Collapse of apartment building in Egypt kills 23

CAIRO (AP) ? An eight-story apartment building collapsed Wednesday in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, killing at least 23 people in the second deadly accident to hit the country in as many days, according to police and health officials.

Senior Health Ministry official Mohammed el-Sharqawy said 11 people also were injured and that rescue teams were searching for survivors under the rubble. Military police from a nearby naval base cordoned off the area to help the rescue operation.

The collapse came a day after 19 police conscripts were killed when the last car of the train they were riding in jumped the tracks and smashed into another train just outside Cairo.

It was not immediately clear what caused the building to collapse in a poor district of the Mediterranean port city, but violations of building specifications have been blamed for similar accidents in the past. The governor of Alexandria, Mohammed Abbas Atta, told Egypt's official news agency that the building was constructed without a permit.

Abul Ezz el-Hariri, an opposition lawmaker from Alexandria, warned that hundreds of buildings in the city face the same fate, but that lax law enforcement following the ouster two years ago of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak means that no action is being taken against building violations.

Residents complain that landowners in farmland on the city's outskirts have taken advantage of the chaos and near lawlessness that followed the former president's overthrow and illegally sold their land to developers who built shoddy apartment blocks.

Similar violations have taken place across much of the country. Pointing to the magnitude of the problem, Housing Minister Tareq Wafeeq told reporters that a total of 318,000 illegal constructions went up in 23 of Egypt's 27 provinces between 2009 and 2012.

Alexandria's security chief, police Maj-Gen Abdel-Mawgood Lutfi, said the building was constructed five years ago and had 24 apartments.

That the building collapsed early in the day meant that most tenants were home. Police evacuated residents of two adjacent buildings out of concern that the collapse may have caused structural damage to them.

The collapse could stoke criticism of President Mohammed Morsi administration. Critics accuse the government of failing to carry out reforms and overhaul the nation's deteriorating public services.

Two months ago, 50 children died when a train rammed into their school bus in southern Egypt. That tragedy also sparked a storm of criticism of Morsi, who took office in June.

The latest train wreck led to protests Tuesday at railway stations in Cairo, Alexandria and a third city in the Nile Delta. The demonstrators were protesting what they said was official negligence in maintaining and upgrading the country's aging rail network.

Morsi's government has blamed Tuesday's train accident on what officials say is nearly 30 years of corruption and misrule under Mubarak. Transport Minister Hatem Abdel-Lateef told another news conference that overhauling the country's railways would cost 15 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.3 billion), a hefty sum for nation reeling from two years of political and economic turmoil.

The news conferences by the two Cabinet ministers appeared to be an effort by Morsi's government to take the initiative in the face of scathing criticism from the independent media and opposition parties.

Late Wednesday, Morsi's administration sought to defuse the mounting criticism, declaring its solidarity with the victims of the train wreck and the building collapse. Spokesman Yasser Ali said the presidency offered its condolences to the victims' families and pledged to ensure that they and the survivors received the best available care.

Morsi, the nation's first democratically elected president, has struggled since taking office in June to address a host of major problems that include an ailing economy, tenuous security, a slumping tourism industry and seemingly endless political turmoil.

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Associated Press writer Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/collapse-apartment-building-egypt-kills-23-172354291.html

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'Girls' star to Howard Stern: 'I'm not that fat!'

By Us Weekly

Reuters / Getty Images file

Lena Dunham called in to Howard Stern's show Wednesday to address his comments about her and her show "Girls."

Typically brash Howard Stern surprised both fans and critics alike by issuing a public apology to Lena Dunham on his radio show Monday, Jan. 14, so the "Girls" creator did what any gracious Hollywood starlet would do: She called in.

The 26-year-old director/actress/writer dropped a line during Stern's SiriusXM Radio show Wednesday, Jan. 16, to reassure Stern that his comments were water under the bridge -- and call him out on one comment in particular.?

Photos from Us: 12 breakout stars of 2012?

"I don't even know where to begin with all of this," an apologetic Stern began. "The reason I felt so awful was because when Perez Hilton wrote his article, he told half the story. ...I started to compare you to Woody Allen ... the whole thing came together for me.??

The shock jock, 59, continued with a declaration: "I guess I just wanted to tell you I love you and I think you're terrific."?

On Monday, Jan. 7, Stern caused an angry buzz online after he slammed both Dunham and her hit HBO show "Girls."?

Photos from Us: Funniest female stars in Hollywood?

"It's a little fat girl who kinda looks like Jonah Hill and she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape. She seems -- it's like -- I don't want to see that," he scoffed at the time.?

