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Thursday, June 30, 2011
Clashes Erupt Before Greek Austerity Vote
ATHENS—Clashes broke out between dozens of anarchists and police in front of Greece's parliament Wednesday, just ahead of a vote on a five-year austerity plan the country needs to pass to avoid default.
Eye witnesses said that demonstrators smashed marble paving stones in the Athens central square and threw rocks at police, prompting them to respond by firing tear gas and clearing the area of people in front of Parliament.
The violence dispersed an otherwise peaceful demonstration of about 10,000 people that had gathered for a second day to march against the €28.4 billion ($40.81 billion) billion austerity plan. Parliament is due to vote on the austerity package later Wednesday.
Passage of the additional spending cuts and new taxes has been set as a condition for another international bailout to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt. The stakes are immense. If the government fails to carry the vote, European financial markets could nosedive in anticipation of a deepening crisis for the euro and for government-debt markets.
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![[SB10001424052702304314404576413411474167894]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vh1dmXc5ZeUH_05IbS5ghilN9iT1_PSMNZFikShACI-ujcEw6rWlPAJitNJSvW5gWLtk7OcG1V8PKZp2URyvUZ_h2G3_KbIWfSWLdhzV5tImPkOZB8BKmpgejkEL-FX5Aow8IB8c7yUeaTlfZRXC_2=s0-d)
Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Protestors clash with riot police during a 48-hour general strike in Athens on Wednesday. Protestors clashed with police, who fired tear gas several hours before the Greek Parliament was to vote on an austerity package.
The Socialist government controls 155 seats in Greece's 300-member parliament and needs a simple majority of 151 votes to pass the measures. Despite earlier wavering by four lawmakers within its ranks, that majority now appears to be holding.
"I'm optimistic about the future of the country," government spokesman Elias Mossialos told a morning television news program. "I think the entire Socialist parliamentary group will vote for the measures." One of the four Socialist Party dissenters—Thomas Robopoulos from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki—said he would vote for the package, the Alter private-television channel reported early Wednesday.
According to private broadcaster SKAI, a second wavering Socialist, Alekos Athanasiadis, has now withdrawn his earlier dissent and will also vote to support the package. In addition, the two other rebels are believed to have softened their opposition, while there are indications that the government could pick up a handful of votes from one of Greece's smaller opposition parties, Democratic Alliance, which controls five seats in parliament. The party announced this week that it would allow its members to "vote their conscience," meaning that some of their parliamentarians may now also swing behind the government.
Analysts also don't rule out that one or two members of the main opposition New Democracy Party may break ranks and vote with the Socialists—although they would face expulsion from their party.
"Barring last-minute surprises, political analysts anticipate that the bill will secure the backing of 154 ruling-party deputies [and potentially a few from the opposition]," HSBC Pantelakis Securities said in a research note.
Greece faces another critical test Thursday, when parliament will hold an article-by-article vote on the legislation implementing the austerity plan and a promised €50 billion privatization program. But with the overall outlines of the austerity plan expected to pass Wednesday, the vote on the implementing legislation is expected to be a formality.
The opposition New Democracy Party has pledged to support large parts of the implementing legislation, including the articles relating to privatizations and cutting public spending—although it opposes the tax increases outlined in the bill.
The center of Athens was cordoned off early Wednesday by thousands of police bracing for a second day of violent protests over the austerity plan, which many Greeks believe will lead to further job losses and bigger burdens on households.
Protesters from a new, grass-roots movement of self-styled "indignant" Greeks have vowed to encircle the parliament building to prevent lawmakers from voting on the package. At the same time, Greece's two major umbrella unions—which have declared a 48-hour general strike—are also planning fresh protests Wednesday.
In May last year, Greece narrowly avoided default with the help of a €110 billion bailout from its euro-zone partners and the International Monetary Fund. But still facing prohibitively high borrowing costs on international markets, Greece is now seeking about €100 billion in fresh aid.
The European Union and IMF, however, have demanded that the country pass the austerity plan, the implementing legislation and the privatization program before they will release existing funds to the country or agree to a new aid package.
Greece faces a cash crunch in mid-July and is counting on euro-zone finance ministers to release the next tranche of its existing loan before then. The parliamentary vote is timed to precede a special meeting of those ministers July 3 at which they will decide whether to release that disbursement.
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How Much Would the Olympic Hockey Teams Cost?
If several NHL owners are nervously watching the Olympic hockey semifinals Friday, it's with good reason. More than $300 million worth of hockey players are still participating in the tournament, risking injury for the sake of national pride.
