Leora Novick: Small Town Life In The Peruvian Andes

The van rounded each bend with a sharp turn, and I felt my stomach drop at the combination of nearing the cliff's edge, and the breathless mountain scenery. With each pass the air grew thinner, yet the views grew more magnificent. Rising mountain peaks, cotton ball clumps of fluffy, white sheep, and the occasional Quechua native, dotting the landscape with a burst of color.

While traveling through the Sacred Valley region of Peru, I had been given the change to visit the tiny town of Rumira, high up in the Andes mountains. Accompanied by Threads of Peru, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of the traditional Quechua weaving traditions, I had the rare opportunity to meet and speak with the women of Rumira, talking about their daily routines, the process of weaving, and raising children while working such a laborious life.

As the van rumbled to a stop on a precariously large mound of wayside rubble, I tried to keep an open mind. I looked around at the handful of handmade huts comprising the village, the dogs running around, and the children covered in the dust of the nearby construction zone.

This was definitely not in my Lonely Planet guidebook.

I was shocked to see many of the women working in the construction zone, alongside the men, while still in their traditional outfits consisting of long skirts, wool sweaters and bowl-shaped hats. As my guide Urbano gathered all the women together to speak to me, I started noticing little details about the scene in front of me. One woman, who could not have been older than 20 was breast-feeding an infant while sitting on a pile of dusty rubble??, a gang of four little boys were swinging around a metal pole, clearly the favored toy of the day, and two little girls, no older than eight, were staring and giggling shyly at me.

Clearly, my hiking boots and muted Uniqlo fleece did not fit in with the local love for bright colors, and traditional garb.

While the women were obliging in abandoning their work for a few hours, it was clear that they were eager to get through this interview and back to work. With the help of Urbano, a native Quechua speaker, I was able to learn about the current project in Rumira. The community was working together to build pipes, so that they would have running water for a communal bathroom. When I realized that each hour I detained them was an hour without a toilet, I tried to speak as succinctly as possible. The women explained that their first priority is assisting the men with the farming. Men in this region tend to work in one of two occupations: agriculture, or as a porter on the Inca Trail. The women are expected to help out with the farming, as long as help is needed, and then with the local community construction.

Weaving is actually more of a luxury, than a job, with many of the women citing this as their favorite pastime. Each woman was adorned in a brightly colored, traditional outfit, personalized with unique details and beading. Young girls observe their mothers at this practice, and tend to start fully learning to weave at around the age of 10. Each garment has a particular style, specific to the region. In Rumira, Urbano explained that the women would buy wool from the markets, usually pre-dyed to a bright fuchsia or neon green, and then sew on the geometric patterns. Each woman's sweater and shirt were also typically purchased at a local market, but the hats were designed by hand. In Rumira, the traditional hats were a rounded basin shape on the crown, secured with a thick, white strap around the chin. Each woman would bead patterns along the band, creating beautiful patterns of birds, Inca kings, and local fruits.

While the women are off farming, cooking, building, or weaving, the children are left mostly to their own devices, creating toys and amusement from items around the house. Cereal boxes, empty bowls, and water bottles can create hours of entertainment. With such a busy life in Rumira, the children tend to grow up quite fast, helping out with the rest of the community by age ten.

Despite my knee jerk western reaction to judge the lifestyle of Rumira, i found myself noticing the peace in the air. The women all seemed very content with their life, and were eager to continue working on a project that would greatly improve their quality of life. They seemed to enjoy the slow pace, and as the day wore on, so did I. The noticeable lack of traffic sounds, and mindless chatter was replaced by the splashing of the nearby river and the calls of the surrounding wildlife.

There was life happening all around me, surviving over 12,000 feet in the sky. Life here in Rumira was simple: The locals did not ask for much and they did not take much in return. Seeing people, animals, and nature coexisting in harmony was truly a breathless experience, one finally not induced by the high altitude.

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Follow Leora Novick on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@leoranovick

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leora-novick/small-town-life-in-the-pe_b_1237499.html

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Sniffing smelly T-shirts: The new way to find a soulmate? (The Week)

New York ? An Atlanta artist decides to try following her nose to love, creating a matchmaking party based on little-understood magnetic aromas

Birds do it. Bees do it. So Atlanta artist Judith Prays figured, why not people, too? In late 2010, Prays developed the Pheromone Party, on the premise that the best way to find your other half is through the magnetic chemical scents that many animals use to attract each other. "The first time I dated someone for purely physical reasons, it was amazing how well it went," Prays tells The Daily's Justin Rocket Silverman. "I was so into his smell even when it was objectively nasty. So then I just thought, what if I could choose people by smell?" Here's what she did:

First off: What exactly are pheromones?
"Invisible yet inherently alluring chemicals that triggers sexual attraction,"?says Courtney Subramanian at?TIME. More technically,?adds Randi Hutter Epstein at?Slate, pheromones are "aromatic chemicals emitted by one member of a species that affect another member of the same species, either by altering its hormones or by compelling it to change its behavior." When they work, "they are truly bewitching" ? a female silkworm can turn a male into "a sex slave" with just one spray.

SEE MORE: Sharing passwords: A dangerous new teen trend?

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How do Prays' Pheromone Parties work?
In her inaugural party, in New York, she invited 40 single people, requiring each to bring a shirt they'd slept in for three nights with no perfume or deodorant. The shirts were put in numbered, gender-coded bags ("blue for guys and pink for girls, to avoid any unpleasant surprises," explains Silverman), and throughout the party guests would stop to sniff a shirt or two. If they were really drawn to one, a photographer would snap their photo with the numbered shirt, and those photos were projected on a wall at the party's end. If someone dug your smell, that was your entrance to introduce yourself.

