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ISI chief on 'critical' US mission to explain Pak position Hindustan Times PTI Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan shout slogans as they march against the US President Barack...... ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has left for the US to explain Pakistan's position on the presence of Osama bin Laden in the country against ... ISI chief on 'critical' US mission to explain Pak positionIndian Express Pakistani General Under FireWall Street Journal Bin Laden's stay at Abbottabad facilitated by ISI's "willful blindness": Ex ...TruthDive Times of India -Washington Bangla Radio -Daily Times all 192 news articles »

Army is to prepare a report on what happened in the final phase of the humantarian operation. It will be prepared after talking to then front line commanders,  Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said. It will reveal the true events that took place in the war front during the final days of the humantarian operation, he added.  Preparing of [...]

The average American generates about five pounds of trash per day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Thank you, fellow Bartonians, for voting on Thursday and in particular for those 456 of you who voted for me, your local Lib Dem candidate. Sadly for me, it wasn't enough. I came in second after Ian Shingler, a former Lib Dem councillor and Bartonian, who is now your independent representative on the council. I have enjoyed my two years on Central Beds Council enormously. It gave me a good insight into and understanding of public service in general and the internal workings of this unitary authority in particular. The work to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness will continue and ...

These difficulties include lost claims, large amounts of required documentation, and general slowness in claims processing.

On April 4 I had surgery in Warren General Hospital for a total knee replacement.

Biggest market rigger is government itself Journal Inquirer First is that such investigations have been undertaken before, including investigations by Blumenthal himself during his 20 years as Connecticut's attorney general, and they never found anything more than the OPEC oil producer cartel's public but ... and more »

The Labour Party has selected criminal barrister Peter Foster to stand as its candidate for the Otaki electorate in this year's general election.

IL-Chicago,   Position: Financial Counselor Supervisory Relationship:              BOY Counselors will report to NSP 2 Coordinator                                                        Pilsen Counselors will report to Director of Financial ServicesMP Counselors will report to MP Financial Services Site Supervisor Organization General Description: The Resurrection Project (TRP) is a 501(c)(3) community-based

CA-Woodland Hills, Senior Restaurant Manager$55,000 to $65,000 Base Salary+Aggressive Bonus Program+Strong Benefit Package+Paid Vacation+Growing Company - Room for AdvancementWe are looking for a Senior Restaurant Manager candidate for this National Casual Dining Restaurant Company.  This company has 30 restaurants in Southern California and 6 locations in the Valley.  They are seeing sales increases, and want to ad

Worcester,

PA-Pittsburgh, UPMC Corporate Services Job ID: 1077153UPMC Corporate Services is seeking talented IT candidates for a full-time Systems Analyst, Senior opportunity to help support the Western PA Health Information Exchange Interoperability Technology Department in Pittsburgh.  Under the general direction of the management team and senior staff, the ideal candidate will have experienced analytical and/or programm

CA-Sacramento, Job Description: Local construction firm is seeking a accounting support person to assist with general ledgering and accounts payable. Must be able to move in and out of computer systems and be familiar with accounting practices with a minimum of 5 years experience. A/P involves 1600 2500 transactions per month which requires a costing type experience. Position requires an applicant with a very so

Upscale Salon in Pasadena is now hiring for Management. Candidates for employment must possess the willingness to work in a customer service environment and the ability to utilize management skills and customer service skills to generate sales and grow our client base.

We are hiring someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to make operations run smoothly, from daily office tasks to managing some advanced functions such as Internet Marketing, HR, PR and customer relations. The position interacts daily with the Company Principals. It requires reliability and ability to work well in a small business environment. It is essential that the person has strong organizational skills including excellent verbal and written communication abilities. Applicants must have a positive attitude with the ability to anticipate issues in a proactive manner, multi task, and learn quickly. Candidates must also be very detail-oriented, self‐motivated, flexible and seek a long term opportunity.

The Ideal Candidate:
The successful candidate is someone who draws strength from having varying types of marketing responsibilities and is able to take ownership of marketing solutions and processes. He/she enjoys learning new skills. He/she is a take-charge person who enjoys working collaboratively to achieve a given objective. He/she is a creative thinker, opportunity-driven, and analytical in approach. An organized planner with the ability to set priorities and balance competing interests and is able to build rapport and trust with our Department Heads and internal staff as well as outside vendors. Someone who is willing to do what it takes to get the job done.

Responsibilities:
Management has the primary responsibility for the fulfillment of administrative duties, sales/marketing staff support, and delivery of regularly scheduled marketing functions that require an efficient workflow and consistent production for the company. We are seeking a candidate to provide a wide variety of marketing, communications, and event support activities. This candidate will assist in the development, production and distribution of advertising, marketing, and sales collateral materials and reporting materials.

• Company Meeting and Events Planning and Coordination Assistance
• PR Event Coordination
• Show/Event Equipment Management and display coordination
• Internet Marketing
• Social Marketing Coordination - Proficient in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, and Forums
• Email Marketing Campaign Tracking/ Reporting
• Ongoing office support (phone calls, faxing, copying, mail, shipping/receiving, etc.)
• Maintain general office organization and appearance (ordering of equipment and supplies, business collateral, management of electronic and paper data, etc.)
• Develop & implement office operation processes
• Prepare financial reports and project tracking
• Support specific projects and analysis related to various accounting issues & budgets
• Manage purchasing processes, engagement and ongoing relationship with vendors, provide recommendations and facilitate contractor selection
• Taking on other projects and tasks as the need arises including supporting business development activity

Qualifications:
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills
• Exceptional work and personal ethics
• Attention to detail and accuracy; ownership and accountability for work
• Outstanding customer service in all client interactions
• Sensitivity to confidentiality and discretion in all personnel issues
• Ability to solve problems with creativity, flexibility, and sound judgment
• Willingness to handle new and evolving duties and roles as needed

The successful candidate will have a degree in Marketing or Business Management and/or 2 to 4 years experience in Marketing or Business Management, a working knowledge of popular graphic design applications, Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat. In addition, must be skilled in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel). Strong written and verbal communication skills along with the ability to work with minimum supervision and handle multiple tasks simultaneously are required skills for the position.


PLEASE REPLY TO AD WITH RESUME AND SALARY HISTORY.

• Location: Pasadena
• Compensation: D.O.E please submit salary history
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Upscale Salon in Pasadena is now hiring for Management. Candidates for employment must possess the willingness to work in a customer service environment and the ability to utilize management skills and customer service skills to generate sales and grow our client base.

We are hiring someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to make operations run smoothly, from daily office tasks to managing some advanced functions such as Internet Marketing, HR, PR and customer relations. The position interacts daily with the Company Principals. It requires reliability and ability to work well in a small business environment. It is essential that the person has strong organizational skills including excellent verbal and written communication abilities. Applicants must have a positive attitude with the ability to anticipate issues in a proactive manner, multi task, and learn quickly. Candidates must also be very detail-oriented, self‐motivated, flexible and seek a long term opportunity.

The Ideal Candidate:
The successful candidate is someone who draws strength from having varying types of marketing responsibilities and is able to take ownership of marketing solutions and processes. He/she enjoys learning new skills. He/she is a take-charge person who enjoys working collaboratively to achieve a given objective. He/she is a creative thinker, opportunity-driven, and analytical in approach. An organized planner with the ability to set priorities and balance competing interests and is able to build rapport and trust with our Department Heads and internal staff as well as outside vendors. Someone who is willing to do what it takes to get the job done.

Responsibilities:
Management has the primary responsibility for the fulfillment of administrative duties, sales/marketing staff support, and delivery of regularly scheduled marketing functions that require an efficient workflow and consistent production for the company. We are seeking a candidate to provide a wide variety of marketing, communications, and event support activities. This candidate will assist in the development, production and distribution of advertising, marketing, and sales collateral materials and reporting materials.

