U.N. chief pushes for political dialogue in divided Yemen

SANAA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged on Monday to help rescue stumbling efforts to implement a power transfer deal in Yemen that pulled the Arabian Peninsula country back from the brink of civil war last year.

Restoring stability in Yemen, a U.S. ally grappling with al Qaeda militants and southern separatists, is an international priority due to fears of disorder ripping apart a state that flanks top oil producer Saudi Arabia and major shipping lanes.

"The United Nations is standing here to reconfirm its strong commitment that we stand side by side with the government and people of Yemen in your (pursuit of)... progress towards a better and prosperous future, characterized by reconciliation and democratic participation," Ban told a joint news conference with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in Sanaa.

Ban was making his initial visit to the impoverished Arab country to mark the first anniversary of the U.S.- and Gulf-sponsored power transfer accord that ended months of mass protests against veteran strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The deal mandates Hadi to oversee major reforms during a two-year interim period to ensure a transition to democracy, including amending the constitution and restructuring the armed forces to break Saleh's family grip on them.

The process is expected to lead to presidential and parliamentary election in 2014.

But efforts to convene a national reconciliation dialogue central to reform has met resistance from south Yemen separatist leaders. Many have taken advantage of weakened central state authority in the south to return from exile and press for reviving the state that merged with north Yemen in 1990.

Many southerners complain northerners based in the capital Sanaa have discriminated against them and usurped their resources. Most of Yemen's fast-declining oil reserves are in the south. The central government denies discriminatory policy.

The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, has been meeting with southern separatist leaders to try to persuade them to join the national reconciliation conference, which had been due to start this month.

BAN SAYS TO PUSH DONORS ON PLEDGES

International donors, including Saudi Arabia, have pledged around $8 billion in aid to Yemen, which was driven to the verge of bankruptcy and plunged into factional anarchy by the year-long uprising against Saleh.

Ban said the United Nations would work closely with donors to ensure they met their commitments "as soon as possible to enable President Hadi to bring political, security and financial stability" to Yemen.

"You are now starting the process of national dialogue and this process should be open for everyone including (those) who demanded change in the street and representatives of all the areas in the country," Ban said in a speech.

Western nations suspect that some southern leaders are less interested in the dialogue and more in breaking away, possibly with the backing of Iran, arch-foe of the Saudis and Americans and vying with them for regional power.

Secessionists in the south, Houthi Islamist tribal rebels in the north and al Qaeda militants all benefited from the popular upheaval that ousted Saleh in February.

A U.S.-backed army offensive ousted al Qaeda from several southern towns it had seized during the anti-Saleh uprising. But jihadi militants, exploiting popular discontent over poverty, unemployment and graft, remain strong in the region and have continued deadly attacks on government and security targets.

On Monday, Hadi promised to continue with the restructuring of the army and security forces, which split between Saleh's allies and adversaries during last year's turmoil.

He urged all political parties to join the national dialogue and stressed that elections, set for 2014, would take place on time. "We confirm we are moving ahead to meet the commitments towards our nation and people ... in the framework of the Gulf initiative," he said.

(Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-chief-pushes-political-dialogue-divided-yemen-153830330.html

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Glimpse at early universe finds expansion slowdown

BOSS project looks at acceleration rate before dark energy hit the gas

By Andrew Grant

Web edition: November 20, 2012

New measurements have captured the universe?s expansion when it was slowing down 11 billion years ago, before a mysterious entity called dark energy took over and began spurring the cosmos to expand faster and faster. The measurements, reported online November 12 at arXiv.org, are an important step toward understanding what dark energy is and how it works.

About 15 years ago, astronomers discovered that the universe?s expansion is accelerating by cataloging spectacular stellar explosions called type Ia supernovas. Because each explosion emits almost exactly the same amount of light, astronomers can use a supernova?s observed brightness to determine its distance, and then measure its redshift, or how much its light is stretched, to determine how fast the supernova is moving away from Earth. Astronomers Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University, Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley and Brian Schmidt of Australian National University shared the 2011 Nobel Prize for their work using this technique to reveal that the universe?s expansion is currently accelerating and has been for the last 5 billion years or so.