Not surprisingly, Team Canada leads the way with a combined "payroll" of nearly $128 million. The Canadians, a team made up entirely of NHL stars, earn more money than the combined price of the entire Slovakian and Finnish teams, two other remaining squads in the tournament. (Note: For the five Finns and nine Slovaks who aren't currently playing in the NHL, we used their most-recent NHL salary.)
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TKtk
Sidney Crosby of Canada
Breaking things down position by position, the disparity is even clearer. The Canadians' forward corps alone earns only about $5 million less than Team USA's precocious squad that is also entirely made up of NHL players. In fact, the Canadians' checking line of Mike Richards ($5.75 million), Rick Nash ($5.4 million) and Jonathan Toews ($2.8 million) earns more than the trio of goalies playing for the U.S. ($12.02 million). And Canada's seven-man defensive unit ($32.63 million) earns more than all the Slovakian forwards, this despite the presence of high-profile NHL stars Marian Gaborik ($7.5 million) and Marian Hossa ($5.23 million).
To put Team Canada's price tag in perspective, it is virtually identical to the NFL salary cap, despite football's larger rosters and revenue. Nonetheless, the team is paid about $73.4 million less than what New York Yankees' players made last summer. Kevin Greenstein
The Price of Gold
Here's an estimated look at how much the final four Olympic hockey teams would cost in combined NHL salary.
TOTAL SALARIES*
Canada
$127,977,000
U.S.
$83,629,000
Finland
$64,091,000
Slovakia
$54,943,000
*For players no longer playing in the NHL, their most recent salary was used
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page W4
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Lunch vendor
Lunch vendor
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Tuesday, June 28, 2011
San Francisco Pride 2011
San Francisco Pride 2011
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Monday, June 27, 2011
Hurst Green
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Indonesia Editor of Playboy Is Freed
JAKARTA—The former editor of the Indonesian version of Playboy magazine was released from prison after the Supreme Court overturned his indecency conviction in a case that drew widespread debate over public morals in the country.
Erwin Arnada was sentenced to two years last October for picking and publishing photos of scantily-clad women. While the photos were tame compared to those published in some other local magazines, Playboy's big international profile made it a lightning rod for the wrath of hard-line groups in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.
Human-rights groups, meanwhile, have accused the government of using cases such as Mr. Arnada's to curry favor with strict Muslims, while failing to protect freedom of the press.
The reasons for Mr. Arnada's acquittal were not immediately clear.
"My release is evidence that freedom of speech is respected" in Indonesia, Mr. Arnada said to a reporter as he was set free Friday afternoon Jakarta time.
The debate over the magazine and the fate of its editor has illustrated the ongoing tension between Indonesia's many moderate Muslim residents and an influential core of conservatives who back stricter religious laws here. While the Southeast Asian nation of 240 million has long been seen as moderate and largely secular, a tiny and sometimes violent minority of hard-liners sometimes seeks to impose its views, at times rattling investors who see Indonesia as one of the world's most promising emerging markets.
Regular demonstrations and political pressure from conservative Muslim groups against what they see as Western influences in Indonesia has brought them occasional victories in local governments and in the courts. Earlier this year, one of Indonesia's biggest pop stars was sentenced to three and a half years for making sex tapes that also triggered a large public debate.
In that case, Nazril Irham, the lead singer of a popular band called Peterpan, was convicted over two blurry homemade sex videos. A local court said the trial proved it was Mr. Irham in the videos, rejecting the argument that they had been stolen and released without Mr. Irham's permission. Because he had not done enough to stop their distribution over the Internet, the court ruled he had violated a strict antipornography law that went into effect in 2008. Mr. Irham's lawyer said at the time that he disagreed with the ruling and that he believed it was influenced by public pressure, according to local media reports.
The high-profile Playboy case followed a similar script, at least until Friday. From the moment the magazine started publishing in 2006, the editor and his staff were targeted by radical Islamists, who threatened his family, trashed his office and reported him to authorities.
Playboy Indonesia relocated its editorial offices and staff to the tourist-resort island of Bali in hopes of avoiding more trouble but eventually had to shut down before it had been published for a year. Prosecutors agreed to take Mr. Arnada to court, drawing criticism from rights groups that believe the country's laws against indecency and pornography were too strict and were being applied in a capricious manner.
