Kazakhstan Vault Protests

Trying to make their voice heard in the former Soviet republic, a group of Kazakh homeowners holed up in an underground vault on Friday, May 8, to protest government plans to evict them from their houses. Protestors, a rare show in Kazakhstan, presented a statement to members of the media including their requirements.

(Reuters Photos)

'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin Mickey Carroll dies at 89 (AP)

ST. LOUIS - Mickey Carroll, one of the last surviving Munchkins from the 1939 beloved film "The Wizard of Oz," died Thursday. He was 89.
His caretaker, Linda Dodge, said Carroll died in his sleep at her home in suburban Crestwood.
He had heart problems and received a pacemaker in February.
Until January, he had lived in his own home in suburban Bel-Nor.

Carroll was one of more than 100 adults and children who were recruited to play the movie natives of what author L. Frank Baum called Munchkin Country in his 1998 book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
Carroll told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview that the Munchkins made only $125 a week while filming the movie that would become a classic.
"The Wizard of Oz" was Carroll's only movie.
When it appeared on television in the 1960s, he found a new career at charitable events, retail events and Oz-related events.
"It's not me; it's the movie," Carroll said. "
When they see me, they think of their childhood, and it makes them smile."
Carroll was born Michael Finocchiaro on July 8, 1919, in St. Louis.
The son of immigrants, he grew up in an Italian neighborhood on the city's north side with a twin sister and four older siblings. All preceded him in death.
A pituitary condition caused Carroll's short stature. Stephen Cox, a friend of Carroll's and the author of a book on the Munchkins, told the St.Louis Post-Dispatch that Carroll was 4-foot-3 when he stopped growing in his 40s.
Carroll danced at the Muny Theater in St. Louis when he was in grade school, he once said, and in the 1920s worked in Chicago clubs and on the Orpheum Theater vaudeville circuit.
His gift of gab and comedic timing helped his popularity.
He warmed up crowds for President Franklin Roosevelt while campaigning in New York City and served as a crowd-getter in President Harry Truman's whistlestop campaign.
He did Phillip Morris live radio ads and appeared in shows with
Mae West. He later did radio shows with George Burns, Gracie Allen, Jack Benny and Al Jolson.
But it was his role as one of the "Oz" Munchkins that defined him.
Carroll played the part of the Munchkinland "Town Crier," marched as a "Munchkin Soldier" and was the candy-striped "Fiddler" who escorted the movie's wide-eyed orphan, Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland, down the yellow brick road toward Emerald City.
In the mid-1940s, Carroll returned to St. Louis to run the family business making cemetery monuments. After he sold it in 1996, he filled his time with charity work, Dodge said.
In November 2007, Carroll and six other surviving Munchkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Carroll was joined on that occasion by former Munchkin colleagues Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl Slover and Clarence Swensen. Swensen died in February.
At a special screening of the film in 2005 in Los Angeles, Carroll said talking to longtime fans about the movie brought back their childhoods.
"They have tears," he said.
"I'll say, `May the magic of Oz always be with you.' And, `Follow the yellow brick road!' And they're all excited. I bring back their childhood.
Ain't that something?"
___
On the Net:
Mickey Carroll's Web site: http://www.mickeycarrollmunchkin.com/
(This version CORRECTS corrects the publication year of Baum's book to 1998, not 1900.)
More on: Judy Garland, Mae West

Warning: Sunspot cycle beginning to rise

AP – FILE - In this undated image provided by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows a new …

WASHINGTON – When the sun sneezes it's Earth that gets sick. It's time for the sun to move into a busier period for sunspots, and while forecasters expect a relatively mild outbreak by historical standards, one major solar storm can cause havoc with satellites and electrical systems here.
Like hurricanes, a weak cycle refers to the number of storms, but it only takes one powerful storm to create chaos, said scientist Doug Biesecker of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather prediction center.
A report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a storm as severe as one in 1859 occurred today, it could cause $1 trillion to $2 trillion in damage the first year and take four to 10 years to recover.
The 1859 storm shorted out telegraph wires, causing fires in North America and Europe, sent readings of Earth's magnetic field soaring, and produced northern lights so bright that people read newspapers by their light.
Today there's a lot more than telegraph lines at stake. Vulnerable electrical grids circle the globe, satellites now vital for all forms of communications can be severely disrupted along with the global positioning system. Indeed, the panel warned that a strong blast of solar wind can threaten national security, transportation, financial services and other essential functions.
The solar prediction center works closely with industry and government agencies to make sure they are prepared with changes in activity and prepared to respond when damage occurs, Biesecker said in a briefing.
While the most extreme events seem unlikely this time, there will probably be smaller scale disruptions to electrical service, airline flights, GPS signals and television, radio and cell phones.
On the plus side, the solar storms promote the colorful auroras, known as the northern and southern lights, high in the sky over polar areas.
An international panel headed by Biesecker said Friday it expects the upcoming solar cycle to be the weakest since 1928.
The prediction calls for the solar cycle to peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day, averaged over a month. If the prediction proves correct it will be the weakest cycle since a peak of 78 daily sunspots in 1928.
Measurement of sunspot cycles began in the 1750s.
The panel described solar storms as eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun. At least some of this heads toward the Earth.
Solar cycles of more and fewer sunspots last several years and the cycle currently building up will be number 24 since counting began.
It's only the third time researchers have tried to make such a forecast. In 1989 a panel predicted Cycle 22, which peaked that year. And in 1996 scientists predicted Cycle 23.
Both earlier groups did better at predicting timing than intensity, according to Biesecker.
The last solar minimum occurred in December, the researchers said.
W. Dean Pesnell of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the forecasts are based on such indicators as the strength of the sun's magnetic field at the poles and the reaction of the Earth's magnetic field to the sun. Both are weak right now, he said, with only a few sunspots visible since 2007.
A preliminary forecast issued in 2007 was split over the outlook for the upcoming cycle, Biesecker said the researchers have now reached consensus.
___
On the Net:
NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov
Space Weather Center: http://www.spaceweather.gov

