given "any proven or admitted facts upon which to exercise even a modest degree of independent judgment."
He called the settlement "neither fair, nor reasonable, nor adequate, nor in the public interest."
The SEC shot back in a statement issued by Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami, saying the deal was all four of those things and "reasonably reflects the scope of relief that would be obtained after a successful trial."
The SEC had accused the bank of betting against a complex mortgage investment in 2007 ? making $160 million in the process ? while investors lost millions. The settlement would have imposed penalties on Citigroup but allowed it to deny allegations that it misled investors.
Citigroup said in a statement that it disagreed with Rakoff because the proposed settlement was "a fair and reasonable resolution to the SEC's allegation of negligence" and was consistent with long-established legal standards.
"In the event the case is tried, we would present substantial factual and legal defenses to the charges," it added.
This wasn't the first time that the judge struck down an SEC settlement with a bank, and Rakoff has made no secret of his disdain for settlements between the government agency and banks for paltry sums and no admission of guilt.
"The SEC's longstanding policy ? hallowed by history, but not by reason ? of allowing defendants to enter into consent judgments without admitting or denying the underlying allegations, deprives the court of even the most minimal assurance that the substantial injunctive relief it is being asked to impose has any basis in fact," he wrote in Monday's decision.
Adam Pritchard, a professor of securities law at the University of Michigan Law School, said courts could become clogged with cases that would normally be settled if other judges adopt Rakoff's reasoning and deprive companies of their incentive to avoid trial.
He called it a powerful SEC tool to encourage settlements "and Judge Rakoff is taking that away from them."
The SEC's consent judgment settling the case was filed the same day as its lawsuit against Citigroup, the judge noted.
"It is harder to discern from the limited information before the court what the SEC is getting from this settlement other than a quick headline," the judge wrote.
"In much of the world, propaganda reigns, and truth is confined to secretive, fearful whispers," Rakoff said. "Even in our nation, apologists for suppressing or obscuring the truth may always be found. But the SEC, of all agencies, has a duty, inherent in its statutory mission, to see that the truth emerges; and if it fails to do so, this court must not, in the name of deference or convenience, grant judicial enforcement to the agency's contrivances."
He set a July 16 trial date for the case.
Khuzami said in the SEC statement that Rakoff made too much out of the fact that Citigroup did not have to admit wrongdoing. He said forcing Citigroup to give up profits, pay fines and face mandatory business reforms outweigh the absence of an admission "when that relief is obtained promptly and without the risks, delay and resources required at trial."
Khuzami added: "Refusing an otherwise advantageous settlement solely because of the absence of an admission also would divert resources away from the investigation of other frauds and the recovery of losses suffered by other investors not before the court."
Rakoff said the power of the judiciary was "not a free-roving remedy to be invoked at the whim of a regulatory agency, even with the consent of the regulated."
He added: "If its deployment does not rest on facts ? cold, hard, solid facts, established either by admissions or by trials ? it serves no lawful or moral purpose and is simply an engine of oppression."
In the civil lawsuit filed last month, the SEC said Citigroup Inc. traders discussed the possibility of buying financial instruments to essentially bet on the failure of the mortgage assets. Rating agencies downgraded most of the investments just as many troubled homeowners stopped paying their mortgages in late 2007. That pushed the investment into default and cost its buyers' ? hedge funds and investment managers ? several hundred million dollars in losses.
Earlier this month, Rakoff staged a hearing in which he asked lawyers on both sides to defend the settlement.
At the hearing, Rakoff questioned whether freeing Citigroup of any admission of liability could undermine private claims by investors who stand to recover only $95 million in penalties on total losses of $700 million.
In his decision, he called the penalties "pocket change" to a company the size of Citigroup and said that, if the SEC allegations are true, then Citigroup got a "very good deal." If they are untrue, the settlement would be "a mild and modest cost of doing business," he said.
