World powers and Iran end talks, sides to meet again

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers ended two days of talks with Iran on Wednesday with no sign of a breakthrough, and the two sides have agreed to meet at expert level in Istanbul next month and to hold further high-level negotiations in Kazakhstan in April.

At the talks that ended in the Kazakh city of Almaty, the six world powers - France, Germany, the United States, China Russia and Britain - offered to lift some sanctions if Iran scaled back nuclear activity the West fears could be used to build bombs. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

Hopes of a significant easing of the deadlock in the decade-old dispute were dented when Russian media cited a source close to the talks as saying there had been no clear progress.

"So far there is no particular rapprochement. There is an impression that the atmosphere is not very good," Interfax news agency quoted the source as saying shortly before the talks ended.

Iran said the expert-level talks between the two sides would be held in Istanbul on March 18 and another round of political negotiations in Almaty on April 5-6.

Russia's negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said the Istanbul meeting would take place on March 17-18 and gave the same dates as Iran of April 5-6 for the Almaty talks.

The meeting in Almaty that ended on Wednesday was the first between the world powers and Iran in eight months. Western officials described the first day of the talks as "useful". Iranian state television described the atmosphere in the discussions as "very serious".

The outcome will be closely watched in Israel, which has strongly hinted that it could attack Iran's nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Tehran's uranium enrichment program.

Iran says Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to peace and denies Western allegations it is seeking to develop the capability to make atomic bombs. It says it is only aiming to produce nuclear energy so that it can export more oil.

In their latest attempt to break years of stalemate in the dispute, the powers are offering Iran a relaxation of some of the sanctions that are taking a heavy toll on its economy.

Western officials have confirmed the offer includes some limited sanctions easing if Iran closes a underground site where it carries out its most controversial uranium enrichment work.

Diplomats had seen scant chances of a conclusive deal with Iran before a June presidential election - with the political elite preoccupied with domestic issues - but they had hoped to hold follow-up talks soon.

(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Almaty, Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powers-wait-hear-iran-response-nuclear-offer-043022098.html

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Tweets, pics give real-time peek into North Korea

In this Feb. 16, 2013 photo taken with an iPhone and posted to Instagram on Feb. 16 , 2013, North Korean school boys play with an Associated Press photographer's professional camera in front of statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea. On Jan. 18, 2013, foreigners were allowed for the first time to bring mobile phones into North Korea. And this week the local service provider, Koryolink, is allowing foreigners to access the Internet on a data capable 3G connection on mobile phones.(AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this Feb. 16, 2013 photo taken with an iPhone and posted to Instagram on Feb. 16 , 2013, North Korean school boys play with an Associated Press photographer's professional camera in front of statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea. On Jan. 18, 2013, foreigners were allowed for the first time to bring mobile phones into North Korea. And this week the local service provider, Koryolink, is allowing foreigners to access the Internet on a data capable 3G connection on mobile phones.(AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this Feb. 20, 2013 photo taken with an iPhone and posted to Instagram on Feb. 21, 2013, North Korean nurses care for infants in cribs inside a maternity hospital, in Pyongyang, North Korea. On Jan. 18, 2013, foreigners were allowed for the first time to bring mobile phones into North Korea. And this week the local service provider, Koryolink, is allowing foreigners to access the Internet on a data capable 3G connection on mobile phones. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this Jan. 8, 2013 photo taken with an iPod Touch and posted to instagram on Jan. 8, 2013, North Koreans walk along a Pyongyang street and seen through a coffee shop window curtain. On Jan. 18, 2013, foreigners were allowed for the first time to bring mobile phones into North Korea. And this week the local service provider, Koryolink, is allowing foreigners to access the Internet on a data capable 3G connection on mobile phones. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 photo posted to Instagram on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, a North Korean guide uses a pointer at the start of a tour of an historic site in Pyongyang. On Jan. 18, 2013, foreigners were allowed for the first time to bring mobile phones into North Korea. And this week the local service provider, Koryolink, is allowing foreigners to access the Internet on a data capable 3G connection on mobile phones. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this photo posted on Instagram, a man walks in Pyongyang, North Korea, under a new roadside banner referring to North Korea's controversial Feb. 12 nuclear test Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Tweeting and uploading to Instagram is pretty ordinary stuff in the world of social media, but revolutionary for North Korea. (AP Photo/Jean H. Lee)

"Hello world from comms center in (hash)Pyongyang."

That Twitter missive, sent Monday from Koryolink's main service center in downtown Pyongyang using my iPhone, marked a milestone for North Korea: It was believed to be the first tweet sent from a cellphone using the country's new 3G mobile data service.

Later, as we were driving through Pyongyang, I used my iPhone to snap a photo of a new roadside banner referring to North Korea's controversial Feb. 12 nuclear test while AP's Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder uploaded an image to Instagram of a tour guide at a mountain temple, geotagged to Pyongyang.

Pretty ordinary stuff in the world of social media, but revolutionary for North Korea, a country with intricate rules to stage manage the flow of images and information both inside and beyond its borders.

In the past, rules were strict for tourists visiting North Korea. On a bus journey across the Demilitarized Zone into the border city of Kaesong in 2008, we were told: No cellphones, no long camera lenses, no shooting photos without permission. The curtains were drawn to prevent us from looking outside as we drove through the countryside, and through the cracks we could see soldiers stationed along the road with red flags. We were warned they'd raise those flags and stop the bus for inspection if they spotted a camera pointed out the window. As we left North Korea, immigration officials went through our cameras, clicking through the photos to make sure we weren't taking home any images that were objectionable.

In 2009, I did not offer up my iPhone as we went through customs. But to no avail. The eagle-eyed officer dug deep into the pocket where I'd tucked the phone away, wagged his finger and slipped the phone into a little black bag. No phone, no address book, no music: It was as though I'd left the modern world behind at Sunan airport and stepped back in time to a seemingly prehistoric analog era.

Eventually, Guttenfelder and I settled into a working routine. We'd leave our cellphones at the airport but use locally purchased phones with SIM cards provided by Koryolink, the joint Egyptian-North Korean cellphone venture that established a 3G network in 2008, but without data. We brought iPod Touches and connected to the world, including Twitter, using broadband Internet that may be installed on request at our hotel, which is for international visitors.

We knew in January that change was afoot. "Bring your own phone next time," a Koryolink saleswoman told me at the airport as we were departing. The next day, the longstanding rule of requiring visitors to relinquish their phones was gone.

But we were waiting for the day when Koryolink would begin offering mobile Internet, and hounded the Egyptians posted to North Korea from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology for news.

