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When you're on a tight budget going out to eat daily at work can be a huge unnecessary experience. Fight this by organizing "Money Lunches" where coworkers can gather together to eat brown bag lunches, discuss their finances, and build good money habits.
Finance weblog Main Street writer Erin Frank first came together for money lunches after joking about how they were broke most of the time. She and a few coworkers started to gather in a conference room so they could socialize while eating lunches brought from home and share their current financial reality and their goals for the future. Part lunch-club and part support group these money lunches provided a forum to discuss how to eliminate debt and save for a rainy day in addition to giving each other reality checks when tempted to blow their financial progress on a new car or iPad. Erin credits these money lunches for helping her to kill $35,000 in debt over a few years on her $27,000 salary in New York City.
You may not be comfortable sharing all of your financial details with coworkers but having a way to be social while bringing your lunch and having a forum to discuss rough finances can be helpful to anyone who is taking time for austerity now to plan for their financial future. Photo by Alex Kerhead
How My "Money Lunches" Paid Off $35,000 in Debt | Main Street
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Ariel was known as the angel of nature. She oversaw the protection and healing of animals and plants, as well as the care of the Earth's elements. Sometimes when people asked for her help, Ariel provided healing that they needed, according to God's will.
Ariel usually worked with the archangel Raphael, but one day when he was away Ariel went to help a horribly wounded man. That man happened to be of the forbidden race, a Nephilim, the offspring of the Angels and Humans. Even thought she was supposed to go back to Heaven and report to the Archangels, she couldn't bring herself to do so.
She committed a sin.
She fell in love.
Leaving Heaven and sealing away her powers and wings, she managed to stay invisible among the humans living with the man she loved and their little daughter, Harmony. But Harmony wasn't an ordinary girl, after all her mother was a powerful angel and even her father had an angel's blood running through in his veins. At age seven her wings started to grow and Ariel had to use her powers to seal them. The moment she used them the Archangels located her whereabouts and sent the Fallen after them. They caught Ariel and the Nephilim, but the little girl was no where to be found. After erasing the Angel's memory they let her continue her work but they watched her every move, as for the Nephilim, he was cast away, never to be seen again.
* * *
It has been ten years since then. Harmony is now living like any ordinary girl, until the day when mysterious people start appearing in her life. She sees strange lights around people, hears voices softly whisper and she swears that sometimes it seems like the time has stopped. She thinks that all that is related to her past and her real parents who'm she can't remember. Together with a few angels and fallen she will try to make the Archangels understand that they all deserve live and to love. They are all God's children after all. The rules have to change, even if they are cast down from heaven, they will try to make them understand.
Love is a sacred thing yet for love will Angels have to sin?
There are a lot of characters open so if you are interested be sure to check it out :)
http://www.roleplaygateway.com/roleplay/angels-tale/
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/tOV-thvfxKg/viewtopic.php
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Early tomorrow morning I'm jumping in a plane and flying to San Francisco, California for Macworld|iWorld 2013. Since it's been well below -20 celsius in Montreal this week, I'm looking even more forward to it than usual.
Leanna Lofte, who usually covers the SF events with me, just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Lucy Danae Lofte, so she's sitting this one out. There are very few people in our line of work with her camera skills, so to make sure we keep the level of quality you guys expect and deserve, we're bringing Martin Reisch with us this year. Yeah.
There'll be a lot going on, and we'll be doing our best to bring you with us every step of the way with photo journals, videos, podcasts, and a bunch of social sharing. Here's the plan so far:
There will be tons of other stuff happening in and around all that, so make sure you keep your browsers locked to iMore's Macworld|iWorld page, and subscribe to the iMore YouTube channel to get all the latest videos as soon as inhumanly possible.
And for up-to-the-minute stuff, including everything and anything unfit for print, you can follow @reneritchie and @safesolvent on Twitter.
Last year Macworld|iWorld completed their transition from trade show to epicenter of the community, from a place to see Apple stuff to place to meet and enjoy the company of fellow Apple enthusiasts. I can't wait to see what they have in store for all of us this year.
Let me know what you'd like to see from our Macworld|iWorld coverage, and if you're going to be there are well, please do come up and say hello!
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/mkSamaELkRA/story01.htm
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Posted by phougrunewald234 on Jan 25, 2013 in Science | Comments Off
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[By?Arturo J. Bencosme-D?vila, CPS Affiliate Faculty with the Master of Nonprofit Management and Dual Language program]?The previous three parts in this series discussed the organization?s guiding ideas, the strategic analysis and the crafting of strategy.? An overall schematic that summarizes the balanced scorecard-based strategic planning in nonprofits integrated those elements in the form of a ?strategy map?: a depiction of causal relationships among the strategic enablers.
As was noted previously, the enablers are the areas on which to concentrate the organization?s efforts to impel it along its strategy, that is, its chosen path toward excellence.