"We need to review the law, which is being used to accommodate political interests rather than addressing what people need" in Indonesia, said Hendardi, executive director of Setara Institute, an Indonesian human-rights group. Like many Indonesians, he only goes by one name.
The acquittal is "a symbol of respect of the state toward freedom of speech," he said.
—Yayu Yuniar contributed to this article.
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Saturday, June 25, 2011
Boats on still water
A few boats moored on the dock. The water of the river Vltava is very still. Behind, the Jirskv most and Ginger & Fred, the dancing house.
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Chapel in Panningen
Chapel in Panningen
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House rebukes Obama on Libya, but won't cut funds
A Libyan at Friday prayers in Benghazi, Libya. (Hassan Ammar, AP / June 24, 2011)
Reporting from Washington—
The House of Representatives refused to either endorse or curtail U.S. involvement in Libya, delivering a mixed message Friday that highlighted deep divisions surrounding the issue.
By an overwhelming margin, lawmakers refused to sanction U.S. participation in a NATO campaign of airstrikes in the North African country, a vote that amounted to a rare, bipartisan rebuke of a president's foreign policy during an active military conflict.
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Minutes later, however, a Republican-led effort to try to curb financial support for U.S. involvement also failed. A majority of Democrats and a group of Republicans rejected the bill to cut funding for combat activities — surprising GOP leaders, who tailored the bill at the last minute to suit the rank and file.
Both measures were largely symbolic. The first measure, which would have authorized U.S. involvement, was not expected to pass the Republican-led House, where fiscal conservatives and "tea party" freshmen have expressed increased skepticism about stretching the military thin.
The second bill, to cut off funding, had virtually no chance of passing the Senate, much less garnering a presidential signature.
GOP leaders framed the vote as an attempt to rein in the president, who decided not to seek authorization under the 1973 War Powers Act for U.S. participation in a NATO military effort.
"If the president believes that missile strikes and drone operations taking place in Libya are critical, it is his responsibility to explain [that] to the American people and to seek authorization from this Congress," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said before the vote.
The White House and its allies maintain that the War Powers Act does not apply, because the U.S. is acting as a part of NATO and its engagement does not meet the law's definition of "hostilities."
Republicans scheduled the two votes to signal congressional discontent as support dwindles — both in the U.S. and in some NATO countries taking part — for the action in Libya.
The leaders of the military effort, Britain and France, insist that they are prepared to keep fighting as long as it takes. However, this week, Italy called for at least a temporary halt in hostilities in order to allow humanitarian aid to get through. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also said that the alliance should release more information on the results of its aerial campaign, especially concerning any mistakes causing civilian deaths.
In Washington, lawmakers voted 295 to 123 against the bill authorizing the U.S. effort, with 70 Democrats joining those who voted against congressional approval.
The funding cutoff was rejected 238 to 180. It would have halted financial backing for the mission until authorized by Congress. It made exceptions for a short list of nonhostile activities.
The exceptions appeared to contribute to the bill's demise.
"I could not support it because it does not go far enough. Funds must be fully cut off to the president's involvement in Libya," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).
Confusion in Congress over how to exert its powers on questions of war is nothing new, said Taylor Reveley, director at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and an expert on war powers.
Reveley noted that in 1999, a Republican-led House issued a similarly mixed message when asked to authorize the use of U.S. forces in Kosovo. The House refused to authorize the mission, but then declined to take the further step of restricting ground troops.
"Congress often finds itself in the heat of the moment both trying to figure out what would be right to do militarily, while also grappling with who gets to decide what, when," he said. "The result is can be muddled."
kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com
Times staff writer Henry Chu in London contributed to this report.
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13 Surprising Reasons He's Psyched You're His Girlfriend
By Ryan Dodge, Glamour magazine
As a former dating blogger for Glamour.com who has been in a relationship with an amazing woman for more than a year, people often ask if I miss being single. The answer, I’m happy to say, is a resounding no. For me, the most obvious benefit of having a girlfriend is that my biggest fan, toughest critic, best friend and bedmate all happen to be the same person. But it’s the hidden benefits that really make being in a relationship worth the hard work.
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photo 1 of 13
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1. To Eat Two Meals for the Price of One
When I go to a restaurant, there are always at least two dishes I want to try. Luckily, my girlfriend and I have similar appetites, and she’s cool with sharing food. Even better, I’m a much bigger eater than she is. Love is not needing to ask, “Are you done with that?”