But as bright as supernovas are, they are difficult to see deep in the cosmos, at distances corresponding to the time when the universe was only a few billion years old. So an international team of scientists with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, employs a different method. They use the 2.5-meter Sloan telescope at New Mexico?s Apache Point Observatory to collect light produced by feasting supermassive black holes that thrived a couple billion years after the dawn of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.

As that light makes its long journey toward Earth, it occasionally runs into clouds of hydrogen gas and gets partially absorbed. BOSS scientists crunched the data on the light of almost 50,000 black hole emissions to create a map of where those gas clouds are and, using redshifts, how fast they are receding.

Based on the speeds of the most distant of those clouds, BOSS scientists determined the universe?s expansion rate a mere 3 billion years after the Big Bang. The team then compared its measured rate with those from more recent eras to conclude that the universe?s expansion was slowing at that time. ?The universe was a very different place,? says study coauthor and University of Utah physicist Kyle Dawson.

The BOSS finding is consistent with physicists? theories of how the universe?s growth rate has changed. Immediately after the Big Bang, the universe ballooned rapidly in a split-second era called inflation. Expansion continued afterward, but like a coasting car, the cosmos had nothing to keep it accelerating. The gravitational attraction of all the matter in the universe was acting like rolling friction, gradually slowing down the expansion.

But as the universe got larger and matter got more diluted, scientists believe something began pressing the gas pedal again, causing expansion to accelerate once more. Scientists don?t know exactly what the culprit is, so they call it dark energy. Eleven billion years ago, dark energy made up less than 10 percent of the total content of the universe; today it makes up almost three-quarters.

BOSS and other surveys are allowing scientists to chart the universe?s expansion rate over time and determine the evolving role of dark energy. The measurements so far lend support to the leading theory that dark energy is a natural property of empty space: The more the universe expands, the stronger dark energy becomes.

Other theories posit that dark energy is a temporary phenomenon like inflation, and that matter?s gravitational pull will one day take over and temper the universe?s growth spurt. Still other physicists suggest that dark energy will cause runaway expansion, perhaps to the point that in several billion years it will pull apart galaxies, stars, planets, and even atoms in a doomsday scenario called the Big Rip.

?We can?t confidently predict the future of the universe,? Riess says, ?until we get a ton of measurements about the past.? BOSS scientists are working toward that goal by collecting data from 100,000 more ancient black holes. Then they plan to upgrade to a larger telescope and survey more objects with a project called BigBOSS in 2017.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/346619/title/Glimpse_at_early_universe_finds_expansion_slowdown

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Video: ?We haven?t really enhanced our security at all?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49908257/

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No. 4 Ohio St. tops Washington, wins HOF tourney

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) -- Deshaun Thomas made a case Sunday that he's ready to be Ohio State's next star.

Thomas tied a career high with 31 points and led No. 4 Ohio State to a 77-66 win over Washington and the championship of the Hall of Fame Tip Off tournament.

The 6-foot-7 junior, who also had eight rebounds, had 21 in the first half as the Buckeyes (3-0) built at 10-point lead and cruised through the second half.

"We haven't played against anyone like him this year," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "He came out, he was on fire. He couldn't miss anything."

Aaron Craft added 18 points for the Buckeyes, who beat Rhode Island on Saturday.

C.J. Wilcox led Washington (2-2) with 18 points and Abdul Gaddy had 15. The Huskies earned the right to play Ohio State with an overtime win Saturday night over Seton Hall.

This is the same tournament that Kentucky won last season in an early test for that young team, which won the national title.

Ohio State led by double digits much of the way and by as many as 17 in the second half. Washington made one run, cutting the lead to 57-50 on a layup by Gaddy midway through the second half, before the Buckeyes stretched it back out.

