McGraw-Hill sets plan to split into 2 companies

NEW YORK (AP) — McGraw-Hill Cos. will split up into two public companies with one focused on education and the other centered on markets, featuring the Standard & Poor's unit.

The decision, which has been expected, follows a yearlong review of the company's business. Investors have pushed the New York company to boost the company's stock price, which has dropped by more than 40 percent since 2006.

The company's S&P ratings agency has been under fire for its recent downgrade of U.S. debt, as well as several bad calls it made leading up to the financial crisis and economic meltdown that began in 2008. The unit's president stepped down last month.

McGraw-Hill said Monday it will also accelerate share buybacks to a total of $1 billion for 2011. It has bought back about half that amount to date.

McGraw-Hill Education will be the new company focused on education services and digital learning, while McGraw-Hill Markets will retain S&P and J.D. Power and Associates, a market research company. It also includes S&P Capital IQ, a provider of data, research, benchmarks and analytics and Platts, a provider of information and indices in energy, petrochemicals and metals.

The markets business expects 2011 revenue of about $4 billion, with close to 40 percent of Amsterdam it from international markets. The education segment is forecasting revenue of about $2.4 billion for the year.

The company said the split will create more "sharply defined," focused companies that will make it easier for investors to assess their value.

Terry McGraw, chairman, president and CEO of the company, will lead the Markets business. A search has begun for a leader of the education business, the company said. Its board has approved the split.

Shares of McGraw-Hill climbed 88 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $39.60 in premarket trading.

Scott wins 1st World title, with Woods' caddie

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — The chants and cheers began as Adam Scott walked toward the 18th green to complete a command performance Sunday in the Bridgestone Invitational and win his first World Golf Championship.

But in a surreal scene at Firestone, they weren't for him.

They were for his caddie.

"Stev-ie Will-iams," they shouted as the guy carrying the bag for Scott broke into a big smile.

The celebration made it clear that Steve Williams felt vindicated after being fired last month by Tiger Woods. The interview after it was over — yes, he gave interviews — made it sound as if it was Williams who shot the 5-under 65. At one point, Williams described himself as a "good front-runner when I'm caddying."

"I've caddied for 33 years — 145 wins now — and that's the best win I've ever had," Williams told CBS Sports on the 18th green. This from a guy whose 12 years working for Woods featured 13 majors and 16 world titles among 72 wins worldwide. That includes the 2001 Masters, when Woods won an unprecedented fourth straight major.

Clearly, Williams is still angry over how — and when — Woods cut him loose. He even disputed Woods' version of how it happened, saying Woods told him over the phone, not in person.

Scott didn't seem to mind that his caddie was getting most of the attention.

"I can talk about Steve now and not Tiger," Scott said to laughter, alluding to the countless times he and other players have been asked about Woods. "I'm sure there are a lot of other golfers who wouldn't mind that, either."

The latest chapter in the endless saga involving Woods took away from a premier performance by Scott, who didn't make a bogey over his last 26 holes and couldn't afford to with 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa giving him all he could handle.

They were never separated by more than one shot until Scott chipped in from the side of the 12th green, then rolled in a birdie putt from just inside 30 feet on the 14th to build a three-shot lead. Ishikawa three-putted the 15th, and Scott had no trouble closing this one out.

He wound up winning by four shots over world No. 1 Luke Donald, who shot 66; and Rickie Fowler, who played a final round worthy of a winner with a bogey-free 66, only to run into an affable Australian who couldn't be beat.

Ishikawa made a bogey on the last hole to tie for fourth with Jason Day. They both shot 69. For the Japanese star, it was his highest finish in America.

Scott finished at 17-under 263, the lowest score to win at Firestone since Woods had 259 in 2000 in an 11-shot win.

With a three-shot lead, Scott thought about playing it safe on the 18th. Williams told him to take 6-iron at the flag, and Scott obliged with a shot that rolled past the cup and settled 5 feet away. When they got to the green, one fan shouted out, "How do you like him now, Tiger?"

By then, Woods was long gone.

After missing three months with a leg injury, he finished a tournament for the first time since the Masters on April 10 and closed with a 70 to tie for 37th, 18 shots behind.

"I had it in spurts this week," Woods said.

Scott became the third Australian to win a world title, joining Geoff Ogilvy and Craig Parry. He won for the 18th time in his career and moved back into the top 10 in the world ranking.

While his old boss was on the mend, Williams agreed to caddie for Scott at the U.S. Open. Williams said he was led to believe that Woods was going to play practice rounds at Congressional, but only after the New Zealand caddie arrived in America was he told that Woods was not healthy enough for the U.S. Open.

That's when Williams decided to work for Scott, and he worked for Scott again at the AT&T National, the tournament that benefits Woods' foundation. Woods said he fired him after the final round that week, and they kept it quiet until Williams was done working for Scott at the British Open.

Woods said he told him face-to-face. Williams said Sunday that Woods fired him over the phone.

"I was told on the phone that we need to take a break, and in caddie lingo, that means you're fired, simple as that," Williams said.

"I was absolutely shocked that I got the boot, to be honest with you," he said. "I've been incredibly loyal to the guy, and I got short-shrifted. Very disappointed."

The theatrics took away from Scott's biggest win since The Players Championship in 2004. He played so well he could have gone even lower except for missing two birdie putts inside 12 feet on the 16th and 17th holes.

"Today, I was on," Scott said. "To win here at this place, a World Golf Championship, it's huge."

It didn't hurt having Williams at his side. Along with his experience working for Woods, along with major champions Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd, Williams was on the bag for all seven of Woods' victories at Firestone.

"He has such a great knowledge of this golf course and the greens," Scott said. "He's seen a guy play incredible golf, the best golf anyone has ever played around here, so many times. He really guided me around the course nicely. ... So he was, no doubt, a help."

When told that Williams called this his greatest win as a caddie, Scott winced.

"He's obviously really happy to get a win," he said.

The biggest threat to Scott came from Ishikawa, although Fowler and Day remained in the mix, and Donald emerged late. Ishikawa, trying to become the youngest winner in America in 100 years, couldn't keep up when Scott made two birdies on the back nine to build a three-shot lead.

Rockefeller Center three-putted the 15th when he was running out of time.

"I was able to play well to be at least on top for a moment in the first half of the game today," Ishikawa said through a translator. "I think the 14th and 15th hole separated everything."

Fowler, dressed in his bright Sunday orange, is still looking for his first win. He didn't do much wrong Sunday, playing bogey-free, but it wasn't enough to catch Scott.

"It's definitely the best I've played going into a major," Fowler said.