In 2009, Rakoff rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America Corp. calling it a breach of "justice and morality." The deal was over civil charges accusing the bank of misleading shareholders when it acquired Merrill Lynch during the height of the financial crisis in 2008 by failing to disclose it was paying up to $5.8 billion in bonuses to employees even as it recorded a $27.6 billion yearly loss.
In February 2010, he approved an amended settlement for over four times the original amount, but was caustic in his comments about the $150 million pact, calling it "half-baked justice at best." He said the court approved it "while shaking its head."
Citigroup's $285 million would represent the largest amount to be paid by a Wall Street firm accused of misleading investors since Goldman Sachs & Co. agreed to pay $550 million to settle similar charges last year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. resolved similar charges in June and paid $153.6 million.
All the cases have involved complex investments called collateralized debt obligations. Those are securities that are backed by pools of other assets, such as mortgages.
Rakoff's ruling Monday was the latest in a series of setbacks for the SEC under the leadership of Chairman Mary Schapiro. Rakoff has said he doesn't believe the agency has been sufficiently tough in its enforcement deals with Wall Street banks over their conduct prior to the financial crisis.
The SEC told Rakoff recently that $285 million was a fair penalty, which will go to investors harmed by Citigroup's conduct, and that it was close to what the agency would have won in a trial.
___
AP business writers Pallavi Gogoi in New York and Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) ? Enbridge Inc's proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.3 billion) pipeline to British Columbia poses a raft of environmental risks, according to a new report that signals the project will become the next battleground over the future of Canada's oil sands.
The study by a trio of environmental groups, released on Tuesday, comes fast on the heels of a decision to push back approval of TransCanada Corp's Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by more than a year.
The delay has led the Canada's oil industry and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to intensify their emphasis on exporting oil sands-derived crude to Asia.
The Enbridge project, known as the Northern Gateway pipeline, is the first attempt at doing that in scale.
But the new report - issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pembina Institute and Living Oceans Society - says the project would threaten native communities, salmon fishery and wildlife habitat on land and in waters off the West Coast.
The report uses last year's Enbridge pipeline rupture and oil spill in Michigan, and even the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, as examples of why governments and regulators should block the proposal to bisect the rugged Western Canadian province with steel pipe.
Northern Gateway would move 525,000 barrels of crude a day to the port of Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto tankers and shipped to Pacific Rim refiners. The project is a key part of the Harper government's plans for a National Energy Strategy.
Regulatory hearings are scheduled to begin in January and will take months. About 4,000 people have registered to comment on the project.
"The Joint Review Panel assessing the proposed project and the cabinet ministers with final decision-making authority over its fate should reject the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline given the grave safety risks it would impose on a culturally, economically, and ecologically valuable region," said the report.
NUMEROUS THREATS AT ONCE
The study also aims to build general opposition to Alberta oil sands development, which green groups say is 23 percent more carbon-intensive than conventional oil production. By contrast, a much-referenced report last year by IHS CERA, the energy consultancy, said it was 6 percent more carbon intensive when judged from production to end use.
Environmentalists used similar greenhouse-gas intensity and other arguments in their battle against Keystone XL. They include an unproven assertion that oil sands-derived crude is more corrosive in pipelines, increasing risks of ruptures.
An Alberta study released last week disputed that argument, but pointed out there is still no formal, peer-reviewed research on the controversial issue.
The report said Enbridge has failed to gauge the impact on the pipeline if numerous threats emerged at once, as with the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which contributed to the Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe.
"A fall frontal rain storm that triggered a rock avalanche could rupture the pipeline. Poor weather conditions combined with associated floods and erosion could prevent ground or air access for emergency response crews," it said.
"Avalanches, rockslides, explosions, or leaks from the (proposed adjacent) natural gas pipeline all can have cumulative impacts that worsen the ability to respond."