Natural Disasters the of America(2009\5\8)

KFC offers rain checks on coupon Oprah promoted

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Memo to KFC: never underestimate the power of Oprah Winfrey.
Or the lure of a freebie.
A free grilled-chicken meal promotion touted by the popular talk show host has caused such a frenzy that a few stores ran out and the Louisville-based chain is asking customers to take a rain check for the deal.
"For the last day and a half, our restaurants have just been absolutely inundated," KFC President Roger Eaton said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

"It's just been overwhelming."
Lines snaked outside some KFC restaurants and cars stacked up at drive-through windows as people waited to redeem the coupons available on Oprah.com for 24 hours this week, he said. The coupons also were available until late Wednesday on unthinkfc.com — a KFC Web site promoting the new grilled chicken.
Restaurants summoned extra help to keep pace with the crowds, yet some customers waited an hour and a half as the chain gave away millions of the meals Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday.
Uncomfortable with the delays, the chain decided to ask people to wait longer for the meals — but with the hope of a more peaceful setting in which to eat them.

Eaton said the company will mail coupons to customers in stages and throw in a free soft drink.
"The way we're operating at the moment isn't giving the experience that we'd like to give them," he said.
Police in Greensboro, N.C., said the backup of vehicles heading to a KFC there created a hazard at the dinner hour Wednesday. A 911 caller complained of people arguing and said traffic was stopped, according to a 911 report. Authorities eventually blocked access to the restaurant, and many customers left without redeeming their coupons.
There were isolated reports across the country of customers becoming upset at KFC stores as they waited or as stores ran out of chicken on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The company said Thursday that it had received no reports of violence or arrests.
The rush began when the downloadable coupons were available on Oprah.

com for 24 hours beginning Tuesday after Winfrey announced the promotion on her show. Each coupon promised two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual side orders and a biscuit.
A spokeswoman for Winfrey's Harpo Productions in Chicago applauded the company's decision to offer rain checks for the new meals, which KFC introduced three weeks ago as a healthier alternative to its popular staple, fried chicken.
"We feel this new plan is a great new way to accommodate the overwhelming interest," the spokeswoman said.
The free-meal promotion was funded by KFC, a spokeswoman for the chain said.
Known for generosity, Winfrey has doled out impressive giveaways for her studio audiences, from books to cars, and her comments or support have caused distinct spikes in the popularity of everything from consumer goods to political candidates. She also has hosted a televised philanthropy competition, "Oprah's Big Give," where contestants help people in need.
KFC, a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., has backed its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken with an advertising blitz.

chain hopes to lure health-conscious customers with its grilled offering, which is lower in fat, calories and sodium than the chain's fried chicken.
KFC has never had such a response to a special-meal offer, said KFC spokeswoman Laurie Schalow.
"It's unprecedented in our more than 50 years," she said. "It beats anything we've ever done."
The chain would not say how much the giveaway cost because the expense was part of its much larger national marketing and promotions budget for the year.
"The relative costs of a day like yesterday are very small relative to the potential value of getting people to taste this product," Eaton said. The draw, he said, was a mix of Winfrey's star power, the lure of a free meal in tough times and curiosity about the new product.
It's been a heady couple days for a chain that's been struggling in the United States but growing furiously overseas, particularly in China.
"We're getting people into the restaurants through this promotion who haven't been to KFC for a very long time," Eaton said. "We're basically repositioning the brand through this exercise."
___
Associated Press Writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Mike Baker in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Largest U.S. Banks Need Additional $75B in Equity, According to Stress Tests

By Neil Irwin and Binyamin AppelbaumWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, May 7, 2009 5:01 PM

The nation's largest banks collectively need another $75 billion in equity to ride out potential losses due to the recession, according to long awaited government stress tests released this afternoon.
Nine of the 19 banks do not need any new capital at all, including J.P Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Another eight banks can fulfill their capital needs by raising money privately or, if they can't, by converting existing government investments into common stock. That list includes Bank of America, which needs $33.9 billion, and Wells Fargo, which needs $13.7 billion.
That leaves only two firms that must actually raise more cash. GMAC, the auto finance company that is historically tied to General Motors, needs an additional $9.1 billion in new capital. Regions Financial Corp., a regional bank based in Alabama, needs another $400 miliion.
Regulators have spent the last three months examining the banks' financial situations, projecting losses the firms would incur on their mortgage, consumer lending, and other loan portfolios if the jobless rate rises above 10 percent and home prices continue to tumble. The tests also estimated the degree to which those losses will be offset by earnings over the coming years.
The tests, a signature element of the Obama administration's strategy for rescuing the financial system, are meant to instill confidence in major banks by ensuring that they can weather a prolonged recession. The new capital they need, which is less than analysts had feared, suggests that the 19 largest U.S. banks will largely be able to raise the money they need in private markets, with few if any returning to the Treasury to request more money.
The banks that need more capital have a month to inform the government of how they plan to do so.