As a result of such a concentration, the organization will be strategy focused.
The natural next step, or Part 4 if you will, consists of implementing the strategy.? A fundamental premise is that strategy implementation is about managing organizational change. ? In other words, a consistent organizational development frame needs to be in place.? While strategic thinking provides a sense of direction and of means to an end, managing change relates to making things happen by enrolling the organization?s individuals in a collective effort.?Implementing a strategy focuses on managing the initiatives that introduce the necessary changes that it prescribes.?While each of these initiatives may impact more than one perspective and multiple enablers, it is useful to highlight their main focus as suggested below.
The initiatives that will concentrate on the enablers for the organizational dynamics perspective (organizational learning & growth) seem like a logical place to start the implementation of the strategy.? This is perhaps truer in nonprofit organizations than in others because of the preponderance of motivation as a factor leading to success. It is worthwhile to underscore that these perspective?s enablers will impact and nurture the enablers in the other perspectives as they pervade the entire organization. Examples of initiatives in this perspective include: mission, values & vision collective embodiment process; dialogue capability development program; systems thinking development, and so forth.
Initiatives dealing with operational excellence will aim at improvements (changes) within the internal processes perspective. Examples of these initiatives comprise: process redesign programs, donor relationship management processes, internal communication development, and so forth.
Focused on the financial perspective there will be initiatives related to financial sustainability and fiscal & donor accountability. They will typically relate to improving cost efficiency, enhancing transparency, clarifying allocation of funds, developing donation continuity and so forth.
The beneficiary and community perspective will require initiatives that enhance the organization?s emphasis on its mission: to impact positively on the quality of life, individually and collectively.? Personal development seminar offering, shelter provision, advocacy & support delivery and distance outreach are all examples of the initiatives that correspond to this perspective.
Beyond introducing initiatives to implement the strategy, measurements and targets for each of the visionary objectives and for the deployment of the strategy have to be developed. They will allow to empower the organization to monitor its progress and for gauging feedback for improvement.? As the saying goes,??What is not measured is not managed?.? There is an ever increasing attention being paid to assessment and measurements in the nonprofit sector. Congruent with this tendency, managing the changes implied in strategy implementation calls for a dashboard containing several indicators or measurements.
The?visionary objective measurements?depict how far the organization is from attaining the visionary objective targets (goals). For example, an organization whose mission consists of offering personal development tools to inmates in correctional facilities might have a visionary objective such as: ?Attain Substantial Transformation & Reentry of Men & Women in Care of Corrections.?
Measurements for this objective might include: % of Individuals Released from Corrections that Reentry Successfully (Without recidivism).? A target for this objective could be: 95%.
The deployment of strategy is expressed through the?strategic enabler measurements:? they depict the extent to which the chosen strategy is being implemented. In other words, they reflect the degree to which the enablers for a particular strategic theme are being actuated. In the case of the previous visionary objective example, the enablers could include: developing an organizational culture with healing at its core, have a case-centered inmate relationship management process, and effecting behavioral changes in the inmates.? Measurements for these enablers could be: level of presence of a healing environment in the organizational culture (Target: high level); implementation of case-centered inmate relationship processes (Target=100%); and degree of behavioral change relative to a benchmark behavioral pattern (Target=80% minimum).
As illustrated below, a chart can be built that organizes the visionary objectives with their measurements and targets, their corresponding strategic themes to materialize each of them, the strategic enablers for each strategic theme (there might be some repetition of enablers among the strategic themes) with their measurements and targets, and then the initiatives that execute the strategy by enlivening the enablers.
The set of indicators (visionary & strategic) in the above chart result in a dashboard of measurements and as such, it constitutes an enhanced balanced scorecard encompassing multiple perspectives or facets to the organization.? ?It serves as a strategic learning space: when a strategy is crafted, assumptions are made about whether implementing the enablers will enliven the strategic themes through causal relationships that are believed to exist.
Furthermore, that the strategic themes will lead the organization to its vision contains more hypotheses. It cannot be overemphasized that strategy is just a theory ?a belief? about how to succeed in materializing the vision.? As such, it is put to the test (measure its implementation and the impacts on the visionary goals), learn from this, and ?very possibly? introduce changes and improve on it.? That is exactly the use and the power of a well designed balanced scorecard:? Through it, the nonprofit organization becomes assessment empowered.
?
Arturo J. Bencosme-D?vila is an independent management consultant and coach, an affiliate faculty with CPS, Dual Language Program, Master in Nonprofit Management, and a CPS Ignatian Faculty Scholar. His 35+ year path through engineering, business & nonprofit executive, strategic planning, organizational development, MBA teaching, and management consulting have led him into emphasizing organizational learning: the art and practice of expanding the capacity for clarifying the desired future and the means to attain it.