"Soon," they kept telling us.

Last week, they called with good news: 3G mobile Internet would be available within a week ? only for foreigners.

All we had to do when we arrived in February was show our passports, fill out a registration form, provide our phones' IMEI numbers and pop in our Koryolink SIM cards. It's a costly luxury: SIM cards are 50 euros, or about $70, and while calls to Switzerland are an inexplicably cheap 38 euro cents a minute, calls to the U.S. cost about $8 a minute.

After reporting last week on the imminent availability of 3G mobile Internet, we turned up at the Koryolink offices Monday to be among the first ones to activate the service.

After paying a steep 75-euro fee and sending a text to activate the service, we waited for the 3G symbol to pop up on our phones.

Moments later, I sent the inaugural tweet, which was queued up and ready to go. There was a little celebration that morning in the Koryolink office among the Egyptians who labored to set up the service and their North Korean partners.

Our North Korean colleagues watched with surprise as we showed them we could surf the Internet from our phones.

Koreans, North and South, love gadgets.

Not all North Koreans have local cellphones. Those who do use them to call colleagues to arrange work meetings, phone and text friends to set up dinner dates and ring home to check in on their babies. They snap photos with their phones and swap MP3s. They read North Korean books and the Workers' Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, on their phones.

But they cannot surf the "international" Internet, as they call it. The World Wide Web remains strictly off limits for most North Koreans. North Korean universities have their own fairly sophisticated Intranet system, though the material posted to it is closely vetted by authorities and hews to propaganda. Students say they can email one another, but they can't send emails outside the country.

Leader Kim Jong Un has pushed science and technology as major policy directives, and we're starting to see more laptops in North Korean offices. The new Samjiyon tablet computer, made in China for the North Korean market, was sold out when I last checked at a local computer shop.

Even during the days when no mobile data were available, Guttenfelder figured out a way to activate Wi-Fi sharing among his laptop, iPod touch and iPhone, and began posting geotagged pictures to Instagram. Using Loopcam, I began uploading small GIF videos that have the feel of an old-fashioned flipbook, giving movement and life to the scene on the street.

These are snapshots captured as we go about our daily life working in North Korea: a man getting a haircut at a barber shop, traffic cops lacing up ice skates, a villager hauling a bundle of firewood on her back as she trudges through a snowy field. Some are quirky, unexpected things that catch our attention: a blinking Christmas tree in February, the cartoon "Madagascar" showing on state TV, a basket of baguettes at the supermarket.

And some are politically telling: the empty highway from Pyongyang, people piling onto trucks for transportation, postcards showing soldiers attacking Americans, banners praising the scientists who sent a rocket into space. Despite the new construction, gadgets and consumer goods, North Korea is still grappling with grave economic hardship. It's a society governed by a web of strict rules and regulations, a nation wary of the outside world.

Often, they are images, videos and details that may not make it onto the AP's products but provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a country largely hidden from view even in our globalized, interconnected world. They help give a sense of the feel, smell and look of the place away from the pomp of the orchestrated events shown by the state media. It is a way for us to share what we see, large and small, during our long stays in a nation off limits to most Western journalists and still largely a mystery, even to us.

On Monday evening, while discussing how to cover the arrival of ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman and describing his array of tattoos and nose rings, we did what wasn't possible in the past: We Googled him from a local restaurant.

Twenty-four hours later, Rodman himself appeared to be online and tweeting from North Korea.

"I come in peace. I love the people of North Korea!" he wrote.

___

Jean H. Lee is the AP's bureau chief for North Korea and South Korea, and has made more than 20 trips to North Korea since 2008. Follow (at)newsjean on Twitter, Loopcam and Instagram. Follow (at)dguttenfelder on Twitter and Instagram.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-27-Tweeting%20in%20North%20Korea/id-53d1a9f99c78429393d2e7534f2af57c

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Budget battle guide: This time may be for real

Air Force personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama on board, arrives at in the rain at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The president was returning from Newport News, Va., for an event on the automatic budget cuts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Air Force personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama on board, arrives at in the rain at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The president was returning from Newport News, Va., for an event on the automatic budget cuts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Standing in front of a ships propeller, President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about about automatic defense budget cuts, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Following a closed-door party caucus, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by fellow GOP leaders, meet with reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, to challenge President Obama and the Senate to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to take effect in four days. Speaking at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Boehner complained that the House, with Republicans in the majority, has twice passed bills that would replace the across-the-board cuts known as the "sequester" with more targeted reductions, while the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, has not acted. From left are, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Boehner, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by fellow members of the House GOP leadership, responds to President Barack Obama's remarks to the nation's governors earlier today about how to fend off the impending automatic budget cuts, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? America's leaders have threatened to shut the government down, drive it over a cliff and bounce it off the ceiling. Now they're ready to smack it with a "sequester." And it sounds like they mean it this time.

If no one backs down, big cuts in federal spending begin Friday. Should Americans be worried?

A primer on the nation's latest fiscal standoff ? how we got here, who could get hurt and possible ways to end this thing:

___

What, again?

Like life in a bad Road Runner cartoon, the United States has survived the New Year's "fiscal cliff," double rounds of debt-ceiling roulette and various budget blow-ups over the past two years. Now the threat is $85 billion in indiscriminate spending cuts that would hit most federal programs and fall hardest on the military.

By law, these cuts known as the "sequester" will begin unfolding automatically at week's end unless President Barack Obama and Congress act to stop them.

Why did they agree to a law like that? In hopes of finally getting the nation's trillion-dollar-plus annual budget deficits under control.

___

Isn't deficit-cutting good?

Obama, nearly all of Congress and plenty of economists say two things:

1) The budget deficit needs to be reduced.

2) The sequester is the wrong way to do it.

"Only a fool would do it this way," says Paul Light, a budget expert at New York University. "Primordial. It's beyond belief."

It makes him think of the movie "Dr. Strangelove," with Slim Pickens riding bronco on an atomic bomb, waving his cowboy hat.

The sequester was designed to land with a mighty splat ? to create such a mess if allowed to occur that lawmakers would do the right and honorable thing and negotiate a measured, meaningful and discerning package of deficit reduction to head it off. But that didn't happen, so the sequester is about to.

And, yes, that should mean progress on the nation's debt. The sequester is one of several developments expected to restrain the nation's red ink after four straight years of deficits topping $1 trillion.

Yee-haw.

___

Are the cuts really that bad?

It's unlikely they will be as bad ? or at least as immediate ? as some overexcited members of the Obama administration have made out. But the cuts have the potential to be significant if the standoff drags on.