Was it a success?
"By the standards of many singles parties," says Silverman, it was "a smashing success." According to Prays, 12 of the 40 guests "hooked up" after the party, and three of those couples began long romances. "I thought it was a wonderful way to meet people," says Scott Thrift, 32, who embarked on a six-month relationship at the party. "It cuts through all of the fluff and gets straight to the point."

SEE MORE: Are married people 'nearly a minority'?

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Is there any science behind the "smelly shirt" parties?
It's an open question. Prays' methods are "remarkably similar to those used in chemical senses laboratory testing," says Silverman. So far, though, the evidence for human pheromonal soul-mating is mixed, says Slate's Epstein. In a 1995 study that had women sniff through a pile of sweaty T-shirts to find the most alluring scents, the findings suggested that women's noses led them to simply choose men with different immune systems, presumably to avoid mating with family.

Does the idea have promise?
Sure. If you like the person's odor, "it's a good indication that you're off to a good start," Wysocki tells The Daily. Well, I find the idea that we have some control over who we're attracted to "really quite liberating," says Slate's Epstein. But sniffing your way to love is at least an improvement over online dating, Prays tells The Daily. That "really only determines how good you are at writing profiles."

SEE MORE: New York's new safe-sex campaign: 'Too raw'?

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Sources: Slate, The Daily, TIME

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Optoma PT105

The key thing you need to know about the Optoma PT105 ($200 street) is that it's one of the first representatives of a new category of projectors. Designed specifically for casual game playing, it doesn't offer the level of image quality or brightness that a serious gamer would insist on. However, both are more than good enough to be usable, and probably better than you would expect for the price. More important, the PT105 is small and light enough to be just right for storing away when you're not using it and then setting it up quickly for casual game playing as needed.

You could make the case that the PT105 is a variation on pico projectors, with a DLP-based engine, LED light source, and widescreen VGA resolution (854 by 640) just like the Optoma PK301 Pico Pocket Projector ($400 street, 4 stars). But the PT105 is a lot bigger than pico size, it has a better lens, and otherwise has little in common with pico projectors.

You could also make the case that it's a variation on Optoma's GameTime projectors, like the Editors' Choice Optoma GT750E ($800 street, 4 stars). However, that's only true in the same sense that go-carts are a variation on cars, and Optoma draws that distinction by putting the PT105 in its PlayTime category. The GameTime projectors are aimed at serious gamers. They offer a brighter, higher-quality image and much better audio. A PlayTime projector is for decidedly less demanding users, and it costs a lot less.

Setup, Brightness, and Sound
Setting up the PT105 is similar to setting up a typical pico projector, at least to the extent that the lens lacks a zoom feature, so the only way to adjust image size is to move the 1.9-pound projector closer to or farther from whatever you're using as a screen. Unlike pico projectors, however, the PT105 offers standard connectors on the projector itself instead of adapters that plug into the projector to add the connectors.

The ports include a standard VGA port for a computer, three RCA phono plugs for composite video and stereo audio input, and an HDMI port for a computer or a video source. As with many projectors, the VGA port can also double as a composite video input.

Optoma rates the projector at 75 lumens, which is about the same as the brightest pico projectors. For my tastes I found it bright enough for comfortable viewing at its native 16:9 aspect ratio in a dark room at a roughly 55-inch wide image size (63-inch diagonal), which puts the projector a touch over 10 feet from the screen. For the level of ambient light that's typical for a family room at night, I adjusted the size to 39 inches wide (45 inches diagonally) with the projector about 7 feet from the screen.

Not so incidentally, the distance from the screen is particularly important for the PT105, because you need to sit near the projector if you want to hear the sound well. The 1.5-watt speaker delivers good enough audio quality to be useful, and it's loud enough for two or three people sitting nearby, but it doesn't put out enough volume to fill a room.

Image Quality and Other Issues

The PT105's image quality was a pleasant surprise. Despite being built around an engine with so many similarities to pico projectors, it delivers a much better image. Because the projector itself is so much larger than pico projectors, at 3.2 by 7.8 by 7.8 inches (HWD), it has room for a larger and much better lens, which makes all the difference. ?

Keep in mind that game images present a special challenge for projectors. Data images and video images are different enough so any given projector can handle either type of image well and the other badly. But games share some aspects of each, so for a projector to handle games well, it has to do well with both data and video. The PT105 succeeds well enough with both kinds of images to handle games well also.

The projector sailed through our standard set of?DisplayMate tests, offering fully saturated, eye-catching color and good color balance, with suitably neutral grays at various levels from white to black. Fine detail and text readability was also suitable for the resolution.

On our video tests, I saw a hint of posterization (colors changing suddenly where they should change gradually) and some loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas), but only in scenes that tend to cause the problem because of poor lighting?an issue that doesn't crop up in games. On the plus side, it did a good job with skin tones, and I didn't see any motion artifacts or other obvious problems.

For games, the PT105's strong points for both data and video images dovetail nicely with each other. What the PT105 does well for both kinds of images is exactly what you need for games, while the minor problems I saw simply don't come up with game images.

The one issue that's always a potential problem for single-chip DLP projectors is rainbow artifacts, the tendency for light areas to break up into little red-green-blue rainbows when something moves on screen or you shift your gaze. Like many DLP-based projectors, the PT105 shows rainbows easily enough with video so people who are sensitive to the effect may find it annoying for a long session, like watching a full-length movie. However they show far less often in data and game images. If you see the rainbows easily, as I do, you're far less likely to consider them a serious issue for games.

I'd like the Optoma PT105 even better if I couldn't see rainbow artifacts with it at all, but aside from that, it's an impressive projector for the price. And if you tend not to see rainbows, or don't mind seeing them, that's not an issue in any case. Serious gamers will still find it worth spending more money on a projector like the GT750E. But if you're looking for a small projector that's easy to set up, can handle games well enough for casual play, and doesn't cost much, the Optoma PT105 is not only a strong contender, it's really the only casual game playing projector in town.