Dunham admitted Wednesday that she first learned of his cruel comments after castmate Jemima Kirke, who is a huge fan of Stern's show, tipped her off that the radio host was comparing her to the "Superbad" actor.?

"I thought that was a good line, actually," Stern chuckled, trying to make light of the situation.?

Dunham responded gamely, but made sure to still get her point across.?

"I'm not that fat, Howard," she said. "I don't mean to take major issue with you about this. I'm not super thin, but I'm thin for, like, Detroit."?

Photos from Us: Lena Dunham and other stars at the Golden Globes?

Stern agreed, explaining that he just meant that she often played up the "fat angle" on the show.?

"You're not obese or anything," he allowed.?

"Thank you. Another thing for my gravestone," Dunham laughed, referring to comments she made on the "Late Show"?last Thursday, Jan. 10. "Howard Stern says, 'You're not obese or anything.'"?

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/01/16/16552476-girls-star-lena-dunham-tells-howard-stern-im-not-that-fat?lite

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Investment Mistakes to Watch For?at Different Stages of Life

As an investor, how can you avoid making mistakes? It?s not always easy, because investing can be full of potential pitfalls. But if you know what the most common mistakes are at different stages of an investor?s life, you may have a better chance of avoiding these costly errors.

Let?s take a look at some investment mistakes you?ll want to avoid when you?re young, when you?re in mid-career, when you?re nearing retirement and when you?ve just retired.

When you?re young ? Mistake: Investing too conservatively (or not at all) ? If you?re just entering the working world, you may not have a lot of money with which to invest. But don?t wait until your income grows ? putting away even a small amount each month can prove quite helpful. Additionally, don?t make the mistake of investing primarily in short-term vehicles that may preserve your principal but offer little in the way of growth potential. Instead, position your portfolio for growth. Of course, stock prices will always fluctuate, but you potentially have decades to overcome these short-term declines. Since this money is for retirement, your focus should be on the long term ? and it?s impossible to reach long-term goals with short-term, highly conservative investments.

When you?re in mid-career ? Mistake: Putting insufficient funds into your retirement accounts ? At this stage of your life, your earning power may well have increased substantially. As a result, you should have more money available to invest for the future ? specifically, you may now be able to ?max out? on your IRA and still boost your contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as your 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b). These retirement accounts offer tax advantages that you may not receive in ordinary savings and investment accounts. Try to put more money into these retirement accounts every time your salary goes up.

When you?re nearing retirement ? Mistake: Not having balance in your investment portfolio ? When they?re within just a few years of retirement, some people may go to extremes, either investing too aggressively to try to make up for lost time or too conservatively in an attempt to avoid potential declines. Both these strategies could be risky. So as you near retirement, seek to balance your portfolio. This could mean shifting some of your investment dollars into fixed-income vehicles to provide for your current income needs while still owning stocks that provide the growth potential to help keep up with inflation in your retirement years.

When you?ve just retired ? Mistake: Failing to determine an appropriate withdrawal rate ? Upon reaching retirement, you will need to carefully manage the money you?ve accumulated in your IRA, 401(k) and all other investment accounts. Obviously, your chief concern is outliving your money, so you?ll need to determine how much you can withdraw each year. To arrive at this figure, take into account your current age, your projected longevity, the amount of money you?ve saved and the estimated rate of return you?re getting from your investments. This type of calculation is complex, so you may want to consult with a financial professional.

By avoiding these errors, you can help ensure that, at each stage of your life, you?re doing what you can to keep making progress toward your financial goals.

Source: http://www.fairfieldbaynews.com/cms/investment-mistakes-to-watch-for-at-different-stages-of-life/

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Pioneer shows off 2013 headunit line, rocks our minds with bass (video)

Pioneer launched a stack of new sets this year for CES as well as an iPhone 5 connectivity solution for those left hanging since upgrading to Apple's latest phone. We've seen the headunit specs so we thought we'd give you a pic tour of the newest devices as well as a short clip of us sitting in the custom Lexus CT 200h playing with its ridiculous system. The centerpiece of the system is the AVH-X8500BHS receiver (above) and a custom Steampunk-inspired sub enclosure loaded with six PRS D800 amps. End result? hair-moving, skin-creeping bass and volume. We're digging seeing all the AppRadio expansion to Pioneers's line and can only hope we see prices drop -- and even become pack-ins -- for the now rather expensive connectivity cables.