Early on, about 2 million long-term unemployed people could see a $30 cut in benefit checks now averaging $300 a week. Federal subsidies for school construction, clean energy and state and local public works projects could be pinched. Low-income pregnant women and new mothers may find it harder to sign up for food aid.

Much depends on how states and communities manage any shortfalls in aid from Washington.

Furloughs of federal employees are for the most part a month or more away. Then, they might have to take up to a day off per week without pay.

That's when the public could start seeing delays at airports, disruptions in meat inspection, fewer services at national parks and the like.

An impasse lasting into the fall would reach farther, probably shrinking Head Start slots, for example.

Much of the federal budget is off-limits to the automatic cuts. Among exempted programs: Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and veterans' programs.

Even so, officials warn of a hollowed-out military capability, compromised border security and spreading deterioration of public services if the sequester continues. It's "like a rolling ball," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "It keeps growing."

___

Maybe it's fiscal-crisis fatigue.

Americans are yawning this one off. Only 27 percent of those surveyed for a Pew Research Center/USA Today poll last week said they had heard a lot about the looming automatic spending cuts.

Less than a third think the budget cuts would deeply affect their own financial situation, according to a Washington Post poll. Sixty percent, however, believe the cuts would have a major effect on the U.S. economy.

That's what economists and business people are nervous about.

The political standoff is the factor that economists blame most for the slowing economy, according to the latest Associated Press Economic Survey. The uncertainty is causing businesses to hold back on investment and hiring, and it's making consumers less confident about spending, economists warn.

___

How did it come to this?

Obama and congressional Republicans have been deadlocked over spending since the GOP won control of the House in 2010, with a big boost from tea party activists who champion lower taxes and an end to red-ink budgets.

House Republicans refused to raise the nation's borrowing limit in 2011 without major deficit cuts. To resolve the stalemate, Congress passed and Obama signed the Budget Control Act, which temporarily allowed borrowing to resume, set spending caps and created a bipartisan "supercommittee" to recommend at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. Republicans and Democrats on the committee failed to compromise, however.

That triggered the law's doomsday scenario ? the so-called "fiscal cliff" package of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts.

In a New Year's Eve deal, Obama and Congress agreed to raise taxes on some of the nation's wealthiest earners. And they postponed the spending cuts for two months ? until Friday.

That was supposed to buy time to cut a deal.

___

No surrender?

As the days melt into hours, neither side shows sign of blinking ? or even negotiating.

Obama insists on a blend of targeted spending cuts and tax increases. Republican leaders reject any more tax increases and say the savings must come from spending cuts.

While both sides talk about reducing the deficit, Obama and other Democrats say this must be done gradually, to avoid wounding an already weak economy.

The president is taking his case to the people, blasting Republicans at campaign-style events. GOP leaders, just back from a congressional vacation themselves, are publicly grousing that Obama should be bargaining with them, not grand-standing.

___

Is there a way out?

Expect intense negotiations to begin in Washington if enough Americans begin yelping about the pain from reduced federal spending.

Obama and Congress could agree to pare down the budget cuts to a more logical package of reductions, perhaps with some tax changes, too. Such a deal could also retroactively restore spending where they want to.

The "sequester" isn't the only line in the sand, however.

On March 27, legislation that has been temporarily financing the government expires. Without agreement to extend it, the threat of a government shutdown looms again. Later in the spring, it will be time to raise the nation's debt limit again.

So far, two years of budget crises have been settled with quick fixes. They have barely dented the underlying disagreement over how to reform Medicare, Social Security, taxes and spending to address the nation's long-term deficit problem.

If those festering questions remain unanswered, the U.S. economy will remain a hostage to politics.

___

Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ConnieCass

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-26-US-Budget-Battle-News-Guide/id-7ea9d2c74c954552aaa63d0c7377265a

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development stage or start up company valuation - Securities Law ...

The question:

As the economy has been gaining strength, so have the number of entrepreneurs seeking private equity investments through pre-packaged structured private placement offerings, and negotiated venture and angel capital sources.? A question that arises almost daily in my practice is how to determine a valuation for a development stage or start-up venture.? Determining a valuation is instrumental to answering the overriding questions of what percentage of a company is being sold and at what price.

The Answer:

For business entities with operating history, revenue, profit margins and the like, valuation is determined by mathematical calculations and established mathematically based matrixes.? For a development stage or start-up venture, the necessary elements to complete a mathematical analysis simply do not exist.

In the case of a pre-packaged private placement offering for a development stage or start up venture, valuation is an arbitrary guess, a best estimate.? In the case of a negotiated investment with a venture capital or angel investor, valuation is a negotiated guess or best estimate.? The guess and best estimate is based on in-depth due diligence, market studies, competitive analysis, and perhaps most importantly, an assessment of management ability.

In determining valuation a company must consider both pre and post money valuation.? That is, what is the business worth prior to an investment and what will it be worth after the private placement taking into consideration the use of proceeds from the private investment.? The Company will want the investment to be finalized at the higher post money valuation and the investor will want it at the lower pre money valuation.

Discussion:

Establishing valuation for a development stage or start up entity ultimately comes down to an investor?s perception of risk vs. reward.? Risk is easy to determine, if $xx are invested, $xx dollars can be lost.? Reward on the other hand is an elusive prospect based on the potential success of a business.? In the case of an investment by a venture capital or angel investor, such investor will conduct an in-depth due diligence and review of the business and determine the valuation they are willing to invest at, as a result of their findings.? I advise clients preparing a private placement offering memorandum to conduct that same due diligence review and present the results to potential investors, in the form of a private placement memorandum and business plan that supports the offering price and percentage.? Moreover, doing your homework upfront will ensure the best chance of success in the long run.

As further discussed below, in setting value, an analysis (due diligence) should be conducted on a minimum of the following: market data; competition; pricing and distribution strategies; assets and liabilities; hidden liabilities; inflated assets; technology risks; product development plans; legal structure; legal documentation; corporate formation documents and records; and management, including backgrounds on paper, and face to face assessments.

Whether preparing a private placement memorandum or negotiating with a venture investor, it will be the Issuer (company seeking the money), that will propose a valuation which may or may not be in sync with the valuation proposed by the investor.? It is important that this proposed valuation be grounded in reality and supported by research, or investors will not take you seriously and will not believe in management?s ability.

Areas of Consideration in Determining Valuation

The following areas should be researched and considered in determining a pre-money, development stage or start-up valuation.? The below list is in no particular order.

