Burj Khalifa

The US-headquartered architectural practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has revealed the design for the Kingdom Tower, which is to be the world’s tallest building at 1 kilometre height.

It will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

At over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah.
The developer, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process, which included SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster+Partners.

Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently, said a statement from AS+GG. Foundation drawings are complete while the piling is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion.

AS+GG’s design is both highly technological and distinctly organic, said the practice.

“With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it,” said Smith in a statement. The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth. “The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology," added Gordon Gill.

In addition, each of the tower's three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea. The complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.

AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall and other amenities. Kingdom Holding Company is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.

Crop Circles

The prank-loving artists who create the giant, geometric crop circles around the world, which get more and more complex every year, don't give up their secrets, but that won't stop prank-loving physicists from trying to figure out how the circles are created.
First thought by many to have been created by aliens, pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley announced to the world in 1991 that they had been using ropes and planks of wood to stomp down crops since 1978.
But since that time, crop circles have gotten increasingly more complex, suggesting that more sophisticated tools are in use. According to a report in this month's issue of Physics World, crop circle creators may be turning to high-tech devices like GPS devices, lasers, and microwaves to create their intricate patterns.
The article was written by Richard Taylor, director of the Materials Science Institute at the University of Oregon, who calls crop circles "the most science-oriented art movement in history."
Taylor used mathematical analysis on crop circles to reveal patterns invisible to the naked eye. The construction lines, he says, are the key to creating the complex patterns. He says GPS systems may allow artists to be precise in their designs, while lasers help them keep their lines straight.
He also said that it appears crop circle artists are using a piece of a microwave oven known as a magnetron and a 12V battery, which causes corn stalks to bend and stay flat. This allows them to work quickly and get out before they are discovered.

The public may love crop circles, but farmers aren't fans. As the U.K.'s Daily Mailreports, "The price in ruined crops is particularly steep this year because of soaring fuel and fertilizer costs, and a 25 percent drop in wheat yields due to the drought."
Why would a physicist study crop circles? Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World, says Taylor is just being a good scientist, "examining the evidence for the design and construction of crop circles without getting carried away by the sideshow of UFOs, hoaxes and aliens."
Meanwhile, other theories abound. Like the one coming out of Australia that sayswallabies are getting stoned after eating opium poppies and wandering around in circles. The news came out in a parliamentary meeting about the security of poppy fields, since Australia grows 50% of the world's legal supply of Opium. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," Tasmanian state attorney Lara Giddings said during the hearing.
Of course, crop circles could be the work of aliens. Since no one who creates them is talking, the answer is still a mystery.

Belgian Malinois

Examiner.com reports that the witness is an employee of the training facility, and when Animal Control arrived on the scene, they found the Belgian Malinois in a small cage, acting timid when approached.
Matthews has denied the allegations, and according to the arrest affadavit, a veterinarian checked the dog and found no neurological or skeletal abnormalities. The Off Leash website writes that Matthews "served in the U.S. Army for six years and has been training police and working dogs since 2002."
Unfortunately these aren't the only dog cruelty allegations to make news recently.

Last month, a man in Montana was accused of killing over 50 dogs during a standoff with police, and earlier this year, a Colorado couple who owned a sled dog kennel faced felony charges when dozens of their dogs were found in poor condition.
The Belgian Malinois is one of four types of Belgian sheepherding dogs, according to the American Kennel Club. Some reports suggest that a Belgian Malinois was used during the SEAL team raid of Osama bin Laden's compound.

Mehandi Designs For Hands

Mehandi Designs For Hands

Mehandi Designs For Hands

India Against Corruption

Gandhian Anna Hazare on Monday said police has not indicated whether or not he can hold a hunger strike against corruption at the Jantar Mantar here from Aug 16.
"We sent an application to the police commissioner seeking permission for the fast but have got no response. There has been no formal letter denying us permission, from anyone," Hazare told reporters here.
Hazare's team member and activist Arvind Kejriwal added: "Until now we have not got any rejection letter. They (police) asked for clarifications, we gave them. As of now we are going ahead with our fast."
Delhi Police Thursday said prohibitory orders banning any gathering of five or more people will be imposed in places of Delhi, including Jantar Mantar area, during the monsoon session of parliament that began Monday.
The curbs were Friday withdrawn from Jantar Mantar and India Gate areas.