Woods opened strongly with two birdies on the opening five holes before he "absolutely lost it" with his game, dropping five shots and not hitting a fairway on seven straight tee shots. He made three straight birdies late for a 70.

Next up is the PGA Championship, where Woods told the PGA of America that he wanted to push his interview back one day to Wednesday. He did not give a reason.

Woods will play the first two rounds with Padraig Harrington and Davis Love III. The way Williams reacted to Scott's win, a pairing of Woods-Scott in the near future would be the closest thing golf has had to a heavyweight clash.

Libyan rebels claim breakout from Misrata

Government artillery rained down on rebel forces Monday but failed to stop their advance into key ground west of their stronghold at Libya's major port. As fighting raged for a fourth day, Germany's foreign minister paid a Pocket Super Mario surprise visit to the rebel's de facto capital.

The German foreign ministry said Guido Westerwelle was meeting with the Transitional National Council to deepen relations with the rebels and their nascent government.

Should the Germans recognize the council as the legitimate governing power in Libya, it would mark yet another big diplomatic boost for the rebels who rose up four months ago to end Moammar Gadhafi's 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country. Germany refused to participate in the ARIS TV ARIS Oracle NATO air mission over Libya and withheld support for the no-fly zone.

The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country's major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of the sunshine band Moammar Gadhafi's last supply routes from Tunisia.

Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Gadhafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw end world cartoon secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gadhafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting.

"The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct," he said.

In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.

Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 85 miles (135 kilometers) of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli.

An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances Kardashian young were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.

The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Gadhafi's defenders may become stretched thin.

"Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere," Col. Hamid al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked "in very good coordination with NATO" to avoid friendly-fire incidents. "We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO."

In addition, the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace have severely crimped the North African dictator's ability to resupply his forces. And his control has been hard hit by defections from his military and government inner circle.

NATO, meanwhile, has stepped up bombing of Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli, striking it again on Sunday, along with a military airport in eastern Tripoli. The government did not immediately report casualties or damage.

The rebels' Transitional National Council scored a political success, meanwhile, winning recognition from the United Arab Emirates, adding a wealthy, influential Arab state to the handful of nations thus far accepting the insurgents as Libyans' sole legitimate representatives.

Floods and landslides hit Bolivia

A landslide caused by intense rains has destroyed more than 300 homes in the Bolivian city of La Paz.

The authorities managed to evacuate the poor Kupini II area before it was smashed by a collapsing hillside.

Elsewhere in La Paz, at least five people drowned when a minibus was swept away by a swollen river.

Across Bolivia, weeks of heavy rain have killed at least 40 others and left more than 10,000 homeless.

Officials evacuated the Kupini II area on Saturday night after cracks began appearing in roads and bridges.

"My neighbours were running around and told me to get out," local resident Maria Elena Siles told the Associated Press.

"I looked out the window and there were no more homes to the left or the right of mine".

Residents have been trying to recover furniture and other belongings from wrecked houses, while crews with heavy equipment try to stop the landslide from threatening other areas.
National emergency

Much of La Paz is built on steep mountainsides, and landslides are not uncommon, but officials say this was one of the worst the city has ever seen.

Troops have been mobilised to help the evacuation and recovery efforts.

So far the Lake havasu city confirmed fatalities in La Paz have been five people killed when a minibus fell into a raging river in the south of the city after a bridge collapsed.

The Bolivian government declared a national emergency last Tuesday because of torrential rains across much of the country.

The worst flooding has been in the northern Amazon lowlands, where dozens of rural communities have been cut off by rivers that have burst their banks.

Bolivian military planes and helicopters have been flying supplies to the worst-hit areas.

The government says this year's rainy season has been particularly severe as a result of La Nina, a climatic phenomenon caused by a shift in currents in the Pacific Ocean.

In recent months parts of Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Central America have also experienced severe flooding.

Kathleen Parker leaving CNN show with Spitzer

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker said Friday that she's leaving CNN's prime-time "Parker/Spitzer" talk show, which will be renamed and continue with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and others.

CNN said the decision to cut ties with Parker was mutual.

The show debuted last fall to some tough reviews and poor ratings in a time slot dominated by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. But the ending of MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann last month has given CNN an opportunity. The network has averaged 638,000 viewers in the time slot during a newsy period this month, up 24 percent from last Toyota Safety Star Safety February's show with Campbell Brown, the Nielsen Co. said.

The new show will be dubbed "In the Arena," with two conservatives — former Fox News Channel personality E.D. Hill and National Review columnist Will Cain — joining Spitzer as panelists. CNN said others will be on the show, but they haven't been named yet.

"We have been pleased with how the 8 p.m. hour has become a centerpiece of substantive, policy-oriented conversation, and we are looking forward to building on that with this new format," said Ken Jautz, the executive in charge of CNN's U.S. network, in a memo to his staff Friday.

Parker said that she wanted to concentrate on her writing and that "with the show moving in a new direction, it was time to move on." She'll provide occasional commentary elsewhere on the network, Jautz said.

Spitzer said it had been "a joy" working with Parker. Her last day on the show was Friday.

Carlina White US baby kidnap: Pettway pleads not guilty

A US woman who raised child-kidnap victim Carlina White, who went on to solve her own abduction, has pleaded not guilty to taking Ms White when she was an infant.

Ann Pettway was indicted on a charge of kidnapping Ms White, now 23, from hospital in New York City in 1987.

The 44-year-old surrendered to officials last month in Connecticut.

Ms Pettway's lawyers said they were searching for evidence that another person took the infant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said in funds government court papers that Ms Pettway kidnapped the baby after her efforts at childbearing failed.
Reunited family

DNA tests last month confirmed Carlina as the daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson in a case that has made headline news in the US and internationally.

Ms White, taken at just 19 days old, has since been reunited with her true mother.

An arrest warrant had been issued in North Carolina in January for Ms Pettway, as officials believed she had violated a probation requirement.

FBI agent William Reiner said last month that Ms Pettway was required not to leave North Carolina as part of her probation following a conviction for attempted embezzlement. She is on parole until 2012.

Ms Pettway has been held without bail since she was arrested last month.

China's Huawei wins injunction against Motorola

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has won a preliminary injunction from a U.S. court barring Motorola Inc. from transferring business secrets in a planned deal with Nokia Siemens Networks.

The order by a federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday prohibits Motorola, which is a vendor of Huawei equipment, from transferring any confidential information about the Chinese company pending resolution of the dispute.

Huawei Technologies Ltd. filed a lawsuit last month saying Motorola's proposed $1.2 billion sale of its network equipment business to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish-German joint venture, would improperly transfer those secrets to a competitor.