1.??????????? Investment comps:? have other investors, either private or public, recently funded similar companies and if so on what terms and conditions and at what valuation;

2.??????????? Market Data:? who what is your product market; what is the size of the market; how many new players enter the market on a yearly basis and what is their success rate;

3.??????????? Competition:? who are the major competitors; what is their valuation; how do you differ from these competitors;

4.??????????? Uniqueness of product or technology:? how is your product or technology unique; can it easily be duplicated; patent, trademark and other intellectual property protections;

5.??????????? Pricing and Distribution Strategies:? what are the major impediments to your successful entry into the marketplace; what is your plan for successful entry into the marketplace; have you considered order fulfillment including transportation costs; connections to end users for your product or service; what are profit margins and will the margins increase as the business grows and scales;

6.??????????? Capital investments to date: what capital investments have been made to the Company to date, including both financial and services; remember that you must believe and invest in your entity before others will;

7.??????????? Assets and liabilities:? what does the balance sheet look like; are their hidden liabilities; any off balance sheet arrangements; how are assets valued; are any assets either over or under valued; is their clear title to all assets;

8.??????????? Technology Risks:? what technologies do you rely upon; what is the state of evolvement of those technologies; can you keep up;

9.??????????? Product Development Plans:? do you have a model and samples; have they been tested; have you established manufacturing channels; exclusive contracts with manufacturers; what is your overall plan to bring your product to market and subsequently become a competitor in the industry;

10.????????? Legal Structure:? type of entity ? LLC, C Corp, partnership..; legal structure of current outstanding equity ? just common equity or common and preferred and if preferred what rights are associated therewith (redemption rights; liquidation preferences; dividends; voting rights..);

11.????????? Legal documentation:? not only whether corporate records are in order but are all contracts and arrangements properly documented;

12.????????? Future financing needs: ?Will significant future financing be necessary to achieve the business plan; what is the risk of a future down round (note that a down round is a future financing at a lower valuation resulting in dilution to the current investors);

13.????????? Exit strategies:? is the company planning on going public; is it or will it be a good buyout candidate; is the offering structured to include payback via either a debt instrument or dividend distribution;

14.????????? Management:? this is perhaps the most important consideration for the investment community; does the management team have a proven history of success; prior business experience in this and other industries; work ethics; general management skills; organization skills; presentation skills; research skills; coachability; ability to attract others with strong credentials who believe in the business and are willing to work to make the business a success; does management present well in meetings and face to face discussions;

15.????????? Flexibility: how flexible is management in structuring the deal and considering outside advice

16.????????? Developmental milestones:? has the Company achieved is developmental milestones to date;

Conclusion

Valuation is only one piece in the overall determination of an offering structure.? Regardless of a Company?s pre or post money valuation, the investor must make an ultimate decision regarding risk vs reward.? Valuation will help determine the offering price per share or unit, but another very important piece of the puzzle is the investment vehicle being offered.? The company and investor have a broad range of options including common stock; preferred stock with varying rights and preferences and debt instruments.? A follow up blog will discuss these various investment vehicle options.

The Author

Attorney Laura Anthony,
Founding Partner, Legal & Compliance, LLC
Securities, Reverse Merger and Corporate Attorneys

Securities attorney Laura Anthony provides ongoing corporate counsel to small and mid-size public companies as well as private companies intending to go public on the over-the-counter market, including the OTCBB and OTCQB. For nearly two decades, Ms. Anthony has dedicated her securities law practice to being ?the big firm alternative.? Clients receive fast and efficient cutting-edge legal service without the inherent delays and unnecessary expense of ?partner-heavy? securities law firms.

Ms. Anthony?s focus includes, but is not limited to, crowdfunding, registration statements, PIPE transactions, private placements, reverse mergers, and compliance with the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including Forms 10-Q, 10-K and 8-K, as well as the proxy requirements of Section 14. Moreover, Ms. Anthony represents both target and acquiring companies in reverse mergers and forward mergers, including the preparation of deal documents such as Merger Agreements, Stock Purchase Agreements, Asset Purchase Agreements and Reorganization Agreements. Ms. Anthony prepares the necessary documentation and assists in completing the requirements of federal and state securities laws and SROs such as FINRA and DTC for corporate changes such as name changes, reverse and forward splits and change of domicile.

Contact Legal & Compliance LLC for a free initial consultation or second opinion on an existing matter.

Follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn

Source: http://securities-law-blog.com/2013/02/26/structuring-the-private-placement-investment-%E2%80%93development-stage-or-start-up-company-valuation/

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Sleep reinforces learning

Feb. 26, 2013 ? During sleep, our brains store what we have learned during the day ? a process even more effective in children than in adults.

It is important for children to get enough sleep. Children's brains transform subconsciously learned material into active knowledge while they sleep -- even more effectively than adult brains do, according to a study by Dr. Ines Wilhelm of the University of T?bingen's Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology. Dr Wilhelm and her Swiss and German colleagues have published their results in Nature Neuroscience.

Studies of adults have shown that sleeping after learning supports the long-term storage of the material learned, says Dr Wilhelm. During sleep, memory is turned into a form that makes future learning easier; implicit knowledge becomes explicit and therefore becomes more easily transferred to other areas.

Children sleep longer and deeper, and they must take on enormous amounts of information every day. In the current study, the researchers examined the ability to form explicit knowledge via an implicitly-learned motor task. Children between 8 and 11, and young adults, learned to guess the predetermined series of actions -- without being aware of the existence of the series itself. Following a night of sleep or a day awake, the subjects' memories were tested. The result: after a night's sleep, both age groups could remember a larger number of elements from the row of numbers than those who had remained awake in the interim. And the children were much better at it than the adults.

"In children, much more efficient explicit knowledge is generated during sleep from a previously learned implicit task, says Wilhelm. And the children's extraordinary ability is linked with the large amount of deep sleep they get at night. "The formation of explicit knowledge appears to be a very specific ability of childhood sleep, since children typically benefit as much or less than adults from sleep when it comes to other types of memory tasks."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universitaet T?bingen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ines Wilhelm, Michael Rose, Kathrin I Imhof, Bj?ern Rasch, Christian B?echel, Jan Born. The sleeping child outplays the adult's capacity to convert implicit into explicit knowledge. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3343

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/fV85990kCLg/130226081155.htm

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Dennis Rodman worms his way into North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style ? tattoos, nose studs and all ? on Tuesday to a country with possibly the world's strictest dress code: North Korea.

Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as "The Worm" became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club.

Rodman is joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team and a VICE correspondent for a news show on North Korea that will air on HBO later this year, VICE producers told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday before they landed.