Thomas, the Buckeyes' go-to player after the departure of Jared Sullinger to the NBA, scored 11 of his team's first 13 points. He showed off his versatility by hitting a 3-pointer, two jumpers, a layup and a hook shot, and connected on his first nine shots.

"When I knocked those first couple down it was on tonight," Thomas said. "I felt pretty good and confident. My teammates found me in the right positions."

This was his 14th game with 20 or more points at Ohio State. He also scored 31 last season against Loyola (Maryland).

The 6-foot-7 junior was 3 of 7 from 3-point range, and came into the game having made seven of his 15 3-point shots. He had 25 points and 10 rebounds in the Buckeyes' win Saturday over Rhode Island.

"Today was a lot of fun," Craft said. "It's always a lot of fun when you have a guy that's feeling really good and can knock down shots from just about anywhere."

Washington stayed in the game in the first half by shooting 52 percent from the floor, led by Scott Suggs who had eight of his 11 at intermission. But the Huskies were outrebounded 34-28 and had 13 turnovers.

These were Ohio State's first games away from home, and first on a neutral court.

The Buckeyes had been scheduled to play on Nov. 9 in the Carrier Classic on the USS Yorktown in South Carolina, but that game had to be cancelled because of condensation on the court.

So the Buckeyes had played just once, a 22-point home win in the opening game of this tournament over Albany before beating Rhode Island by 11 on Saturday, a game the Rams were in well into the second half.

This one was easier.

"We all figured it out together as a team," Thomas said. "The coaches tell me to just play my game and just come together. If you're a team player, you're going to get your shots."

The Huskies lost by a point to that same Albany team. Washington led by as many as 18 against Seton Hall on Saturday, but were forced to overtime before winning.

Washington's last win against a top-10 team came in the 2010 NCAA tournament, when the Huskies beat No. 8 New Mexico.

Ohio State improved to 4-8 all-time against Washington, a team it hadn't played since 1972.

The Huskies came into the weekend having lost six games in a row to nonconference opponents on the road. The Huskies were 0-5 on the road against nonleague teams last season.

The game was played at a half-empty Mohegan Sun arena, which is on the grounds of a resort casino and home to the WNBA's Connecticut Sun.

Washington will be back in Connecticut next month, taking on No. 23 UConn in Hartford on Dec. 29.

? 2012 STATS LLC

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/men/gameflash/2012/11/18/84180_recap.html?xid=si_ncaab

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16Nov2012:- The Saudi budget and Saudi domestic demand for oil

A private consultant with experience of investment and economic policies in Saudi Arabia has predicted that Saudi Arabia's domestic demand for oil, unless curbed, will require an international oil price of $320 a barrel, if the Kingdom is to balance its budgetary books.

Trade Arabia

Click here to read the article

Source: http://www.saudinf.com/display_news.php?id=8055

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Ashlyn Blocker, the Girl Who Feels No Pain

Jeff Riedel for The New York Times

Ashlyn Blocker, who feels no pain, at home in Patterson, GA.

The girl who feels no pain was in the kitchen, stirring ramen noodles, when the spoon slipped from her hand and dropped into the pot of boiling water. It was a school night; the TV was on in the living room, and her mother was folding clothes on the couch. Without thinking, Ashlyn Blocker reached her right hand in to retrieve the spoon, then took her hand out of the water and stood looking at it under the oven light. She walked a few steps to the sink and ran cold water over all her faded white scars, then called to her mother, ?I just put my fingers in!? Her mother, Tara Blocker, dropped the clothes and rushed to her daughter?s side. ?Oh, my lord!? she said ? after 13 years, that same old fear ? and then she got some ice and gently pressed it against her daughter?s hand, relieved that the burn wasn?t worse.

Tara Blocker

When Ashlyn was 2, her mother had to wrap her hands to keep her from biting them.

?I showed her how to get another utensil and fish the spoon out,? Tara said with a weary laugh when she recounted the story to me two months later. ?Another thing,? she said, ?she?s starting to use flat irons for her hair, and those things get superhot.?