($1.04 Canadian)
(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Frank McGurty)
Automattic has teamed up with Federated Media to - finally - allow WordPress.com bloggers to make money from online advertising. The project is called WordAds and if you're on WordPress.com you can express your interest for the program here. From the WordPress.com blog, including a fair bit of snark directed at Google:
The great majority of today's domesticated turkeys may not be able to fly, but their ancestors sure got around. The quintessential New World bird, Meleagris gallopavo, was already an Old World favorite by the time colonists in North America first celebrated any Thanksgiving feasts. Today's turkey researchers are investigating the big bird's genetic heritage and biology as part of an effort to improve several aspects of its cultivation.
In 2010, a team of researchers from numerous labs in the United States announced the sequencing of more than 90 percent of the turkey genome. This represented a big step in turkey research, but efforts continue.
"Once you identify genes, the next step is to figure out what they do," said Rami Dalloul, a poultry and immunology researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.
"What we've been doing for the past almost year is building upon that sequence and trying to figure out, are there traits in the original [wild] bird that might be useful for today's bird?" said Julie Long, a poultry researcher at the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md.
The researchers have been working with the genetic material from the most popular domesticated commercial breed, the broad breasted white turkey. It is descended from turkeys domesticated in modern Mexico by predecessors of the Aztecs. The birds were well-established as a food source by the time the Conquistadors arrived. The Spanish took the birds back to Europe, and they quickly spread across the continent.
"Very quickly the domesticated turkey became, as far as I could tell, the real first New World food to be adopted in Europe," said Andrew F. Smith, a food historian and the author of "The Turkey: An American Story."
"When the Pilgrims and when the Jamestown colonists arrived, they had already eaten turkey," Smith said.
Smith said that by the 1550s, turkeys were already popular at Christmas dinners in England. When colonists came to the New World, they found large populations of wild birds that provided a reliable food source.
Colonists eventually began raising turkeys, but did not domesticate the wild birds.
"The commercial birds that we eat today were actually developed in the United States," said Long. "But they were developed on stocks that came from Europe that originally came from Mexico."
A whole different breed
After hundreds of years of breeding, today's commercial turkeys are far removed genetically from the wild turkeys from Mexico, which were already isolated from any of the five subspecies of wild turkeys found in the United States today.
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The genetic sequence of the domestic turkey differs from its wild turkey relatives, and can be used to illustrate differences between the animals.
"Once you have the baseline, which is the domestic turkey, then you have a good reference genome to come back to and then make a valid comparison," said Dalloul.
Wild turkeys have a gene that makes them resistant to a type of toxic fungus sometimes found in corn and soybeans. This toxin can be deadly on its own or lower a turkey's resistance to other infections and cause death that way.
The domestic breed no longer carries that resistant genetic trait.
"If you can bring back that gene into the domestic population, then you can have these birds again more resistant to [the toxin]," said Dalloul.
No natural mating
Even the intended consequences of commercial turkey breeds have introduced complications. Breeders developed birds with more white meat. The resulting turkeys, such as the broad breasted white, grow muscle quickly, and, as the name suggests, that muscle is concentrated in the breast area.
"[The breast] protrudes quite a bit and physically gets in the way when the birds need to reproduce," said Long. "In the commercial turkey industry there are no birds that naturally mate."
The great majority of turkey farmers must therefore depend upon artificial insemination, said Long. She suggested that there may be rare exceptions among small farms raising older breeds of turkeys, called heritage breeds, which may reproduce naturally. Artificial insemination is a laborious job in turkey facilities, as the sperm from male toms must be collected and female hens inseminated weekly.
"The amazing thing about the turkey hen is she's capable of keeping viable sperm cells for up to ten weeks after a single insemination," said Long. "The best we can do and still maintain high levels of fertility is about six hours."
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If turkey researchers could find a way to increase the amount of time that they can store sperm for later use, it might make the process of artificial insemination easier and less time-consuming. This is a primary area of research for Long, who hopes that further study of molecular DNA may help explain other reproductive issues as well, including why some hens lay more eggs than others.