Their options include selling new common stock and selling off business lines or other assets. If the firms fail to raise the money in six months, they would receive a new injection of money from the government.
Banks were already racing to raise the money they need in private markets this afternoon.
Wells Fargo this afternoon announced it will raise $6 billion in a new sale of its stock. Wells, the nation's third biggest commercial bank, needs a total of $13.7 billion in new common equity to fulfill its requirements under the stress test.
Morgan Stanley, which needs to raise another $1.8 billion according to the stress test, said it will raise $2 billion by selling stock and issue another $3 billion in debt.
Citigroup said it will expand by $5.5 billion a program to switch out preferred stock for common stock, which would fill a common equity hole of that size that the government identified in the stress test.

Government to condemn land for Flight 93 memorial

AP – FILE-- In this Sept. 11, 2006 file photo, flags attached to angels in memory of the 40 passengers and

PITTSBURGH – One man inherited property that his grandfather bought during the Depression. A Lutheran pastor owns a cottage where he planned to retire with his wife. Two others own businesses.
But they and other property owners in rural southwestern Pennsylvania knew things would change in the aftermath of United Flight 93's crash on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed 40 passengers and crew and four terrorist hijackers. Plans were soon in the works for a memorial to honor the victims. Property owners say they realized that and were willing to cooperate and help make it happen.
But now that the government intends to take their land by eminent domain so the Flight 93 memorial can be built by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, property owners say they're disappointed and surprised by the plan.
They also disputed that negotiations have taken place and said they've either not been made offers, or were only provided offers within the past week.
The park service "apologized about the way it's come together, but what's sad is they had all these years to put this together and they haven't," said Randall Musser, who owns about 62 acres that the park service wants to acquire.
"They haven't ever really gotten officially started with negotiations," he said Thursday. Appraisers were just at his land on Tuesday.
Musser served on the committee that helped establish the park's boundaries and said landowners were promised in 2002 that eminent domain would not be used.
While landowner Tim Lambert knew that eminent domain, or condemnation, was a possibility, he thought it was unlikely and that the park service and a victim's family group working to acquire land wanted to buy larger parcels before dealing with owners of smaller properties.
"It's absolutely a surprise. I'm shocked by it. I'm disappointed by it," said Lambert, who owns nearly 164 acres that his grandfather bought in the 1930s. The park service plans to condemn two parcels totaling about five acres — land he said he had always intended to donate for the memorial.
"To the best of my knowledge and my lawyer, absolutely no negotiations have taken place with the park service where we've sat down and discussed this," Lambert said.
Lambert said he had mainly dealt with the Families of Flight 93 and said he's provided the group all the information it's asked for, including an appraisal.
Larry Hoover, a Lutheran pastor who owns two parcels, including one that has a cottage where he and his wife planned to retire to, said a number of appraisals had been done, "but I've never sat down with the park service and done any negotiations.
"I can't say that we have ever got to the place where we've had a figure on the table," he said Thursday. It's been about three years since he's talked with the park service and about a year since he talked to the family group, he said.
The park service defended its plans.
"We had a group of people who took some very heroic actions. It's just fitting and right that we get this done in time for the 10th anniversary," said spokesman Phil Sheridan.
The park service had teamed up with the Families of Flight 93 to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land. "But with few exceptions, these negotiations have been unsuccessful," the park service said in a statement.
Sheridan said he did not want to characterize any individual landowner as unwilling to negotiate, but, "Basically, at this point, we have not been able to acquire all the land we need," he said.
Even with willing sellers, Sheridan said title questions, liens and other claims can arise that would have to be worked out and could delay the project.
The seven property owners own about 500 acres still needed for what will ultimately be a $58 million, 2,200-acre permanent memorial and national park at the crash site near Shanksville, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Patrick White, vice president of the families' group, said: "The families continue to support dedication of the permanent memorial by the 10th anniversary and that we are equally committed to working within the process with those landowners who are willing to sell."
"The thing to appreciate about the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution is that it provides for just compensation," he said.
The next step will be for the U.S. Justice Department to file a complaint in federal court. A court would have to decide the matter and would set a value on the land.
Condemnation is rarely used. The last time the park service used it, Sheriden said, was to acquire a tower at the Gettysburg battlefield. The tower wad demolished to return the battlefield to the way it looked in 1863.
In February, government officials and representatives of the 33 passengers and seven crew members killed when the plane crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, pledged to dedicate a memorial on the site by the 10th anniversary.
United Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was diverted by hijackers with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The official 9/11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to wrest control of the cockpit.