His education includes an Engineer degree from Universidad Cat?lica Andr?s Bello (Caracas, Venezuela), and two M.Sc. and a PhD from Stanford University. Dr. Bencosme?s ?personal legend? includes the intent to reinforce the epic spirit in individuals and organizations, especially in the nonprofit sector. His favorite Jesuit value is to be a ?contemplative in action?.
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Photo: Lori SR (Flickr)
Legislation aimed at helping Indiana gaming facilities compete with other states and bolster struggling attendance cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.
Legislation unanimously approved by the Senate Public Policy committee adds mobile gaming devices to off-track betting sites and eliminates taxes on free-play coupons.
It also allows live-dealer games in racetrack casinos, something the bill?s author, Crawfordsville Republican Senator Phil Boots, says will boost job creation.
?Contrary to popular policy today is we try to replace everything with a robot,? Boots says.? ?We?re actually taking a robot and replacing it with a live person which should increase our employment at the racinos somewhere around 650 people is what I?ve been told.?
Indianapolis Republican Senator Jim Merritt says he?s wary of the mobile gaming devices, iPad-like tablets that can run anything from slots to table games.
?I don?t want to get to a point where we just have casinos everywhere in the state of Indiana and I see us creeping toward that.?
Merritt says he is hopeful the devices will be taken out of the bill, which now heads to the Senate Appropriations committee.
Source: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/senate-committee-unanimously-approves-gaming-bill-43537/
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Furniture online may sound funny to some people who love to feel and touch things before they buy them but, believe it or not, it is becoming a trend in the world of design to shop online for all things that can spruce up your interiors, including cool furniture.
With Mega Furniture NY you can spend as much time as you want shopping for the pieces you love and this will be a great chance to see what?s out there and how you can make the most of the things you have already.
Looking through leather sofas online you will se just how affordable the prices are, and will find single sofas and sets of sofas in a variety of colors, textures and shapes that will suit any interiors. Sofa sets are great for living rooms to form a round table but can also be good for the office. So use amazing wall units New York at home or in the office to really make your space shine.
Source: http://nevisislandhouse.com/shop-for-super-cool-furniture-online/
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's decision to lift the 20-year ban on women serving in combat will open some 237,000 combat-related positions to women. Initially, women will be assigned to combat communications, logistics and drivers. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, NBC News
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has decided to clear the way for women to serve in many?combat positions in the U.S. armed forces, a senior defense official told NBC News on Wednesday afternoon.
The Pentagon chief will announce on Thursday that he is eliminating the direct ground combat exclusion ? the Department of Defense policy that excluded women from assignment to units below the brigade level if the unit would be engaged in direct combat.
This will allow women to be assigned to select positions in ground combat units at the battalion level, opening approximately 237,000 individual jobs to women across service branches, including 5,000 positions for female Marines in ground combat elements.
"I support it. It reflects the reality of 21st century military operations," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate?Armed Services Committee, in anticipation of the announcement.?
"We are moving in the direction of women as infantry soldiers," one senior defense official said.?
Longstanding opponents of lifting the ban on women in combat lambasted the move as a show of "political correctness."
"The point of the military is to protect our country," said Penny Nance, President and CEO of?Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, a conservative lobbying group. "Anything that distracts from that is detrimental. Our military cannot continue to choose social experimentation and political correctness over combat readiness. While this decision is not unexpected from this administration, it is still disappointing."
Panetta, who is expected to leave his position as Defense Secretary in February, will call on the military services to study whether it is possible to open all jobs to women, and the services must come back with their individual plans and recommendations by May 15, a senior defense official said. ?He will call for?all changes to be in place, and women serving in the new roles by Jan. 1,?2016.?
But a senior defense official who spoke to NBC News said they expect exceptions to remain. Elite Special Operations positions in Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, and Delta Force were likely to remain closed to women, the official said, while the Army is likely to open up jobs for female pilots in the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.?
Karim Sahib / AFP - Getty Images file
Female soldiers from the US 1st Cavalry on patrol in Baghdad's al-Jihad quarter in this Mar. 21, 2004, file photograph.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the decision "historic."
"In fact, it's important to remember that in recent wars that lacked any true front lines, thousands of women already spent their days in combat situations serving side-by-side with their fellow male servicemembers," said Murray, who heads the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.?
In November, a group of women in the military and the non-profit American Civil Liberties Union sued the Pentagon over the policy of excluding women from combat roles. Their complaint argued that they were already serving in combat roles, but not getting recognized for it.
So far, 152 women have died while deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and at least 958 have been wounded in action.?
"This is really the implementation of a policy that has been a reality for women for years," one senior defense official said.
According to the most recent Defense numbers, there are 1.4 million active duty members of the military, and nearly 15 percent of them are women.?
This new military-wide rule???distinct from a law???will replace the 1994 policy memo barring women in combat roles, which was signed by then-Secretary Les Aspin.