The case highlights the growing global presence of Chinese companies and their efforts to compete in technology markets. Huawei is one of the world's biggest makers of telecom gear, with sales of $28 billion last year, but has struggled to gain a foothold in the U.S. market against rivals such as Cisco Systems Inc.

Motorola agreed last year to sell its network equipment division to Nokia Siemens Networks but completion of the acquisition has been delayed while Chinese anti-monopoly regulators review it.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman noted that Motorola proposed providing former employees who transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks with access to confidential Huawei information. It was not a final Ibrahim Baggili decision but the judge said Huawei had a "reasonable likelihood of success" in showing its business would be harmed.

A Huawei spokesman welcomed the decision and said it hoped to resolve the dispute so the Motorola sale could proceed.

"We have no interest in stopping the transaction between Motorola and our direct competitor," said spokesman Ross Gan in a statement. "We will, however, do whatever is required to protect the product of our company's many years of innovation."

Last week, Huawei agreed to scrap its purchase of a small U.S. computer company, 3Leaf Systems, after a government security panel refused to approve the deal.

In July, Motorola filed a lawsuit accusing Huawei of trying to steal trade secrets. Huawei denied the allegations.

Yemen unrest: Dozens injured in Sanaa clashes

Dozens of Yemenis have been injured in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists, reports say.

Several thousand people joined anti-government protests in the capital Sanaa and were confronted by supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

There were also clashes in Aden where one person was reportedly killed by what police called "random gunfire".

Anti-government protesters are angry about corruption and unemployment, and want the president to resign.

Inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrators have been on the streets for seven consecutive days but the rally in Sanaa on Thursday is the largest gathering so far this week.

Hundreds of government loyalists - reportedly wielding daggers and clubs - ended up in pitched battles with several thousand rock-throwing anti-government protesters.

Police fired warning shots in the air and reportedly arrested about 50 demonstrators.

"I want to send a message to President Saleh," protester Hakim Mohamed told the Associated Press.

"I want to tell him to look at what the country and the situation are now, and to those he sent to beat us, like what Hosni Mubarak did, I am telling him that he should step down."

Government loyalist Hamoud al-Naqib said the students were creating "unnecessary upheaval".

"If the government was not responding to people's demands, (only) then they would have every right to demonstrate," he said.
Not enough

President Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, offered some concessions after the opposition coalition started organising protests last month.
 
Protests turned into a pitched battle between pro-and anti-government activists in Sanaa

He has agreed not to run for re-election and not to hand over power to his son.

But while the opposition coalition has agreed to hold talks, the concessions did not appease everyone and the latest demonstrations have been driven by a younger group, many of whom are students.

In the southern port city of Aden there were clashes for the second day in a row between protesters and police in the al-Mansura neighbourhood.

"At least one person has been killed and there are eight others that were wounded by random gunfire," an unnamed member of the municipal council told Reuters.

Earlier, hundreds of people staged a sit-in in Aden's city hall to protest against police treatment of demonstrators, after two people were shot dead during clashes with police on Orange county.

President Saleh has sent his vice-president to Aden to head a committee to investigate the violence there, while he has also been touring the provinces trying to rally support.

There have also been protests in other Yemeni cities, including Taiz and Ibb.

The country's most prominent religious figure, Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, has appealed for calm and said Muslim preachers were calling for a unity government.

"Change by street protest is rejected. It leads to chaos," he was quoted as saying.

Anti-government activists have called for a "day of rage" on Friday.

Machines beat us at our own game: What can we do?

Machines first out-calculated us in simple math. Then they replaced us on the assembly lines, explored places we couldn't get to, even beat our champions at chess. Now a computer called Watson has bested our best at "Jeopardy!"

A gigantic computer created by IBM specifically to excel at answers-and-questions left two champs of the TV game show in its silicon dust after a three-day tournament, a feat that experts call a technological breakthrough.

Watson earned $77,147, versus $24,000 for Ken Jennings and $21,600 for Brad Rutter. Jennings took it in stride writing "I for one welcome our new computer overlords" alongside his correct Final Jeopardy answer.

The next step for the IBM machine and its programmers: taking its mastery of the arcane and applying it to help doctors plow through blizzards of medical information. Watson could also help make Internet searches far more like a conversation than the hit-or-miss things they are now.

Watson's victory leads to the question: What can we measly humans do that amazing machines cannot do or will never do?

The answer, like all of "Jeopardy!," comes in the form of a question: Who — not what — dreamed up Watson? While computers can calculate and construct, they cannot decide to create. So far, only humans can.

"The way to think about this is: Can Watson decide to create Watson?" said Pradeep Khosla, dean of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "We are far from there. Our ability to create is what allows us to discover and create new knowledge and technology."

Experts in the field say it is more than the spark of creation that separates man from his mechanical spawn. It is the pride creators can take, the empathy we can all have with the winners and losers, and that magical mix of adrenaline, fear and ability that kicks in when our backs are against the wall and we are in survival mode.

What humans have that Watson, IBM's earlier chess champion Deep Blue, and all their electronic predecessors and software successors do not have and will not get is the sort of thing that makes song, romance, smiles, sadness and all that jazz. It's something the experts in computers, robotics and artificial intelligence know very well because they can't figure out how it works in people, much less duplicate it. It's that indescribable essence of humanity.

Nevertheless, Watson, which took 25 IBM scientists four years to create, is more than just a trivia whiz, some experts say.

Richard Doherty, a computer industry expert and research director at the Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y., said he has been studying artificial intelligence for decades. He thinks IBM's advances with Watson are changing the way people think about artificial intelligence and how a computer can be programmed to give conversational answers — not merely lists of sometimes not-germane entries.

"This is the most significant breakthrough of this century," he said. "I know the phones are ringing off the hook with interest in Watson systems. The Internet may trump Watson, but for this century, it's the most significant advance in computing."

And yet Watson's creators say this breakthrough gives them an extra appreciation for the magnificent machines we call people.

"I see human intelligence consuming machine intelligence, not the other way around," David Ferrucci, IBM's lead researcher on Watson, said in an interview Wednesday. "Humans are a different sort of intelligence. Our intelligence is so interconnected. The brain is so incredibly interconnected with itself, so interconnected with all the cells in our body, and has co-evolved with language and society and everything around it."

"Humans are learning machines that live and experience the world and take in an enormous amount of information — what they see, what they taste, what they feel, and they're taking that in from the day they're born until the day they die," he said. "And they're learning from all the input all the time. We've never even created something that attempts to do that."