Obama Releases $3.4 Trillion Budget Plan

By Lori Montgomery, Amy goldstein and William BraniginWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, May 7, 2009 1:06 PM

The Obama administration today unveiled program details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget for the fiscal year beginning in October, a proposal that includes substantial increases for a number of domestic priorities as well as a plan to trim or eliminate 121 programs at a savings of $17 billion.
In a statement delivered at the White House after the budget details were released, President Obama defended the cuts from critics on both sides -- those he said would fight to preserve the targeted programs and others who consider the reductions insignificant.
"We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don't matter and waste is not our problem," he said. "We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration -- or the next generation."
While many government employees do valuable, thankless work, Obama said, "at the same time, we have to admit that there is a lot of money that's being spent inefficiently, ineffectively and, in some cases, in ways that are actually pretty stunning." He cited several examples, including a $465 million program to build an alternate engine for the Defense Department's joint strike fighter, a program that Pentagon brass neither wants nor plans to use.
Obama said some proposed cuts are larger and more painful than others, while some would produce less than $1 million in savings. "In Washington, I guess that's considered trivial," he said. "But these savings, large and small, add up." He said of the $17 billion total in projected savings, "Even by Washington standards, that should be considered real money."
Obama also stressed that the proposed cuts do not replace the need for "large changes" in entitlement spending.
The new budget documents, totaling more than 1,500 pages, fill in the details of a broad outline that Obama released in February. They include a massive appendix listing program-by-program information on the roughly 40 percent of the fiscal 2010 budget that constitutes discretionary spending, which will be set by Congress in what is expected to be a contentious appropriations process.
Also included is a separate tome that provides details on the programs targeted for cuts or elimination. If approved by Congress, those trims would amount to only about one-half of 1 percent of the $3.4 trillion federal budget.
But the proposed reductions are expected to be equally controversial on Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers battling for programs they favor and others demanded deeper cuts.
Congressional Republicans immediately denounced the cuts as insufficient when some details of them emerged yesterday.
The criticism drew a retort this morning from White House budget director Peter Orszag, who went on MSNBC to stress that the cuts are just a start on the long-term work of curbing government spending, notably the growth of the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs.
In any case, Orszag said, "$17 billion a year is not chump change by anyone's accounting."
About half of the trims would come from curbing defense programs that have been identified by Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates as expendable. They include ending production of the F-22 fighter plane -- thus saving $2.9 billion next year -- and canceling a new $13 billion presidential helicopter fleet, which would save about $750 million in fiscal 2010.
In a letter to Congress accompanying the new budget documents, Obama said his proposals make "long-overdue investments and reforms" in education, health care and renewable sources of energy while "beginning to rein in unsustainable deficits and debt.
" He said the proposed program cuts "are just the next phase of a larger and longer effort needed to change how Washington does business and put our fiscal house in order."
"I have little doubt that there will be various interests -- vocal and powerful -- who will oppose different aspects of this budget," he wrote. "Change is never easy. However, I believe that after an era of profound irresponsibility, Americans are ready to embrace the shared responsibilities we have to each other and to generations to come.
They want to . . . reconstruct an economy that is built on a solid new foundation."
In his letter and in his remarks at the White House, Obama vowed again to cut the federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term, and he pledged to bring nondefense discretionary spending over the next decade to its lowest level as a share of gross domestic product since 1962.
Under the budget request for the Pentagon, Afghanistan war funding surpasses that for Iraq for the first time, part of a shift in priorities that Gates seeks in defense spending.
The $130 billion in war funding that is part of the 2010 budget request includes $65 billion for Afghanistan operations and $61 billion for Iraq. The budget covers Obama's plan to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan by 21,000 this year, but more funds would be required if he decides to meet the request of U.S. commanders for an additional 10,000 troops next year. The budget also includes $700 million for improving Pakistan's counterinsurgency capability -- a major increase in such assistance.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon's $534 billion base budget -- $21 billion, or 4 percent, larger than last year's -- also includes key initiatives to reshape the U.S. military for fighting today's wars. Major shifts include increasing spending on intelligence and reconnaissance, helicopters and Special Operations Forces, while stopping production of unneeded weapons systems and terminating or restructuring other programs considered "troubled."
In addition to the F-22 and presidential helicopter programs, proposed cuts include halting a $19 billion transformational satellite program and trimming $1.2 billion from missile defense.
Emphasizing the need to care for the all-volunteer force, the budget includes a 2.9 percent pay raise for active and reserve military personnel and increased spending on research for common wounds such as traumatic brain injury and mental health problems. Health care costs for military personnel have ballooned in recent years and are projected to consume $47 billion of the 2010 defense budget.
With the 2.9 percent across-the-board pay raise and other compensation increases, but excluding special pay and bonuses, military salaries will average nearly $52,000 a year for enlisted personnel and $98,000 a year for officers, the document says.
The budget includes $2.3 billion more for personnel costs than the level enacted in 2009, an increase that would help pay for the Bush administration's decision to permanently increase the size of the Army by 65,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps by 27,000 Marines.
The volume separately lists budget items for "overseas contingency operations" covering pay and other personnel costs for service members in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots. Included in this category is $115.3 billion for the "Iraq Freedom Fund" during fiscal 2010, an amount that includes up to $100 million "to support the relocation and disposition of individuals detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, relocate military and support forces associated with detainee operations and facilitate the closure of detainee facilities."