More Thanksgiving science:
Chris Gorski is a writer and editor for Inside Science News Service. This report was originally published as "The Globe-Trotting Turkey" on the InsideScience.org website.
New York ? Abstinence-based sex ed has failed, argue some parents. It's high time we started being far more honest about the birds and the bees
The cover story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine profiles a Pennsylvania sex-ed teacher who has abandoned the usual "sex is dangerous, don't do it, but if you must, use a condom approach." Instead, Al Vernacchio aims for candor, telling tells his ninth- and 12th-graders that sex can be pleasurable. For homework, he has even asked students to interview their parents about how they learned about sex. Meanwhile, a University of Massachusetts professor is making news with a study comparing American and Dutch teens. The Netherlands has one of the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in the world, and parents there tend to have more open attitudes about teen sexuality. Is it time the U.S. stopped focusing so much on abstinence?
Focusing on abstinence is still best: "It's appalling" and "incredibly sad that these young people, with the connivance of parents, apparently, are being schooled in a sexual repertoire and vocabulary that would not be out of place in a brothel or on a porn set," says Carolyn Moynihan at MercatorNet.com. These misguided educators are showing kids pictures of genitalia, supposedly to help "desensitize" them. But what kids need is a "strong message" that they should wait until after high school for sex ? or better yet, until marriage. "So this is what they mean by 'comprehensive sex education'?"
We need a better approach to sex ed:?"Let's face it,"?says Betsy Shaw at Baby Center. "Abstinence-only [sex ed] doesn't seem to be cutting it." As a parent, it's easy to be so concerned with your child having sex that you forget that sex "isn't inherently bad." We need a healthier attitude. A professional, well-informed teacher can be help teens gain a comprehensive understanding of the birds and the bees. "Fully informed is fully prepared." "Sex education just got sexier"
And it's better they learn at school than from porn: "If teenagers don't learn much about sex beyond how to use a condom from trusted adults, they're going to turn to porn," says Amanda Marcotte at Slate. Porn has its purposes, but sex education isn't among them. When young men learn about sex from porn, they tend to be inconsiderate lovers who know little about pleasing a woman. And young women are left not really enjoying sex and developing unhealthy attitudes about their bodies. "Kids are learning sex from porn"
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DALLAS ? Former President George W. Bush will travel to Africa to raise awareness about cervical and breast cancer.
Bush's policy institute is one of the organizations that announced this fall the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative to expand the availability of cervical cancer screening and treatment and breast care education in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Bush and former first lady Laura Bush will travel next month to Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia, meeting with governmental and health care leaders.
Bush tells The Associated Press it's in the nation's best interest to "deal with disease and set priorities and save lives."
He says it's a "natural extension" of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which he launched in 2003.
A new practical strategy for magnetic-force-microscope cantilevers with high isotropic coercivity Public release date: 22-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: LI Guoqing gqli@swu.edu.cn 86-134-360-25440 Science in China Press
A magnetic force microscope (MFM) can determine the distribution of stray fields at a level of tens of nanometers near the surface of magnetic films, and therefore is an effective tool for observing the domain structures in magnetic grains of submicrometer size. At present, the coercivity of normal MFM cantilevers is about 0.3 kOe. Being affected by the magnetism of the measured material, the stability of these cantilevers is unsatisfactory. By applying a FePt layer, the coercivity can reach ~10 kOe. However, the accompanying high-temperature (over 750C) annealing spoils the resolution owing to the growth of the grains and the subsequent increase in tip radius. It is essential for the fabrication of a high-performance MFM cantilever to obtain larger coercivity at lower annealing temperature.
The group of Professor LI Guoqing at Southwest University of China proposed a novel method to tackle this problem. With inadequate annealing at 500C, a kind of hard/soft composite was formed in Fe60Pt40 films. The strong interaction of the exchange spring between the hard phase and soft phase contributes to larger coercivity exceeding 5 kOe as the sample is magnetized along any direction (see Fig. 1). The annealing temperature is lower, and the magnetic properties are isotropic. Cantilevers coated with this kind of material have improved stability. The research results were published in Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron, 2011, Vol 41(10), as a paper entitled 'Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films'.