NBC News correspondent Kelly O'Donnell and NBC staff writer Kari Huus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related:
Female veterans cheer new era: ?It?s about time!?
Women in the infantry? Forget about it, says female Marine officer
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Sean Payton is back as coach of the New Orleans Saints.
Payton's season-long suspension for his role in the Saints' bounty program was lifted by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday, nearly two weeks earlier than expected.
The decision allows Payton to attend the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., on Saturday, where some of the top college players available for the NFL draft will be competing.
Payton, along with assistant head coach Joe Vitt, general manager Mickey Loomis, and four players including Jonathan Vilma, was suspended after an investigation found the club had a performance pool offering cash rewards for key plays, including big hits. The player suspensions eventually were overturned.
"I clearly recognize that mistakes were made, which led to league violations," Payton said in a statement. "Furthermore, I have assured the commissioner a more diligent protocol will be followed."
The suspension was scheduled to end after the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, but was moved up after Payton and Goodell met on Monday.
"Coach Payton acknowledged in the meeting his responsibility for the actions of his coaching staff and players and pledged to uphold the highest standards of the NFL and ensure that his staff and players do so as well," Goodell said in a statement. "'Sean fully complied with all the requirements imposed on him during his suspension.
"More important, it is clear that Sean understands and accepts his responsibilities as a head coach and the vital role that coaches play in promoting player safety and setting an example for how the game should be played at all levels."
Saints owner Tom Benson welcomed back his coach.
"We are all thankful that Sean Payton has been reinstated," Benson said. "We have a lot of work to do and we are in the middle of it right now."
Payton also needs to fill a key position on his coaching staff following the departure last week of offensive line coach and running game coordinator Aaron Kromer, now the offensive coordinator in Chicago.
Loomis and Vitt are in Mobile evaluating players. Loomis said he was caught off guard by the news of Payton's return. But he said having Payton back sooner than expected will help the Saints.
"Every day makes a difference. We've certainly missed Sean in terms of the football team and all the things that go with our business and the game. But look, I miss his friendship. We all miss his friendship. We miss him as a person. I'm excited that he's going to be back here and fired up that he's back."
Vitt said he talked to Payton Tuesday morning and that he should join the Saints' contingent in Alabama on Wednesday.
"We just found out on the way to practice," Vitt said. "Mr. B called Mickey and we're all excited. Sean went and spent the day in New York (Monday). He just got back in Dallas. I talked to him on the phone about 5 o'clock this morning. He's packing his bags so we'll expect he'll be here some time" Wednesday.
Vitt agreed with Loomis that the timing of Payton's return is good for the team.
Payton is "going to hit the ground running with both feet. His jaw is going to be set. He'll have a note pad full of thoughts and ideas and he's going to have to get himself caught up with the evaluation process of our team and looking at film, which he'll do. This is perfect, getting him back now, because he's going to be here for the readings of our players. He's going to be here for the readings of these college seniors. We start handing out unrestricted free agent tape on Thursday and Friday of this week.
"This is where you're building the foundation of your football team, with the evaluation process of these draft eligible juniors and seniors and the free agents that are out there."
There remains one outstanding issue for the Saints stemming from the bounty probe: What will become of the Saints' second pick next spring. As part of the bounty punishment, Goodell fined the Saints $500,000 and took away second-round picks in 2012 and 2013. However, Goodell left open the possibility of restoring the 2013 second-rounder and instead docking the team a later-round pick if he is satisfied with the club's level of cooperation in the bounty matter.
What the Saints do know is that the 49-year-old Payton is set to return to New Orleans for the next five seasons. Earlier this month he signed a contract extension running through the 2017 season.
The coach is the last person punished in the bounty probe to return to work. Before Tuesday, Payton had not been at work since mid-April, when Goodell rejected the coach's appeal of his suspension.
Loomis was suspended for eight games, Vitt for six and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams remains suspended indefinitely
Vilma and current Saints defensive lineman Will Smith, along with former Saints Scott Fujita and Anthony Hargrove, were given suspensions of various lengths, but never served a game. Their punishments were overturned after lengthy appeals which also coincided with exhaustive litigation in federal court.
The litigation included Vilma's defamation lawsuit against Goodell, which was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan last week.
Payton's reinstatement is one more step for the Saints to return to normalcy, but for Vitt, said it doesn't bring closure to the bounty scandal.
