All about News Directors

Source: China Daily (Original Article)

BEIJING  – With a third group of Chinese peacekeepers sent to Sudan to replace their predecessors, China has sent more than 10,000 peacekeepers to participate in 18 UN peace-keeping missions.

At the request of the United Nations and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, China decided to participate in a hybrid force of the United Nations and the African Union.

China promised to send a 315-member engineering unit to Darfur. So far, the first group of 143 engineers has been dispatched to Darfur, where it is at work.

“The remaining members of the engineering units to be sent to Darfur are now ready for departure and will be fully deployed by mid-July,” the Monday edition of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Daily quoted Wei Yanwei, vice director of the Peace-Keeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, as saying.

China joined the UN Special Committee on Peace-Keeping Operations in 1988 and sent five military observers to the UN Truce Organization in 1990. In 1992, 400 engineering troops were sent for peacekeeping work in Cambodia. And, to date, more than 10,000 Chinese peacekeepers have taken part in missions in such countries as Congo, Libya, Lebanon and Sudan.

“China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, shoulders an important responsibility in missions related to global peace and security,and China’s active participation in UN peace-keeping activities reflects its stance to support the world body and its decisions,” said Wei.

“Besides fulfilling peace-keeping tasks assigned by the United Nations, Chinese peacekeepers help local people to improve their living standards,” Wei added.

The peacekeepers have built or repaired more than 200 bridges and 7,500 kilometers of roads and treated nearly 50,000 patients, official statistics show.

“Chinese peacekeepers not only fulfill their obligations for peacekeeping missions, but also convey Chinese people’s friendship Frequent Flyer Cards and love of peace to the …continue reading

Source: NewsBlaze (Original Article)

By Charles W. Corey

World prices for oil and food commodities are closely linked, and six key factors are creating a “perfect storm” of conditions that are boosting prices worldwide, a group of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) economists said June 23.

Members of the group who spoke to America.gov, include Michael J. Dwyer, director and chief economist for the Foreign Agricultural Service; Daniel B. Whitley, deputy director of that office; and Hui Jiang, a USDA agricultural economist.

Normally, Dwyer said, the international system is dynamic enough to handle one or two simultaneous shocks, but the number of factors in play today “pretty much overwhelms the system’s ability to deal with it, and prices are spiking sharply higher.”

He and his colleagues outlined six factors.

First, higher energy prices have led to higher input costs for pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides (many of which are petroleum-based), higher processing costs and higher costs for transportation - which directly affects the cost of food being shipped overseas.

“Right now, to ship a ton of corn out of New Orleans to Asia [costs] about $130,” a dramatic increase from not long ago. “When farmers have to pay more for their fertilizers and other inputs,” Dwyer said, “it means these higher food prices are not all pure profit to a producer because their costs are up as well.”

Dwyer said it is incorrect to single out the current U.S. biofuels policy, which promotes the conversion of some corn into biofuels, for driving up prices.

“A lot of the world press is covering this issue right now, and it is probably the number one issue in the newspapers around the world. Unfortunately, a lot of the newspapers have unfairly scapegoated the U.S biofuels policy as the driver behind why corn prices and commodity prices in general have spiked sharply higher in the last 18 months.

“We don’t dispute that ethanol has had a Citibank Gold role,” he said. “What we are …continue reading

Source: Denver Post (Original Article)

Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill. (Associated Press)WASHINGTON, D.C. — Colorado voters prefer Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain for president by a five-point margin, a lead also found in three other swing states in a new poll released today.
Voters in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin pick Obama over McCain, according to the poll by Quinnipiac University in partnership with the Wall Street Journal and washingtonpost.com.
In Minnesota, Obama leads by 17 points. The polls come after a Quinnipiac poll last week of voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania that also showed Obama leading.
“If you look at these seven polls together if these numbers were to hold, it would be very difficult to see how Sen. Obama doesn’t win the presidency by a very comfortable margin,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Brown cautioned, however, that in previous presidential election cycles, Democratic candidates John Kerry and Michael Dukakis had healthy leads in June and then lost in November.
In Colorado, the poll also showed Democrat Mark Udall leading over Republican Bob Schaffer in the Senate race by a 10-point margin, with 12 percent of voters undecided.
Colorado voters also overwhelmingly favor a ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to outlaw preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin for state hiring, contracting or school admission. The poll showed 66 percent in favor and 15 percent opposed, with 18 percent undecided.
Obama leads among Independent voters. In Colorado, they said they’d vote for Obama over McCain by 12 points.
The Republican has the support of the state’s men 50 percent to 45. But Obama leads 53-39 percent among Colorado women likely voters.
White voters split with 47 percent for McCain and 46 percent for Obama as Hispanic voters go Democratic 62-36 percent.
Obama leads 53-45 percent with voters 18 to LAZYTOWN dvd 34 years old and 49-42 percent …continue reading

Source: Bizjournals.com (Original Article)

An effort to land one of amateur hockey's most prestigious tournaments has received a boost from New York state's U.S. senators.

Both Sen. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton have written letters of support on Buffalo's behalf as the city attempts to secure the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation's "World Under 20 Championships." The nearly two-week long event, held annually in late December and early january, brings together some of the world's top amateur-level men's ice hockey players, many of whom have either been drafted by National Hockey League teams.

Buffalo's bid is being put together by the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Buffalo Sabres. Neither organization would comment on the bid.

Bids are due to USA Hockey, which select the host city, by early August.

The economic impact is expected to top, by several million dollars, the $7.4 million generated locally when HSBC Arena has hosted NCAA regional men's basketball playoffs.

The last time the IIHF Under 20s was held in the U.S. was 2005 when it was run from Grand Forks, N.D., and Thief River Falls, Minn. It has also been held in Boston, Anchorage and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The tournament started in 1977. Ottawa will host the 2009 competition and Canada will also host the 2010 event after Switzerland withdrew its bid. Canada is also bidding for the 2012 tournament.

Both Schumer and Clinton cited Buffalo's long love and support of hockey from amateur levels through the NHL as one of the primary reasons the city should be selected. They also mentioned that Canada is Buffalo's geographic neighbor.

"Buffalo is a city of fans that live, eat and breathe hockey, and with another huge fan base just across the border in Canada, I can think of no better city to host the 2011 Under 20 World Championships," Clinton wrote in HI5 dvd a letter to David Ogrean, executive …continue reading

Source: Reuters UK (Original Article)

By Stuart Grudgings

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A group that campaigns for tribal peoples’ rights denied on Tuesday that it and the Brazilian government had misled the media over photographs of an uncontacted Indian tribe in the Amazon last month.

The Observer reported on Sunday that the tribe, rather than being “undiscovered”, had been known by the Brazilian government for nearly 100 years and the photos were an attempt to publicize the risk it faced from logging.

Its story prompted some other media to call the photographs a hoax.

But Survival International, the London-based group that helped publicize the photographs on May 29, said that it had not described the tribe as “lost” and had said at the time the aim was to show the world they existed.

“These Indians are in a reserve expressly set aside for the protection of uncontacted tribes: they were hardly ‘unknown’,” Survival International Director Stephen Corry said in a statement.

“What is, and remains, true, is that so far as is known these Indians have no peaceful contact with outsiders.”

The dramatic pictures of pigment-covered Indians threatening the photographer’s aircraft with bows and arrows were carried by media worldwide, with many reporting the tribe was “lost” and a completely new discovery.

The Observer said the images had been presented as an “apparently chance encounter” and that the fact the Indians were already known raised “awkward” questions over the decision to ANZ Frequent Flyer Card photograph them — “a form of contact in itself”.  Continued…

Source: The Register-Guard (Original Article)

The June 8 guest viewpoint by Col. Ken Molly suggests that he has been misled by propaganda rather than informed by history. His account of the June 8, 1967, Israeli attack on the USS Liberty is saturated with errors.