By researching the properties of (001) textured Fe-Pt hard/soft composite on MgO(001) substrate, the group found the coercivity is favorable even if the sample is magnetized along the hard axis of the hard phase. A so-called tri-domain model was used to schematize the mechanism in view of the slight coherent strain near the hardsoft interface (see Fig. 2).
With a coating of this kind of hard/soft composite, the MFM resolution is better than 13 nm. This research has initiated the design of the coating layer for the MFM cantilever by choosing an off-stoichiometric composition and a matching lower annealing temperature to generate the exchange spring. The adequate saturation magnetization of the Fe-enriched alloy satisfies the sensitivity of the MFM cantilever. These efforts will benefit the fabrication of an excellent MFM cantilever. This research project was partially supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
###
See the article: Jiang D M, Chen Y C, Xiang H, et al. Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films (in Chinese). Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron (Chinese Ver), 2011, 41(10): 11561165
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A new practical strategy for magnetic-force-microscope cantilevers with high isotropic coercivity Public release date: 22-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: LI Guoqing gqli@swu.edu.cn 86-134-360-25440 Science in China Press
A magnetic force microscope (MFM) can determine the distribution of stray fields at a level of tens of nanometers near the surface of magnetic films, and therefore is an effective tool for observing the domain structures in magnetic grains of submicrometer size. At present, the coercivity of normal MFM cantilevers is about 0.3 kOe. Being affected by the magnetism of the measured material, the stability of these cantilevers is unsatisfactory. By applying a FePt layer, the coercivity can reach ~10 kOe. However, the accompanying high-temperature (over 750C) annealing spoils the resolution owing to the growth of the grains and the subsequent increase in tip radius. It is essential for the fabrication of a high-performance MFM cantilever to obtain larger coercivity at lower annealing temperature.
The group of Professor LI Guoqing at Southwest University of China proposed a novel method to tackle this problem. With inadequate annealing at 500C, a kind of hard/soft composite was formed in Fe60Pt40 films. The strong interaction of the exchange spring between the hard phase and soft phase contributes to larger coercivity exceeding 5 kOe as the sample is magnetized along any direction (see Fig. 1). The annealing temperature is lower, and the magnetic properties are isotropic. Cantilevers coated with this kind of material have improved stability. The research results were published in Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron, 2011, Vol 41(10), as a paper entitled 'Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films'.
By researching the properties of (001) textured Fe-Pt hard/soft composite on MgO(001) substrate, the group found the coercivity is favorable even if the sample is magnetized along the hard axis of the hard phase. A so-called tri-domain model was used to schematize the mechanism in view of the slight coherent strain near the hardsoft interface (see Fig. 2).
With a coating of this kind of hard/soft composite, the MFM resolution is better than 13 nm. This research has initiated the design of the coating layer for the MFM cantilever by choosing an off-stoichiometric composition and a matching lower annealing temperature to generate the exchange spring. The adequate saturation magnetization of the Fe-enriched alloy satisfies the sensitivity of the MFM cantilever. These efforts will benefit the fabrication of an excellent MFM cantilever. This research project was partially supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
###
See the article: Jiang D M, Chen Y C, Xiang H, et al. Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films (in Chinese). Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron (Chinese Ver), 2011, 41(10): 11561165
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - President Hamid Karzai received a resounding endorsement Saturday from a traditional national assembly to negotiate a security agreement that could keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan past 2014, when most international forces are to have left. The size of the force is subject to negotiations but a future deal could keep thousands of American troops here for years.
The nonbinding resolution issued at the end of a Loya Jirga assembly also suggested some conditions for the talks between Afghan and American officials, including an end to unpopular night raids by military forces searching for insurgents.
