Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

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Assad Calls On Syrians to Defend the Country

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President Bashar Assad called on Syrians to defend their country against religious extremists seeking to destroy the nation, dismissing any prospect of dialogue with the "murderous criminals" he says are behind the uprising even as he outlined his vision for a peaceful settlement to the civil war.



In a one-hour speech to the nation in which he appeared confident and relaxed, Assad struck a defiant tone, ignoring international demands for him to step down and saying he is ready to hold a dialogue but only with those "who have not betrayed Syria."



He offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution but demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels trying to overthrow him first.



Syria's opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. Those fighting to topple the regime, including rebels on the ground, have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than the president's departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.



"It is an excellent initiative that is only missing one crucial thing: His resignation," said Kamal Labwani, a veteran secular dissident and member of the opposition's Syrian National Coalition umbrella group.



"All what he is proposing will happen automatically, but only after he steps down," Lawani told The Associated Press by telephone from Sweden.






Remy de la Mauviniere/AP Photo








On top of that, Assad's new initiative is reminiscent of symbolic changes and concessions that his government made earlier in the uprising, which were rejected at the time as too little too late.



Speaking at the Opera House in central Damascus, Assad told the hall packed with supporters — who frequently broke out in cheers and applause — that "we are in a state of war."



"We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other," he said. "It is a war between the nation and its enemies, between the people and the murderous criminals."



Assad has rarely spoken since the uprising against his rule began in March 2011, and Sunday's speech was his first since June. His last public comments came in an interview in November to Russian TV in which he vowed to die in Syria.



On Sunday, he seemed equally confident in his troops' ability to crush the rebels fighting his rule, even as they edge in closer than ever to his seat of power, Damascus.



British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's speech was "beyond hypocritical." In a message posted on his official Twitter feed, Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one."



EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's office said in a statement that the bloc will "look carefully if there is anything new in the speech but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition."



Wearing a suit and tie, Assad spoke before a collage of pictures of what appeared to be Syrians who have been killed since March 2011. At the end of his speech and as he was leaving the hall, he was mobbed by a group of loyalists shouting: "With our blood and souls we redeem you, Bashar!"



The president waved and blew kisses to the crowd on his way out.



Assad acknowledged the enormous impact of the conflict, which the United Nations recently estimated had killed more than 60,000 people.





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Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera

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Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against global warming, may gross about $70 million from the sale of his Current TV network to al-Jazeera, the cable channel funded in part by oil-rich Qatar.


Al-Jazeera will pay about $500 million for Current TV, including the stake held by Gore, 64, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The network is one of dozens of investments made by the former vice president since he lost the 2000 presidential race by a slim margin.


“It’s reeking with irony,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, who studies corporate governance. “It seems to be at least a paradox in terms of his positions on sustainability and geopolitics.”

The deal highlights Gore’s makeover from career politician to successful businessman. His take from the Current TV sale is many times the maximum net worth of $1.7 million he reported while running for president in 1999. Besides investing in start-ups, Gore is on the board of Apple, an adviser to Google and a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to his Web site biography.

“The green of money knows no political boundaries,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “When you are running investments, your priority needs to be maximizing return.”

Gore’s holdings also include investments in Amazon.com, eBay and Procter & Gamble through his Generation Investment Management.

Gore holds a 20 percent stake in Current TV, according to those with knowledge of the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the sale terms are not public. His proceeds are difficult to pin down because the company had $41.4 million in debt, as well as preferred stock entitled to $99.5 million in the event of a sale or liquidation, according to a 2008 regulatory filing.

The Current TV price represents a sevenfold increase from the $71 million that Gore and his partners paid for the predecessor company in 2004, according to the filing. Gore, chairman, and Joel Hyatt, a co-founder and chief executive officer, announced the sale on Wednesday, without providing financial terms.

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, didn’t respond to a phone call or e-mail request for comment.