More Projector Reviews:

??? Optoma PT105
??? Dell M110
??? Acer K330
??? Epson PowerLite 96W Multimedia Projector
??? Acer X1261P
?? more

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Police open fire at Bangladesh protesters, 3 dead (AP)

DHAKA, Bangladesh ? News reports say police have opened fire and used batons on crowds of stone-throwing opposition activists in several Bangladesh towns, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100.

The United News of Bangladesh news agency says the violence occurred Sunday when two opposition parties held protests demanding the reinstatement of a 15-year-old system in which independent caretaker governments oversee national elections. The system was scrapped by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The opposition says elections will be rigged if held under the current government.

Doctors at two hospitals in the eastern towns of Chandpur and Laxmipur confirmed that three men died from bullet injuries.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_bangladesh_opposition_protest

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Best and Worst-Dressed at the SAG Awards!

See whose fashion flourished (Angelina Jolie! Sofia Vergara!) and whose flopped at the star-studded awards ceremony

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/best-and-worst-dressed-sag-awards-2012/1-b-422836?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abest-and-worst-dressed-sag-awards-2012-422836

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RIM CEO eyes "significant" plans for BlackBerry (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Research in Motion's Thorsten Heins plans to waste no time in his new job. The BlackBerry maker's chief executive said he will present the board with his plan for company's future in just a matter of weeks.

The German-born executive, who took over from two longstanding co-CEOs on Saturday, said his plans for RIM would be "significant" though he did not divulge details in an interview with Reuters.

"I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes," Heins said.

But the executive, who was promoted from the role of chief operating officer, said he has already done groundwork to tackle his company's most pressing problem - persuading the U.S. market to covet the BlackBerry again.

While RIM is growing in other countries, Heins conceded that its U.S. business is in need of a major revival after losing out to rivals like Apple Inc's iPhone at U.S. service providers and corporations, where it once had a clear advantage among employees heavily dependent on its email service.

"In general I wouldn't consider RIM as a turnaround candidate. It is a turnaround candidate in the U.S.," he said. "We lost market share in this market quite substantially. That is something that we have to address."

While U.S. operators such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc have helped BlackBerry with heavy advertising and promotions in the past, these operators have been much more focused in the last few years on devices like iPhone and smartphones based on the Google Inc operating system.

Heins' quest to regain ground with these operators has been complicated by the fact that RIM had to announce in December that it is delaying the launch of phones based on BlackBerry 10 - its next-generation software - until the later part of 2012 as it is awaiting the availability of a high-powered chip.

The executive would not say when exactly these phones would hit the market but implied that they would arrive in time for the year-end holiday-shopping season in the fourth quarter.

So in the meantime, Heins will concentrate on getting the most current BlackBerrys into more consumers hands. He noted that only 20 percent of U.S. BlackBerry users have the company's latest phones, which he says are competitive with rival smartphones.

The rest of RIM's U.S. customers have devices with older RIM software, some of which are "two generations behind," he said.

To overcome this, RIM has devised a new upgrade plan with U.S. operators to promote phones with the BlackBerry 7 system, which was launched in August last year.

"All the plans are ready. The carrier agreements are all ready. Now we have to get off the starting grid. Now we need to execute that upgrade program," Heins said.

While he did not want to disclose specifics about the new agreements, Heins said RIM could look at new ways of bundling different devices together or offering carriers smartphones with a package of pre-loaded applications.

He is also betting on the company's PlayBook tablet to compete with the Apple iPad tablet. This spring, Heins said that RIM will launch a version of the Playbook, with a high-speed wireless connection based on LTE - a technology that the top three U.S. operators are building into their networks.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T are already promoting LTE devices including smartphones and tablets from RIM's rivals. RIM's first smartphones with LTE connections will be in the company's BlackBerry 10 line-up, Heins said.

MOMENT OF SURPRISE

In his first presentation to Wall Street as CEO earlier this week, Heins said he did not think the company needed drastic change, causing some analysts to worry that the executive would not do enough to reverse the company's fortunes.

But the executive said on Friday that he was merely telling Wall Street that he does not want to change the core of RIM.

"Is RIM up for sale, is RIM up for a split-up?" He rejected those possibilities as "a drastic, seismic change because it would tear the company apart."

Heins, who has been with RIM for four years after spending over two decades at German engineering group Siemens, was became COO responsible for software and products seven months ago.

He explained that RIM had succession plans for co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in place for some time and that he had an inkling that he was being groomed to follow in their footsteps when he was named COO.

"The moment they tell you it's still a surprise," Heins said, smiling broadly and adding that he immediately said yes.

Lazaridis and Balsillie, who turned the BlackBerry maker into a global company and a household name, stepped down last week but will remain on the board.

Some analysts have worried whether these executives would have too much of a say in the future strategy of the company because of their position on the board.

Heins said, it would be an advantage to be able to tap into the experience and company knowledge of RIM founder Lazaridis, but he made it clear that he would be the one calling the shots.

"What I do with the company is my decision. The CEO runs the company."

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp and Peter Lauria; Editing by Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/tc_nm/us_researchinmotion_ceo_heins

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Oil price waver on Persian Gulf supply concerns

Oil prices moved in a narrow range Friday as Iran prepared to consider a ban on crude sales to European Union countries.

Iranian leaders are scheduled to debate the ban Sunday in response to EU plans to impose an embargo on Iran's oil by summer because of that country's nuclear program. Investors worry that any ban could cause supply disruptions.

Benchmark oil fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 per barrel after climbing as high as $100.63 per barrel earlier in the session. Brent crude rose 67 cents to end at $111.46 per barrel in London.