In addition, nearly $7.5 billion is budgeted for assistance to Afghan security forces.
The proposed budget immediately came under fire today from congressional Republicans. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) charged in a speech that the Obama administration "seems to be forcing the Pentagon to make some needlessly tough choices -- even as they justify trillions of dollars for domestic spending in the name of economic stimulus." He said growth of discretionary federal spending by 7.7 percent next year, compared with 4 percent growth in defense spending while the United States fights two wars, "shows the wrong budget priorities for our country."
Cornyn also complained about the plan to cut missile defense spending. "Given the threats we face, now is not the time to cash in a peace dividend," he said.
However, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) hailed the budget and praised Obama for reaffirming his pledge to cut waste. "No spending should be immune from review," he said in a statement.
Obama's list of proposed cuts is less ambitious than the hit list former president George W. Bush produced last year, which targeted 151 programs for $34 billion in savings. Like most of the cuts Bush sought, congressional sources and independent budget analysts predict, Obama's also are likely to prove a tough sell.
"Even if you got all of those things, it would be saving pennies, not dollars. And you're not going to begin to get all of them," said Isabel Sawhill, a Brookings Institution economist who waged her own battles with Congress as a senior official in the Clinton White House budget office. "This is a good government exercise without much prospect of putting a significant dent in spending."
Administration officials defended their approach, saying the list of program reductions and terminations is just the start of a broader effort to cut spending and rein in a skyrocketing budget deficit, which is projected to approach $1.7 trillion this year. They also noted that the list does not include more than $300 billion in savings Obama proposes to squeeze from federal health programs and use to finance an expansion of coverage for the uninsured.
"This is an important first step, but it's not the end of the process. We will continue to look for additional savings," said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the list of cuts had not been officially released. "You have not heard everything to be said on this topic from us."
The president has already scored a victory on the budget. Congress last week decisively approved his request to devote billions of dollars in new spending to health care, energy and education in the fiscal year that begins in October. But that plan depends in part on the administration's ability to identify budget cuts elsewhere. The document being released today details some of those savings.
The relatively short list of proposed program cuts quickly drew fire from Republicans who learned of them yesterday.
"While we appreciate the newfound attention to saving taxpayer dollars from this administration, we respectfully suggest that we should do far more," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said.
In separate briefings with congressional Democrats and reporters, administration officials yesterday said the proposed savings were evenly split between defense and nondefense programs, and that many of the most significant reductions had already been revealed by the president or by Gates.
They also said the majority of the reductions were new targets not previously identified by the Bush administration. But the two lists clearly have some overlap.
For example, congressional sources said Obama is proposing to eliminate a program that reimburses states and localities for holding suspected criminals who turn out to be in the country illegally. Created in 1994, the program was repeatedly targeted by Bush officials, who argued that it is ineffective. But Congress restored funding for the program because it was popular with state and local officials. The program handed out $400 million last year.
Administration officials said Obama also wants to do away with Even Start, a program created in the late 1980s to promote literacy for young children and their parents. Starting in 2005, Bush tried annually to persuade Congress to eliminate the program. Lawmakers gradually reduced funding from $247 million to $66 million, but never proved willing to eliminate it.
Yesterday, an administration official said that, though Obama considers early childhood education a priority, "The evidence is unfortunately clear that this specific early childhood program does not work very well."
The officials previewed four other programs marked for termination on the grounds that they are not needed or are not effective. Obama officials have previously identified three of them as being out of favor: a $35 million-a-year long-range radio navigation system that officials said has been made obsolete by Global Positioning System devices; a Department of Education attache based in Paris that costs $632,000 per year; and a $142 million program that officials said continues to pay states to clean up abandoned mines even though that task has been completed.
In addition, the White House is proposing to cancel the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent federal agency established to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind," according to its Web site. The program costs $1 million a year, and officials said 80 percent goes to administrative overhead.
The proposed cuts, if adopted by Congress, would not actually reduce government spending. Obama's budget would increase overall spending; any savings from the program terminations and reductions would be shifted to the president's priorities.
But the more likely outcome, budget analysts said, is that few to none of the programs targeted by Obama will be terminated. Presidents from both parties have routinely rolled out long lists of spending cuts -- and lawmakers from both parties routinely ignore them.
"You can go through the budget line by line, but there's no line that says 'waste, fraud and abuse,'" said Robert Bixby, executive director of the nonprofit Concord Coalition, which promotes deficit reduction. "What some people think is waste, other people think is a vital government service."
The administration officials said they think their cuts will be taken more seriously by lawmakers because the economic crisis and the accompanying rise in deficit spending is focusing fresh attention on the need to trim spending. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has told committee leaders to offer their own spending cuts by the beginning of June.
"The spirit on Capitol Hill is now cognizant of the need to find some efficiencies," the administration official said. "I think you're going to see proposals not just from us, but from lawmakers to find savings."
Still, in the context of an enormous deficit, the sums under discussion are a drop in the bucket, analysts said.
"Obviously, the bottom line is frightening," said Rudolph Penner, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "They have a long way to go to show fiscal restraint."
Staff writers Ann Scott Tyson and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.