Sadly, the Liberty was not supposed to be in the Six Day War combat zone. The House Armed Services Committee’s investigation in 1971 established that five messages ordering the Liberty to stand off were not received in a timely fashion because of flaws in the U.S. military communications system.

The United States had announced to the world at the United Nations that it had no ships within hundreds of miles of the war zone.

Investigations and reports by the U.S. Navy, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and several congressional committees all concluded the attack was a tragic case of mistaken identity. There is no evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the ship was American. Documentation may be viewed at www.thelibertyincident.com.

On Feb. 27, 1978, Sen. James Abourezk, D-S.D., asked the director of the CIA, “Finally, could I have your judgment and that of the agency you head, based on information acquired by the agency from all sources, that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was deliberate or an honest mistake?” Adm. Stansfield Turner, director of the CIA, replied: “It remains our best judgment that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was not made in malice toward the United States and was a mistake.”

On Jan. 12, 2004, the State Department released Volume XIX of its summary of Foreign Relations of the United States, which stated in part: “After extensive investigation, the CIA and the NSA concluded that there was ‘little doubt’ that the attacking Israeli units ‘failed to identify the Liberty as a U.S. ship before or during the attack’ and that they had mobile pix mistakenly identified the ship as Egyptian.”

Nevertheless, …continue reading

Source: Inquirer.net (Original Article)

Threatens Metro other parts of Luzon

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon “Frank” (international codename: Fengsheng) weakened slightly, and changed its track further northwest towards Manila Bay, the chief of the state weather bureau said late Saturday evening.

While the storm was unlikely to directly hit Metro Manila, public storm signal number 3 was nonetheless raised in the capital, Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) director Pricso Nilo said in a phone interview.
The storm would hit the mouth of Manila Bay, some 50 to 100 kilometers away from the mainland, or the Bondoc Peninsula, before dawn Sunday, before exiting through Zambales province in eastern Central Luzon, Nilo said.

The weakening of a high pressure area near Taiwan caused “Frank” to change course, Nilo said.

At 10 p.m., the eye of the storm, which packs maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 150 kilometers per hour near the center, was located 70 kilometers southeast of Calapan City.

Copyright 2008 INQUIRER.net. All rights reserved. sudoku strategy This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: AFP (Original Article)

Police officers enter the My Name Is Earl dvd Greenpeace Japan office in Tokyo to seize evidence

Other Stories

Source: Louisville Business First (Original Article)

This fall, Keeneland in Lexington will begin live race coverage and limited simulcasts in high-definition format.

The track has established a high-definition production center, and plans to debut the format with the opening of its 2008 fall race meeting on Oct. 3.

High-definition broadcasts will be available via trackside television monitors, the infield LED tote board and certain television broadcasts, such as those produced by ESPN, Keeneland announced Wednesday in a news release.

"Sports fans are demanding more HD programming — it’s a dynamic format, and one that is perfect for thoroughbred racing," Keeneland Director of Broadcast Services G. D. Hieronymous said. "Nothing rivals the excitement of being at the easy sudoku track, but watching horse racing in HD comes close."

Source: Hemscott (Original Article)

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Hill Station Plc., said its sales in April and May
were significantly below expectations due to the capped invoice discounting
facility, adding that a new one with a higher limit is now in place.

However, the outcome for the first half ended April 30 2008 is encouraging with
EBIT being in line with management expectations.

The manufacturer of premium branded and private-label ice creams, said its
factory is now regularly achieving record levels of production as stocks are
being rebuilt and the company is more than encouraged by current manufacturing
performance which it believes augers well for the future.

Hill Station also agreed to a new invoice discounting facility for up to 3
million pounds, and is in operation with Cattles Invoice Finance Ltd.

The facility may be terminated by either party with six months notice.

The company said an additional support from shareholders in the form of 500,000
pounds of new loan stock repayable in 6 months has also been agreed subject to
contract.

Separately, the company announced that Gwyn Jones has today resigned as a
director of the company with immediate effect, and William James Mapstone who
joined as executive chairman on ANZ Visa Debit Card Jan 31 2007, has been appointed non-executive
chairman. TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com vsr/lam