• Company Meeting and Events Planning and Coordination Assistance
• PR Event Coordination
• Show/Event Equipment Management and display coordination
• Internet Marketing
• Social Marketing Coordination - Proficient in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, and Forums
• Email Marketing Campaign Tracking/ Reporting
• Ongoing office support (phone calls, faxing, copying, mail, shipping/receiving, etc.)
• Maintain general office organization and appearance (ordering of equipment and supplies, business collateral, management of electronic and paper data, etc.)
• Develop & implement office operation processes
• Prepare financial reports and project tracking
• Support specific projects and analysis related to various accounting issues & budgets
• Manage purchasing processes, engagement and ongoing relationship with vendors, provide recommendations and facilitate contractor selection
• Taking on other projects and tasks as the need arises including supporting business development activity

Qualifications:
• Exceptional presentation and communication skills
• Exceptional work and personal ethics
• Attention to detail and accuracy; ownership and accountability for work
• Outstanding customer service in all client interactions
• Sensitivity to confidentiality and discretion in all personnel issues
• Ability to solve problems with creativity, flexibility, and sound judgment
• Willingness to handle new and evolving duties and roles as needed

The successful candidate will have a degree in Marketing or Business Management and/or 2 to 4 years experience in Marketing or Business Management, a working knowledge of popular graphic design applications, Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat. In addition, must be skilled in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel). Strong written and verbal communication skills along with the ability to work with minimum supervision and handle multiple tasks simultaneously are required skills for the position.

PLEASE REPLY TO AD WITH RESUME AND SALARY HISTORY.

• Location: Pasadena
• Compensation: D.O.E please submit salary history
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

We are a well-established construction company located in NE Portland and we currently have an opening for a Office Assistant. Position is part-time to start and possibly turning into full time eventually. Qualified candidates should have experience in doing administrative work in a construction environment.

Duties Include but not limited to:
• General administrative tasks: typing, data input, faxing, copying, filing, and answering phones.
• Record keeping including basic accounting.


Required Background and Qualifications:
• Experience in a contractor/construction environment
• Professional phone etiquette
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Attention to detail and accuracy

Please fax resume to (503) 241-0497

• Location: NE Portland
• Compensation: $10 - $12 per hour DOE
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

ATA Retail Services is hiring for permanent, very part time merchandising position to service the "general merchandise" items that hang on clipstrips & j-hooks in the supermarkets in Alexandria & Franconia, VA

The route will include the following store:

Store # store freq Address
5980 KINGSTOWNE CENTER, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22315

7005 MANCHESTER LAKES, FRANCONIA, VA 22310

5870 KINGSTOWNE BLVD, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22315

7558 TELEGRAPH RD, ALEXANDRIA, VA 22310

YOU MUST HAVE:
* CAR, VALID DRIVER’S LICENSE AND PROOF OF AUTO INSURANCE LISTING YOUR NAME AS A DRIVER.
* Computer with internet access.
* Have 1-2 mornings available during the M-F work week, every 14 days.
* You should live within these areas listed
* $.38 mile (after 20 miles- round trip)
* HOURLY RATE: $10.50. While hours are not guaranteed, you will typically get around 9-12hrs wkly (MORE HOURS ARE REQUIRED IN THE BEGINNING)! Average time in a store is approx 2 hours.

For immediate consideration, apply online at:
http://www.ataretail.com/home/
Use the 4-DIGIT JOB # 7831

*PLEASE REMEMBER, SINCE WE ARE GETTING AN ABUNDANCE OF APPLICANTS, EVERYONE MAY NOT RECEIVE A CALL BUT WE WILL KEEP YOU IN OUR DATABASE FOR FUTURE OPENINGS.

• Location: ALEXANDRIA, FRANCONIA, VA
• Compensation: 10.50
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Northwest region prone to unstable geological hazards Viet Nam News HA NOI — The nation's northwestern region is susceptible to a wide range of geological hazards but research on the nature and extent of the risks remain limited, says the Viet Nam General Association of Geology. Prof Dao Van Thinh from the ... and more »

SUMMARY: MULTIPLE POSITIONS AVAILABLE IN BELLEVUE, EVERETT, MARYSVILLE, ISSAQUAH, PUYALLUP, SEATTLE, SILVERDALE, TACOMA, TUKWILA

The Retail Media Merchandiser is responsible for maintaining account aesthetics and in store project execution.


Job responsibilities, including but not limited to the following:
• Ensures proper inventory management through use of the Sales and Inventory Report and SMART device.
• Ensures proper category balancing in all stores through use of the Sales and Inventory report.
• Provides store General Managers with the following: competitive shopping information, monthly sales information and monthly promotional letter.
• Establishes and maintain a positive working relationship with all Anderson Merchandisers associates, store employees, and outside contacts.
• Responds immediately to all account concerns, applying the Sundown Rule
• Responsible for all territory in-store commitments.
• Ensures reporting integrity through accurate and timely TSP/Survey responses.
• Ability to communicate essential components of training materials directly to store employees.
• Maintain account aesthetics.
• Completes all project, product placement and execution expectations through advanced planning and communication with store management.
• Respond immediately to all store concerns.
• Assist with Territory projects.

Learn more and apply by visiting our website at www.amerch.com. Click on the ‘Careers’ button and then select the ‘Search for part-time jobs. Enter a job code below in the job number field of the search page, click on the gray ‘Search for Jobs’ button, and then ‘Apply’ (Please apply for ONLY ONE job. Location preferences can be discussed at an interview)

Bellevue 1100725, Everett 1101019, Marysville 1101021, Issaquah 1101194, Puyallup 1100688, Seattle 1101022, 1101195 Silverdale

• Location: Seattle,Tacoma,Silverdale, Everett &More;
• Compensation: Competitive
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Most are clueless on retirement's health-care costs | Philadelphia Inquirer ... Philadelphia Inquirer The Sun Life survey shows 74 percent of workers lack specific plans to cover retirement health-care costs. "People are overwhelmed," said Janet Whitehouse, general manager for Sun Life Financial's individual life insurance division. ... and more »

AFPSINGAPORE — Polling stations have opened for Singapore's most hotly contested general election in decades, with the opposition seeking to erode the dominance of the People's Action Party (PAP).There are 2.2 million voters eligible to elect members of parliament for 82 of the 87 seats after one five-seat district was won in a walkover by a PAP team led by the republic's founding father Lee Kuan

1.1 What is SGALMPRO group all about?

Singapore ALM User group (http://www.sgalmpro.com) aims to create a dedicated community of all ALM enthusiasts who are passionate and would like to work/share knowledge on ALM and Visual Studio’s ALM capabilities in general. We are also targeting to provide simplified readiness material for people who are interested in this area and want to learn more.

In this group we will mainly focus on VSTS and intricacies of ALM (processes, methods, tools and practices). We will also be interested in covering major third party products in this space which supplements VSTS or integrates well with VSTS.

 

1.2 Who should join this group?

I will start with saying that this group is open for all. However – who will get benefited from this group most is dependent on each individual’s capabilities. I personally feel following personas should join the group:

· Developers / Lead Developers

· Development Managers

· Team Leaders

· Project Managers

· Business Analysts / System Analysts

· Tester/ QA Engineers

· Build Engineers

· Release Managers

· Architects

· Designers

· UI Developers

· …. (the list goes on and not just limited to options above)

 

1.3 What to expect from this community?

Obviously – one should expect more and more sessions, news and material on ALM and VSTS. We also plan to get on board the leading 3^rd party product providers like Telerik along with leading publishers like O’really, APress, Wrox to support our group and lend helping hands in terms of training, resources and books etc.

As a starting step, we are planning to launch quick video series on “What is ALM?” in the coming month. I am sure there will be more stuff to announce as we progress and people & brains from all over Singapore join us. I am quite confident that we have a lot of ALM experts here and this group will provide them a platform to launch themselves as ‘ALM ROCK STARS’.