The ability of a machine to learn is the essence of the field of artificial intelligence. And there have been great advances in the field, but nothing near human thinking.

"I've been in this field for 25 years and no matter what advances we make, it's not like we feel we're getting to the finish line," said Carnegie Mellon University professor Eric Nyberg, who has worked on Watson with its IBM creators since 2007. "There's always more you can do to bring computers to human intelligence. I'm not sure we'll ever really get there."

Bart Massey, a professor of computer science at Portland State University, quipped: "If you want to build something that thinks like a human, we have a great way to do that. It only takes like nine months and it's really fun."

Working on computer evolution "really makes you appreciate the fact that humans are such unique things and they think such unique ways," Massey said.

Nyberg said it is silly to think that Watson will lead to an end or a lessening of humanity. "Watson does just one task: answer questions," he said. And it gets things wrong, such as saying grasshoppers eat kosher, which Nyberg said is why humans won't turn over launch codes to it or its computer cousins.

Take Tuesday's Final Jeopardy, which Watson flubbed and its human competitors handled with ease. The category was U.S. cities, and the clue was: "Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle."

The correct response was Chicago, but Watson weirdly wrote, "What is Toronto?????"

A human would have considered Toronto and discarded it because it is a Canadian city, not a U.S. one, but that's not the type of comparative knowledge Watson has, Nyberg said.

"A human working with Watson can get a better answer," said James Hendler, a professor of computer and cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Using what humans are good at and what Watson is good at, together we can build systems that solve problems that neither of us can solve alone."

That's why Paul Saffo, a longtime Silicon Valley forecaster, and others, see better search engines as the ultimate benefit from the "Jeopardy!"-playing machine.

"We are headed toward a world where you are going to have a conversation with a machine," Saffo said. "Within five to10 years, we'll look back and roll our eyes at the idea that search queries were a string of answers and not conversations."

The beneficiaries, Club maritim ibiza said, could include technical support centers, hospitals, hedge funds or other businesses that need to make lots of decisions that rely on lots of data.

For example, a medical center might use the software to better diagnose disease. Since a patient's symptoms can generate many possibilities, the advantage of a Watson-type program would be its ability to scan the medical literature faster than a human could and suggest the most likely result. A human, of course, would then have to investigate the computer's finding and make the final diagnosis.

IBM isn't saying how much money it spent building Watson. But Doherty said the company told analysts at a recent meeting that the figure was around $30 million. Doherty believes the number is probably higher, in the "high dozens of millions."

In a few years, Carnegie Mellon University robotic whiz Red Whittaker will be launching a robot to the moon as part of Google challenge. When it lands, the robot will make all sorts of key and crucial real-time decisions — like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did 42 years ago — but what humans can do that machines can't will already have been done: Create the whole darn thing.

Clipper card debuts Wednesday in South Bay

Eighteen years ago, Bill Clinton was in his first term as president, Barry Bonds was packing for his first spring training camp with the San Francisco Giants, and transit users were promised that someday they could use a single card to board any bus or train in the Bay Area.

For riders in Santa Clara County, someday arrives Wednesday.

That's when the Valley Transportation Authority begins selling Clipper cards to riders on its bus and light-rail system, the last major transit line in the region to join the program.

The distinctive blue and white cards are now being used on Caltrain, BART, AC Transit, SamTrans, San Francisco Muni, Golden Gate Ferry and Golden Gate Transit, allowing passengers to transfer without digging in their pockets to buy a second ticket. Clipper users set up a prepaid account, and off they ride.

"Riders won't always be scraping for nickels, dimes and quarters," said VTA General Manager Michael Burns, saying this will remove a huge barrier for potential riders. "It's amazing how many people won't take public transportation because they are not sure how much is the fare, where do they pay the fare or gala bingo big la they covered the fare. They won't have to worry about that with their card."

VTA will phase in the use of Clipper cards. Passengers can electronically put cash into their accounts for immediate use on single-ride tickets Wednesday if they go to VTA offices in San Jose, but if they do this by phone or online, they need to wait three to five working days before there is cash in their account. Monthly passes will be available on March 1.

To use Clipper, a customer touches the card to the Clipper reader on the VTA light-rail platform, or when boarding a bus. The card reader will show the amount charged for the ride and the balance on the account. Riders can add value to their cards automatically from a bank account or credit card.

Bay Areas transit users make about 67.4 million trips per year that involve transfers between different operators, out of a total of 496 million estimated trips.

The Clipper system, which cost $140 million to set up, launched last June, with 63,000 users a day. Now the weekday average is more than 361,000.

One of them is Farhad Merchant of San Francisco, who sometimes takes Caltrain down the Peninsula, where he transfers to light rail in Mountain View. And he uses it on Muni or on BART when going to the East Bay.

"I think it's a great system," said the 24-year-old. "The biggest perks are that I never have to worry about having cash on hand or keep track of paper tickets or transfers. Plus, if I lose my card I can get a replacement for the value."

The card has a series of white triangles set against a blue backdrop, a design intended to remind people of the Clipper ships that once sailed to San Francisco.

The system was initially called Translink and was to have been in operation by 1999. But getting it to work on the major transit lines, with all their different pricing schemes, proved a nightmare.

And there have been glitches in the current rollout. A few BART stations weren't reading the card, and some people were getting free rides when their account had no money in it.

But, at last, a universal transit pass is here.

"It has been a painful and expensive process," said Stuart Cohan, executive director of TransForm, a transit advocacy group in Oakland. "But with all the complaints and the torturous years since it was first proposed, we finally have a system that works, mostly, and it does truly make transit use easier."

Green advisors target consumption in swansong report

The UK needs to consume less and share people around the country more equally in order to tackle its environmental problems, a report recommends.

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution says bits of the country, notably southeast England, are under pressure on waste and water use.

But simply aiming to reduce population size will have little impact, it says.

This is the final report from the 40-year-old commission, which is being abolished under spending cuts.
Continue reading the main story
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If we act now, we can have an effect over 50 or 100 years - it's not an either/or”
Simon Ross
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Its two-year investigation looked at issues such as water supplies, waste, urban pollution and wildlife.

The report, Demographic Change and the Environment, concludes that increasing consumption, the concentration of population in areas that are ill-equipped to supply its needs, and the trend towards single-person households - which increases energy demand - all matter more than the simple size of the UK's population.

"The increase in affluence has a much bigger impact on the environment than simple numbers," said Sir John Lawton, the commission's chairman.

"If you're going to have sustainable development, then to a first approximation if you grow the economy by 2.5% per year, you have to improve resource use efficiency by the same amount, otherwise you end up consuming more."
Population concern

The UK population reached 61.8 million in 2009, and is forecast to climb by another 10 million by 2033.