"It's my first time, I think it's most of these guys' first time here, so hopefully everything's going to be OK , and hoping the kids have a good time for the game," Rodman told reporters after arriving in Pyongyang.

Rodman and VICE's producers said the Americans hope to engage in a little "basketball diplomacy" by running a basketball camp for children and playing with North Korea's top basketball stars.

"Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes," said Shane Smith, the VICE founder who is host of the upcoming series, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing."

The notoriously unpredictable and irrepressible Rodman might seem an odd fit for regimented North Korea, where men's fashion rarely ventures beyond military khaki and where growing facial hair is forbidden.

Shown a photo of a snarling Rodman, piercings dangling from his lower lip and two massive tattoos emblazoned on his chest, one North Korean in Pyongyang recoiled and said: "He looks like a monster!"

But Rodman is also a Hall of Fame basketball player and one of the best defenders and rebounders to ever play the game. During a storied, often controversial career, he won five NBA championships ? a feat appreciated even in North Korea.

Rodman, now 51, was low-key and soft-spoken Tuesday in cobalt blue sweatpants and a Polo Ralph Lauren cap. There was a bit of flash: white-rimmed sunglasses and studs in his nose and lower lip. But he told AP he was there to teach basketball and talk to people, not to stir up trouble.

Showier were three Harlem Globetrotters dressed in fire-engine red. Rookie Moose Weekes flashed the crowd a huge smile as he made his way off the Air Koryo plane.

"We use the basketball as a tool to build cultural ties, build bridges among countries," said Buckets Blakes, a Globetrotters veteran. "We're all about happiness and joy and making people smile."

Rodman's trip is the second high-profile American visit this year to North Korea, a country that remains in a state of war with the U.S. It also comes two weeks after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of U.N. bans against atomic and missile activity.

Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a surprise four-day trip in January to Pyongyang, where he met with officials and toured computer labs, just weeks after North Korea launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket.

Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and others consider both the rocket launch and the nuclear test provocative acts that threaten regional security.

North Korea characterizes the satellite launch as a peaceful bid to explore space, but says the nuclear test was meant as a deliberate warning to Washington. Pyongyang says it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the U.S., and is believed to be trying to build an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S.

VICE, known for its sometimes irreverent journalism, has made two previous visits to North Korea, coming out with the "VICE Guide to North Korea." The HBO series, which will air weekly starting April 5, features documentary-style news reports from around the world.

The Americans also will visit North Korea's national monuments, the SEK animation studio and a new skate park in Pyongyang.

The U.S. State Department hasn't been contacted about travel to North Korea by this group, a senior administration official said, requesting anonymity to comment before any trip had been made public. The official said the department does not vet U.S. citizens' private travel to North Korea and urges U.S. citizens contemplating travel there to review a travel warning on its website.

In a now-defunct U.S.-North Korean agreement in which Washington had planned last year to give food aid to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear concessions, Washington had said it was prepared to increase people-to-people exchanges with the North, including in the areas of culture, education and sports.

Promoting technology and sports are two major policy priorities of Kim Jong Un, who took power in December 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

Along with soccer, basketball is enormously popular in North Korea, where it's not uncommon to see basketball hoops set up in hotel parking lots or in schoolyards. It's a game that doesn't require much equipment or upkeep.

The U.S. remains Enemy No. 1 in North Korea, and North Koreans have limited exposure to American pop culture. But they know Michael Jordan, a former teammate of Rodman's when they both played for the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.

During a historic visit to North Korea in 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented Kim Jong Il, famously an NBA fan, with a basketball signed by Jordan that later went on display in the huge cave at Mount Myohyang that holds gifts to the leaders.

North Korea even had its own Jordan wannabe: Ri Myong Hun, a 7-foot-9 star player who is said to have renamed himself "Michael" after his favorite player and moved to Canada for a few years in the 1990s in hopes of making it into the NBA.

Even today, Jordan remains well-loved here. At the Mansudae Art Studio, which produces the country's top art, a portrait of Jordan spotted last week, complete with a replica of his signature and "NBA" painted in one corner, seemed an odd inclusion among the propaganda posters and celadon vases on display.

An informal poll of North Koreans revealed that "The Worm" isn't quite as much a household name in Pyongyang.

But Kim Jong Un was a basketball-crazy adolescent when Rodman was with the Bulls, and when the Harlem Globetrotters kept up a frenetic travel schedule worldwide.

In a memoir about his decade serving as Kim Jong Il's personal sushi chef, a man who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto recalled that basketball was the young Kim Jong Un's biggest passion, and that the Chicago Bulls were his favorite.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul, at twitter.com/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dennis-rodman-worms-way-north-korea-051224872.html

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Federal trial of "Cannibal Cop" opens in New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Opening arguments were set to begin Monday afternoon in the federal trial of a New York City police officer accused of plotting last year with a New Jersey man to kidnap, cook and eat a Manhattan woman.

Officer Gilberto Valle says he was simply engaged in online role playing on a website for fans of violent sexual fetishes, and that he never intended to actually commit a crime.

In pre-trial hearings, prosecutors have quoted from a flurry of emails the pair traded last year, in which they appear to discuss the plot in great detail.

Valle, 28, and New Jersey mechanic Michael Van Hise, 22, mused over how to keep the victim alive until she could be cooked.

In one email, Valle warned Van Hise he needed "to definitely make sure" one purported target would not be found.

"She will definitely make news," the email said.

Defense attorneys have pointed to many of the same details to make a conflicting point.

"The whole purpose of this role play is to make it as realistic as possible," attorney Alice Fontier, who is representing Van Hise in a separate case, told a judge recently.

Prosecutors say Valle took "concrete steps" to act on the plot, including meeting with one woman from a list of dozens of targets investigators reported finding on his computer. He was also charged with improperly using a federal law enforcement database to get information on another.

Prosecutors over the weekend notified Valle's defense attorney Julia Gatto they were dropping their bid to introduce cell phone records they claimed showed Valle shriveled a third woman.

Valle faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted on a conspiracy to kidnap charge. New York tabloids gleefully dubbed Valle the "Cannibal Cop" after his arrest and suspension from the NYPD last fall.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Alden Bentley)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-trial-cannibal-cop-opens-york-161143018.html

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Obama warns of risks over budget cut uncertainty

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Monday said looming automatic spending cuts are already affecting the economy, while a top administration official warned that the nation's borders would be less secure if billions of dollars are yanked from the budget Friday.