1.4 How SGALMPRO started?

It was a fine morning in Feb 2011, when I mailed Pratibha Kumar and Adrian Dunn (Microsoft) about my interest in ALM/VSTS. Out of my interest in community, I asked them how the community is structured in Singapore. Well – they shared that there is a very active group on Microsoft .NET (http://www.sgdotnet.org) and another dedicated group for SharePoint as well. I also discovered that there is a dedicated group on Windows Azure as well. While all these user groups are very active and doing a lot of good work, I felt we need a platform where we can consolidate the end to end processes and tools related to Application Life Cycle rather than just the developer community. I shared my thoughts with Pratibha and Adrian during one of the VS2010 events and thing finally moved.

They liked the idea of a dedicated user group for ALM and that’s how we started. Once I’d setup the group website etc. I also involved Amandeep Garg in helping me getting the usergroup approved from INETA and I am hoping he will continue to do so throughout the journey as a co-manager of this group.

 

1.5 What’s next?

Well – If you are reading this, you have spent good time reading the post and I can surely say that you have an interest in ALM + this group. I would request you to go to http://www.sgalmpro.com and register as a user. Start Contributing!!! Start Spreading!!! Thank you for reading this post and I hope you will visit my blog again.

Happy Community Times!!!

POLLING stations have opened for Singapore's most hotly contested general election in decades, with the opposition seeking to erode the dominance of the People's Action Party .

Why the 2011 Singapore election is worth watching Jakarta Post Singapore is known for its single dominant party system that is unrivaled by any other country in the 21st century. First, the electoral campaign process has been tweaked with notable effects. Parliament passed several key changes to the electoral ... Singapore votes as ruling party faces tough testThe Associated Press Opposition hopes for boost as Singapore votesAFP Singapore holds general electionBBC News Bloomberg -TODAYonline -Reuters Africa all 300 news articles »

With the 20th pick in the fifth round, #151 overall, the Buccaneers selected Ahmad Black (5'10", 184lbs) from the University of Florida.Safety was not a strong suit of the 2011 NFL Draft. In fact, only five safeties total were drafted in 2011, three free safeties and two strong safeties. Only one went before the fifth round (Rahim Moore, UCLA, to Denver). The Buccaneers picked on of the three safeties chosen in the fifth round in Black.Black is considered a reliable open-field tackler with good instincts. He finished with 13 career interceptions for the Gators, tied for 4th most in school history. He has started every game since his sophomore season, and was named a first team All-American by Rivals.com this past year. The senior was also a First-Team All-SEC by both the ESPN/coaches panel and AP Writers of America. He also played on kickoff and punt coverage teams, a highly regarded value by Tampa Bay General Manager Mark Dominik.Black enters a Buccaneers secondary ...

If some of you will recall back in the fifties/sixties Downbeat magazine used to have these blindfold reviews/critiques. The idea being they would play an album by an artists ( This is all jazz ) and have a well known great listen and review it. They could most of the time know who the players were by their style of playing. But were not told. They could offend a friend,but that seldom happened. It was great. You would have say Kenny Burrell listen to Wes and immediately everyone knew the outcome,as Wes was so stylistic with the octaves. They would nail it 90% of the time as to who was playing. Horn players knew the other players and their rhythm sections were the only thing they may have doubt about,but still they got most of the whole section right. It was not a bad mouth your fellow musician kind of thing. It was very civil and no ego crap. It would be intereting to have that kind of thing now,but impossible with the state of music in general in the pop format. Those were the days when everyone would be playing with different rhythm sections,especially in piano trios. Just a though and a pretty bad one at that. It could not work in a pop format ...

Tributes to Gurudev !

Today is Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, India Post will issue two special postage stamps on this occasion. A week long celebration is being organaized all over India and also in Bangladesh. A one month long special philatelic exhibition will be held in Kolkata “ Tagore in Philately” from 9th May.

Tagore Stamp Exhibition will be inaugurated on 9th May by Prof Dr. Bharati Ray at 6.30 PM and will remain open till June 9, 2011at Nandalal Bose Gallery, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071.

Tagore Centre, Kolkata

ICCR Nandalal Gallery

Club News

Best Maximum Card Competition (created during 2010)

Maximaphily is the most beautiful and exiting way in stamp collecting. It is one of the eleven recognized classifications of Philately. All types of visitors in the F.I.P. exhibitions find it very attractive, because of the beautiful illustrations on postcards and because the purpose of Maximaphily is to collect exclusively Maximum cards.

A Maximum card is made up of three elements:

1. The postage stamp. 2. The picture postcard. 3. The postmark.

The three elements are joined together in a fascinating way conforming to the following very precise regulations adopted by the International Philatelic Federation (F.I.P.). The meeting of the above three elements having a close visual relation constitutes the Maximum card .

The postage stamp

- It must be in perfect condition.

- Only one postage stamp should be affixed on the view side of the picture postcard. Before 1978, when the “International statute of Maximaphily” was approved, maximum cards showing several postage stamps are tolerated, if one or more of those are concordant with the picture on the postcard.

- In the case where a postage stamp has multiple, secondary or partial subjects, each subject must as far as possible, be dealt with separately.

- The postage stamp (or the souvenir sheet it belongs to, if it is stuck on the postcard) must not exceed a quarter of the postcard area.

- When the same subject is spread out on several se-tenant stamps making a panorama, the set can appear on a single postcard. However, when a subject is isolated on one of the se-tenant stamps only the one on which the treated subject is illustrated should be affixed to the postcard.

- The use of an illustrated postal prepayment impression dispensed by automatic vending machines, affixed on the view side of the postcard, is allowed.

- In general, abstract or symbolic subjects do not suit Maximaphily and are excluded from its field.

The picture postcard

• The picture postcard must be, if possible, on sale before the issue of the stamps or if it has been specially published, it must reproduce an existing document.

• Its size must conform to dimensions accepted by the “Universal Postal Convention”. However, postcards of square or rectangular shape available on the market are accepted, provided that their size allows them to be laid out on a sheet to the A4 format (210 x 297 mm) at a rate of two per sheet. Out of respect for its designer, it is strictly prohibited to reduce the size of a postcard by cutting it.

• The picture must offer the best possible concordance with the subject of the postage stamp or with one of them, if there are several. Mere reproduction of stamp design on a picture post card should be avoided.

• The picture must emphasize the subject of the postage stamp.

• The postcards on the market are accepted as they are. They can have margins and a text directly connected with the subject. Old postcards can have on the view side an area for correspondence. With the exception of these old postcards, the larger the picture is, the better the quality of the maximum card is considered to be.

• All postcards fully reproducing the postage stamp, that is to say with perforation, face value, country name, are forbidden.

• Postcards with multiple pictures as well as ones with holograms are forbidden.

What about the postmark and the time of cancellation?

The pictorial design of the cancellation and the place of cancellation (name of the post office) should have a close and direct connection with the subject of the stamp and of the picture postcard, and its date should be within the validity of the stamp and as close as possible to the date of its issue.

What is "appropriate material"?

The Maximaphily items should conform to the principle of maximum possible "visual" concordance between: The postage stamp, the picture postcard and the postmark. Special attention must be paid to the observance of the three concordances: of subject, of place and of time.

• The concordance of subject is the most important condition to characterise a Maximum card, e.g. the best concordance between the subject of the stamp and the illustration of the picture postcard.

• The concordance of place requires a connection between the name of the place or the locality written in the postmark and the subject of the stamp and the card.

• The "first day cancellation" can only be used when it is in accordance with the above mentioned condition

• For monuments, landscapes and sites the only place giving the required concordance is the one where the monument, the landscape or the site is located.

What is not appropriate material?

Any other material which does not conform to the above mentioned regulations is considered as not appropriate material for this classification of Philately.

Furthermore, the following items cannot be used for maximum cards: collages, cut-outs, private photographs on photo paper, colour or black and white photocopies, photo-montages, drawings, documents specially devised for the stamp issue to be printed privately on photo paper thanks to a computer, digital printouts, illegible postmarks, bigger size or different shapes of postcards: only square and rectangular formats are allowed; all others are excluded.