EU countries account for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports. Analysts believe any shortfall in Europe could be made up by other countries. If it stops selling oil to Europe, Iran should find takers in Asia. China is its biggest oil customer.

Iran also has threatened to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. About one-fifth of the world's supply of oil is shipped through the strategic waterway. The U.S. and other nations have said they will not tolerate an Iranian blockade. U.S., British and French warships regularly patrol the Gulf.

In other trading, gasoline futures jumped almost 3 percent on concerns about future supplies after next month's closure of the big Hovensa refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It produced about 350,000 barrels per day, but the high price of crude has made it unprofitable. The closure comes as many refineries slow down for regular spring maintenance.

Gasoline futures rose 8 cents to end at $2.92 per gallon. Futures prices are up about 10 percent since the start of the year.

Natural gas prices rose again on Friday, after dropping more than 4 percent on Thursday. Futures contracts rose 7 cents, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $2.68 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Natural gas hit a 10-year low last week, driven down by huge supplies and mild winter weather that's kept furnaces turned down. Now forecasts show a colder weather pattern emerging for the Midwest and the Northeast in February, which would mean more natural gas will be needed for heating. The buildup of natural gas supplies may also slow as producers cut back. Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips and Consol Energy said this week that they would reduce some natural gas operations.

Heating oil futures rose 2 cents to end at $3.07 per gallon.

At the pump, AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose a penny on Friday, to $3.39. That's about 15 cents more than a month ago and nearly 29 cents more than a year ago.

___

AP Energy Writer Jonathan Fahey contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-27-Oil%20Prices/id-4c2f3c7de294442984667c620290c07e

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U.S. growth quickens, but speed bumps ahead (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter of 2011, but a strong rebuilding of stocks by businesses and a slower pace of business spending hinted at softer growth early this year.

U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010.

It was, however, a touch below economists expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 percent rate, and two-thirds of rise in output was due to the build-up in business inventories.

Soft underlying demand and a sharp slowing in core inflation supported the Federal Reserve's decision to keep in place an ultra easy monetary policy to nurse the recovery.

"We do not expect growth to accelerate meaningfully from its current pace," said Michelle Girard, a senior economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. She said Fed officials would focused on slack in the economy.

Stocks on Wall Street opened lower as investors worried about the composition of growth, while Treasury debt prices were little changed. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

INVENTORIES REBOUND

The economy in the fourth quarter got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of business inventories, which logged the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2010. The buildup followed a third quarter decline that was the first since late 2009.

Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8 percent rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period's 3.2 percent pace and a sign of weak domestic demand.

The robust stock accumulation suggests the recovery will lose a step in early 2012 as businesses are unlikely to keep building inventories at the same rate.

Growth in business spending on capital goods was the slowest since 2009, a sign the debt crisis in Europe was starting to take its toll and another hint of weakness ahead.

The Fed on Wednesday said it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014, and Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was mulling further asset purchases to speed the recovery.

The central bank warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard.

"We're still repairing the damage done by the financial crisis. On top of that we face a more challenging world. We have a lot of challenges ahead in the United States," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Prospects of sluggish growth could hurt President Barack Obama's chances of re-election in November.

The economy grew 1.7 percent in 2011 after expanding 3 percent the prior year, and the unemployment stood at a still-high 8.5 percent in December.

AUTOS PROP UP CONSUMER SPENDING

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, stepped up to a 2 percent rate from the third-quarter's 1.7 percent pace - largely driven by pent-up demand for motor vehicles.

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami had disrupted supplies early last year, leaving showrooms bereft of popular models.

Consumers also benefited from a moderation in inflation.

A price index for personal spending rose at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth-quarter, the slowest increase in 1-1/2 years, after rising at a 2.3 percent pace in the July-September period.

A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, increased at a 1.1 percent rate after rising 2.1 percent in the third quarter. The slowdown could concern the Fed, which wants the measure closer to their 2 percent inflation target.

"Clearly, much work remains to achieve the Fed's dual mandate of maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability," New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley told reporters.

SLUGGISH INCOME GROWTH

High unemployment has led to sluggish income growth, which in turn has prompted households to tap savings and credit cards to fund their purchases.

Still, spending is unlikely to be a drag on growth, given that consumer sentiment is on the mend, as indicated by another report on Friday.

"Though the unemployment rate has improved, the jobs market remains a major challenge. Part of the decline in the unemployment rate is due to the fact that ... people have stopped looking for work," said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.

"The high level of people out of the workforce and underemployed people show there isn't really much income generation to contribute to a better spending pattern."

A sustained growth pace of at least 3 percent would likely be needed to make noticeable headway in absorbing the unemployed and those who have given up the search for work.

Business spending grew at a sluggish 1.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter, pulling back sharply from the third-quarter's 15.7 percent pace.

Though exports held up, an increase in imports left a trade gap that chipped growth.

Unseasonably mild winter weather helped home construction post its fastest growth pace since the second quarter of 2010, with much of the increase going to meet rising demand for rental apartments.

Government spending shrank for a fifth consecutive quarter, reflecting a large decline in defense and still weak state and local government outlays. A bounceback could support growth at the start of the year.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Tim Ahmann)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_usa_economy

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CNT Energy ? Strategic Communications Director - Environmental ...

Friday, January 27, 2012

The Strategic Communications Director will position CNT Energy, both nationally and locally, as a leading source of strategies, tools, and policies to promote energy efficiency. The Director will help CNT Energy shape core messages, position the organization among target audiences, and incorporate that messaging and positioning into presentations, media relations, and other public outreach.
The Director will supervise and coordinate CNT Energy communications and outreach staff to raise the visibility of the organization as a thought leader and effective practitioner in each of CNT Energy?s program areas. The Director will work with program heads to develop and achieve their communications objectives, including enrollment and customer satisfaction. The Director will also work closely with CNT and I-GO Car Sharing communications staff to coordinate strategies and crosspromote each other?s work.