The network’s investors included funds controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum, according to the 2008 filing, when the company unsuccessfully sought to sell stock to the public. Blum is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The Raine Group advised Current TV on the sale. The owners introduced Current TV in 2005 after purchasing the network from Vivendi.

Al-Jazeera is closely held and receives some funding from the government of Qatar, a small country on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula that gets almost half of its gross domestic product from oil and gas, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Under Qatari law, Al Jazeera Media Network is incorporated as a private, non-profit company,” Charlotte Fouch, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “Al Jazeera receives funding from the State of Qatar, much like other publicly funded broadcast networks.”

Last February, Gore said investors in oil and gas companies that ignore the cost of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are making a mistake similar to those who invested in subprime mortgages.

Most of Gore’s investments are made through Generation Investment Management, which he co-founded with former Goldman Sachs Group executive David Blood. The most recent regulatory filing lists about $3.6 billion under management in 29 publicly traded companies.

In addition, Generation Investment Management also has stakes in private ventures such as Nest Labs, a company formed by Apple alumni to create a thermostat that adapts to user behavior and saves money. The fund also backed Elon Musk’s SolarCity, a developer of rooftop solar power systems that went public last month.

In April, Gore’s fund was part of $110 million in venture capital invested in Harvest Power, a closely held company that produces renewable energy from waste such as food scraps.

He is also the author of the climate-change-focused best-sellers “Earth in the Balance,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “The Assault on Reason” and “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” Gore was the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change,” according to his official biography.

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British team flies to Myanmar for buried Spitfire planes

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LONDON: A team hunting for a rumoured hoard of World War II Spitfire planes in Myanmar left Britain on Saturday to start the dig, comparing the excitement to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.

The 21-strong team believe there could be 36 of the iconic single-seat British fighter aircraft buried in sealed crates up to 10 metres (33 feet) beneath Yangon airport, a wartime airfield, with more at two other sites in Myanmar.

Britain, the former colonial power in what was then Burma, is thought to have buried the brand new planes in 1945 as they were surplus by the time they arrived by sea.

The dig, set to start at Yangon airport on Monday, has excited military history and aviation enthusiasts around the world.

There are thought to be fewer than 50 airworthy Spitfires left in the world and the digs could potentially double their number if they remain in pristine condition.

Project leader David Cundall told AFP that getting a first glimpse of Spitfire would be like the 1922 discovery of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb.

"It's similar to the Tutankhamun find in Egypt many years ago and Lord Carnarvon said to Howard Carter when he was looking through the hole 'can you see anything?' , and he said, 'yes, wonderful things', and I'm going to say the same thing," he said.

Cundall, a farmer and aircraft enthusiast, has been on a long chase for the rumoured lost Spitfires.

"We've interviewed eight eyewitnesses pointing to the exact spot," he said.

"Some have told us in great detail how they were buried, the depth and the configuration all fits correctly the location.

"After 17 years you do get a little bit weary but there's now enough energy left in me to finish the project, and I'd like to do it as soon as possible: get the airplanes back to the UK, have them restored and see them flying at airshows."

Speaking at London Heathrow Airport before flying out, lead archeologist Andy Brockman said: "The evidence so far takes us to a particular part of former RAF Mingaladon. What our job is now is to follow those strands of evidence and turn all the rumour and speculation and hypothesis into facts in the ground from the archaeology that we discover."

Cundall's share of any planes found will be 30 per cent, his agents will have 20 per cent, while the Myanmar government will keep 50 per cent, according to agreements they have signed.

"There are very few Spitfires that you can actually say are 100 per cent original; these are brand new Mark XIV Spitfires," he said.

"The fuselages were wrapped in brown paper, grease paper to preserve them, the wooden joints were tarred to keep the water out.

"They did go to an awful lot of trouble to bury these.

"It was a tool of war, yes, but I'm trying to make it a tool of friendship to bring Burma and Britain closer together."