"It doesn't for me. You're going to have ask Sean that question, Mickey that question, Vilma that question. It certainly doesn't for me. I can forgive. I'm not going to forget. It is what it is."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nfl-lifts-suspension-saints-coach-sean-payton-163016624--nfl.html
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Samsung (005930) is well known for its clever ads mocking Apple (AAPL) and its fans, but the company has decided to pick on a less powerful target in its newest ad that takes swipes?RIM (RIMM) and its BlackBerry smartphones. The ad revolves around an office that is implementing its own bring-your-own-device policy and is meant to show that both the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II are ideal business phones that can enable greater creativity. While most workers in the ad happily switch to Samsung smartphones after the BYOD policy is put in place, one of them insists on clinging to his BlackBerry, which prompts one of his coworkers to ask, ?Are you finally going to retire that thing?? The full video is posted below.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 OS walkthrough, BlackBerry Z10 pricing]
This article was originally published on BGR.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-decides-kick-rim-down-bashing-blackberry-ad-205129511.html
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
With few details emerging from the remote site in eastern Algeria, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation, but the number of hostages killed on Saturday ? seven ? was how many the militants had said that morning they still had. The government described the toll as provisional and some foreigners remained unaccounted for.
The siege at Ain Amenas transfixed the world after radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world, then held them hostage surrounded by the Algerian military and its attack helicopters for four tense days that were punctuated with gun battles and dramatic tales of escape.
Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of its history in confronting terrorists, favoring military action over negotiation, which caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens. Algerian military forces twice assaulted the two areas where the hostages were being held with minimal apparent mediation ? first on Thursday, then on Saturday.
"To avoid a bloody turn of events in response to the extreme danger of the situation, the army's special forces launched an intervention with efficiency and professionalism to neutralize the terrorist groups that were first trying to flee with the hostages and then blow up the gas facilities," Algeria's Interior Ministry said in a statement about the standoff.
Immediately after the assault, French President Francois Hollande gave his backing to Algeria's tough tactics, saying they were "the most adapted response to the crisis."
"There could be no negotiations" with terrorists, the French media quoted him as saying in the central French city of Tulle.
Hollande said the hostages were "shamefully murdered" by their captors, and he linked the event to France's military operation against al-Qaida-backed rebels in neighboring Mali. "If there was any need to justify our action against terrorism, we would have here, again, an additional argument," he said.
President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. stood ready to provide whatever assistance was needed in the wake of the attack.
"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa. In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the Government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future," the statement said.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning the militants' terrorist attack and said all perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of such "reprehensible acts" must be brought to justice.
In the final assault, the remaining band of militants killed the hostages before 11 of them were in turn cut down by the special forces, Algeria's state news agency said. The military launched its Saturday assault to prevent a fire started by the extremists from engulfing the complex and blowing it up, the report added.
A total of 685 Algerian and 107 foreigner workers were freed over the course of the four-day standoff, the ministry statement said, adding that the group of militants that attacked the remote Saharan natural gas complex consisted of 32 men of various nationalities, including three Algerians and explosives experts.
The military also said it confiscated heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, missiles and grenades attached to suicide belts.
Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil company running the Ain Amenas site along with BP and Norway's Statoil, said the entire refinery had been mined with explosives, and that the process of clearing it out is now under way.
Algeria has fought its own Islamist rebellion since the 1990s, elements of which later declared allegiance to al-Qaida and then set up new groups in the poorly patrolled wastes of the Sahara along the borders of Niger, Mali, Algeria and Libya, where they flourished.
The standoff has put the spotlight on these al-Qaida-linked groups that roam these remote areas, threatening vital infrastructure and energy interests. The militants initially said their operation was intended to stop a French attack on Islamist militants in neighboring Mali ? though they later said it was two months in the planning, long before the French intervention.
The militants, who came from a Mali-based al-Qaida splinter group run by an Algerian, attacked the plant Wednesday morning. Armed with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers in four-wheel drive vehicles, they fell on a pair of buses taking foreign workers to the airport. The buses' military escort drove off the attackers in a blaze of gunfire that sent bullets zinging over the heads of crouching workers. A Briton and an Algerian ? probably a security guard ? were killed.
The militants then turned to the vast gas complex, divided between the workers' living quarters and the refinery itself, and seized hostages, the Algerian government said. The gas flowing to the site was cut off.
Saturday's government statement said the militants came across the border from "neighboring countries," while the militants said they came from Niger, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the south.
On Thursday, Algerian helicopters kicked off the military's first assault on the complex by opening fire on a convoy carrying both kidnappers and their hostages to stop them from escaping, resulting in many deaths, according to witnesses.
The accounts of hostages who escaped the standoff showed they faced dangers from both the kidnappers and the military.
Ruben Andrada, 49, a Filipino civil engineer who works as one of the project management staff for the Japanese company JGC Corp., described how he and his colleagues were used as human shields by the kidnappers, which did little to deter the Algerian military.
On Thursday, about 35 hostages guarded by 15 militants were loaded into seven SUVs in a convoy to move them from the housing complex to the refinery, Andrada said. The militants placed "an explosive cord" around their necks and were told it would detonate if they tried to run away, he said.
"When we left the compound, there was shooting all around," Andrada said, as Algerian helicopters attacked with guns and missiles. "I closed my eyes. We were going around in the desert. To me, I left it all to fate."