Organization Description
CNT Energy is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide economic and environmental benefits to households, building owners and communities through energy efficiency and conservation.
CNT Energy is experiencing rapid growth in three main areas:
(1) Residential Real-Time Electricity Pricing and Smart Grid Development,
(2) Energy Efficiency in Residential and Commercial Buildings, and
(3) Community Energy Planning and Energy Information Center.

CNT Energy is an affiliate of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), a 33-year old nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the development and perpetuation of vibrant urban communities that are environmentally and economically sustainable, both in the Chicago region and throughout the United States. CNT has a second affiliate, I-GO Car Sharing, Chicago?s only non-profit car-sharing organization.

Accountability
The Strategic Communications Director reports directly to the Executive Director of CNT Energy. The Strategic Communications Director will be a member of CNT Energy?s Senior Management Team.

Responsibilities:
??Develop a strategic communications plan for the organization
??Oversee branding and communications for the organization
??Oversee CNT Energy?s electronic and social media presence, better expanding and integrating both with the strategic communication plan
??Work with CNT Energy?s Board and staff to frame CNT Energy?s core messages and ensure their broad understanding and adoption by staff
??Represent CNT Energy at public events and to the media
??Develop and manage relationships with relevant publications, key influencers, and members of the media
??Monitor and evaluate news, trends and events, with an eye toward opportunities to communicate CNT Energy?s work
??Assist program managers and senior leadership team in effectively communicating CNT Energy?s abilities and successes to grantors and other funders in formal and informal communications
??Assist program managers in developing communications goals and work plans
??Support developing program managers and senior staff into competent spokespersons for the organization and their own programs
??Supervise communications and outreach staff and support them in achieving programmatic communications goals

Qualifications/Skills:
??Extensive knowledge of, and 5-10 years experience in, strategic communications, media relations, and outreach
??Passion for CNT Energy?s mission
??Bachelor?s degree in communications or related field
??Strong management skills
??Strong analytical thinking and problem solving skills
??Extraordinary attention to detail
??Ability to work well independently and self-start, as well as collaborate in a team setting
??Local and regional travel is anticipated

Anti-Discrimination Policy
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate against any employee or job applicant based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or marital status. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, termination, promotion, transfer, layoff, leaves of absence, compensation and training. This is an Exempt position. Salary is commensurate with experience.

To apply, please send cover letter, resume, and salary history to:
Center for Neighborhood Technology
2125 W. North Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647
Fax to 773-278-3840 or email to mquezada@cntenergy.org
No phone calls please.

Source: http://elpc.org/2012/01/27/cnt-strategic-communications-director

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Mark C. Russell, Ph.D., ABPP: Preventing Military Misconduct Stress Behaviors

January 2012 ushered in a new year, but an old, recurring problem for war veterans. According to a January 2012, CareerCast.com article, "The 10 Most Stressful Jobs in 2012," the No. 1 stressful vocation in the U.S. is an "enlisted soldier."

Here are just some of news headlines at the mid-month mark alone that appear to lend credence to the selection:

? An Iraq War veteran is arrested for the brutal murder of five homeless men after his friend's death in Afghanistan. His family said he had become a "troubled man" since returning from Iraq.

? A video is released showing U.S. Marines urinating on Taliban corpses.

? A picture is published of U.S. Air Force personnel charged with handling American remains pretending to be dead in an open casket with a noose around an airman's neck, with the words "Sucks 2 Be U."

? A 19-year-old Army private dies from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound" in Afghanistan, after unrelenting physical, racial and emotional torment from his fellow soldiers.

? Video is released of U.S. Army soldiers joyfully slaughtering an Afghanistan boy's sheep.

? An Iraqi war veteran kills a Washington State Park Ranger, then dies from exposure

? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reported a "stain" on the military with 3,191 sexual assaults occurring last year, but he said that because so few victims report the crime, the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults.

What do the above incidents share in common besides making the January headlines and involving enlisted military members during a time of war? They exemplify what the American military calls "misconduct stress behaviors," present during every armed conflict, including by officers, as evident in the My Lai massacre.

Combat and Operational Stress Reaction -- or "COSR" -- is the new DoD-approved term referring to the adverse reactions military personnel may experience when exposed to combat, deployment-related stress or other operational stressors. The U.S. military recognizes a continuum of COSRs ranging from adaptive stress reactions to "misconduct stress behaviors." Misconduct stress behaviors describe a range of maladaptive stress reactions from minor to serious violations of military or civilian law and the Law of Land Warfare, most often occurring in poorly-trained personnel, but "good and heroic, under extreme stress may also engage in misconduct" (Department of the Army, 2006; p. 1-6). Examples include: mutilating enemy dead, not taking prisoners, looting, rape, brutality, killing animals, self-inflicted wounds, "fragging," desertion, torture and intentionally killing non-combatants. The military has identified factors that may increase misconduct stress behaviors, including:

? Boredom and monotonous duties, especially if combined with chronic frustration and tension.

? Rapid return of soldiers to close contact with noncombatant military, civilians, or families after an intense battle experience without a unit stand-down period in which to defuse.

? Commission of atrocities by the enemy, especially if against U.S. personnel, but also if against local civilians.

? Racial and ethnic tension which can occur within the U.S. civilian population and among army personnel. Tension and misconduct may also stem from major cultural and physical/ racial differences between U.S. soldiers and the local population.

? Local civilian population may be perceived as hostile, untrustworthy or "subhuman."

? Failure of expected support, such as inadequate medical support.

? Popular opposition at home to the war; lack of understanding or belief in the justness of the effort.

What can be done to prevent misconduct stress behaviors?