Group allegedly planning to attack parliament, take PM hostage

Canadian Muslim pleads guilty to terrorist plot

Khalid was part of a group of 18 Canadian Muslims arrested in mid-2006 in Toronto, accused of planning attacks (File)

OTTAWA (AlArabiya.net, AFP)
A Canadian man has plead guilty to participating in a terrorist plot three years ago to attack the Canadian parliament and take the prime minister hostage, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Saad Khalid, 22, is the first adult in the group to admit a role in the alleged plot.Khalid was part of a group of 18 Canadian Muslims arrested in mid-2006 in Toronto, accused of planning attacks in that city and in Ottawa, and having ties to jihadists in Pakistan.
He entered a guilty plea in a Brampton courtroom on Monday, but a publication ban ordered by the court prevented its publication until Wednesday.

Khalid faced two charges of "knowingly participating in or contributing to ... activities of a terrorist group ........ (enabling it) to carry out a terrorist activity," and intending to cause a deadly and destructive explosion, said an indictment.
The group allegedly planned to attack the Canadian parliament and to take hostages, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to force Canada to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.
Prosecutors said the group wanted to obtain three tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make explosives.
But after the arrests, authorities dropped charges against seven of the suspects, and they were freed.
In September, one of the youngest of the group whose name cannot be revealed because of his age, was found guilty of terrorist activities. He is now 20 and remains in prison.
Khalid, and other members of what was dubbed the Toronto 18, was arrested in June, 2006 and charged with terror-related offences.
Nine others still remain in custody awaiting trial.

Job includes luxury island life of snorkeling and socializing

British man wins Aussie's "best job in the world"
Luxury

Stuck behind a desk working a 9 to 5? Well then you might envy a lucky British man who won the chance to take a stab at the "best job in world" as manager of an Australian tropical island for six months.Charity worker Ben Southall was selected by tourism chiefs in Queensland, who launched a global hunt to fill the spot, from 34,000 applications and beat out 15 candidates from around the world.
No longer working as a charity fundraiser in the United Kingdom, the 34-year-old will become manager of Hamilton Island, on the Great Barrier Reef as part of efforts to revive Australian tourism that witnessed a decline in the wake of economic recession.

"I hope I can fill the boots as much as everybody is expecting.

My swimming is hopefully up to standard and I look forward to all the new roles and responsibilities that the task involves," Southall told BBC.

Luxury
Living in a three bedroom villa on Hamilton Island equipped with a private pool and ocean views and a golf buggy, Southall is set to report back to Tourism Queensland through blogs, photo diaries, video updates and interviews.

His new job requires him to explore "the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle," according to Tourism Queensland website.

The "best job in the world" contest has generated huge interest around the globe, but the jury is out on whether that will translate into more tourism dollars for Queensland, Australia.

World without oil !!! How be?

Officials arrest 8 in Turkey 'blood feud' wedding massacre

Blood fued' massacre at Turkish wedding kills 44

People bear the coffin of a victim of Monday night's assault to bury in Bilge in southeastern Turkey, 05 May 2009

Eight men suspected of gunning down 44 people during a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey were arrested Tuesday and accused of killing the couple, whose wedding they opposed, along with relatives and friends, in a 15-minute rampage. Monday's attack is one of the worst involving civilians in Turkey's modern history.

Traumatized survivors of the massacre along with relatives of the victims waited outside the region's main hospital for news of their loved ones. Ambulances brought the dead and injured to the hospital throughout the night.

What was meant to be an evening of joy and celebration turned into a massacre, when at least six masked gunman entered the remote village where the wedding ceremony was taking place.

According to witnesses, the gunmen who were armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades, opened fire on the 200 people attending the wedding.

More than a dozen children and women, including the bride, were killed the attack in Bilge, a village of a few hundred people in Turkey's conservative heartland.

One witness described what happened.My sister, her husband and other relatives died. All together 44 people lost their lives, he said. The wedding couple put their wedding rings on and as the evening prayers started people started firing through windows and the door.

Another witness said the gunmen rounded up women and children and then executed them. The region where the attack occurred is the center of a more than 20-year conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy.

Initially it was thought the massacre was part of that conflict. But Interior minister Besir Atalay, who flew to the region following the attack, said that was unlikely.

According to our first inspections ; this happened because of a feud within the family, he said. But our efforts to find out what happened are continuing.

I can't be more specific at the moment.While the scale of Monday's killing has shocked this predominently Muslim country of 70 million, experts say dozens are killed in rural Turkey every year in "blood for blood" vendettas passed from generations over land disputes, grazing rights or matters of family honor.

It is believed the attack was triggered by the rejection of marriage by the bride-to-be of another member of the local clan.