- AFP/xq



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Deprived of pension, 165 people seek President's nod to end life

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YAVATMAL (Mahaarashtra): As many as 165 physically challenged and old persons, who have not received their pension for two years under Government schemes, have sought permission from the President for killing themselves on January 26 if their grievances are not addressed by then.

On Friday, they submitted a signed memorandum, addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee, to the Tehsildar (revenue official) here.

In the memorandum, the persons have appealed to the President to direct authorites to solve their problems before January 25 or grant them permission for taking their lives on the Republic Day, according to official sources.

The petitioners, who hail from 54 villages of Yavatmal district in Eastern Maharashtra, are beneficiaries of various Government-sponsored schemes such as old age pension, widow pension and Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana.

The signatories of the memorandum have alleged they have not been paid their monthly pension for the last two years, forcing forced them to live in penury and starvation.

The affected people had taken out rallies in support of their demand last year, but nothing has come out. "We have made a number of representations to the Tehsildar and the SDO and requested them to release the pension but of no avail," said Sudam Khandare, who had taken part in the rallies.

"It is better to die honourably than lead a life of utter poverty and starvation," said Saira Bi Sheikh Saibu, one of the pensioners.

"We have sought permission for killing ourselves as we find no other way out to ensure a dignified life," she said.

When contacted District Collector Ashwin Mudgal said the Tehsildar has received the representation addressed to the President and efforts are on to expedite the pending cases on basis of the Aadhar card.

He said there were bogus beneficiaries of the schemes and hence release of pension were stopped.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

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Debt Limit Negotiating Tactic? No Negotiating

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ap obama ac 130102 wblog In Fiscal Wars No Negotiation Is a Negotiating Tactic

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk away from the podium after Obama made a statement regarding the passage of the fiscal cliff bill in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


Analysis


New for 2013: In the Washington, D.C. fiscal wars we’ve gone from everything must be on the table to politicians declaring they won’t debate.


The fiscal cliff deal either averted disaster or compounded the problem, depending on who you ask. It certainly created new mini-cliffs in a few months as Congress and the president square off on the debt ceiling, spending cuts and government funding. But it also made sure the vast majority of Americans won’t see as big a tax hike as they might have.


President Obama was pretty clear late on New Year’s night as he reacted to Congress’s passage of a bill to take a turn away from the fiscal cliff. He won’t negotiate with Republicans about the debt ceiling.


“Now, one last point I want to make,” said the president, before wrapping up and hopping on Air Force One for a redeye to Hawaii. “While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed.”


(Read more here about the Fiscal Cliff)


That’s pretty clear. No debt ceiling negotiation. Then he added for emphasis: ”Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.”


But in Washington, saying you won’t do something these days has almost become like an opening bid. At least, that’s how Republicans are treating the president’s line in the sand.


“The president may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have because it’s a debate the country needs,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, in an op-Ed on Yahoo! News about 36 hours later. “For the sake of our future, the president must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now.”


“We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt,” McConnell said.


The national debt is soon set to reach $16.4 trillion. That’s not a problem that can be solved with one bill or budget. And the two sides will have to figure out some sort of way to talk about entitlement/social safety net reform – meaning things like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – in addition to cutting spending and, most importantly, hope for an improving economy, to deal with those deficits.


House Speaker John Boehner, who has several times now failed to reach a big, broad fiscal deal with President Obama, told colleagues, according to The Hill newspaper, that he’s done with secret White House negotiations. He wants to stick with the constitutional way of doing things, with hearings and bills that are debated on Capitol Hill rather than hatched by the vice president and Senate Republicans.


Okay. Obama won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling. McConnell won’t not negotiate on the debt ceiling. Boehner doesn’t to do things by the book.


But McConnell won’t negotiate on taxes any more.


“Predictably,” McConnell had written earlier in his post, “the president is already claiming that his tax hike on the ‘rich’ isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over.”