It would be an accurate statement that none of the service members that made the January 2012 headlines got there without a long trail of opportunities for someone(s) to intervene. Expert consensus within and outside the military is that early identification and intervention is critical in order to avoid severe, chronic COSRs such as PTSD, depression and suicide, substance abuse and misconduct stress behaviors. The military's deployment cycle health screenings, Combat Operational Stress Control programs, anti-mental health stigma, resiliency training and a plethora of post-deployment and transitional support programs, along with the Department of Veteran's Affairs (DVA) mental health outreach and suicide prevention programs, all represent notable efforts to stem the tide.

However, military, government, media and multiple other sources all point to dramatic escalations in rates of military and veteran suicides, domestic violence, divorce, mental health diagnoses such as PTSD, sexual assault, substance abuse, homelessness, joblessness, health problems and misconduct stress behaviors including homicides. What else can be done?

Alternative early interventions in the war zone and back home

One possible early intervention strategy that has yet to be fully explored is EMDR therapy. Clearly not a panacea, however EMDR should be strongly considered as a frontline treatment option for the full continuum of COSR-especially while the service member remains within the supportive framework of the military, and hopefully before the commission of any serious misconduct stress behaviors.

Since 2004, EMDR has been recognized by the DVA and DoD as a top evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress disorders according to their own clinical practice guidelines. With high rates of mental health stigma in the military, EMDR has the unique advantage of being noticeably different than standard talk therapy. Service personnel are not required to self-disclose details of events that they have witnessed or participated in, and the effects tend to be more rapid and generalize to other contributing experiences that often underlie difficulties associated with depression, suicide, anger, substance use, aggression, medically unexplained conditions, and so on.

As a recently-retired military psychologist, former enlisted Marine and OEF/OIF veteran, I have successfully treated hundreds of military personnel with EMDR therapy before, during and after deployments including problems involving combat-related acute stress disorder, traumatic grief, depression and suicidal ideation, phantom limb pain, PTSD and aggressive impulses.

This is not to suggest that any of the January incidents would definitely have been prevented even if those veterans had received EMDR. However, there is no doubt in my mind that EMDR therapy can significantly reduce and/or relieve a lot of pain and suffering for many military members and veterans, and doing so would prevent an untold number of misconduct stress behaviors and chronic war stress injuries such as PTSD and depression. If you are interested in finding an EMDR therapist that specializes in veteran treatment, try the EMDR International Association or the EMDR Institute.

That war changes everyone is an irrefutable fact of military life. Tragically, it is also a fact that warring Western societies have repeatedly neglected to learn the so-called "psychiatric lessons of war," resulting in monumental failures to anticipate and meet the mental health needs of those sent in harm's way. Consequently, there is always more that can and should be done to prevent the tragedies that have occurred in January 2012. If we prevented one incident, saved one life, it would be worth the time and investment.

For more by Mark C. Russell, Ph.D., ABPP, click here.

For more on PTSD, click here.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-c-russell-phd-abpp/ptsd-veterans_b_1228546.html

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Big Brother will be watching US intel world

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top U.S. intelligence official says it will take roughly five years to put in place new measures to stop another WikiLeaks-style exposure of classified information.

Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper says officials are working to "tag" information to be able to track back to which intelligence staffers shared it ? something prosecutors could have used to help prove that accused leaker Bradley Manning copied thousands of war-related records that were leaked to the website Wikileaks.

Speaking to a think tank Thursday, Clapper says the changes will also include finding ways to separate the data, such as word that a terrorist wants to hijack a flight, from how that information was collected, such as by a satellite intercept, so data can be shared among agencies without exposing their sources.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-26-Clapper-Intelligence%20Sharing/id-584ed98e8d204b69a88d59881332b84c

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Greek military overspending (Americablog)

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Virgin America names plane in honor of Steve Jobs

By Rosa Golijan

Courtesy of Virgin America

Your inner geek will smile the next time you board a Virgin America flight. After all, there's a chance that you'll be stepping onto a plane that is named in honor of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Virgin America's Abby Lunardini explained to me that one of the airline's jets ? an Airbus A320 ? has "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish"?stenciled on its nose as the result of an internal plane naming competition which was run in the fall of 2011. At that time, the aircraft name was submitted?"as a tribute" to Jobs by one of Virgin America's employees. The plane entered service late last year.

The phrase is a frequently quoted line from the commencement address delivered by Jobs at Standford University on June 12, 2005.?During his speech, he explained that he saw those words on the issue of "The Whole Earth Catalog," a counterculture publication ? and that they resonated throughout his life:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

As?Lunardini pointed out to me, Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, the home of Apple. All the more fitting.

Oh, and in case you're under the impression that "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" is a strange name for a plane, then boy-oh-boy have I got news for you.

According to the folks at Planespotters.net, a site dedicated to keeping track of all sorts of airline related details, Virgin America?has planes with names such as "the 1-year-old virgin," "let there be flight," "Virgin & Tonic," Air Colbert," "my other ride is a spaceship," Arnold," "#nerdbird," "Superfly," and so on.

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" will fit right in.

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10224496-virgin-america-names-plane-in-honor-of-steve-jobs

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Video: The Bathtub Mystery, Part 6

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46058022#46058022

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Paterno could be last of ilk in college football

BC-FBC--Paterno-Long-Term Coaches, 2nd Ld-Writethru,824Paterno could be last of ilk in college footballAP Photo PAGP124, PAGP219Eds: Adds Beamer quote. With AP Photos.By RALPH D. RUSSOAP College Football Writer

There will never be another coaching career like Joe Paterno's.

His time at Penn State started long before coaches were pulling down multimillion dollar salaries, before fire so-and-so.com web sites and win-now-or-else attitudes at programs that have rarely contended for championships.