"The Optimum Population Trust (OPT) continues to argue that the UK's population is too big and we need to reduce it to the point where we're self-sufficient in food - to about 30 million or thereabouts," said Sir John.
 
Southeast England is feeling the environmental pinch more than any other region

"We're saying, to be perfectly blunt, that that's nonsense - it's the wrong answer, and in any case you couldn't get there by any civilised means in a democratic society."

The OPT advocates policies that lead to the UK population first stabilising and then decreasing "by not less than 0.25% a year... by bringing immigration into numerical balance with emigration, by making greater efforts to reduce teenage pregnancies, and by encouraging couples voluntarily to 'Stop at Two' children".

But the commission's projections suggest that even fairly large changes in the rates of birth, death and net migration would not make a significant dent in the national population by mid-century.

However, Simon Ross, the OPT's chief executive, said it was important to take a longer-term view - which ought to include government policies encouraging people to choose to have fewer children.

"Climate change, sustainability and resources are a long-term issue as well as a short-term one," he told BBC News.

"If we act now, we can have an effect over 50 or 100 years - it's not an either/or.

"Would it work? We don't know, because there's never been that campaign in the UK as there has been on waste or car use, for example."
Local issues

The commission concludes there is unlikely to be a stark limit to growth in the more pressured regions - instead, maintaining services such as clean air and water would get more and more expensive.
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I am worried that shining a light into those murky areas of public policy isn't going to happen”
Sir John Lawton
Royal Commission

Meanwhile, parts of Scotland and northern England face the social pressures of a declining population.

The commission said the government's plans for localism did not adequately address how such pan-regional issues would be addressed.

"We're not saying localism is a bad thing in principle - it's a good thing," said Maria Lee, professor of law at University College London.

"However, there are questions about how local decision-making feeds into national and regional and global objectives; we'd expect government to deal with these issues, but at the moment it's not clear how they're going to deal with it."

The commission says spending money to Camping world katy tx to areas of abundant resources might prove more economic than paying ever greater sums for water and waste treatment in southeast England - and that the government should study those figures.
Last rites

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution was established in 1970, two years before the first UN environment summit.

But this will be its last report. It will cease to exist at the end of March, a victim of government spending cuts.

"The government's perfectly entitled to make that decision - I happen personally to disagree, and I'm on record as saying I don't know quite where the government is going to get the advice the panel has given it over the last 40 years," said Sir John.

"We try to shine a light on issues that the government has been neglecting and where it doesn't even seem to realise it has a problem, and I am worried that shining a light into those murky areas of public policy isn't going to happen."

The government has indicated that it will not formally respond to this report, as it has to every other one in the commission's history.

Khodorkovsky judge acted 'under orders' - court aide

An aide to the Russian judge who convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky at his second trial last year has said he did not write his own verdict.

Judge Viktor Danilkin resented having to take orders from above during the trial of the former tycoon, Natalya Vasilyeva told Russian media.

The judge denied her allegations, describing them as slander.

The trial for fraud of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev was widely condemned abroad as unfair.

Already in detention since 2003, he was sentenced to a further six years in prison and is not now due for release until 2017.

Under Russian law, it is for the judge alone to write his verdict, without any interference by other members of the judiciary.

According to Ms Vasilyeva, Judge Danilkin was indignant at having to take orders and was anxious and irritable because of it.

When asked for confirmation of what she had reportedly told Russian media, Ms Vasilyeva's office said she was on holiday.
'Total control'

Speaking to Russian gazeta.ru, a widely read liberal Russian newspaper, she said that the judge had been under "total control", constantly receiving instructions from the Moscow City Court.
 
Khodorkovsky is said to have reacted calmly to the verdict

Judge Danilkin began writing the sentence but it did not please his superiors, she said.

"As a result he received a different verdict which he was obliged to read out," she told gazeta.ru.

"I know for a fact that the sentence was brought from Moscow City Court," she said.

"And it is obvious that it was written by criminal case appeal judges, that's to say, by Moscow City Court judges."

Ms Vasilyeva said she knew the judges' names but preferred not to give them.

The part of the verdict dealing with sentencing was delivered to Judge Danilkin while he was still reading out the verdict, she added.

Ms Vasilyeva said her information came from "people close to the judge" but she was unable to say how the alleged additional parts of the sentence were passed to the judge.

She said her duties at Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court, where the trial took place, were assistant to the judge and court press secretary.

She told gazeta.ru she did not expect to continue in her post at the court after the interview.
'Nothing but slander'

Responding to his assistant's allegations, Judge Danilkin told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency: "I am sure that Will smith bio by Natalya Vasilyeva is nothing but slander and can be denied through a legal process."

Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva described Ms Vasilyeva's comments as a "provocation" and a "well-planned PR act" ahead of the court's review of an appeal of the verdict.

"I am sure that Natalya Vasilyeva will yet renounce her comments," Ms Usacheva added.

Khodorkovsky, once seen as a political threat to former President Vladimir Putin, was found guilty along with Lebedev at the end of December of stealing billions of dollars from their own oil firm, Yukos, and laundering the proceeds.

The defence had argued that the charges were absurd since the amount of oil said to have been embezzled would be equivalent to the entire production of Yukos in the period concerned.

The US state department said at the time that Washington was concerned by the apparent "abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty".

Beer Company Sends 2,000 Cases Of Drinking Water To Ruidoso

Anheuser-Busch is providing 2,156 cases - or more than 51,000 cans of drinking water - for use by families affected by a compromised water supply in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

The water left the company's brewery in Cartersville, Ga.on Friday night and is scheduled to arrive around 10 a.m. this morning at the local Budweiser distributor, L&F Distributorsin Roswell, New Mexico. Working with The Salvation Army and local relief officials, L&F will ensure the water gets to residents in need.

Valentine's Day weekend is usually great for Ruidoso as the village hosts couples in search of a cozy cabin getaway. But with this water crisis, people couldn't shower or flush the toilet regularly. The chance for romance in Ruidoso went down the drain.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has ordered 100 more members of the New Mexico National Guard to Ruidoso to help restore the town's water service. They join 30 other Guardsmen and representatives of several state agencies who have been in Ruidoso since last week after water mains broke in subzero temperatures and forced water to be shut off until repairs can be made.

Personnel from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Guard, village forestry and local fire, police, water utility, planning and zoning and Public Service Company of New Mexico worked over the weekend to restore service.

The state Environment Department has issued a precautionary boil water advisory for all communities impacted by water outages. They advise residents to boil water for Digital planet before drinking, cooking and washing dishes.