More from Glamour:
• 10 Things He’s Thinking When You’re Naked
• 19 Cute Celebrity Haircuts to Consider
• 12 Secret Signs He’s Into You
• Spring 2011's Most Wearable Fashion Trends
Thinkstock
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Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
NewGuineaBismark4
NewGuineaBismark4
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
close to you
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
An Island Classic (DSG_1489)
An Island Classic (DSG_1489)
A tropical island, a beautiful beach with palm trees, and a nice sunset ...
Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii (HI)
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Downtown Vancouver Railyard
Downtown Vancouver Railyard
2005.01.09
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Monday, June 20, 2011
113473358tMzqUc_ph
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Markets of PNG
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Boeing Sees Cyber Protection as Promising Growth Market
PARIS—Despite escalating pressure to cut Pentagon spending, the top strategist for Boeing Co.'s defense operations sees potentially robust growth opportunities in both cyber protection and new unmanned aircraft programs.
Chris Raymond, head of strategy and business development for Boeing's Defense Space & Security unit, on Sunday highlighted those areas as possible bright spots among the otherwise relatively dim prospects for Pentagon acquisition budgets.
In a news briefing on the eve of the official kickoff of the Paris Air Show, Mr. Raymond reiterated that Boeing also hopes to partly offset impending cuts in U.S. defense spending by selling more helicopters, jet fighters and C-17 cargo aircraft around the world, including parts of Asia, the middle East and Latin America.
But amid continuing uncertainty about Pentagon spending plans over the next few years, the Boeing official stressed that the realms of cyber protection and so-called unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, offer potentially the best chances for the Chicago aerospace company to snare substantial new U.S. orders.
"There's a lot of discussion about other [drone] platforms" in addition to the small number of models already operated by the Pentagon, Mr. Raymond said, including some that would be able to hover and fly like helicopters. Those areas "will stay hot from a research and development perspective," he added, "because there are future opportunities out there everybody sees."
In discussing cyber protection, the Boeing executive stressed that "we do see it as a growth area."
For starters, Boeing expects that Defense Department contractors relatively quickly will face the likelihood of "greater requirements and expectations" related to the cyber security of aircraft and even subsystems they sell to the Pentagon.
In the near term, Mr. Raymond described Boeing's strategy as "building our capabilities" to concentrate on helping U.S. intelligence customers with "information sharing and information assurance." But eventually, Mr. Raymond predicted, Boeing will consider how far it can expand its cyber expertise "in terms of other customers, both federal, and maybe someday, commercial entities."
In an era of shrinking defense dollars, fixed-price production contracts and few new program starts, talk about potential cyber protection contracts conjures up visions of greater contractor flexibility and heftier profit margins.
Even more importantly, the drive to protect sensitive data from threats posed by cyber-intruders is coming from various parts of the U.S. government. From the White House to the Pentagon to the Department of Homeland Security, according to Mr. Raymond, data protection has "become viewed as an enduring security issues."
Since cyber security is intended to counteract a threat "we're going to worry about for evermore," Mr. Raymond said, "selling those services and capabilities" both inside and outside the U.S. government is "going to feel like a growth business for everybody."
Prior to the show, Dennis Mullenberg, the chief executive of Boeing's defense operations, projected that overseas business would account for about one-quarter of the unit's overall revenue by 2013, nearly three times the percentage in 2006. In spite of personnel reductions in the U.S. in anticipation of shrinking Pentagon budgets, the Associated Press quoted the Boeing executive telling reporters at an air show in Singapore that "we anticipate steady, moderate growth in our defense business" globally.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Roscoff - Coucher de soleil - 22 h 15 - 18 juin 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
2011 CWU LAJ Westside Banquet 4
2011 CWU LAJ Westside Banquet 4
The 2011 year-end awards banquet for the CWU Dept. of Law and Justice Westside campuses.
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The chef came out and told us how he prepared the chicken. So sweet!
The chef came out and told us how he prepared the chicken. So sweet!
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
H2, Y151, W250 & F class.
H2 leads Y151, W250 & an F class on an up goods, over the bridge at Little River. The Shunting locomotives were being transferred from Geelong to South Dynon for major maintanance work at about 9:30am on Friday the 31st of August, 1979.
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Monday, June 13, 2011
View from Alpe d'Huez
View from Alpe d'Huez
CC Attribution, Share Alike! Credit me by linking back to my flickr account or my website. Thanks!
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La Plage Nudiste Du Parc National D'Oka.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Red Hot Like My Heart
Red Hot Like My Heart
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Saturday, June 11, 2011
fooling
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