It’s a new chapter in the ongoing fiscal saga in Washington. Back when the two sides were talking about a grand bargain or a big deal – some sort of all-inclusive reform that would right the listing deficit with one flip of the rudder – the popular trope was that “everything must be on the table.” That’s basically how Obama put it back in the summer of 2011 when he and Boehner failed to reach a grand bargain. He wanted higher taxes – they were calling them revenues back then. More recently, after Obama won the election and when he and Boehner were trying to hammer out another grand bargain to avert the fiscal cliff, Boehner wanted entitlements on the table. That means he wanted to find ways to curb future spending.


Both sides are declaring they won’t debate certain points, but this far – a full two months – before the mini-cliffs start, those are easier declarations to make than they will be when the government is in danger of defaulting or shutting down.


Even though they’re trying to take elements off the table, both men hope that coming negotiations can be a little more cordial and a little less down-to-the wire.


“Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour,” wrote McConnell.


“The one thing that I think, hopefully, in the New Year we’ll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much,” said Obama.


That’ll be tough if neither side will talk about what the other side wants to talk about.


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Primary schools to receive new teachers twice a year

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SINGAPORE: From 2015, primary schools will receive a new batch of teachers twice each year - instead of the current arrangement where new teachers are deployed in June - following changes to the timing of the annual intake of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) (Primary) programme.

The PGDE (Primary) programme is a one-year diploma course conducted at the National Institute of Education. Currently, its graduates are deployed along with their counterparts in the Diploma in Education and Bachelor of Arts (Education) or Bachelor of Science (Education) programmes.

With the change, graduates from the PGDE (Primary) will be posted to their schools in January, instead of June.

Responding to TODAY's queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said the key reason for the change is to "better support the schools' manpower needs at the primary level".

Its spokesperson said: "This will allow for two batches of trained teachers to graduate from the different programmes in NIE to be posted to the primary schools ... each year, thereby reducing the schools' waiting time to fill vacancies for trained teachers."

To effect the change, the intake for PGDE (Primary) will be shifted from July to January - starting this year.

The MOE spokesperson said that email notifications were sent in April last year to those who were due to enrol in the programme in July this year - many of whom are currently doing contract teaching - but will now start their course in January next year.

"School leaders with untrained teachers in their schools affected by this change were similarly informed," she said.

While primary school principals whom TODAY spoke to welcomed the change, one untrained teacher who had been due to start the PGDE (Primary) programme this year was upset that he has to wait another six months to begin classes.

The 30-year-old teacher, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said he found out about the change in February last year after MOE replied to his email query on the starting date of his course.

He claimed that he has not received an official notification.

After spending the past year doing contract teaching, Mr Tan said he would have to continue for another year because of the change.

It is not clear how many prospective trainee teachers are affected by the shift in the timing of the intake this year, as the MOE did not reply to queries on the intake size of the PGDE (Primary).

The current teaching force is about 33,000 strong. On average, 2,000 new teachers are recruited each year.

Principals said the change was timely, given how more teachers are taking up MOE initiatives such as the Part-Time Teaching Scheme (PTTS), and the enhanced Professional Development Leave (PDL) scheme which allow teachers with at least six years' service to take leave at half pay to undergo professional development.

Punggol View Primary Principal Kelvin Tay said: "Having two batches would ease issues that come up when teachers are away, such as on maternity leave or professional development, and it would help fill deployment gaps."

As the school calendar begins in January, Nanyang Primary School Principal Lee Hui Feng noted that getting new teachers in the same month will reduce changes to teaching personnel in the middle of the school year.

- TODAY/xq



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Akbar Owaisi slapped with yet another case

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HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Police on Friday registered a third case against Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi for his alleged hate speeches while another court directed police to book the legislator, who is away in London.

A case under Indian Penal Code Section 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) was registered at Osmania University police station on Friday. Police took the action on the directions of a city court.

On Thursday the court, acting on a petition by an individual, directed police to book Akbar, as he is popularly called. Another court in Hyderabad adjourned to January 7 the hearing of petition by an advocate, seeking action against Akbar.