"People in Ruidoso are in need of fresh drinking water, and this is one way Anheuser-Busch and our local wholesaler can help," said Pete Kraemer, Vice President of Supply for Anheuser-Busch. "It's important for communities to pull together and lend a helping hand."

Over the last three years Anheuser-Busch and its distributors have provided nearly six million cans of packaged drinking water to victims of natural disasters. These included fires in California and Colorado; hurricanes and storms in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, South Dakota, Mississippi and Texas; and flooding in New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wyoming, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch has donated more than 69 million cans of drinking water following natural and other disasters.

Helping communities cope with disasters has been an Anheuser-Busch tradition since 1906 when Adolphus Busch made a donation to victims of the San Francisco earthquake. Today, in addition to providing monetary support, Anheuser-Busch packages fresh drinking water and donates it to emergency relief organizations for distribution to those in need.

Egypt's military rulers dissolve parliament

Egypt's military rulers took sweeping action to dismantle the autocratic legacy of former President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and promising elections in moves cautiously welcomed by pro-democracy protesters.

They also met with representatives of the broad-based youth movement that brought down the government after an 18-day uprising that transfixed the world.

The caretaker government, backed by the military, said restoring security was a top priority even as labor unrest reflected one of the many challenges of steering the Arab world's biggest nation toward stability and democracy.

On Sunday, prominent activist Wael Ghonim posted on a Facebook page he manages notes from a meeting between members of the military council and youth representatives, which he described as encouraging.

The military defended the caretaker government, stocked with Mubarak loyalists, as necessary for now in the interests of stability but pledged to soon change it, said Ghonim and another protester, Amr Salama, in the statement.

"They said they will go after corrupt people no matter what their position current or previous," the statement added. Amendments to the much reviled constitution will be prepared by an independent committee over the next 10 days and then presented for approval in a popular referendum to be held in two months, they said.

The military also encouraged the youth to consider forming political parties — something very difficult to do under the old system — and pledged to meet with them regularly.

"We felt a sincere desire to protect the gains of the revolution and an unprecedented respect for the right of young Egyptians to express their opinions," Ghonim said.

Even amid the efforts to build a new system, Egypt's upheaval has splintered into a host of smaller grievances, the inevitable outcome of emboldened citizens feeling free to speak up, most for the first time.

They even included about 2,000 police, widely hated for brutality and corruption under Mubarak, who marched to the Interior Ministry to demand better pay and conditions. They passed through the protest camp at Tahrir Square, where demonstrators hurled insults, calling them "pigs" and "dogs."

Egypt's state news agency announced banks would be closed Monday due to strikes and again Tuesday for a public holiday. Dozens of employees protested against alleged corruption at the state television building, which broadcast pro-Mubarak messages during the massive demonstrations against his rule.

The caretaker government met for the first time, and employees removed a huge frame photograph of Mubarak from the meeting room before they convened.

The crowds in the protest encampment that became a symbol of defiance against the government thinned out Sunday — the first working day since the regime fell. Traffic flowed through downtown area for the first time in weeks. Troops cleared most of the makeshift tents and scuffled with holdout activists.

The protesters have been pressing the ruling military council, led by Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, to immediately move forward with the transition by appointing a presidential council, dissolving parliament and releasing political prisoners. Thousands have remained in Tahrir Square and some want to keep up the pressure for immediate steps, including repeal of repressive emergency laws that give police broad power.

As Egypt embarked on its new path — one of great hope but also deep uncertainty — the impact of its historic revolt and an earlier uprising in Tunisia was evident in a region where democratic reform has made few inroads.

Yemeni police clashed Sunday with protesters seeking the ouster of the U.S.-backed president, and opposition groups planned a rally in Bahrain on Monday. Demonstrators have also pushed for change in Jordan and Algeria, inspired by the popular revolt centered in downtown Cairo.

The 18-member Supreme Council of the Armed Forces allayed some concerns by dismissing the legislature, packed with Mubarak loyalists, and sidelining the constitution, used by Mubarak to buttress his rule. Activists said they would closely watch the military to ensure it does not abuse its unchecked power — something that is clearly starting to make some uneasy.

The council "believes that human freedom, the rule of law, support for the value of equality, pluralistic democracy, social justice, and the uprooting of corruption are the bases for the legitimacy of any system of governance that will lead the country in the upcoming period," the Council said in a statement.

"They have definitely started to offer us what we wanted," said activist Sally Touma, who also wants the release of political prisoners and repeal of an emergency law that grants wide powers to police.

The military council, which has issued a stream of communiques since taking power, said parliamentary and presidential elections will be held, but did not set a timetable. It said it will run the country for six months, or until elections can be held.

It said it will represent Egypt in all internal and external affairs and proclaimed the right to set temporary laws. It was expected to clarify the scope of its legal authority as the complex transition unfolds and the role of the judiciary remains unclear.

It said it was forming a committee to amend the constitution and set rules for a popular referendum to endorse the amendments.

Protesters are demanding that the constitution be amended to impose term limits on the president, open up competition for the presidency, and remove restrictions on creating political parties. Others want an entirely new constitution.

Judge Hisham Bastawisi, a reformist judge, said the military measures "should open the door for free formation of political parties and open the way for any Egyptian to run for presidential elections."

Hossam Bahgat, director of the non-governmental Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the steps were positive but warned that Egypt was on uncharted legal ground.

"In the absence of a constitution, we have entered a sort of `twilight zone' in terms of rules, so we are concerned," he said. "We are clearly monitoring the situation and will attempt to influence the transitional phase so as to respect human rights."

Both the lower and upper houses of parliament are being dissolved. The last parliamentary elections in November and December were marked by allegations of fraud by the ruling party, which was accused of virtually shutting out the opposition.

The military council includes the chief of staff and commanders of each branch of the armed forces. It took power after protesters' pleas, and promised reform. The institution, however, was tightly bound to Mubarak's ruling system, and it has substantial economic interests that it will likely seek to preserve.

The Mapple Hotels Palaces Resorts, appointed by Mubarak shortly after the pro-democracy protests began on Jan. 25, will remain in place until a new Cabinet is formed — a step expected to happen after elections.

"Our concern now ... is security, to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen," Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said Sunday after the Cabinet met for the first time since Mubarak was ousted.

Security remains thin in Cairo, more than two weeks after police withdrew following clashes with protesters. Some have returned, but many say they might quit, citing humiliation and ill-treatment from people in the street. Others are on leave. Military police are directing traffic and filling in some of the gaps.