"The uncertainty is already having an effect," Obama said. "Companies are preparing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cut back on expenses. The longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become."

Despite the urgent rhetoric, there was no indication the White House and congressional Republicans were actively negotiating a deal to avoid the so-called sequester ahead of the end of the week deadline. The last known conversation between Obama and GOP leaders was last week and there have been no in-person meetings between the parties this year.

With Congress back from a weeklong recess, House Speaker John Boehner showed little willingness to move off his long-held position that the sequester be offset through targeted spending cuts, not the package of cuts and tax increases Obama supports.

"Mr. President, you got your tax increase," Boehner said, referring to the tax rate increases that took effect on Jan. 1. "It's time to cut spending here in Washington."

The $85 billion budget-cutting mechanism could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. Domestic and defense spending alike would be trimmed, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of government workers and contractors.

The White House continued laying out in stark terms what the cuts would mean for government services, dispatching Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to warn of the implications for critical security functions.

"I don't think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester," said Napolitano, adding that the impact would be "'like a rolling ball. It will keep growing."

Napolitano focused in particular on the impact to the border, saying her agency would be forced to furlough 5,000 patrol agents. She tamped down the notion that budget cuts would make the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, but said the sequester would make it "awfully, awfully tough" to minimize that risk.

Also Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said visiting hours would be cut at all 398 national parks, just as they prepare for an influx of spring and summer visitors.

Elsewhere in the government, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said travelers could see delayed flights. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to Head Start programs. And furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled.

Obama will seek to build public support for his call to offset the sequester with a combination of targeted cuts and tax revenues Tuesday when he travels to Newport News, Va., a community that would be impacted by the defense cuts.

The sequester was designed as an unpalatable fallback, meant to take effect only if a congressional super-committee failed to come up with at least $1 trillion in savings from benefit programs.

Many of the nation's governors, who are gathered in Washington for their annual meeting, voiced frustration over the impending cuts, saying Washington's inability to strike a deal had created widespread uncertainty in the economy and hampered economic recovery in their states.

"The president needs to show leadership," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican considered a potential 2016 presidential contender, following a meeting with Obama. "The reality is it can be done. This administration has an insatiable appetite for new revenue."

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a favorite of her party's conservative wing, pointed her anger at both Democrats and Republicans.

"No one should be playing golf. No one should be taking vacations," Haley said, taking a shot at Obama's recent golf outing and Congress' latest recess. "What they need to do is do what these governors do every day. We stay until we get it done."

Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut concurred.

"They need to get out of that box that sits under the dome and understand that this has real implications in people's lives," he said. "Work with the president, find a way to get it done ? or if you want, just turn it over to us governors, and we'll negotiate."

The governors, emerging from a closed-door meeting with Obama Monday, said the president had assured them the administration is pursuing solutions, but offered no assurances that officials would find a way ahead out ahead of the deadline.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Steve Peoples and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-warns-risks-over-budget-cut-uncertainty-214308559--finance.html

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Video: Witness: Daytona debris fell ?like confetti at a party?

>> kevin meister had a bird's eye view. what did you see?

>> all the action really started as soon as drivers came around turn four and the checkered flag started waving. and the racers jumped on the gas and right before they hit the checkered finish, everybody started getting loose and made a block and all of a sudden there was a huge crash right into the gate and there was a car completely vertical, and all of a sudden you saw fiberglass just everywhere like confetti as a party.

>> tell me what was going on in the stands? you went down to the ledge to shoot what was below you. what did you see in terms of the people in the impact area?

>> right. as soon as i ran down to the ledge to, you know, see what had happened, see what exactly was going on, people were, you know, panicking, and police and ushers were trying to escort people out of area so that the medical teams to get to injured folks. there were a lot of people around trying to comfort those who were clearly injured. and i even saw a man take off his shirt and wrap it around a couple -- you know, lacerations that another man had. i saw another guy passing out water. but you really saw human compassion right after that happened. people were kind of in a state of shell shock .

>> kevin, you are a big nascar fan, seen a lot of crashes. and we've seen the fences to protect the crowd from flying debris from crashes. how shocking to see it go above that fence and into the area where the crowd was?

>> right, you see the fence and you feel pretty safe as a spectator, but until something like that actually happens and, you know, the engine actually broke through the fence. that was surreal, to think that something like that actually had a possibility of happening and did yesterday, i mean, was just devastati devastating.

>> you will attend the race today with no reservations?

>> no reservations at all. i'm an avid nascar fan. and thankfully we were out of the debris zone, but 15 feet in front of me, sort of right down below, it looked like a shock absorber , a metal rod of some type, came all the way up into my section in the upper deck .

>> very frightening fi ining pictures. thank you for spending time

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50927575/

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Lyoto Machida pulls out split-decision win over Dan Henderson at UFC 157

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Lyoto Machida took a split decision over Dan Henderson in the co-main event at UFC 157 on Saturday. The judges saw it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 for Machida.

Machida was elusive as usual in the first round, but Henderson was able to sneak in and land a few kicks and punches. At the end of the round, Machida took Henderson down with a leg trip and landed strikes.

The second round showed Machida still being elusive and keeping his distance from Henderson. Machida tried for a front kick several times, but couldn't land it. Meanwhile, Henderson couldn't land much.

[Also: Ronda Rousey survives UFC debut, wins via first-round arm bar]

Henderson is known for his big, overhand punches. Most of the time, when he throws it, it can mean the end of a fight. However, he had trouble getting close enough to Machida for the overhand to work.

In the third round, Machida moved in for a takedown but ended up with Henderson on top. Henderson used elbows from the top, but Machida was able to get out with less than two minutes left in the fight.

Before the fight, UFC president Dana White said that the winner of this bout will get the next title shot. UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put the title up against Chael Sonnen in April, but the next fight will likely go to Machida.

[Also: Josh Koscheck suffers upset loss]

Machida was once the UFC light heavyweight champion, but lost the title to Rua in 2010. Since then, he has wins over Randy Couture and Ryan Bader, but losses to current champion Jon Jones and Quinton Jackson. It will be his third chance at the light heavyweight title. He won it with a knockout of Rashad Evans in 2009, but lost to Jones in 2011.