FIP Maximaphily Commission organizes a Best Maximum Card Competition every year. We at India are also participating this year in this competition. All those interested in participation are requested to send their entries to me by email at ajaymittal1957@gmail.com at an earliest possible. Best three cards will be selected and send for participation in the world competition. You may submit your card by post also at my address given below. A small information about the quantity printed and concordance between the three aspects of maximum card (i.e. Picture Post Card, Stamp and Cancellation) may also be sent alongwith the card.

We are compiling a catalogue of the Indian Maximum Cards issued by Individual collectors. Kindly send me details with scans by email of the cards issued on Indian stamps by any society or individual collectors.

All are requested to kindly send a high resolution scan of the cards issued by them till date with a small information about the card and quantity printed. If available for sale the price of the card may also be mentioned.

As it is not yet decided the location of the Next Competition of the Best MC. There is a possibility that the FIP Maximaphily Commission can first publish all the National Selections for this Competition at their FIP Maximaphily Commission website and then request all National Associations (and/or Delegates) to submit their votes by email or letter.

Any clarifications and/or suggestions regarding FIP Rules and regulations of Maximaphily are also welcome.

With Regards

Ajay Kumar Mittal

FIP Maximaphily Representative from India

D-57 South Extension part-1

New Delhi-110049

+91-9811032311

When Marco Pinotti (HTC-Highroad) finished 9th overall in last year’s Giro d’Italia, a discerning minority regarded the performance, and not Ivan Basso’s victory, as the most significant of the Corsa Rosa for Italian cycling. For years an unheralded journeyman, Pinotti had slowly risen to prominence in the latter part of the noughties as contemporaries like Ivan Basso and Danilo Di Luca’s stock fell, their reputations and palmarès sullied by doping scandals.

Few, though, would have batted an eyelid at Pinotti’s five Italian national time trial titles, his four days in the pink jersey in 2007 or indeed his 2010 Giro campaign were it not for the anti-doping convictions he wore so forthrightly on his sleeve. A graduate engineer, he also spoke eloquently about the environment, the challenge of attracting kids to cycling and just about any topic on which his views were solicited. He was, in short, a worthy spokesperson for a cycling nation that for years had placed its trust in men of straw.

Last December, on the eve of the 2011 season, we sat down with Pinotti to retrace his career path up to this point. With just ten days to go to the start of the Giro in Turin, we’re about to discover whether cycling’s voice of reason – and Pinotti’s palmarès – will continue on the same heartening upward curve.

A shorter, adapted version of this interview appeared in the April issue of Procycling magazine.

Cyclingnews: Marco, let’s go right back to the start. How and why did you start cycling?

Marco Pinotti: I started riding when I was 16. I was Matteo Algeri’s teammate. One summer I went round to his house to do homework and we went for a bike ride together. He said I was quite good, that I should give it a go and so on. Then I went to watch an Under 23 race that October. I liked it so I started looking for a team. I found out there was one in my village. So I joined and the next season I started racing.

Did cycling run in the family?

No one rode bikes in my family but my granddad always liked cycling and wanted me to race. He died in January 1992 and that was the year I started racing. He never saw me on a bike but I know he’d have been my biggest fan. I was lucky to be from an area where there’s a lot of passion for cycling, which really developed after the war with Gimondi. He was winning in the sixties, then the oil industry was in crisis in the 1970s and people started using bikes as a mode of transport. So it really grew, then in the 1980s and 1990s you got the ripple effect of Gimondi and that generation. There were lots of clubs in the area then. In the second half of the 1990s, there were something like 27 professionals living in Bergamo, some born there, some from other regions or countries. They were all guys who had started riding in the late 1980s. Now it’s very different; now there are only a handful of pros in Bergamo. I think there are two reasons why it’s changed so much. One is that people just don’t ride bikes as much any more. The other is that the foreigners aren’t coming to Bergamo any more. There’s still Kanstantin Siutsou, Alexander Kuchinski, one of the Efimkin brothers, but that’s about it. That’s because it’s no longer a good place to train. If a young rider, someone like Tejay Van Garderen, asks me to recommend a place to stay and train in Italy, I’d like to say Bergamo but I tell them to go somewhere else.

Kids of your generation in Italy grew up very aware of cycling and the top riders, didn’t they? Do you think that’s changed now?

Italian kids are maybe as aware of cycling as they once were but it’s changed. There are a lot fewer races. There are a lot fewer kids too, when you think of it. Now families have one, two kids on average. There’s more traffic, so parents don’t want their kids on the road. And there’s a lot of competition from other sports. I don’t know…On one hand, the Federation will tell you that the numbers are going up but those statistics are “doped” slightly by the numbers doing mountain biking, which is safer. Granfondos have really taken off too – but those are generally over 30s who are doing it for health reasons. And again, Bergamo’s not at the forefront of that trend.

Did you follow the Giro, the Tour?

Even before I started racing, I followed cycling. I followed all sport. I loved the Tour – with LeMond, Bugno, the back end of Hinault’s career. But I didn’t have any idols as such. I can remember the Fignon and LeMond Tour really well. But I wasn’t a “fan” of any one rider.

You were more focused on your academic work? You went on to get a degree in engineering….

I was certainly more focused on my school work than cycling at that time. I started racing but I didn’t intend to turn pro. That idea only really entered my head the year before I turned pro. I always had to juggle academic work with cycling, so I was always a bit pressed for time. I thought I’d turn pro for two or three years and see how things went, whether my body could take the strain. But I would never have expected a career like I’ve had, so long and successful.

How successful were you as an amateur?

I won races but I was never up there with Basso and Di Luca, those guys. I was always in a small amateur team. Now, and even more so then, there was a massive difference between the big, very organized teams who went on training camps and were basically run like pro teams, with riders who were effectively pros because they’d left school and cycling was all they did. I never went to training camps. I just used to race on a Saturday then go back to my parents’. So, I won races but small ones. I was never really in the set-up for the national team. Time trials were the only way for me to get noticed on a national level. Without those, I would never have gone beyond a few good results in regional races. There was a bit of a dearth of good time triallists so that’s where I slotted in. That’s what got my name out there on a national level

They were rough, unpleasant times in Italian amateur cycling….

Yep. Absolutely. I don’t know what it’s like now but it certainly wasn’t easy then. History has taught us that a lot of victories in that era were the fruit of illegal short-cuts and not talent.

Pinotti in his element

You came into contact with professional cycling for the first time immediately after the Festina affair, when you joined Polti as a stagiaire in August 1998…

I guess I was conscious of what was happening…but the Festina affair was a good thing because it opened up the possibility for change. It gave cycling a big jolt. When I turned pro, I heard mentalities were already changing. Or at least there was that hope. So that was the first jolt, which made people finally take the war on doping seriously.

But did you know what you were getting into?

No, I had no idea.

And you hadn’t seen team-mates or opponents doping with your own eyes?

No.

So it wasn’t as though you were going to races and your team-mates were filling the minibar with EPO…

No. I think if that was ever the case, it probably changed in 1998. After Festina there probably wasn’t much organized doping. It was individual riders making their own choices then. Perhaps the teams were closing their eyes to it but there was no organized doping. I don’t know what it was like before Festina. But something definitely changed there.

Had you already asked yourself the question of whether you would dope or not?

I was lucky that I was turning pro just because I could. I also had an education behind me. I turned pro in 1999 and graduated in 2000. My main aim was to get my engineering degree, then I was going to evaluate whether I could still race my bike. If I could survive with my values and not do too badly…I like racing my bike, so why not continue? Then when I got my degree I felt even more secure because I had something to fall back on. I even went for interviews after I graduated just to see how attractive the offers were. But they weren’t so attractive that I wouldn’t rather carry on racing.

And in fact, in those first two years, you…

Did nothing [laughs].

Well, yeah, you didn’t get amazing results but you did OK.

Yes, yeah. I mean, I turned pro and rode and finished the Tour in my first year. It was one of my biggest achievements in the first part of my career. It was the first Tour that Armstrong won. I finished and the directeur sportifs were all happy with me. 

But it must have been tough.