Shafiq said the military would decide whether Omar Suleiman, who was appointed vice president by Mubarak in a failed attempt to appease protesters, would play some role in Egypt's transition.

"He might fill an important position in the coming era," the prime minister said.

He also denied reports that Mubarak had fled to Germany or the United Arab Emirates, saying the former president remained in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he went soon after stepping down.

Egyptians became accustomed to scenes of police beating protesters in the early days of the uprising, but on Sunday it was the police who were demonstrating. A large group marched through Tahrir Square to demand higher wages, and sought to absolve themselves of responsibility for the attempted crackdown in the early days of the Egyptian uprising.

"You have done this inhuman act," a protester said.

Said Abdul-Rahim, a low-ranking officer, broke into tears.

"I didn't do it. I didn't do it," he implored. "All these orders were coming from senior leaders. This is not our fault. "

Police officers scuffled with soldiers outside the Interior Ministry, and some troops fired gunshots in the air.

"This is our ministry," the police shouted. "The people and the police are one hand," they chanted, using an expression for unity. They complained their monthly salaries are 500-600 Egyptian pounds ($85-$100), and soldiers are far better compensated.

Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy emerged from the building to talk to the police through a megaphone.

"Give me a chance," he said. Later, the ministry said it was doubling the pay of low-ranking police.

Some police had been accused of stripping off their uniforms and joining gangs of thugs who attacked protesters at the height of the uprising.

There were also protests by workers at a ceramic factory, a textile factory and a port on the Mediterranean coast as Egyptians sought to improve their lot in a country where poverty and other challenges will take years to address.

Outside the headquarters of one of Egypt's major public banks, several hundred employees protested against alleged corruption by the bank manager, a government-appointed official. Protester Yasmine Haidar said newly appointed advisers to the manager had salaries nearly 70 times higher than her monthly $190.

"After the president left, we need the rest to leave behind him," she said. "The heads of all the rotten fish should be cut."

The five top officials at the bank left the building because employees had stopped working.

Meanwhile, in Tahrir Square, soldiers tried to convince the few remaining protesters to clear their tents and blankets.

An army vehicle drove through the square, broadcasting the military's announcement that it would dissolve parliament and suspend the constitution. Soldiers got out of the car to converse with protesters about the ruling council's plans. Some people clapped and cheered.

Some protesters were unsatisfied, and gathered with a wooden cross and a copy of the Quran.

"The government is still in place. The corruption is still here. Emergency laws are still here," said Mohammed Ahmed, an accountant. "When it is a civil state and we have a parliamentary system and political detainees are released, then we go."

Band confirms dead eagle as 1 of Alaska's oldest

A Kodiak Island bald eagle survived 25 years of Alaska hazards but met an unfortunate fate last month on the crossbar of a utility pole: electrocution.

A band attached to its leg showed the bird to be the second-oldest bald eagle documented in Alaska and one of the oldest in the country.

"It would be, based on the bird-banding record that I've seen, one of the top 10 oldest birds ever recorded," said Robin Corcoran, a wildlife biologist from the Kodiak Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The eagle's death was first reported by the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

The death was of high interest to raptor biologists, who have no other way besides recovered bands to confirm the age of mature wild eagles.

"Once they reach that full adult stage — white head, brown body, white tail — you don't have any idea how old they are," said Steve Lewis, coordinator of raptor management for the Alaska region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The oldest eagle documented in the country was a 32-year-old bird from Maine. Alaska's oldest recorded eagle was a 28-year-old from the Chilkat Valley outside Haines. Lewis suspects most eagles don't approach three decades but proving that with leg bands can be haphazard.

"Banding is one of these things, you put a lot of effort into it and you get little return, but the returns you get are really interesting," he said.

The odds of recovering a band go up around communities such as Kodiak. The city is on the island of the same name, the second largest in the U.S. The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge covers one-third of the island and has a resident population of 2,500 birds, but the city is a drawing card for other eagles.

Hundreds from mainland Alaska gather there each winter when lakes and streams freeze up. Eagles are opportunistic eaters, grabbing fish and small mammals, but America's national bird is not above Dumpster-diving or feasting on other tidbits from humans.

"The canneries and fish process plants, the commercial fishing, it's a real magnet," Corcoran said.

Kodiak's only road out of town crosses hills to the nation's largest Coast Guard base.

"When you drive that road, there are easily, every day, one hundred birds, just on the hillside, sunning themselves in the trees if it's sunny, or just trying to stay dry," Corcoran said. "And then if you look down at the canneries, right on the water's edge, there are another hundred, at least a hundred birds, perched on the cannery rooftops."

A garbage bag in the back of a Kodiak pickup will attract winged intruders. Fishermen mostly are conscientious, she said, but boats will draw birds.

"Sometimes when the fishing boats come in, the nets are spun up on the back deck, there will still be some fish in there. The birds are all over the nets. You can see a dozen birds on one boat, just on the nets," Corcoran said. "Usually they're accompanied by Steller sea lions that are climbing up in the back of the boat to see what's left on the back deck."

Fish bait is another temptation.

"Yesterday there was some bait left unattended on the back deck of a boat and that caused a frenzy," Corcoran said. "The birds ended up getting soiled and fighting over it, and then they fall into the water."

Oiled by fish slime, feathers are less waterproof and eagles are more prone to hypothermia, she said.

Refuge biologists have retrieved starved eagles and cheap san antonio movers killed by airplanes, cars or leg-hold traps meant for fox. Sometimes there are mass mortalities.

Fifty eagles in January 2008 spotted an uncovered dump truck filled with fish guts outside a Kodiak seafood plant. Twenty drowned or were crushed. The rest were so slimed they had to be cleaned.

The refuge last year sent off 30 dead eagles to the National Eagle Repository northeast of Denver. Thirty to 40 eagle dead eagles recovered is typical, Corcoran said.

The electrocuted bird was captured in July 1989 as part of research project into possible health damage from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which had occurred on March 24 that year.

"It was a beautiful older female," Corcoran said. The power pole near a cannery had been fitted with two devices designed to protect eagles but it perched on the lowest of three cross bars where utility authorities did not believe there was enough room to alight.

Lewis said there may be a new candidate for Alaska's oldest eagle. A dead eagle was found late last year on Adak Island in the Aleutians and may be as old as 29 1/2 years.

Tunisia calms as government rejects old guard

Tunisia's new government began releasing prisoners Wednesday and moved to track down assets stashed overseas by its deposed president and his widely disliked family.

Tensions on the streets appeared to be calming as the administration tried to show it was distancing itself from the old guard.