Tara was sitting on the couch in a T-shirt printed with the words ?Camp Painless But Hopeful.? Ashlyn was curled on the living-room carpet crocheting a purse from one of the skeins of yarn she keeps piled in her room. Her 10-year-old sister, Tristen, was in the leather recliner, asleep on top of their father, John Blocker, who stretched out there after work and was slowly falling asleep, too. The house smelled of the homemade macaroni and cheese they were going to have for dinner. A South Georgia rainstorm drummed the gutters, and lightning illuminated the batting cage and the pool in the backyard.

Without lifting her eyes from the crochet hooks in her hands, Ashlyn spoke up to add one detail to her mother?s story. ?I was just thinking, What did I just do?? she said.

Over six days with the Blockers, I watched Ashlyn behave like any 13-year-old girl, brushing her hair, dancing around and jumping on her bed. I also saw her run without regard for her body through the house as her parents pleaded with her to stop. And she played an intense game of air hockey with her sister, slamming the puck on the table as hard and fast as she could. When she made an egg sandwich on the skillet, she pressed her hands onto the bread as Tara had taught her, to make sure it was cool before she put it into her mouth. She can feel warmth and coolness, but not the more extreme temperatures that would cause anyone else to recoil in pain.

Tara and John weren?t completely comfortable leaving Ashlyn alone in the kitchen, but it was something they felt they had to do, a concession to her growing independence. They made a point of telling stories about how responsible she is, but every one came with a companion anecdote that was painful to hear. There was the time she burned the flesh off the palms of her hands when she was 2. John was using a pressure-washer in the driveway and left its motor running; in the moments that they took their eyes off her, Ashlyn walked over and put her hands on the muffler. When she lifted them up the skin was seared away. There was the one about the fire ants that swarmed her in the backyard, biting her over a hundred times while she looked at them and yelled: ?Bugs! Bugs!? There was the time she broke her ankle and ran around on it for two days before her parents realized something was wrong. They told these stories as casually as they talked about Tristen?s softball games or their son Dereck?s golf skills, but it was clear they were still struggling after all these years with how to keep Ashlyn safe.

A couple of nights after telling me the story about putting her hand in the boiling water, Ashlyn sat in the kitchen, playing with the headband that held back her long brown hair. We had all been drawing on napkins and playing checkers and listening to Ashlyn and Tristen sing ?Call Me Maybe,? when all of a sudden Tara gasped and lifted the hair away from her daughter?s ears. She was bleeding beneath it. The headband had been cutting into her skin entire time we were sitting there.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/magazine/ashlyn-blocker-feels-no-pain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Features of a Japanese only child

By Ken Y-N ( November 19, 2012 at 00:51) ? Filed under Polls, Rankings

I just have time for this quicky from goo Ranking tonight, a look at the distinctive features of an only child.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of October 2012 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 26.6% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

In university one of the guys I flat-shared with was an only child, and he probably matched just about every answer here!

Ranking result

Q: What are the distinctive features of an only child? (Sample size=1,064)

Rank	?	Score
1	Used to being spoilt	100
2	Egotistic	92.1
3	Very selfish	89.1
4	Lives at their own pace	82.2
5=	Self-important	60.3
5=	Strong desires to monopolise things	55.6
7	Uncooperative	54.4
8	Ignorant of the ways of the world	47.3
9	Moody	43.9
10	Not competitive	34.1
11	Never thinks about sharing with others	30.3
12	Has their own spae	28.2
13	Narcissistic	26.2
14	Likes their delusions	18.6
15	Skilled at adult hospitality	15.7
16	Gives up easily	13.0
17	Conducts themselves prudently	8.2
18	Prefers small groups	7.9
19	Is particular in their search for an ideal partner	7.3
20	Jack of all trades	5.2

Read more on: children,goo ranking

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WhatJapanThinks/~3/PCf9W33IHo8/

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