No Division I coach won more games (409) or had a longer run at one school than Paterno.

It's hard to fathom a coach staying at a power program such as Penn State for even 20 years these days, let alone the 46 seasons Paterno led the Nittany Lions.

Coaches who come to define not just a team but a school, Hall of Famers such as Bear Bryant, Tom Osborne, Bo Schembechler, Bobby Bowden and Paterno, seem to be going the way of the wishbone and tear-away jerseys in college football.

"Look what's happening," Bowden told The Associated Press on Sunday, hours after Paterno died at the age of 85. "Coaches getting fired in two years. Coaches making a million dollars here and they get $2 million and they leave. They break a five-year contract. You've got unloyalty at both ends."

The 82-year-old Bowden was nudged into retirement two years ago after 34 seasons at Florida State. Paterno was fired during a chaotic week in November after his former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with sexually abusing children.

He found out about Paterno's death when he arrived home Sunday morning after coaching a charity game between former Florida State and Miami players. Former Hurricanes coach Howard Schnellenberger, who retired from Florida Atlantic after this past season at the age of 77, was coaching the Miami squad.

Bowden and Paterno became friends over the years partly because, as they grew older, they could relate to each like few other coaches could.

"We'd sit and talk and discuss a lot of NCAA questions," Bowden said. "Those were great memories. My wife Ann and Sue (Paterno's wife) got along real good together too."

Bowden said he'd written a letter to Paterno "not too long ago," but hadn't spoken with him for some time.

"Bobby always thought so much of Joe," Ann Bowden said. "He was just a unique character. Joe was very strong and outspoken. He and Bobby were different in a lot of respects. He'd been there a longer time and he was stronger, more forceful, said what he thought. Bobby guards himself a little bit when he says something."

With Schnellenberger's retirement, Kansas State's 72-year-old Bill Snyder is the oldest active coach in major college football.

Snyder has spent 21 seasons with the Wildcats, but even that was interrupted by a three-year retirement when he hit a rough patch.

After Paterno was fired, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer became the longest-tenured coach working in the highest level of Division I football.

"College football will miss Joe Paterno," said Beamer, who is 65 and has been leading the Hokies since 1987.

The next-longest continuous tenure among current coaches belongs to 60-year-old Mack Brown, who has been at Texas since 1998.

"I think that the changes in communications and media (changes that of course accelerated Joe's termination once the grand jury indictments were issued) create a level of scrutiny and pressure that will make 10 years at the same FBS school rare," Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said in an email.

Some of Notre Dame's greatest coaches (Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz) only lasted around a decade, but lately the storied program has been emblematic of the revolving door many schools have on the football coach's office.

Brian Kelly is Notre Dame's fourth head coach since 1997; its fifth if you count the days-long tenure of George O'Leary. As for Kelly, Notre Dame is his third job since 2004, though he was climbing the ladder from Central Michigan to Cincinnati to one of the most celebrated football schools in the country.

Even elite top-notch programs get used as steppingstones these days.

Alabama's Nick Saban left Michigan State for LSU, where he won a national title in 2003. He then bailed on the Tigers for the Miami Dolphins before landing at Alabama and winning two national championships for the Tide in five seasons.

"I think the cycles for head coaches will be shorter, much as we've seen in pro sports," West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck said.

At 60, Saban looks as if he could easily put in another 10 years in Tuscaloosa. But with a salary approaching $5 million, why would he want to? Paterno only ever made about $1 million a year, by the way, relatively modest by today's standards.

"Coaches are making so much money that if they're successful they can retire early in life and if they're not successful the school is going to get rid of them real quick," Bowden said. "It's not likely we're going to see anybody last as long as Joe and myself."

____

Associated Press Writer Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-22-Paterno-Long-Term%20Coaches/id-4c775a5ba3924ed49c8b9da48442ae6f

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Romney?s lowered expectations. (Americablog)

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Khloe & Lamar Season 2 Preview: Welcome to Dallas!

The E! reality show circus is about to mess with Texas.

A couple months after Lamar Odom successfully lobbied for a trade, season two of Khloe & Lamar will premiere with a focus on the big move, as the couple heads from Los Angeles to Dallas, bringing Robert Kardashian along for some reason.

Will they find a new house in the area? How is Odom akin to a box of chocolate? What what hilarious show returns following this February 19 premiere? Watch the following promo for these answers and more!

Khloe & Lamar Season 2 Promo

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/khloe-and-lamar-season-2-preview-welcome-to-dallas/

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[OOC] Marked 2

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This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Marked 2"

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shmband

Member for 2 years

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I am definately interested as a female. Perhaps the Alpha's daughter please?

RainWish

Member for 1 years

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Could I reserve the female(14-20)? I have a really good idea for her. :)

Aixulram

Member for 1 years

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France threatens early exit from Afghanistan (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? France's threat Friday to withdraw early from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French troops and wounded 15 is a setback for the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to build a national army and allow foreign troops to go home.

The deadly shooting ? the second against French forces in a month ? is the latest in a rising number of disturbing attacks in which Afghan security forces or infiltrators have turned their guns on coalition forces.

It came during an especially deadly 24 hours for the international coalition, with six U.S. Marines killed in a helicopter crash Thursday night in southern Afghanistan.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who faces a potentially tough re-election campaign this spring, reacted swiftly and sternly to the killing of the French troops, who were unarmed when they were shot during a physical training exercise. He ordered French forces to stop training Afghan forces and suspended joint patrols.

"The French army is not in Afghanistan so that Afghan soldiers can shoot at them," Sarkozy said in Paris. "From now on, all the operations of training and combat help by the French army are suspended."

If security for the French troops is not restored, "the question of an early withdrawal of the French army would arise," he said.