Hundreds of protesters led a rally in central Tunis demanding that former allies of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stop clinging to power. Later, about 30 youths in the capital broke a curfew and set up camp near the heavily guarded Interior Ministry, bringing mats, food and water for an overnight sit-in. Police didn't bother them.

In recent days, police have fired tear gas and clubbed protesters.

The U.N. said more than 100 people have died in the unrest that surrounded Ben Ali's ouster.

Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after 23 years in power, and a caretaker government is now struggling to calm this moderate Muslim nation on the Mediterranean Sea, popular among European tourists and seen as an ally in the West's fight against terrorism.

Ben Ali's longtime prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, kept his post and is trying to convince Tunisians a new era has arrived — even if the composition of the interim government has many faces from the old guard.    Complete coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding on Yahoo! News

 

Interim President Fouad Mebazaa went on television and promised to live up to the people's revolt, which he called a "revolution."

"Regarding security, you have certainly noticed that it has improved," he said. "We have discovered the leaders of the chaos, and have stopped the gangs and those who put fear in the hearts of people. The situation is moving toward stability."

Some were doubtful of such promises of change.

Hafed al Maki, 50, who works at the country's largest insurance company, said he would not wait for the 60-day constitutional limit for new presidential elections to pass "because that is enough time for the old cronies to set their roots in and start their old ways again, thieving and taking our resources. No way that's happening again."

Opposition figures and the prime minister's office have said that the 60-day limit is unrealistically short, and the delay will more likely be six to seven months.

Swiss officials estimate Tunisian government officials have put about $620 million into Swiss banks, and the anti-corruption group Transparency International France and two other associations filed suit in Paris alleging corruption by Ben Ali and his wife.

A French government minister said the Tunisian central bank director has resigned following widespread rumors that the deposed president's wife fled the country with a stash of gold. The central bank has denied an unsourced report in French newspaper Le Monde that said Leila Trabelsi was believed to have taken 1.5 tons of gold out of the country, possibly bringing it to Switzerland.

But "rumors about that exist, and for that the president of the Central Bank of Tunisia has resigned," Nejib Chebbi, a longtime opponent who took a post in the unity government, told BBC World News.

Chebbi said an investigation would take place.

Tunisia's official TAP news agency also reported that the Central Bank had taken control of Banque Zitouna, a bank founded by a son-in-law of Ben Ali, to protect the deposits of accountholders and prevent a run on the bank.

The national prosecutor's office moved to investigate overseas bank accounts, real estate and other assets held by Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other relatives. His relations — especially his wife's family — were seen as corrupt and dominated many businesses in the nation.

The Swiss president said that her country's federal council agreed to freeze any assets in Switzerland belonging to Ben Ali, to help work up a possible criminal case over alleged stolen funds.

In Geneva, the United Nations' human rights chief, Navi Pillay, said she was sending an "assessment team" to Tunisia in coming days, and estimated more than 100 deaths have occurred so far during the unrest in Tunisia.

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Tunis' stock exchange, many shops, schools and universities remained closed and some workers have gone on strike. A curfew remains in place, thought the government shortened it as security improved.

In another effort to ease tensions, the government moved ahead Wednesday with plans to release 1,800 prisoners who had less than six months to serve, the official news agency reported. It was not immediately clear what prompted the release, and the report suggested they were not political prisoners.

The unrest has rattled Tunisia's economy, which had seen impressive growth in recent years. Moody's Investor Service downgraded Tunisia's government bond ratings Wednesday, citing "significant uncertainties" surrounding Tunisia's economic and political future.

Moody's cut the rating by one notch, to "Baa3" from "Baa2," and also downgraded its outlook to negative from stable. The new rating is one notch above "junk bond" status.

Wikileaks опубликовал высказывания американцев о "Газпроме"

Загадочные Мальдивы

Российская газовая компания "Газпром" является неэффективной государственной монополией, главные цели которой являются политическими, а не экономическими. Такое мнение американских дипломатов о "Газпроме" опубликовал в начале января сайт Wikileaks и его немецкий партнер Spiegel. В документах также говорится, что "Газпром" может быть причастен к коррупционным схемам в России.

Американские дипломаты пишут, что с топ-менеджерами "Газпрома" сложно договориться о встрече. Кроме того, на переговорах речь идет совсем не о бизнесе. В частности, американцы привели в пример встречу с заместителем председателя правления "Газпрома" Александром Медведевым, который предпочел обсуждать не дела компании, а отсутствие договора между Континентальной хоккейной лигой и НХЛ (Медведев является президентом КХЛ). На тех же переговорах Медведев обвинил Украину в "газовой войне" начала 2009 года.

В материалах также приводится другой разговор с неназванным менеджером из России. Он, по данным американцев, честно признался, что главной задачей "Газпрома" является обеспечение газом местного населения по доступным ценам, а также исполнение социальных обязательств. Лишь после этого менеджер сказал, что компания должна увеличивать капитализацию и долю на рынке. Кроме того, добавил источник, в цели "Газпрома" входит увеличение контроля над глобальными мировыми энергетическими ресурсами.

Американские дипломаты также с критикой отнеслись к заявлению главы "Газпрома" Алексея Миллера о том, что в будущем капитализация компании составит триллион долларов (заявление датировано 2008 годом). Они отметили, что во время кризиса экспорт газа из России упал, а капитализация "Газпрома" сократилась до 75 миллиардов долларов.

"Газпром" - крупнейшая компания России, которая имеет монопольное право на экспорт газа за рубеж. Более 50 процентов акций "Газпрома" принадлежит правительству страны. До кризиса сообщалось, что "Газпром" обеспечивает 20 процентов всего российского бюджета.

Wikileaks начал публиковать секретные документы американцев об операции в Афганистане, "иракское досье" и переписку дипломатов в конце 2010 года. 7 декабря основатель сайта Джулиан Ассанж был арестован, однако уже 16 декабря его выпустили под залог.

Более трети населения Пятигорска осталось без воды

В результате аварии на водопроводе в Пятигорске без водоснабжения остались несколько десятков тысяч жителей города, сообщает "Интерфакс".

По данным местных экстренных служб, прорыв трубы произошел около 14:00 по московскому времени. Для ликвидации аварии спасателям пришлось отключить подачу воды в несколько густонаселенных районов Пятигорска - в результате без водоснабжения остались примерно 55 тысяч человек.

"Водоснабжения лишились также одна больница и несколько санаториев, но там имеется резерв воды", - уточнил представитель экстренной службы. Он также отметил, что теплоснабжение в городе не нарушено.

В данный момент ведутся работы по устранению самопознание последствий аварии.

Общая численность населения Пятигорска составляет около 143 тысяч человек.