Henderson had a long layoff between fights. His last bout was one of the best in MMA history. In November of 2011, Henderson defeated Mauricio Rua in a five-round decision. Since then, Henderson had a fight lined up with Jones in September, but had to pull out at the last minute because of a knee injury. His record falls to 29-9. He's 42 years old, and against Machida, looked slow and old for the first time in his career.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/lyoto-machida-pulls-split-decision-win-over-dan-045605104--mma.html

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HBT: Loria publishes open letter to Marlins fans

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria took out a full-page ad in the Sunday editions of the?Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and South Florida Sun-Sentinel?and published a ?Letter To Our Fans.? Here it is in all its glory:

LETTER TO OUR FANS

It?s no secret that last season was not our best ? actually it was one of our worst. In large part, our performance on the field stunk and something needed to be done. As a result of some bold moves, many grabbed hold of our tough yet necessary decision only to unleash a vicious cycle of negativity. As the owner of the ballclub, the buck stops with me and I take my share of the blame where it?s due. However, many of the things being said about us are simply not true. I?ve sat by quietly and allowed this to continue. Now it?s time for me to resond to our most important constituents, the fans who love the game of baseball.

THE ROSTER

Losing is unacceptable to me. It?s incumbant upon us to take swift action and make bold moves when there are glaring problems. The controversial trade we made with the Toronto Blue Jays was approved by Commissioner Bud Selig and has been almost universally celebrated by baseball experts outside of Miami for its value. We hope, with an open mind, our community can reflect on the fact that we had one of the worst records in baseball. Acquiring high-profile players just didn?t work, and nearly everyone on our team underperformed as compared to their career numbers. Our plan for the year ahead is to leverage our young talent and create a homegrown roster of long-term players who can win. In fact, objective experts have credited us with going from the 28th ranked Minor League system in baseball to the 5th best during this period. Of the Top 100 Minor Leagues rated by MLB Network, we have six ? tied for the most of any team in the league. We?ll evaluate this roster and possibly bring in additional talent based on our assessment of what we need. The very same naysayers who are currently skeptical once attacked us for bringing Pudge Rodriguez to the Marlins in 2003. More than any other, that move contributed to our World Series Championship.

THE BALLPARK

The ballpark issue has been repeatedly reported incorrectly and there are some very negative accustations being thrown around. It ain?t true, folks. Those who have attacked us are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. The majority of public funding came from hotel taxes, the burden of which is incurred by tourists who are visiting our city, NOT the resident taxpayers. The Marlins organization also agreed to contribute $161.2 million toward the ballpark, plus the cost of the garage complex. In addition, the Marlins receive no operating subsidy from local government funding. The ballpark required that all debt service is paid by existing revenue. Furthermore, many are attacking the County?s method of financing for its contribution, but the Marlins had nothing at all to do with that. The fact is, with your help, we built Marlins Park, a crown jewel in our beautiful Miami skyline, which has won over twenty design and architecture awards and will help make us a premiere ballclub moving forward.

OUR FINANCES

The simple fact is that we don?t have unlimited funds, nor does any baseball team or business. Fans didn?t turn out last season as much as we?d like, even with the high-profile players the columnists decry us having traded. The main ingredient to a successful ball club is putting together a winning team, including a ncecessary core of young talent. Are we fiscally capable and responsible enough to fill the roster with talented players, invest in the daily demands of running a world-class organization and bring a World Series back to Miami? Absolutely! Is it sound business sense to witness an expensive roster with a terrible record and sit idly by doing nothing? No. I can and will invest in building a winner, but last season wasn?t sustainable and we needed to start from scratch quickly to build this team from the ground up.

COMMUNICATION

An organization is only as good as its connection with the community. We know we can do a better job communicating with our fans. That starts now. From this point forward we can ensure fans and the entire community that we will keep you abreast of our plan, rationale and motivations.

Amidst the current news coverage, it an be easy to forget how far we went together not so long ago. In 2003, I helped bring a second World Series Title to South Florida. We know how to build a winning team, and have every intention of doing so again. I know you share my passion for great Marlins baseball, my love of MIami and my desire to win again. We?re in this together and I humbly ask that we start fresh, watch us mature qjuickly as a ball club, and root for the home team in 2013.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Loria

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/24/jeffrey-loria-posts-letter-to-our-fans-in-miami-newspapers/related/

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Bomber killed near Afghan capital's diplomatic zone: police

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces shot dead at least one would-be suicide bomber on Sunday in a high-security area of Kabul, home to government departments and diplomatic missions, police said.

Violence across the country has increased over the last 12 months, sparking concern about how the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces will manage once most foreign troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

The attack, one of four in Afghanistan early on Sunday, happened near a construction site that was stormed by Taliban gunmen in April last year. That assault triggered a nine-hour attack in which the insurgents fired rockets at western embassies and nearby hotels frequented by foreigners.

The man shot dead on Sunday was in a stationary four-wheel-drive vehicle in the suburb of Sherpur when officers from the country's intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS) fired at the car, killing him.

The would-be bomber was carrying a gun and wearing an explosive-laden vest when he was shot dead, Kabul police chief General Ayoub Salangi told Reuters.

The car was also packed with explosives. Security forces were still attempting to defuse it an hour later.

The attack came on the same morning as bombings in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Logar.

In the capital of Nangarhar, Jalalabad, two NDS guards were killed and three others wounded when a car carrying explosives was detonated at a compound used by the intelligence agency.

In Logar an attacker detonated a van packed with explosives at a highway checkpoint, wounding three police officers.

Later on Sunday morning, a man in a suicide vest blew himself up outside a district police office, wounding another police officer.

No one has claimed responsibility for the Kabul incident but the Taliban took credit for the attacks in the eastern provinces via text message.

In January six suicide bombers attacked an NDS compound in downtown Kabul, killing two guards.

Less than a week later, attackers stormed the headquarters of Kabul's traffic police and engaged in an eight-hour gun battle with security forces before being killed.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomber-killed-near-afghan-capitals-diplomatic-zone-police-071922255.html

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 image, ZTE Open Firefox OS phone spec list spied on MWC show floor

Mobile World Congress may not officially start until Monday, but that doesn't mean that we can't start gathering information from the show floor today! A photo of Samsung's MWC booth has been sent to Engadget, and in the image we can see a large screen showing off the oft-leaked Galaxy Note 8.0. The shot shows a user holding onto the Note 8.0 itself with one hand (and likely a fairly wide grip) while the other hand wields an S Pen. The Note 8.0 fills in a gap in Samsung's Note family between the Note II and Note 10.1, and as this image suggests, its size gives users the ability to one-hand it and use the S Pen full-time.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 frequented the leak spotlight quite a bit in late January, showing up in various "in the wild" images and spec reports. According to the rumor mill, the Note 8.0 will feature an 8-inch 1280x800 display, 5-megapixel rear and 1.3-megapixel front cameras, 2GB RAM and either 16GB or 32GB storage. We've been expecting Samsung to formally introduce us to the Note 8.0 at MWC, and so long as this leaked shot from the show floor is the real deal, it looks like an announcement is indeed near.