Meanwhile, a court in Ranga Reddy district, adjacent to Hyderabad, Friday directed LB Nagar police station in the district to register a case against Akbar under various sections of the IPC. The court order came on the petition by advocate Janardhan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged governor ESL Narasimhan to take action against Akbar for allegedly insulting Hindu religion and traditions. A delegation of BJP leaders, headed by the party's state chief G Kishan Reddy, called on the governor and demanded action against Akbar.

The BJP delegation complained that the state government did not take any action and it was some lawyers and concerned citizens who approached the courts.

The BJP and its frontal organizations staged protests in various parts of the state on Friday, demanding immediate arrest of Akbar. They also demanded that he should be disqualified as member of the legislative assembly.

Assembly speaker N Manohar said many people, through phone and e-mails, complained about the alleged provocative remarks of the legislator. If a formal complaint is lodged, the house committee would look into it, Manohar said.

Earlier, police pasted a notice at the residence of the MIM leader, who is away in London for medical treatment.

A day after registering the cases, police in Adilabad and Nizamabad districts served notice on the legislator. As nobody was at his house in Banjara Hills here, police pasted the notices on the wall of the main entrance.

Akbar has been asked to appear before police on January 8 at Nirmal town and on January 9 at Nizamabad for questioning with regard to the speeches he delivered at public meetings at Nirmal and Nizamabad towns last month.

Akbar, who is leader of the MIM in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, faces arrest as the police have booked him under non-bailable sections of the IPC.

The cases have been registered under Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war against the state), Section 153 (A) and Section 295A (for deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

Director general of police V Dinesh Reddy on Thursday said they may also seek Interpol's help if the legislator is found to be deliberately delaying his appearance before police. He denied any soft-pedalling on the issue and attributed the delay to seeking legal opinion before proceeding against a legislator.

Akbar, who represents Chandrayangutta assembly constituency, is the younger brother of MIM chief and MP from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi.

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What Lives in Your Gut?

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As we enter a new year, many of us will start thinking—if only temporarily—about improving our diet and lifestyle habits. Maybe you'll resolve to drink more water, eat less fat, get more exercise.

But what does your gut want? A new citizen science project aims to find out.

"What diet should you be eating to achieve an optimal, healthy microbiome in your gut? We don't know yet but finding out could be the key to helping people overcome many chronic diseases," said Jeff Leach, co-founder of the American Gut project.

(Read about the secret world of microbes in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine.)

The concept of the crowd-funded project is simple: Pay $99, get a sample collection kit, and mail back a test tube containing "a little bit of brown" swabbed from your used toilet paper. Participants will also be asked to log their food intake for three days and answer a detailed questionnaire about how and where they live.

"Are you a vegetarian? Were you born via C-section? Do you live in a rural or urban area? Do you have dogs? All of these things can influence your microbiome," Leach said.

In return, participants will receive an analysis revealing what organisms dwell in their gut and showing how their own microbial ecosystem compares to others—including a group of hunter-gatherers Leach has been studying in Tanzania. (That research has not yet been published, but he says it reveals "big differences" between the guts of people who consume a Western diet of highly processed foods and those who eat more traditional diets.)

"There's been a lot of research about the human microbiome recently, but the general public never gets to figure out what's in their gut unless you do something like this," said Leach.

Microbes play several vital roles in the gut, including maintaining the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract, protecting against pathogens, and helping the body harvest calories and digest fiber.

Having too much or too little of certain bacteria could contribute to inflammation, a key factor in many chronic diseases. Recent studies have linked diabetes and obesity to imbalances in gut bacteria.

"We want people to understand that this is a major aspect of their health that's in their control," Leach said. "You're born with your genes, but you can shift your microbiome through diet and lifestyle changes."

About a thousand people have joined the project so far, and Leach is hoping another 3,000 or more will sign up to receive a kit before the February 1 deadline.

For more information, visit the American Gut Project http://humanfoodproject.com/american-gut/.


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