Andrada's vehicle overturned allowing him and a few others to escape. He sustained cuts and bruises and was grazed by a bullet on his right elbow. He later saw the blasted remains of other vehicles, and the severed leg of one of the gunmen.
The site of the gas plant spreads out over several hectares (acres) and includes a housing complex and the processing site, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) apart, making it especially complicated for the Algerians to secure the site and likely contributed to the lengthy standoff.
"It's a big and complex site. It's a huge place with a lot of people there and a lot of hiding places for hostages and terrorists," said Col. Richard Kemp, a retired commander of British forces who had dealt with hostage rescues in Iraq and Afghanistan. "These are experienced terrorists holding the hostages."
While the Algerian government has only admitted to 23 hostages dead so far, the militants claimed through the Mauritanian news website ANI that the helicopter attack alone killed 35 hostages.
One American, a Texan ? Frederick Buttaccio from the Houston suburb of Katy ? was among the dead. "Fred spent a lifetime experiencing the world and always respecting everyone he met, no matter their position, culture, or religion," the family said in a statement Saturday.
President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. stood ready to provide whatever assistance was needed in the wake of the attack.
"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa. In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the Government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future," the statement said.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday that a Frenchman killed, Yann Desjeux, was a former member of the French special forces and part of the security team. The remaining three French nationals who were at the plant are now free, the Foreign Ministry said.
The British government said Saturday it is trying to determine the fate of six people from Britain who are either dead or unaccounted for.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said, "There is no justification for taking innocent life in this way. Our determination is stronger than ever to work with allies right around the world to root out and defeat this terrorist scourge and those who encourage it."
The Norwegian government said there were five Norwegians unaccounted for.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Saturday one Romanian hostage was killed in the course of the siege, while the Malaysian government said two of its citizens were still missing.
The attack by the Masked Brigade, founded by Algerian militant Moktar Belmoktar, had been in the works for two months, a member of the brigade told the ANI news outlet. He said militants targeted Algeria because they expected the country to support the international effort to root out extremists in neighboring Mali and it was carried out by a special commando unit, "Those Who Signed in Blood," tasked with attacking nations supporting intervention in Mali.
The kidnappers focused on the foreign workers, largely leaving alone the hundreds of Algerian workers who were briefly held hostage before being released or escaping.
Several of them arrived haggard-looking on a late-night flight into Algiers on Friday and described how the militants stormed the living quarters and immediately separated out the foreigners.
Mohamed, a 37-year-old nurse who like the others wouldn't allow his last name to be used for fear of trouble for himself or his family, said at least five people were shot to death, their bodies still in front of the infirmary when he left Thursday night.
Chabane, an Algerian who worked in food services, said he bolted out the window and was hiding when he heard the militants speaking among themselves with Libyan, Egyptian and Tunisian accents. At one point, he said, they caught a Briton.
"They threatened him until he called out in English to his friends, telling them, 'Come out, come out. They're not going to kill you. They're looking for the Americans,'" Chabane said.
"A few minutes later, they blew him away."
_____
Paul Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Aomar Ouali in Algiers; Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines; Elaine Ganley in Paris; Sylvia Hui in London; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen; and Peter Spielmann at the U.N. contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/algeria-32-militants-killed-23-hostages-190359589--finance.html
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The third-ranking Senate Democrat says Democrats will pass a budget proposal this year that includes new taxes and "our Republican colleagues had better get used to that fact."
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that his party's budget will also include tax law changes to attract support from both parties and bring down the nation's debt.
Congress is trying to figure out how what to do when the government hits its borrowing limit soon. Republicans have indicated they'll extend that borrowing authority for three more months, but insist on bringing down the debt.
Schumer says he prefers a longer extension so lawmakers aren't always dealing with the question.
The Democratic-controlled Senate last passed a full budget in 2009.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/schumer-says-senate-democrats-pass-budget-144139936--politics.html
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says his second inauguration is a celebration of the country and its citizens, not the election results.
Obama used a speech to hundreds of supporters at the National Building Museum Sunday night to remind the crowd that "what we're doing is celebrating each other and celebrating this incredible nation that we call home."
He encouraged the crowd to enjoy the inauguration and said he needs them to work as hard as they can on issues important to them.
Obama said the inauguration is a reminder that "there is something bigger than ourselves." He kept his comments brief and quipped that he has to save some of his lines for his speech Monday.