Well, I didn’t do anything exceptional but, honestly, I finished without ever having been on my knees. I was OK. It was actually a really good thing to do the Tour in my first year because I said to myself that was as hard as it could get. The level was high but the others also had two legs, just like me, and there I was with them. It was a good first experience of the Tour.

Your friend Matteo Algeri had bit more trouble than you adapting to the pro scene.

He did two and a half years. He was passionate but he had lots of physical problems which maybe came from overextending himself to get up to scratch. He’d eventually had enough.

What were your sporting highlights in those first couple of years?

Finishing the Tour in 1999, coming second in a stage in 2001… I was in a break with Rik Verbrugghe. That was the first time I really became aware of Jonathan Vaughters because that was the day he had to quit the race because his eye was swollen from a bee sting and he couldn’t take cortisone. I saw the photos in the paper the next day. I was second in that stage and I was fifth or sixth in the young riders’ classification. I was 30 or 40 minutes behind on general classification but still one of the best Under 25s. That was good for me because I was coming off a few physical problems. Even then I realized that I recovered pretty well. I might have been 50th overall in that Tour but I was in the top five young riders and that was having lost a bit of time in the flat stages. In the mountains I was in the top 40 or 50. I can remember the Alpe d’Huez stage that Armstrong won, when he bluffed Ullrich. I was in the first group of around 40 at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez. I can remember Armstrong bluffing, the penultimate climb…

The Glandon.

That’s it. There were a few hard sections and I could see Armstrong dropping back behind me. He didn’t look too bad but it seemed strange that he was there at the back of the group. There was Livingston on the front, then Ullrich…I can remember Telekom working the whole day. Then we descended, got to the foot of Alpe d’Huez and I got dropped. I can remember being puzzled when I saw him on the Glandon.

With hindsight and everything that’s happening now, what are your impressions of Armstrong?

When I rode the Tour in 1999 he was a source of inspiration. I was like a lot of other people. Looking back now….when he gave up the first time and L’Equipe published the article about his 1999 urine samples, it was a bit of a kick in the stomach.

You believed in him before that?

Here’s the thing [long hesitation]. As long as you don’t have proof, you always hope. I hoped. But there I thought, blimey, everything people said, the rumours…it was all confirmed, albeit not from a legal point of view. Now all I know, I read in the newspapers, and when I read about this investigation in the United States, I just think there’s no point now – the time to act was years ago.

Would context be any excuse? If one were to say, if he’s proven guilty, that plenty of other people were doping?

No, it’s not.

There’s an argument that he also dictated, created the context. He was the standard bearer for the sport. If he had sent out strong signals, would the context have changed?

OK, but it’s not the riders’ responsibility to send out signals. His job is to race his bike and win. Armstrong never tested positive. OK, there are those tests from 1999 but he was never convicted. What annoys me is the role the authorities played or didn’t play. A few months ago I read Paul Kimmage’s book, Rough Ride. As I read it, I was thinking, blimey, this was 1990! And if my memory serves me, Kimmage said that one of the reasons he was writing it was so that the UCI would finally see what was happening. He talked about how the riders all knew there would be no dope tests in the last stage of a major tour, so they took amphetamines. And this gave him a dilemma: he didn’t want to take amphetamines but he did want to help his team leader. So what could he do? In the book, he was effectively asking why the UCI let this kind of thing happen. He wrote it as an invitation to the authorities to open their eyes. They didn’t and so they’re maybe the guiltiest ones.

OK, but there wasn’t always the technology to detect certain substances. The riders also had to take responsibility, let their own ethics govern the sport.

Agreed, but for years these people underestimated the problem. In 1997 it was the riders who applied pressure to introduce a haematocrit limit. Maybe it did more harm than good – I don’t know – but it was the people at the base of the pyramid, the riders, who demanded action before the authorities. I wasn’t there at the time but…I’m more angry with the people who facilitated all this or who didn’t do enough. But then yeah, you’re also right about riders and their ethics. Now there are people trying to undermine the credibility of the biological passport, which is a positive thing that the UCI have introduced. A lot has changed but when Landis says there are riders who the UCI has protected, if that’s true, it’s very serious.

Allegations don’t come much more serious that that.

Yeah, because there is this conflict of interests between promotion and organization. If I was in the UCI’s shoes, it’s clear that I would want to create heroes, drama. The two roles, promotion and legislation, should be separated. There ought to be collaboration with the UCI but they shouldn’t be in control of both areas.

Doping is a completely selfish act, isn’t it? Would you agree that these riders have no concern for the wellbeing of the sport?  

I agree.

For example, Danilo Di Luca gave an interview this winter explaining why he collaborated with the Italian Olympic Committee’s (CONI) anti-doping commission. He said he’d done it “because he couldn’t stand being away from races”. There was no notion of him doing it to serve the sport.

This is hypocrisy at its worst. Don’t get me started on Di Luca because if you do we’ll still be here tomorrow morning. I don’t want to talk about him.

But it’s obvious that you’d like to…

[long sigh] You can’t say what he said. I don’t know what he told the investigators – he must have said something if they reduced his ban – but compare Di Luca and Tom Zirbel. Zirbel was banned for two years by USADA having tested positive for DHEA. He didn’t know how it got into his body and he definitely didn’t take it intentionally. Nonetheless, he admitted that what enters an athlete’s body was his responsibility and he wasn’t able to prove that it was contamination, perhaps because he didn’t have the money and the lawyers. Anyway, he couldn’t prove it and he got banned for two years. There was another case - Zirbel heard about it - of an athlete who did manage to prove that he’d taken a contaminated supplement and the company got sued – but the athlete still only got a three-month reduction to his ban. Then along comes Di Luca, who’s already been charged twice -  once for consulting a doctor who’s banned from cycling for life and now for this. Di Luca tests positive, admits he did it and then he provides the investigators with information, which he can do because he’s an expert in the field, and they give him a nine-month reduction. Then what? He throws his hands up in the air and says, “I didn’t name any names. I didn’t spit in the soup. I just explained my doping methods.” So as an expert in the field, he’s told the investigators how you go about doping. At this point Zirbel says, “Ah, it’s a shame that I’m not an expert in doping. I should have pretended to be one then I’d be able to start racing again next year. Because I’m an idiot, though, and I let this substance get into my system without knowing how, I’ve got two years and I’m stuck with it.” You see these are the inconsistencies of the system. I read what Zirbel wrote and I thought, yeah, he’s right.  I respect him. I mean, they are two different bodies making the decisions, USADA and CONI, but the lack of uniformity is still unacceptable. It’s things like this that undermine cycling’s credibility.

And yet it’s a lot better than it was.

I say that if things remain as they are, it’s at least a big improvement on fifteen years ago. There’s been some progress. Everyone whinges about McQuaid but ever since he took over at the UCI – I don’t know, maybe under another president there would have been even greater strides – but things have improved. Maybe it’s because he’s come under pressure from WADA, the riders, the media, but efforts have been made. Cycling must be one of the cleanest sports now. I mean, I don’t know anything about other sports, but I know what happens in cycling. Sure, if you read WADA’s report on the Tour de France, you think to yourself that they’re still not doing enough, that the holes in the net are still too wide, but what do you do?

Is one of the reasons you still “hope” Armstrong was clean his charisma, his presence?

He definitely has that. I rode the 2009 Giro alongside him and you could see his charisma. Cycling has benefited from that. Do I hate him? No, because I’m more upset with the authorities. I never said a word to Armstrong all those years when he was winning the Tour. He was a lot more accessible at the Giro in 2009. Someone from the hospital in Bergamo called me during that race to ask whether Armstrong might agree to have his photo taken with the oncology department, since there was a stage finishing in Bergamo. I thought to myself there was no way, he’d have people asking him for stuff every two minutes…but I’d told this person that I’d try anyway. So at the first opportunity, in the middle of a stage one day, I found him in the bunch and asked him whether he might be able to help. He was really gracious, actually. He said they should look in the roadbook, find out where his team were staying at the end of the stage to Bergamo and meet him there in the evening. He even asked for their name, so he knew who it was. Sure enough, the day after the Bergamo stage, he found me in the bunch and told that the people had come and got the photos they wanted. Apparently the people from the hospital had invited him to some kind of conference in October but he couldn’t go because his girlfriend was due to give birth then. He was very approachable, really, which is not what you’d expect of someone that famous and in demand.