Samsung's new tablet isn't the only upcoming product that's been outed on the MWC show floor today, as Engadget has also posted an image of a spec sheet for a Firefox OS-powered phone from ZTE. Dubbed the "ZTE Open," the handset apparently includes a 3.5-inch HVGA display, Qualcomm MSM7225A processor, 3.2-megapixel camera, 256MB RAM, 512MB storage, 1,200mAh battery and FM radio. That sounds like a fairly basic handset, but Mozilla has said before that Firefox OS is optimized for entry-level hardware, and products like this ZTE Open could provide another option for customers looking for an affordable smartphone. ZTE recently teased that its got a Firefox OS-related announcement planned for MWC, so it may not be long before we actually see the Open in the flesh plastic.

Via Engadget (1), (2)

Source: http://feeds.phonedog.com/~r/phonedog_cellphoneblog/~3/spfBghBI7fM/

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Speech had little to do with real state of the union

Published: Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 08:00 AM.

By CALVIN B. KOESY

PANAMA CITY
President Obama delivered his State of the Union address superbly and with his customary confidence. It was actually a ?wish list? of the things that might reflect creditably on his legacy. The harsh reality is that the nation is broke and would have to borrow heavily to accomplish these lofty goals. So the State of the Union is framed in his personal ideology and that of his party and has little to do with the real state of the nation.

As he introduced the wish list, he said? these things will not increase the nation?s deficit by one thin dime. He anticipated the reaction of his serious-minded critics. Anyone who believes his statement just fell off the turnip truck.

He mentioned that because of the energy steps his administration has taken, ?electricity costs less now than it did when he took office.? Perhaps someone else?s does but the writer?s electrical bill is about 18 percent higher that it was a year age despite the much milder winter. Also, motor fuel prices are now doubled what they were when he took office.

In his address he stated that ?sanctions on Iran are working.? There is no doubt that the citizens of Iran are suffering greatly, but the mullahs who run the country are unaffected. The Iranian government has continued relentlessly to develop a nuclear bomb and the missile carrying ability to deliver it.

During his address as the president described the pet project in each of the departments, the television camera panned on each department secretary who offered a smile. The president?s speech was interrupted many times by standing ovations. When the president said, ?We will maintain the best military the world has ever known,? the four heads of the military branches, resplendent in their black and gold dress uniforms, did not crack a smile. They knew that their commander-in-chief had signed off on the sequester bill that will devastate their branch of service. They also knew that they will be asked to do more with less and that the outlook for the nation?s national security is very grim indeed.

The nation?s business community was shocked when the president said, ?We must raise the federal minimum wage and tie it to the cost of living.? They knew that action would be a profound job killer.

The Founding Fathers visualized three coequal branches of government. They somehow knew that for the nation?s business to be conducted effectively, each branch would have to have great respect for each other. The State of the Union is one rare occasion where their leaders are all together in one room listening to the president. They also knew that these leaders would have to make hard practical decisions on public policy. ?

Sen. Marco Rubio followed the president with his view of the state of union. He mentioned that the most pressing problem was the increasing deficit. It was paralyzing private investment and preventing economic growth. He said that the economic growth was stagnating at around 2 percent a year and we needed at least 4 percent economic growth. The growth of entitlements was the single most contributing factor to the deficit. He said, ?The president?s plan does nothing to save Medicare and Social Security.? He pressed for limiting government, lowering taxes and encouraging the growth of the private sector.

The frightening thing about the two different speeches is that the junior senator from Florida, with less than three years of service at the national level, has a keener sense of the true state of the union than the president who has available to him the sharpest minds in the country.

In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs has an interesting statement on human behavior: ?Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who seek (good) advice.? The word in parenthesis is the writer?s.

Source: http://www.newsherald.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/speech-had-little-to-do-with-real-state-of-the-union-1.100739

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Faint praise for UT President Bill Powers from Gov. Rick Perry

UT President Bill Powers

WASHINGTON ? Gov. Rick Perry did little Friday to tamp down suspicions that he?d like to engineer the ouster of University of Texas president Bill Powers.

?You need to talk to the Board of Regents about employment issues and they?re probably going to tell you they don?t talk about employment issues,? the governor replied when asked by The Dallas Morning News about his appointment of three new regents on Thursday and what that bodes for Powers? future.

But he alluded to the possibility of consequences for Powers if he doesn?t toe the line set for him by the governor?s appointees.

?I?ll just simply say that the role of the Board of Regents is to set policy. The administrator?s is to implement policy. If there is a conflict there, there are ways to deal with it,? he said.

Powers has resisted pressure to lower tuition and increase enrollment at the state?s flagship university. The governor has named all of the regents, three of whom have been especially critical of Powers. Some reportedly sought to have him fired last year for seeking a tuition hike even as the governor was calling for lower student costs.

Perry offered no praise for Powers but did tick off some complaints about UT, insisting that he delegates such matters.

?My management style is not a secret or it should not be,? Perry, noting that he?s served 12 years as governor, said over breakfast with the Texas State Society (at which he was heckled repeatedly over his refusal to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income Texans).

?I?ve made ? let?s see, 3, 6, 9, 12 ? this is the 15th appointment that I have made to the university?s Board of Regents?. I trust their judgments,? he said. ?They set policy and then they empower administrators to implement that policy. If there is questions about whether or not the managers or the administrators are implementing the policy, then that?s between the Board of Regents and the administrators.?

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst rallied to Powers? defense, delivering an impassioned speech on Powers? behalf earlier this week to the Texas Senate, where Higher Education Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, filed a bill to curb ?micromanagement? by regents.

This was not the thrust of Perry?s views, though he didn?t directly criticize Powers as some of his appointees have.

?We have a graduation rate across the state of Texas that?s frankly unacceptable: 30 percent in 4 years? and 58 percent after six years, Perry said. ?That is unacceptable.?

UT-only statistics show a 4-year graduation rate of 52 percent, with 80 percent of students graduating within 6 years, the best among Texas public universities. Perry was citing statewide figures to make a larger point.

?We?re going to have put pressure upon Boards of Regents, administrators and frankly legislators, to put policies in place where that our schools are more accessible, more affordable and more efficient,? he said. ?The idea that we are seeing the cost of education go up and not seeing any better results is a good conversation to have.?

Powers? office declined to comment.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/02/faint-praise-for-ut-president-bill-powers-from-gov-rick-perry.html/

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