France's threat comes at a time when the coalition is trying to reassure Afghanistan that it is not rushing to leave, that it will continue to develop the nation's struggling security force, and that it will help the government negotiate a political settlement with the Taliban to end the decade-long war.

If France suspends training operations indefinitely or withdraws sooner, it would weaken the coalition and could prompt more troop-contributing nations to follow suit.

Through training of Afghan police and soldiers, the coalition hopes to wrap up its combat mission at the end of 2014 when foreign forces are to have gone home or moved into support roles.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said France was a valued member of a tightly knit NATO coalition. "I don't want to get ahead of any discussions or decision that France might make with regard to its ... presence as part of that coalition," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "I am in great sympathy with what happened to the French soldiers. It was terrible. And I can certainly appreciate the strong feelings that are being expressed."

"We are in close contact with our French colleagues, and we have no reason to believe that France will do anything other than continue to be part of the very carefully considered transition process as we look at our exit ..." Clinton added.

The unpopular Sarkozy has been struggling to revive his poll numbers at a time when the public has grown weary of France's 10-year commitment in Afghanistan. Most voters are worried about jobs, the economy and state debt, and Sarkozy can ill-afford to let the war fester as another liability on his political balance sheet.

Sarkozy's suspension of training and partnered operations ? even if it strains the NATO campaign ? releases a political pressure valve that at least shows he's contemplating a way out from Afghanistan. The candidate who tops opinion polls, Socialist Francois Hollande, said Friday that if he were elected president, he would aim to pull all French forces out by the end of this year.

France is the fourth-largest force in the coalition, with 3,600 troops in Afghanistan. Six hundred are slated to leave this year and the rest by the end of 2014.

So far, 82 French troops have been killed, including two members of the French Foreign Legion who were shot and killed by an Afghan soldier on Dec. 29.

The Bulgarian state news agency BTA reported that that one of the four French troops killed Friday is a Bulgarian national, 34-year-old Svilen Simeonov. It quoted the Foreign Ministry press office as saying he had served as sergeant in the French Foreign Legion.

Afghan security forces or insurgents dressed in their uniforms have attacked and killed international troops or civilian trainers more than a dozen times in two years, according to an Associated Press count. Some of the attacks were conducted by presumed Taliban sleeper agents who had joined the Afghan forces, and others were by bona fide soldiers who became disgruntled or had emotional problems.

"We believe that they do appear to be increasing in frequency in recent months," according to U.S. Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman who said the coalition was doing a trend analysis on the incidents. "What we can't discern is a cause for that right now. ... But we also don't believe that that is an endemic or systemic problem."

U.S. Gen. John Allen, top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, praised France's contribution to the war and pledged to investigate the incident thoroughly and work with France on its response.

"We are committed to continuing to work with the government of Afghanistan to resolve this very serious issue of individuals targeting our forces," he said in a statement Friday night.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking in Riga, Latvia, expressed sadness for the French people, but insisted that such incidents were "isolated."

In Kabul, coalition spokesman German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson called the shooting "traumatic" and said it would negatively affect the trust between the more than 300,000 Afghan and 130,000 coalition forces.

"They are together in operations. They are together in camps. They are partnered. They have to trust each other. They are operating closely together," Jacobson said.

"One thing that we are making very, very sure is that there is very careful vetting on the recruitment side. Obviously an incident like this morning has a negative effect on the trust side."

Some U.S., French and Afghan officials called the attacker an Afghan soldier; others said only that the shooter was wearing an Afghan army uniform.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the French soldiers were unarmed when the attacker opened fire during a difficult physical training exercise at high altitude. He said the gunman was being held by an Afghan general "whom we trust."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid praised the attacker but did not claim he was an infiltrator or give other details.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the shooter was an Afghan man in an army uniform. He said the ministry sent a delegation to Kapisa to investigate.

French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said the attacker appeared to have the authorizations needed to enter the Forward Operating Base in Gwan, an area of Tagab district of Kapisa province. Three-fourths of the 600 soldiers on the base are Afghan, the rest French, he said.

Despite the act of a lone gunman, Burkhard said French and Afghan forces have had a good relationship.

"After an unacceptable assassination like this, by one person among 3,000, it remains to be seen what the impact will be on the confidence that the two sides have with one another," he said.

Burkhard said that for now, French forces would not be removed from joint bases. The French defense minister and the French army's chief of staff were traveling to Afghanistan. After they report back, Sarkozy said the government will decide how to continue.

International affairs analyst Francois Heisbourg, head of the government-supported Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said the Afghan army has become part of the problem instead of the solution. The planned exit of foreign combat troops in 2014 is based on the premise that Afghan security forces would be able to take over.

"That doesn't look like a very promising paradigm," he said.

French forces can easily stop training Afghan forces by hunkering down in their barracks, but backing out of partnered combat operations is trickier, he said.

"Maybe they (training and combined operations) will resume in a degraded mode as a prelude to withdrawal ? it's always possible," he said. "But I think we're on the withdrawal ramp.

"I think it's pretty clear that this is a prelude to anticipated withdrawal ? without waiting for 2014."

Heisbourg noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who expressed his deep regret over the attack, is scheduled to visit France next week to sign a friendship pact to guide relations after 2014. Karzai is negotiating similar agreements with the U.S. and Europe.

"It makes the politics much more complex for everybody ? for the Americans as well as for the Europeans," Heisbourg said.

So far this month, 28 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.

All six U.S. Marines killed in the helicopter crash in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province were based in Hawaii, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said Friday.

The Taliban said it shot down the helicopter, but NATO said no enemy activity was reported in the area at the time.

"We are looking into a technical fault at the moment, but the investigation is ongoing," Jacobson said.

The crash was the deadliest in Afghanistan since August, when 30 U.S. troops died after a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Wardak province.

___

Keaten reported from Paris. Associated Press Writers Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Samantha Bordes in Paris and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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