The more than 2,000 people who attended the four-day meeting asked Karzai to ensure the United States hands over all detainees to Afghan custody and limits any agreement to 10 years. They also said the future pact must be approved by parliament.
"We will act on the basis of your consultation," Karzai told the assembled delegates.
"I am very happy that you have accepted it and have put lots of conditions on it. I accept this resolution. It is the instruction to the Afghan government from the Afghan people."
As part of a future deal, both sides envision a force of several thousand U.S. troops, who would train Afghan forces and help with counterterrorism operations. The pact would outline the legal status of that force in Afghanistan, rules under which it would operate and where it would be based.
The jirga's findings are likely to bolster Karzai's negotiating position with the United States during difficult talks under way to craft what the U.S. is calling a Strategic Partnership Document.
Some critics have complained that Karzai organized the assembly as a rubber-stamp body, noting that it endorsed all conditions that Karzai outlined at the opening session.
"From the beginning we were pretty sure that the jirga was mainly a symbolic gathering of Afghans," said Haroun Mir, the director of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies, a Kabul-based think tank. "This is a symbolic gathering - more political leverage for President Karzai to show to international community that he is still able to gather Afghans under one tent."
While the jirga ended on a positive note, there was much grumbling from the start.
Many participants wondered aloud how the Afghan government expected them to discuss a U.S.-Afghan partnership agreement if they weren't given a draft of the pact or told America's conditions for signing it.
Abdul Malik Nayazi, an elder from Parwan province, north of Kabul, said no one had seen anything in writing but still wanted to see an agreement signed.
"Unfortunately, the situation in the countryside is very difficult. The Taliban still are controlling many areas. If our Afghan security forces are not strong enough and equipped and well-trained, our problems will increase day by day. Until all our Afghan forces can stand on their own feet, we need the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan," Nayazi said.
President Barack Obama has already ordered 10,000 U.S. troops to leave by the end of the year and another 23,000 by the end of September 2012. NATO forces will also gradually withdraw. There are currently about 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan out of a total of about 131,000 international troops. Part of the American contingent also includes about 10,000 involved in special operations, such as night raids.
The resolution said any future deal should include the immediate end of night raids, where U.S. forces accompanied by Afghans carry out operations to kill or capture insurgents. They said all such raids should be Afghan-led.
The U.S.-led coalition has given no indication that it is willing to stop the raids. It says night operations are conducted with Afghan security forces and are an effective way to keep pressure on militants. The coalition estimates that an average of 12 operations are conducted every night in Afghanistan.
Washington sees the document as a nonbinding set of principles guiding the two nations' future relationship. The Afghans want a strong and binding agreement to govern the presence of American forces in the country after 2014.
Afghan politicians are under pressure to uphold the country's sovereignty, but also see the agreement as a key bulwark against both homegrown insurgents and some of its neighbors, including Iran and Pakistan. Both have been accused of maintaining ties with some Afghan militant groups and are uncomfortable with having U.S. troops on Afghan soil for years to come.
Delegates also presented the government with 22 suggestions about Karzai's effort to make peace with the Taliban through reconciliation talks, but that issue took a back seat at the jirga.
Peace talks have made no headway, and efforts were brought to a halt following the Sept. 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading the Afghan government's effort to broker peace. Rabbani was killed at his Kabul home by an assassin posing as a peace emissary from the insurgent group.
Rabbani has not been replaced as head of the 70-member council, which is made up former Taliban, ex-warlords, members of parliament, top tribal elders and clerics. Critics have said that it is too heavily packed with Taliban opponents who could never deliver a reconciliation.
A committee leader, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, who was wounded in the Rabbani attack, said many jirga participants thought the makeup of the peace council should be changed. The panel needs people, such as clerics and tribal leaders, who have wide support in their own areas and would be acceptable to both sides.
"The majority of the Afghans, of course, want peace," Stanekzai said.
__
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Patrick Quinn contributed from Kabul.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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