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A French soldier waits for a French Puma transport helicopter to land on the soccer stadium to test the field in the center of Niono, some 400 kms (300 miles) North of the capital Bamako Sunday Jan. 20, 2013. French troops encircled a key Malian town on Friday, trying to stop radical Islamists from striking against communities closer to the capital and cutting off their supply line, a French official said. The move around Diabaly came as French and Malian authorities said that the city whose capture prompted the French military intervention in the first place was no longer in the hands of the extremists.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A French soldier waits for a French Puma transport helicopter to land on the soccer stadium to test the field in the center of Niono, some 400 kms (300 miles) North of the capital Bamako Sunday Jan. 20, 2013. French troops encircled a key Malian town on Friday, trying to stop radical Islamists from striking against communities closer to the capital and cutting off their supply line, a French official said. The move around Diabaly came as French and Malian authorities said that the city whose capture prompted the French military intervention in the first place was no longer in the hands of the extremists.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
French foreign legionnaires check their equipment in Niono, some 400 kilometers (249 miles) north of the capital Bamako Sunday Jan. 20, 2013. The Malian military announced late Saturday that the government was now controlling Diabaly, marking an important accomplishment for the French-led offensive to oust the extremists from northern and central Mali. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man looks at a burned armed vehicle used by radical Islamists in Diabaly, some 460 kilometers (286 miles) north of the capital Bamako, Sunday Jan. 20, 2013. The Malian military announced late Saturday that the government was now controlling Diabaly, marking an important accomplishment for the French-led offensive to oust the extremists from northern and central Mali. (AP Photo)
Malians who fled Islamist rule or fighting in northern Mali take shelter at a camp for the displaced in Sevare, Mali, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. The departure of the Islamists from the central town of Diabaly marks a success for the French-led military intervention that began Jan. 11 to oust the Islamists from northern and central Mali. Earlier in the week, the Malian military was able to retake another key town, Konna, whose capture had sparked the French intervention. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
French foreign legionnaires drive through the market in Niono, some 400 kilometers (249 miles) north of the capital Bamako, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. The Malian military announced late Saturday that the government was now controlling Diabaly, marking an important accomplishment for the French-led offensive to oust the extremists from northern and central Mali. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Backed by French air strikes, Malian forces appeared close to recapturing a key central town in Mali where bands of al-Qaida-linked fighters had holed up, France's defense minister said Sunday.
The French military has spent the last nine days helping the West African nation of Mali quash a jihadist rebellion in its vast northern desert. The comments Sunday from Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, appeared to cast some doubt on local military claims that the town of Diabaly had already been recaptured from the Islamists.
The town of 35,000, which hosts an important military camp, was taken over by al-Qaida-linked militants last week.
"Right now, the town of Diabaly is not retaken," Le Drian told France-5 TV. "(But) everything leads us to believe Diabaly is going to head in the positive direction in the coming hours."
The French military said its fighter planes and helicopter gunships had carried out a dozen operations in the previous 24 hours ? half of them to strike "terrorist vehicles." The report came late Sunday in a statement on the military's Web site.
Previously, Mali's military had claimed the government was back in control of Diabaly ? a potential breakthrough in the French-led campaign to oust extremists there.
The contrasting accounts were emblematic of the confusion in the embattled West African country, where French forces opened an air campaign on Jan. 11 and have been building up troop levels to help restore government control in central and northeast Mali.
The zone around Diabaly remains blocked off by a military cordon and it is not possible to independently verify the information.
Video obtained by The Associated Press from Diabaly on Saturday showed burned-out vehicles, scattered bullets and several armored vehicles belonging to the Malian army lying abandoned and damaged along roadsides. Displaced residents and Malian officials described how Islamists fled the town on foot after days of French airstrikes that destroyed their vehicles.
For government supporters, the incursion signaled an alarming drive by the jihadists into central Mali ? and closer to the capital of Bamako ? from the base they have established in the country's vast northeast. The Islamists captured the Texas-sized northeastern expanse nine months ago, exploiting a power vacuum after a military coup in the distant capital.
Also Sunday, French forces extended their deployment northward from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman.
The French statement said some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo and Benin had arrived Sunday in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali. Troops from Chad, who are considered hardened fighters familiar with the desert-like terrain of northern Mali, also arrived in Mali, Le Drian said.
Overall, Le Drian said the French-led campaign against the militants was making progress. He said he wasn't aware of any civilian casualties and said the air strikes had caused "significant" ? though unspecified ? losses among the jihadists, and only minor skirmishes involved French forces on the ground.
Still, as they work to root out the jihadists and secure local populations, French and Malian forces also have to contend with some villagers who are backing the rebels.
"The war against the Islamists is not at all easy and there's a very small part of the population which is helping their cause," said Col. Seydou Sogoba, the Malian force commander in the Niono region. "That is what is making the fight against them tough."
France, which has received logistical support from Western allies and intelligence from the United States, ultimately hopes that troops from West African regional bloc ECOWAS will take the lead alongside Malian troops in securing the country, a former French colony.
Neighboring African countries are expected to contribute around 3,000 troops but concerns about the French mission have delayed several nations from sending their promised troops.
A donors' conference for the U.N.-backed Mali mission is being held in Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa on Jan. 29.