Continue reading Pioneer shows off 2013 headunit line, rocks our minds with bass (video)

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/7fuli0f4FeQ/

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Typical Day at Global Business Management | EHOVE Blog

A typical day in Global Business Management at EHOVE varies. Recently we have been practicing for contests for BPA in January at Ashland University. Our class contest is parliamentary procedure. To be successful it will take hard work and dedication, but I believe we can do this. We are all friends and in a way like a family having fun, so it helps practicing be more excitable. On a regular day, we will have various assignments that need to be done with the due date beside it. Occasionally we have notes, quizzes, tests or reflections and field trips.

Global Business Management, South Central HS

Source: http://blog.ehove.net/blog/2013/01/general/typical-day-at-global-business-management/

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Stephen Lendman: Washington Post Supports Israeli Settlements

Post editors are contemptuous of fundamental human rights. They spurn democratic values. They consider rule of law principles quaint and out-of-date. Wealth, power, privilege, and dominance alone matter.

When America goes to war or plans one, they march supportively in lockstep. They ignore the worst of imperial crimes. They endorse Israeli occupation harshness.

Jewish rights alone matter, they believe. Settlement construction is legitimate, they suggest. It?s no obstacle to peace, they claim. Further construction won?t prevent a two-state solution.

Instead of telling readers what?s important to know, they defile responsible journalism. They turn truth on its head. They support wrong over right.

They believe might is right. They endorse Jewish supremacy and specialness. They?re comfortable with belligerence, persecution and land theft.

Israel has a divine right to settlements, they suggest. On January 1, their?editorial?headlined ?Overheated rhetoric on Israeli settlements,? saying:

The reaction to recent settlement construction plans is ?counterproductive? and overheated. It ?reinforces two mistaken but widely held notions: that the settlements are the principle obstacle to (peace), and that further construction will make a Palestinian state impossible.?

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Fact check

On November 15, 1988, Palestine achieved statehood. Most UN Member States recognize it.

Israel spurns peace. Netanyahu calls negotiating it ?a waste of time.? Decades of good faith Palestinian initiatives were spurned.

Conflict resolution is impossible without a reliable partner. Palestinians never had one. They don?t now. Post editors understand. Instead of explaining, they conceal what what readers need to know.

They compound bad commentary with lies. Settlement policy changed after Oslo, they claim.

?Mr. Netanyahu?s government, like several before it, has limited building almost entirely to areas that both sides expect Israel to annex through territorial swaps in an eventual settlement.?

Fact check

Diana Buttu?spent six years as Palestine?s legal advisor. She ?attended countless negotiations sessions.? She ?examined scores of proposals.? She ?devised numerous counterproposals.?

She learned the futility of negotiating with Israel. It demands. It yields nothing. It imposes its will forcefully. Official policy is do ?things our way or else.

Oslo reflected betrayal. Rather than withdrawing to pre-1967 borders and ?removing all illegal Israeli settlements, Israeli leaders decided to colonize more and annex more Palestinian territory.?

?Every Israeli proposal?.sought to accommodate? lawless behavior.

Two-state solution supporters ?evoke the (notion) of ?land swaps.? In effect they?re saying, ?The larcenist has succeeded. Let?s respond to his bad behavior on his terms.?

Conflict resolution is more distant today than 20 years ago.

Settler population ?tripled from 200,000 in 1993 to almost 600,000? in February 2012. Currently it?s greater. It?s growing exponentially. It?s on stolen Palestinian land.

Their resources are stolen in the process. Palestinian rights are entirely spurned. Israel?s all take and no give.

Buttu was involved in Oslo negotiations. Israel refused to discuss Jerusalem, the right of return, settlement expansions, borders, water rights, Palestinian self-determination, and other final status issues.

They?re still not discussed. Without resolving them, ?no solution, one or two-states, will succeed.?

Palestinians and Israelis live on the same land. Their populations are roughly equal. Israelis are heading for minority status. Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, and others call Israeli policy apartheid.

Conflict resolution is impossible. Israeli recognition of Palestinian self-determination ?remains a mirage.? Both sides ?don?t have another twenty years to waste.?

Post editors suppress what readers need to know. They want Palestinians to resolve settlement issues ?at the negotiating table.? Saying so ignores reality. Israel doesn?t negotiate. It demands.

Increased settlement construction won?t prevent a two-state solution, Post editors claim.

The only viable resolution is one state comprised of Israel and the Territories. Nothing else will work.

A single state for Jews and Palestinians in theory at least resolves most intractable issues.