Another charismatic rider whose career overlapped with yours was Gilberto Simoni, your team-mate at Lampre and then again at Saunier Duval.

His was a different kind of charisma. He came to Lampre in 2000 and rode with us until the end of 2001, when he went to Saeco. Then in 2006 I rode with him again at Saunier Duval. I have good memories of him. He’s not someone who brings a team together, not that kind of leader…

Really?

Not in my experience. He was always a bit in his own world. He was very methodical [pauses] but in his own way. In winter, he hardly rode his bike. I can remember the first year that I was at Lampre, he started his training in January. Then he went and finished third in the Giro. Let’s say that he did things his way. Then, by the time we rode for Saunier Duval, he had become much more of a leader, which he needed to be because we had a lot of young riders. The directeur sportif would often give his briefing in the morning and Gibo would interject with his own ideas. He started to have a big influence on the directeurs sportifs, probably as a result of having won the Giro twice and grown in confidence. He didn’t shout but he didn’t have to; when he talked, you listened.

With the media, he was very enigmatic. Sometimes it could be quite comical.

He was like that with us too. You thought he wasn’t paying attention but he noticed everything, then he’d deliver these killer one-liners. If you messed up in a race he wasn’t one to bang his fists the table and if you did something right he’d always remember it. You’d finish stages happy with the work you’d done for the team but thinking Gibo probably hadn’t even noticed certain things, yet he always did. He was always brutally frank as well – a typical mountain man. He didn’t care about public relations.

Which other riders have particularly influenced you in your career?

I learned a lot from Chris Horner.

Tell us more.

Yeah. I raced with him at Saunier Duval. He had real race craft, really good tactical sense, but all of his own, very American. I can remember in the 2005 Tour of Switzerland, he, Leonardo Piepoli and Fabian Jeker were our strongest riders on the climbs and in the transitional stages rest of us had to cover the breaks. I can remember this puzzling him. He said that all team leaders seemed to do in Europe was sit on for the whole race and see how far they could get on the summit finishes. He couldn’t understand why the leaders didn’t also pull on the flat stages, or why they weren’t covering the breaks too. So he had pretty different perspective from the rest of us. He’d been in Europe in the late 1990s, it hadn’t really worked, then he’d come over for the second time in 2005. He was 34 at the time yet, to listen to him, you’d have thought that he still had six, seven years as a pro ahead of him. I couldn’t work it out: he’d been at La Française des Jeux, broken his scaphoid or something, then won everything in America and come back over here. And here he was now sounding like a kid at the start of his career. I said to myself, blimey, never mind six or seven, the way he’s talking he’s going to ride for another ten years. He was 34 then and now I’ve just had my best season at 34 years of age… and he’s just had his best year at 39.

So it was the power of positive thinking, youth as a self-fulfilling prophesy?

That’s it. I was 29 at the time and I was thinking I didn’t have that long left. I looked at him and thought he’d have one, two years at best. But then you heard him, and five years on you can see now that it wasn’t just wishful thinking on his part. There he is at 39 winning at the Tour of the Basque Country.

In your own career, moving to T-Mobile, which soon became Highroad, was a massive turning point.

Yeah. I’d always wanted to ride in a foreign team and the culture of an American team suited me perfectly. The constant striving to improve, the innovation…it lit a fire under the passion I already had.  It’s the main reason why I’ve improved so much. The old way that still prevailed in Italian teams had its advantages but you only have to look at what this team’s for done me to see that this is the way forward. Liquigas is still a big team but Italy’s still a very traditionalist country because its cycling culture has such deep roots. For example, in this team we spend hours if not days getting our bikes properly fitted. In Italian teams, if they do it, it’s just for show, for the press. I’m not even sure they’re convinced that these things have an effect on performance. For example, at Lampre, Compex supplied us with electro-stimulators, like they do here. But there the directeurs gave us the Compex and that was it, whereas here, last year, we had a two-hour seminar on how to use it. See what I mean? There I seem to remember half of the team got a Compex at the start of the season, they took some photos, then the rest of us got ours later in the year, but no one ever told us how to use it. The same thing with nutritional supplements and equipment. You might already know the stuff that they tell you but you might not. Maybe in Italy the amateurs are more advanced in terms of what they know but then they stop learning.

Somehow it’s hard to imagine you becoming a directeur sportif when you retire, whether it’s in Italy or anywhere else.

You never know. I can’t really see myself driving a team car but you never know. At the moment I’m thinking about racing and nothing else. I’m better off being like Chris Horner and living for the moment. That’s where my focus is now.

...

Enjoy this Asian classic by sautéing the chicken instead of frying.

Serving Size 1 serving
 
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat 66Calories 289
 
% Daily Values*
Total Fat 7.3g 11%
  Saturated Fat 1.763g 9%
  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.296g  
  Monounsaturated Fat 3.926g  
Cholesterol 65mg 22%
Sodium 844mg 35%
Potassium 530mg  
Total Carbohydrate 31.17g 10%
  Dietary Fiber 3.4g 14%
  Sugars 1.57g  
Protein 28.46g

Banning contractor raises questions Ottawa Citizen City staff took the unusual step this week of informing councillors that a general contractor responsible for "three major community projects" had been banned from bidding on city work for two ... and more »

Rep. Don Manzullo blames feds for new courthouse's problems Rockford Register Star Manzullo, who toured the courthouse Friday morning, blames the GSA for misleading Durbin and him on the federal guidelines for hiring a general contractor years ago, a decision that he says has resulted in substandard work by subcontractors and a ... Federal Courthouse delays upset two Rockford area US LawmakersWREX-TV all 4 news articles »

I was looking at some code today and it reminded me of a very common performance issue - reloading data around calls. Suppose I have some code like:

int variable;

void function(int *array)
{
  for (i=0; i<1000; i++)
  {
     if (variable==1) 
     { 
       func1(a[i]); 
     } 
     else 
     { 
       func2(array[i]); 
     }
  }
}

You might be surprised to find that "variable" is reloaded very iteration of the loop. The reason for this is that the loop calls another function - either func1() or func2() and the compiler knows that the function might change the value of "variable" - so to be correct it needs to be reloaded.

This problem can be fixed by caching a local copy of the variable. The compiler "knows" that local (or stack based) variables don't get modified by function calls.

However, the problem is more general than this, in C++ you might observe a reloading of variables that are members of objects - for similar reasons. The general rule for avoiding this is to examine every load or store in the hot region of code to check whether it is necessary, or whether it has been introduced because of a function call.

I started by going to kmart.com for inspiration. I browsed their Outdoor Living section, Outdoor Living catalog, and Patio Finder. The Patio Finder was pretty neat, but I had my heart set on a swing and no additional patio furniture since our patio is of the smaller variety. Using Wishpot, I built three wishlists. One general wishlist of items that I wanted up to $1,500, one wishlist of items I’d like to have if budget was no limit, and a final wishlist of items (featured here) that would be more cost effective with cost of shipping, tax, and unexpected expenses [...]

msnbc.com

Mozilla defies US Homeland Security over browser extension GMANews.TV Software maker Mozilla has defied a request from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take down the "MafiaFire" add-on to its Firefox web browser. Mozilla business affairs vice president and general counsel Harvey Anderson said that the DHS ... Mozilla Refuses to Help Censor the InternetPCWorld Mozilla fights DHS over anti-MPAA, RIAA utilityCNET Mozilla resists request to remove Firefox toolThe Associated Press msnbc.com -Escapist Magazine -The Tech Herald all 144 news articles »