___
Andy Drake in Niono, Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Jamey Keaten in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.
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Sure go ahead and regift that present your friend bought for you at Walmart, but whatever you do, don't return it.
The world's largest retailer is apparently slacking off on giving full refunds to customers with gift receipts, at least according to a recent report by CBS Boston.
When a producer from the network attempted to return a TV originally purchased for $248 using a gift receipt, she was only able to get back $228 -- the unit's new on-sale price. A cashier told her simply that the register "will just generate however much [the original buyer] paid for it,? even though in this case the original purchase price was higher.
This is far from the first time such allegations have been made against Walmart. Last year, the same CBS affiliate aired similar reports that Walmart was shortchanging customers on gift receipts.
The confusion may have to do with the simple fact that such receipts don't show how much money was originally paid for an item. Consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky says he doesn't think Walmart is perpetrating the scam on purpose, but the retailer clearly has a problem on its hands.
?The best scam is when you don?t even know you?ve been taken,? Dworsky told CBS Boston.
CBS reports on such incidents last year led to an investigation by a lawfirm specializing in consumer protection. Similar incidents at Kohl's and Toys R' Us led to the inclusion of those retailers in the investigation as well.
A request for comment from Walmart via email was not immediately returned. However, back in 2011, Walmart spokesperson Lorenzo Lopez had this to say on the matter:
It?s our expectation to refund the original purchase price when returning an item with a gift receipt. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers. If they have questions regarding a gift receipt, we encourage them to speak with a member of management at their local store.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/19/walmart-gift-receipt-scam_n_2512234.html
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Guidance on American college applications for readers in India from The Times?s admissions blog.
Sush Krishnamoorthy, a student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, in New Delhi, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches.
Sush Krishnamoorthy, a student from New Delhi, is part of ?The Choice? class that includes student-bloggers from Nairobi, Kenya; Topeka, Kan.; Seattle; Rogers, Ark.; Las Vegas; New York City; and Hunting Valley, Ohio. Her sixth post is below. ? Tanya Abrams
With the college application process now complete on my end, I have all the time in the world to focus on my class 12 board examinations.
But the anxiety about admission decisions is endless. Couldn?t tomorrow be April 1?
The only way to avoid this futile anxiety is to be occupied with something else. So I am making plans for the summer. I have more than four months of summer vacation this year and I want to make the most of it.
Last year, in January, I stumbled upon the Summer Science Program. At S.S.P., students work in teams of three to determine the orbit of an asteroid. It requires more than six weeks of observations and attending college-level lectures in astronomy, physics, math and programming.
Although I love science, programming and mathematics in particular, I have no experience in astronomy or research. I wondered if I would be able to cope with such an exacting program. Still, I applied.
Last March, I received an e-mail that said I had been accepted to S.S.P. and I was overjoyed!
To prepare for the program, I listened to the University of California, Berkeley?s online lectures on astronomy and checked out Visual Python. Yet, I was still underprepared for S.S.P.?s ?drinking from a fire hose? experience. Students often collaborated on problem sets, which is how we managed to solve the tricky questions.
The orbit determination itself seemed like a huge project at the beginning. However, everyone managed to track their asteroids, write their Python codes, and compute the orbit of their asteroid. When my team sent an e-mail to the Minor Planet Center containing our results and submitted our research paper to our research mentor, I was proud to have made my first, infinitesimal contribution to science.
At the end of the program, I had made friends for life ? many of whom I hope to meet in college and at various crossroads in life. I had also overcome my hesitation of venturing into new subjects. S.S.P. broadened my perspective.
S.S.P. is also the most college-like social experience I have come across. Despite the cultural differences, we fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Or perhaps the differences bound us together.
For students in a science program, we were also a surprisingly athletic group. I enjoyed the many soccer and Frisbee games we played. Being an athlete, I look forward to more sports opportunities in college.
At S.S.P., there was a balance and I felt like I truly belonged. After that, there was no looking back. I certainly wanted to come back to the United States for college.
Now it is inevitable that the words ?science,? ?project? and ?research? capture my attention. I am also hunting for programs for this summer. Be it chemistry, business or computer science, I would love to apply. Isn?t this the best time to explore all my academic options?
The downside is that there seem to be very few programs open to graduating seniors that also offer financial aid to international applicants.
Apart from summer programs, I have been considering short courses in Spanish and application development at institutes in Delhi. Cooking lessons from Mom also figure high on my list of summer activities. There is also a long list of books waiting to be read! These plans are certainly making the wait for admission decisions easier.
Ms. Krishnamoorthy, a student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches for The Choice. To comment on what she has written here, please use the comment box below.
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I want to change my google chrome language to my own choice language so i need your help and direction to do this now please.
How do i change the language in my google chrome
Hi
there is language change button, below, you can change from there
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