After intense security operations, eight people have been detained. Some reports say they include relatives of those killed.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack. To aim a gun against people who are happily celebrating a wedding; to massacre defenseless people including children aged three, even one, is evil beyond words, beyond humanity, Erdogan said.

No tradition, no understanding can justify such a killing.The village is believed to be part of a local militia group with local people armed by the state to fight against the Kurdish insurgency. Up to 70,000 people have been provided with weapons by the initiative
Some of those guns are believed to have been used in the attack.

These killings are expected to lead to calls for greater control of arms distribution, or even a ban. Observers says the wedding massacre is a tragic combination of ancient customs and modern weapons.

Handwritten letters claimed "torture" by US military

Saddam's "sleepless nights" revealed in FBI files


Saddam, seen here during his 2004 trial, alleged abuse and mistreatment from US officials in a series of handwritten letters released by the FBI

In his final days, ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein complained of torture and severe "beatings" as well sleep deprivation in a series of letters penned during his time in American captivity, press reports said on Tuesday. The handwritten letters, obtained by the New York Daily News, poured out complaints of mental and physical abuse by the "detention gang" of the United States military jailers.

in one letter Hussein wrote: "not a single part of my body was spared of the severe harm inflicted by the detention gang," adding, "some of the traces are still visible on my body."Hussein described his detention center – believed to be inside Baghdad International Airport – as a nightmarish chamber where sleepless nights echoed the screams of prisoners being tortured.

"My opportunity to sleep in this place is limited and almost scarce," Saddam wrote.

"I don't think there is anyone with a sensitive and humanitarian heart who can sleep amidst the screams of the tortured and the many blows of the doors and the squeaking sounds of the chairs.

In one letter written on Christmas day 2003, the former Iraqi leader claimed that in the past three days, the "total hours of sleep did not exceed four to five hours."

Prisoner requests

Saddam's letter's describe torture and sleepless nights (Courtesy of New York Daily News).

The letters were among 352 pages in Hussein's declassified FBI file, which the paper requested after his December 2006 execution for crimes against humanity.The heavily redacted FBI file did not address Hussein's allegations of mistreatment and are not considered credible by U.S. experts.In one note, American officials - seemingly intent on convicting the imprisoned leader – stated that FBI should "overwhelm Hussein with the volume of evidence against him and others regarding human rights violations, mass murders and the use of chemical weapons."Following Saddam's capture on Dec. 15, 2003, he penned his first letter nine days later requesting the return of "a number of simple necessities, the most important are notebooks with chapters from a story." He also demanded an accounting of over $1 million in cash found hidden with him in a Tikrit spider hole.A 2004 memo also revealed that Hussein became fond of his FBI interrogator and even ended a hunger strike "for the benefit of Supervisory Special Agent Piro."The files show that the Hussein and his family were tracked by the agency since the early 1970s. One early memo described the Iraqi leader as someone who "enjoys a good Havana cigar."

remember Hiroshima

A video clip from a BBC documentary shows how a single U.S. bomb wiped out an entire city

Barcelona 6 VS Real Madrid 2009

Barcelona targets only

Japan warns of a circulating Internet (swine flu) virus

Japan reports 'swine flu' computer virus


A suspicious Japanese-language email message is circulating in cyberspace in Japan


TOKYO (AFP)
Japan reported no human cases of deadly swine flu so far -- but a computer virus of the same name has been spreading on the Internet in recent days, authorities warned Thursday.
Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) said on its website that a suspicious Japanese-language email message with an attached file called "information on swine flu" had been circulating in cyberspace.
"The institute has received reports that the email message falsely identifying itself as coming from the NIID is circulating," it said.


"The email is carrying a file titled 'information on swine flu', which has been recognized as an illegal program by the institute's virus-checking software," the NIID statement said.


The institute did not say what kind of malware was hidden inside the file or what harm it might do.The email seemed to be sent to random Internet users, the institute said.


"It is obviously a suspicious message falsely identifying itself," it said.


Japan has so far reported no human cases of swine flu, which is believed to have killed dozens of peoples in Mexico and has spread to the United States, Europe, Israel and New Zealand.

Photos of the meeting REAL MADRID vs BARCELONA

Types "how to deliver a baby" into Google search engine

Brit helps wife deliver with YouTube as midwife

LONDON (AFP)
A British man helped deliver his baby son by following clips on YouTube, after his wife went into labor early, he said Friday.Marc Stephens, a 28-year old engineer with the Royal Navy, was caught out when his wife Jo went into labor early three weeks prematurely at their home in Redruth, southwest England.He typed "how to deliver a baby" into the Google search engine.

"I didn't even have time to panic. She started complaining of pain around 10.30 pm. I went on Google and watched a couple of clips on YouTube," he said, adding that his wife had given birth quickly with their three older children."At 2.30 am she woke me up, but when I rang the midwife to come out she said they were busy at the hospital. The next thing I know she is coming through the bedroom doorway on all-fours.

"I looked down and the baby's head was showing."After helping her give birth, he rounded up daughters Jasmine, two, Sophie, five and Zoe, six, and the whole family went by ambulance to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in nearby Truro.Within hours they were back at home, where Stephens was on Friday caring for his wife and children, including new-born son Gabriel.