Two interest-free loans totaling $66,885 that the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority provided in 2007 and 2008 to the campaign committee for a transit levy are illegal and must be paid back, according to a finding by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.The “finding for recovery” accompanying the auditor’s review of TARTA audit reports for 2008 and 2009 declares that the loans represent an impermissible “use of public funds to support or oppose the passage of a levy or bond issue.” The finding directs Citizens for TARTA to repay the money, and if the campaign committee fails to do so, holds TARTA General Manager James Gee financially responsible.The report noted that, as of the close of TARTA’s 2009 books, none of the money had been repaid to the transit authority.“It’s gratifying that Auditor Yost has validated my complaint,” said Waterville Mayor Derek Merrin, who in January protested to the Lucas County Board of Elections, Mr. Yost, and several other officials about the loans. Mr. Merrin said he discovered the loans by reviewing Citizens for TARTA campaign-finance reports.Mr. Gee, who is the transit authority general manager and the campaign committee treasurer, said the ruling mystified him, since the transit authority in 2008 had obtained an opinion from the Ohio secretary of state’s office indicating such loans were proper, and the loans were also shown repeatedly on campaign-finance reports and other documents without controversy.“We’re just really surprised by this,” Mr. Gee said. “This was disclosed on reports, and through previous audits with previous auditors. We’ve always made full disclosure on everything.”An e-mail that the transit manager cited to support the loans’ legality, however, reveals that the secretary of state’s office may have mistaken the transit authority for a private corporation instead of a public agency.TARTA received the opinion indirectly, through a request to the Lucas County Board of Elections. In the July 9, 2008, e-mail, elections board representative Olga Vallejo advised Mr. Gee that the secretary of state’s office had cited Section 3599.03 of the Ohio Revised Code, which governs political use of corporate funds.“Basically, they informed me that since the Ballot Issue PAC was supported by the Corporation such as TARTA, there is nothing in the code that says the Committee could NOT take a loan from TARTA,” Ms. Vallejo wrote. “This part of the code considers the loan from TARTA to the Citizens for TARTA PAC a contribution until the loan is paid back to TARTA.”TARTA, however, is not a private corporation, but rather a public jurisdiction, which collects a significant portion of its income from its two levies on real property in its service area.Mr. Gee said his office did not question whether the secretary of state’s advice, as relayed by the elections board, was valid for an agency like his.“I don’t know why the secretary of state’s office gave the opinion they gave, but we relied on it,” he said.Mr. Gee then repeated that the loans had been shown in TARTA’s annual financial statements, reviewed by the agency’s hired auditors, for several years without any exception being taken.But he said he did not know if the state auditor’s office, in reviewing the hired auditor’s work, had seen the detailed accounting that showed the loans. A summary report Mr. Yost issued along with his findings made no specific mention of the loans; Mr. Gee said they would be covered in the summary under “accounts receivable.”“In my mind, they are one and the same,” Mr. Gee said. “The contract auditor shared the information about the loans to the [state auditor’s] Toledo regional office in 2008 as a part of the 2007 audit.”Carrie Bartunek, a spokesman for Mr. Yost, said Friday the state auditor was conducting “further research” about the matter and was unavailable to comment.Ms. Bartunek said, however, that the issue was not one of the loans having gone unpaid, but that they were ever granted.“It’s just not supposed to happen at all,” she said.Mr. Yost’s finding was announced Thursday.The matter now goes to the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, which has 120 days to decide whether it will take action against Citizens for TARTA.While confirming that no payments against the 2007 and 2008 loans had been made by the end of 2009, Mr. Gee said Citizens for TARTA had in January begun making payments of $250 per month. He declined to link those payments’ start to Mr. Merrin’s complaint, since “I don’t know when that was written.”At that rate, the campaign committee would need more than 22 years to pay off the debt.“It has started modestly, but that could change,” Mr. Gee said. “Our intent is to repay quicker than that. The committee needs to fund-raise and develop a repayment plan that meets the auditor’s needs here. … There’s always been the intent to repay. That’s why we’ve shown it as a loan.”Mayor Merrin questioned the loans’ sincerity, and said that regardless, the money needs to be paid back promptly. Repayment could start with more than $21,000 that Citizens for TARTA had in its bank account the last time it filed a campaign finance report, he said.“The TARTA trustees need to do a thorough investigation of Mr. Gee,” Mr. Merrin said, questioning the propriety of having the general manager also be the campaign committee treasurer. “I really, truly believe they [Citizens for TARTA] had no intention of paying it back.”Mr. Gee said the campaign committee had held onto its bank account as capital for organizing fund-raising events.“We didn’t want to drain the account, and have nothing left to continue fund-raising to pay off the rest of the loan,” he said.James Bohn, president of the TARTA trustees, said he believes the transit authority “would have to get its money right away” in response to Mr. Yost’s finding, but he also considered Mr. Gee to have acted in good faith and does not consider him to have been “in the wrong for disciplinary purposes.”“My understanding is that it was all approved by the secretary of state three years ago,” Mr. Bohn said. “I knew the loan was out there. … I’m going to make sure it gets paid back.”Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

Justice needs its deputy attorney general.

The Mounties involved in the 2007 Taser death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport could face perjury charges, B.C.'s ministry of the attorney general announced Friday.

How much progress is Britain making on gay rights under a Tory-led coalition? Comedian Rhona Cameron, one of the first out lesbians on TV, takes on gay Tory MP Nigel Evans

Over the past few weeks, doubts have been raised about how far gay equality has really come: a male couple were thrown out of a Soho pub for kissing, it was revealed that no data had been collected on the Conservative election promise not to deport gay asylum seekers, and the ban on gay men donating blood may be lifted only if they haven't had sex for 10 years. Emine Saner brought together comedian and author Rhona Cameron and Nigel Evans, Tory MP and deputy speaker, who came out in December, to discuss. First, they talked about reports this week that kissing between same-sex couples on television could be banned before the watershed following a review.

Rhona Cameron: I know the review is about any sexual scenes before the watershed, but when it gets this "gay" focus in reports, it's very worrying.

Nigel Evans: It's sad that it was portrayed in that way. I don't think David Cameron would agree to only banning gay kissing before 9pm, but not heterosexual kissing. On equality legislation alone, it would simply not happen.

RC: The Conservative party does, as it stands, have more out gay people than other parties. It must have been difficult for you, or anyone who had to live a life that wasn't true to their heart, and I'm very pleased for you that you came out and are able to be free in what you are.

NE: I get asked what impact it's had on me, and I would say none, really.

RC: No, there will have been in your inner world …

NE: Yes, definitely.

RC: You couldn't have come out 20 or 30 years ago.

NE: It would have been a lot more difficult. I asked Gareth Thomas, the rugby player who came out, to give me some advice. Chris Smith [the former Labour MP], in coming out when he did was groundbreaking. Or someone like Peter Tatchell. I have huge respect for him the more I've read about him, and about how he has been pilloried for the battles he has fought. For me, being something like the 22nd or 23rd openly gay MP is not brave at all. I helped only a small number. Look at the fact that [cricketer] Steven Davies came out the other day, and Anton Hysén, the Swedish footballer. Sport remains a problem.

RC: There are no out lesbians in major league sport.

NE: If only we could get some gay footballers to come forward, that would help. It's daft to say there are no gay footballers in the premier league – of course there are. Every one of them who could possibly find the courage to come out would help so many people.

RC: I was one of the first out lesbians on British television, and I've often been the one who has had to represent the lesbian thing. It must be nice not having to mention it.

NE: I'm not a poster boy for gays, either.

RC: That's a title, isn't it!

NE: I'm too bloody old.

RC: When did you join the Conservatives?

NE: At 16, in the mid-70s.

RC: It does stun me that you can be gay and be in the Conservative party. How did you feel as a young person knowing you were gay, being involved in a party that put into force draconian measures like section 28, and the legacy of that? The reason people like me were bullied at a young age, which affected me for the rest of my life, was because we grew up in a climate of persecution and oppression. Are you telling me that when you heard the beginnings of section 28, you didn't take a hit for that, you didn't feel something in your heart?