The alternative assures occupation, continued conflict, land theft, dispossessions, inequality, a permanent non-Jewish underclass, instability, and avoidance of within reach justice.

Israel wants occupation legitimacy and permanence. Palestinians are entitled to sovereign freedom. They deserve world support.

Their rights matter as much as Jewish ones. International law principles are inviolable. They demand ending decades of occupation, colonization and apartheid.

They require treating Arabs and Jews equally. Resolving decades of conflict depends on doing the right thing. There?s no other way.

?Netanyahu?s (E1) zoning approval is hardly a ?fatal blow? as some claim,? say Post editors.

?The exaggerated rhetoric (pressures) Abbas to make a ?freeze? (conditional) for peace talks.?

Expect him to drop it altogether. Doing so will add greater betrayal to his resume. Post editors urge it.

?If Security Council members are really interested in progress toward Palestinian statehood, they will press Abbas to stop using settlements as an excuse for intransigence ? and cool their own overheated rhetoric.?

Post editors reflect the worst of media scoundrels. They support wrong over right. They ignore inviolable international law. Under the Constitution?s Supremacy Clause, it?s US law.

Post editors understand. Why don?t they explain? International law is explicit.

Fourth Geneva?s Article 49 states, ?The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.?

In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled:

?Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development.?

?They?ve ?been established in breach of international law? on sovereign Palestinian territory.

Home demolitions, land theft, dispossessions, and settlement construction continue unabated. Post editors support what they should condemn.

Israel wants Green Line partitioning ended. Separation Wall land theft will annex 12% of Palestine when completed.

Jordan Valley territory is vitally important for Palestinians. It has political, cultural, economic, agricultural, and geographic value. It?s too valuable to sacrifice.

Israel also wants it declared a strategic security asset. It?s one-fourth of West Bank land. Occupation harshness shrunk areas accessible to Palestinians to 6%. Israel wants it entirely Judaized.

Likud and likeminded hardliners want Area C, East Jerusalem, all settlements, and planned ones annexed.

Likud?s platform leaves no ambiguity. Its position on settlements is clear, saying:

?The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (all Occupied Palestine) are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel.?

?The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.?

Oslo became cover to steal West Bank land. Israel wants all valued parts. Netanyahu and previous leaders want Palestinians isolated on worthless scrubland.

They want them deprived of all rights. They want them ruthlessly persecuted and exploited. Abbas supports their agenda. Disingenuous rhetoric belies his complicity.

Palestinians are isolated on their own. Governments able to help do nothing. Media scoundrels suppress what?s going on. Israel takes full advantage. It?s been that way for decades. Hoped for light at the end of the tunnel remains invisible.

Article?by Stephen Lendman | ? Sabbah Report: http://sabbah.biz/mt/?p=16506

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CES 2013 : Nuance ve ZTE i?birli?i, ses uygulamalar?n? Android cihazlara getiriyor

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Ses tan?ma ve dikte teknolojilerinde uzmanla?an ve Siri dijital asistan?n?n arkas?ndaki isim olarak g?ndeme gelen Nuance firmas? ile ZTE, bir ortakl?k yaparak ses uygulamalar?n? bu y?ldan itibaren Android cihazlar?na getireceklerini duyurdu.

Uzun vadeli olacak bu ortakl?k ZTE telefonlar? ve kullan?c?lar aras?nda etkile?im kurma imkan? do?acak. ZTE uygulaman?n ilk ?rne?ini ara? i?i cihaz ileti?imi sa?layan Car Mode yaz?l?m?nda kullanacak.

25'ten fazla dil destekleyen Car Mode uygulamas?, kullan?c?lar?n ses ile komut vererek sesli g?r??me kabul etme veya reddetme, metin mesajlar?n? okuma, m?zik eri?imi, hava durumu bilgisi edinme, navigasyon uygulamalar?n? ba?latma gibi i?lemler yapmas?na olanak tan?yor. Sesli ileti?im i?in Siri'deki gibi internet ba?lant?s?na gerek yok. Uygulama atanm?? bir kelimeyi telefona s?yleyerek ba?lat?labiliyor.

Car Mode uygulamas? firman?n 2013 y?l?nda pazara sunaca?? Android cihazlar?nda ?n y?kl? olarak gelecek. Sonraki d?nemlerde ise daha fazla uygulama ve dil deste?i ZTE modellerinde t?keticiye sunulacak.

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Source: http://www.donanimhaber.com/CES_2013__Nuance_ve_ZTE_isbirligi_ses_uygulamalarini_Android_cihazlara_getiriyor-38833.htm

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