Real Madrid v Barcelona 2009

Snake swallows an egg

A snake swallows an egg and spits the eggshell

the picture said to me ,so what it said to you?

it said to me i will not give up for my weakness and my poverty

i will struggle to achieve what i dream of

it is true that my childhood lost but my future will be great

it is true that my beginning was painful
but happy will be my end

it also says it is true that there is lessening

i will try and try to reach my dream

what would happen if the child was scared or was frightened

The suicide of civilization

Twin tower attack coloring book came under fire for scaring kids

FEMA pulls 'Scary' coloring book from web site




The plane that crashed into New York’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 was no child’s play, but the U.S. government agency charged with disaster preparedness decided it should feature prominently in a coloring book for kids.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency removed the controversial coloring book from its website after it came under fire for endorsing a coloring book for children that included pictures of disasters such as fires, floods and terrorist attacks.The book produced by the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team was pulled from the FEMA website last week.
The image that especially upset a great number of people was on the showing the Twin Towers, with one tower already on fire and a plane approaching the other tower.
A similar image was inside the book for children to color.
The coloring book “A Scary Thing Happened” was created as a tool for children to use with a responsible parent or adult to help cope with disasters, Rose Olmsted, coordinator of the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team told the Albert Lea tribune.
FEMA has explained it did not intend to scare children but rather to give them an insight into the disasters the see or hear about in daily life.
The agency also published a book of stories about children who have experienced accidents or natural disaster.
FEMA, which has been incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security, is charged with ensuring that the U.S. is able to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and manmade disasters.The Freeborn County Crisis Response Team, which created the book, is made up of volunteers who are trained to go out into the community to be supportive to groups of people who have been traumatized by disaster.

Source:DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

Methods of Execution

we will show you by using the pictures execution all over the world,which are more than 20 some are familier and some are not. the execution is applied in 68 countries around the world.
it should be mentioned that china the country no.1 in term of applying the execution

strangulation

the neck will be put in the chest of the victum with a large violance ,so he will breath hardly at the end
he will strangulate and die


hanging
hanging is one the most common method in applying the execution. , by putting a thick rope around the neck of the executed>
some thaught that hanging is the simple method through the other methods of the execution
the death happens by hanging when there is a pressure on the arteries of the neck from the both sides leads to a lack of the blood in the brain . this is called the compression of the arteries on both sides of the neck leading to lack of ischemic in the brain and Cardiac and respiratory centers. leading to death by so-called Vascular and nerve compression


drowning


by putting the convict in a swimming pool after tying him with rockswhich will prevent him to float
in this case also the oxygen willnot be received to the brain and thus the death will be the result



hitting the neck


this method is used in some countries that using alshari'a ,we also see this method in iraq .philipin ,chechnya, china and japan. if the sword was so sharp and the strike was so fast the death will be fast and not painful ,while if the sword was not sharp . may allah be with the convict



crush


this method was used in south asia 4000 years ago , it was used by crushing the body of the convict by putting rocks on him or letting an elephant walks on his head



burial



preventing the oxygen from arriving to the brain leads to permenant damage that has no cure like the Paralysis
if it continues to 4 min this will lead to death.
the burial might be in a small and dark cave with a very small area
in this case ,death will be slower kind of ,but the suffering will be more

burning

this was used in the past against the people who were considered to be atheist.betreyal, and wizard.
romans executed a lot by using this method according to their religion, the pain will be unbeleivable because of the fire. may allah protect us from the hell

seething



this is considered slow and so painful, this method was used in asia and europe 3000 years ago.
they used water , oil and acid in seething


explosives
by putting a bombs on his body

strangualtion chair

it is similar to elcetricl chair but this chair is used only for strangulation as u saw in the picture below. this was used in spain untill the end of year 1974 when fransesco franko's rule was end

Gasc hamber

this was used in america and north korea at the beginningof year 1920. as the convict was put in a special room , then a deadly gaz pipe was opened. this is visible gaz. they advised the convict to smell it quickly to lose the consciousness quickly in order not to suffer


Guillotine


this is easy and quick method. asthe person sleeps on his back looking at the roof , andthen a knife is put in his neck which leads to seperate his head from his body. the Guillotine had been common in france. in the french revolution 1799-1789. the last use for this method was in france in 1939 for a convict who killed 6 persons


deadly injection


this is an excuted method used in many countries, as convict was injected in dozes of chemical materials that lead to death, this could be used in suiside .
in the usa the deadly injection is used in the execution by mixing three chemical solutions, the first one is used for losing the consciousness, the second is for the heart stopped. and the last is for stop the breathing


killing by bullets


bullets are tearing the body of the convict during short seconds, every country used this method when applying the execution.


stoning


this is a punishment by throwing stones till the death , as this method was the common one in greece as it existed in jewish religion andthen in islamic shari'a , this was the punishment for the adultress and the asulterer (married ones) in certain and firm circomestances> the aim of using this method in islam is to protect the society > for that one can't understand this method without understanding the general aims for islam> stoning method is applied by throwing stones in some countries