NE: No, because I was going through denial, and what I would describe as my Neanderthal phase. It was just stupid, I clearly wasn't thinking. I probably thought, wrongly, that this is what the public want and we should concede it [Evans backed section 28, and once voted against lowering the age of consent]. Of course, I was completely wrong. I said it when I came out, I showed absolutely no leadership, whereas David Cameron has. When you say you can't work out how there are so many gays in the Tory party – David is hugely instrumental in that, because of his approach to gay issues and equality.

RC: There was some embarrassment around his interview with Martin Popplewell [Cameron made several gaffes when interviewed by the Gay Times in the run-up to the election]. He didn't look too comfortable then, did he?

NE: No. There was a hiccup there.

RC: Sometimes what they say isn't really what they feel, and when they're caught out, they say what they feel. To be fair, Chris Grayling [the Tory MP who said before the general election that B&B; owners should be allowed to bar homosexual guests] was dealt with, and I have to applaud that.

NE: He's been rewired.

RC: How do you feel about the news that the ban on gay men giving blood may end? Even though it only applies to men who haven't had sex for 10 years.

NE: Because of my position as deputy speaker, I'm not allowed to express an opinion, but what I can say is that a lot of my gay friends feel very unhappy. Equality is basically the rule of thumb, and that's what it should be irrespective of what the issue happens to be. If you have distinguishing elements between gay and not gay, you have a problem.

RC: It's ludicrous. There are so many heterosexual men who have unprotected sex and give blood. The Anthony Nolan Trust takes bone marrow from gay men. Do you feel your party are sticking to their promises on equality?

NE: As far as I can see, yes. Irrespective of what you're saying about the Martin Popplewell interview, David is very much at the forefront of opening doors, and there being so many openly gay members of parliament has helped the issue. There are still some people in all parties who are gay and haven't come out yet for whatever reason, and I suspect there are homophobic people in all parties. But things have moved on to a fundamental degree.

RC: Homophobic bullying is still one of the major reasons for suicide and self-harm among young people. I acknowlege and congratulate certain steps forward. But on the other hand, we can't sit here and make out it's all OK and easy to be gay.

NE: We're still getting gay people being beaten up in the streets of London, which I find incredible.

RC: I got an email recently from a 15-year-old girl struggling enormously – in this day and age. Something like 90% of teachers have said there is homophobic bullying. Seven out of 10 teachers have said they received no support when they reported it. What the Tories did was swore a pledge to help tackle homophobic bullying in schools, and yet those percentages have not come down. And there has been an increase in homophobic attacks. There are people who are demoted at work, and those who are still living sad lives of lies, who can't be themselves. If a party goes into power promising things – equality, tackling homophobic bullying, more support for gay asylum seekers – they should stick to that.

El fiscal general de Costa Rica, Jorge Chavarría, el ministro costarricense de Seguridad Pública, José María Tijerino, y el fiscal adjunto de Limón, Celso Gamboa, revelaron a la agencia Apro, en entrevistas separadas, ...

haha classic. im not even the one ripping the lakers. ur boy jrod is the one that is bringing up the dwight howard era. i just said that we have the ability to take gasol, howard, blah blah blah from any team bc we have a TPE. im not even sayin sh*t bout the lakers and this series. being over. the general thinkin is that a dirk led-team would be the team to lose a 3-0 series. and a kobe led-team would be able to overcome a 0-3 deficit. stop being a little b*tch. and classic. i could give a sh*t about melo. it aint like he ever gonna win a chip anyway. i rather cheer for a team of players that plays together and wants to be in denver. i aint a lil b*tch a** like u.

BY JIM DOOLEY – The Legislature did not pass a $2 million budget request for security expenses related to the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference, but officials of Gov. Abercrombie’s administration are refusing all comment about the issue. Instead, the office Attorney General David Louie, which is coordinating APEC security planning for the state, [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder (right) joined state AG Martha Coakley , top cop Ed Davis , and a slew of others at the JFK Library yesterday for a sneak peek at “Children of Promise: The Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy,’’ a new documentary about the work of the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps.

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ADB official: Vietnam able to avoid middle income trap VOVNews.vn Rajat Nag Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has described the “middle income trap” as one of challenges for Vietnam as it gains the middle income country status and at the same time said he believes in its ability to avoid ... 44th ADB Annual Meeting Wraps up in VietnamCRIENGLISH.com ADB Kuroda:Inflation Pressures Strong In Parts Of AsiaWall Street Journal all 13 news articles »

A Film depicting the life of Maj. Gen. Hayelom Araya inaugurated Walta Information Center (blog) Addis Ababa, May 7 (WIC) – A documentary film on the struggle life of the late Major General Hayelom Araya inaugurated yesterday in the presence of prominent personalities. Major General Hayelom Araya was one of the prominent figures that played a ...

Source: [b]BBC News[/b]

Singapore is going to the polls today in the most hotly contested general election in recent memory.

Politics in the tiny but hugely wealthy state have been dominated by the current ruling party since independence in 1965.

But a decision by opposition parties to co-ord...

Hartley named president of Motion Analysis Santa Rosa Press Democrat Hartley was vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard's Santa Rosa operation when HP created Agilent in a 1999 spinoff. The 38-year HP veteran stayed with Agilent until mid-2000, when employment in the electronic test-and-measurement ... and more »

Yep, we messed up. That's the word out of the Cambridge-based consulting firm Monitor Group. Between 2006 and 2008, the company maintained a highly questionable business relationship with the regime of Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator. Monitor helped Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif write his PhD dissertation at the London School of Economics. It also hired some of the US and UK's foremost international relations experts to write glowing editorials and essays about the Qaddafi regime's efforts to clean up its act and enact democratic reforms. And the firm never revealed that it was all was part of a coordinated—and well-funded—effort to end Libya's status as a pariah state.

Not long after Mother Jones reported on Monitor's Libya project, questions arose about whether the firm had taken the proper steps to register as a lobbyist for Libya with the Justice Department. Offering advice on economic or governing reform without registering isn't illegal. But the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) stipulates that groups like Monitor must register if they're planning on conducting "acts in a public relations capacity for a foreign principal"—which, as we reported, is primarily what Monitor's Libya project was all about. As we wrote back in March, Monitor decided to conduct an internal investigation into whether it had violated FARA, initially led by Eamonn Kelly, a senior partner at the firm. Later, the company brought in outside lawyers from the firm of Covington & Burling to finish the job.

The lawyers' conclusion: yes, Monitor most certainly did break FARA law. Today, the company announced that it is retroactively registering some of its past work in Libya, as well as its more recent work with Jordan. And on Tuesday, Monitor CEO Mark Fuller, who played a key role in the Libya project, resigned. Monitor also issued a press release on the findings of its internal investigation:

These decisions reflect a thorough fact-finding and legal investigation initiated by Monitor after issues concerning its work in Libya were raised earlier this year. The investigation, conducted by the law firm of Covington & Burling, included a review of Monitor engagements with foreign governments. That review concluded that some elements of Monitor’s work in Libya from 2006 through 2008 should have been registered under FARA. It also became apparent that a more recent item of work on behalf of the Kingdom of Jordan should have been registered. Monitor will now take all appropriate measures to remediate these errors.

The Boston Globe reports that Monitor is also likely to release details on how much it paid its academics, including British academic Sir Anthony Giddens. How did Monitor mess this up so bad? From the Globe:

[Eamonn] Kelly said the failure to register was due to a misunderstanding about legal requirements. But others said it reflects a deeper problem: The company was not transparent about the fact that it was engaged in a calculated effort to burnish Khadafy’s reputation, even to professors recruited in the effort.

"If I had known that a primary purpose of the visit to Libya was to influence public opinion in the United States, I would not have gone," Robert Putnam, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said in a telephone interview yesterday. Other professors said they did not feel misled.

Whether the DOJ actually brings charges against Fuller, et. al, remains to be seen. But given the intellectual firepower and general worldliness of the people involved in its project, Monitor's excuse—"We didn't know, sorry"—is less than satisfying. Hopefully, the DOJ feels the same way.