"If they don't let us sit on fast, I will go to jail," Hazare said. "This is India's second struggle for freedom and I will fight against corruption till my last breath."
Dissatisfied with the government version of the anti-graft Lokpal bill, Hazare has decided to go on fast from Aug 16.
The anti-corruption crusader went on a 97-hour fast in April at Jantar Mantar demanding a strong anti-graft Lokpal bill.
He also sat on a one-day token fast June 8 at Rajghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, to denounce the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev's anti-corruption protest in June.

Toddy Cat

Forest Department officials rescued a toddy cat from the Central Polytechnic College in Taramani on Monday.

A staff of the college, who spotted the cat, called up the officials, who reached the spot and seized the animal by its ears to avoid being bitten. The officials, after bringing the toddy cat, also known as the common palm civet, to their range office at Velachery, fed it with fruits after getting it treated at the Blue Cross. It is likely to be released in the forest soon.

“We got a call at 10 am from a staff of the college. We rescued the cat and brought it to our office. The cat could be two years old,” said Dr S David Raj, Forest Range Officer.

Forest officials said that the nocturnal greyish coloured mammal is highly adaptive and lives in thick forests, agricultural areas and gardens, and can even coexist with humans.

But it mostly lives in a place where fruit trees and fig trees grow.

“The cat sleeps in tree hollows during the day time and is active during the night, hunting for food. It is very defensive,” according to  David Raj.

The cat, besides eating fruits like chiku and mango, takes palm fruit sap that becomes toddy after fermentation. Hence it is named ‘toddy cat’. It also eats reptiles, eggs and insects, the officials said.

The toddy cat weighs approximately three kilograms and is 21-inches long, while its tail could more than half the size of its body.

The ‘toddy cat’ has black markings on its body, feet and ears, and claws that help it climb trees.

Powder

Powder Dry

A couple of weeks ago, I took my nephew Jacob Barr with me to introduce him to black powder shooting. We set up some targets and got the muzzle loading musket out of its case. I explained each step to Jacob as we got ready to shoot. Pour the scoop of black powder down the barrel of the musket, then place the cloth patch under the lead musket ball and ram it snugly down the barrel with the wooden ramrod. Then you place the percussion cap on the nipple, cock the hammer, aim, squeeze the trigger and wait for the huge ‘Boom!’ and cloud of smoke. Both Jacob and I had on ear protectors to cushion our ears from the noise. Unfortunately, when the hammer fell, instead of a huge ‘Boom!’ of exploding powder, all we got was a wimpy ‘pop,’ sort of like a cap gun. For some reason, when the percussion cap ignited it failed to set off the main powder charge.

Embarrassed, I tried a second percussion cap, and got a wimpy ‘pop’ again. The third try got the same result. Now I had a loaded musket that wouldn’t fire. Great! We carefully put the musket back in its gun case and proceeded to do some plinking with a 22. It was fun, but not nearly as exciting as the roar of the musket and the cloud of smoke. After considerable thought, I finally figured out what went wrong. Periodically one or more of the ammunition manufacturers will market a fancy tin box with a hinged lid that’s filled with 22 ammo. After you’ve used the ammo, you still have a really cool decorated box to store stuff in. I thought to myself, “What a great storage box for black powder!” While it seemed like a good idea at the time, the box wasn’t airtight and the powder inside absorbed enough moisture from the humidity of the air to render the powder useless. Dang.

Upon arriving home I was faced with the problem of how to extract the 54 caliber musket ball from the musket barrel. I bought a special screw attachment that affixes to the end of your ramrod. Then you just screw the attachment into the musket ball and pull the ball out of the gun. Great idea, but it didn’t work. One of my buddies suggested removing the nipple with a wrench and blowing compressed air into the nipple hole to force the ball out the barrel. That didn’t work either. I consulted the guys at my friendly neighborhood gun shop and they suggested I disassemble the whole gun and then unscrew the barrel from the rest of the action. Another great idea until the steel barrel plug began to strip as I applied pressure with the wrench!

This was beginning to get frustrating. Back to the gun shop to seek more ideas. One of the customers at the shop suggested heating the gun barrel with a torch to expand the metal and free the breech plug. I figured heating a gun full of gunpowder and a musket ball might cause an explosion, so I rejected that idea. Finally, Old Larry suggested I soak the stuck barrel and breech plug with one of the penetrating oils like Liquid Wrench, for a week or 10 days so that it could really soak in and break the metal free. As we speak, the parts are soaking and hopefully I can salvage the gun. Otherwise I’ll just have to hang it on the wall as a reminder of why the Old Timers would regularly remind each other to “Keep Your Powder Dry”.

Yes, black powder shooting can be a lot of fun. It can remind us of our pioneer past and how lucky we are to have modern guns and ammo that will fire reliably under almost any conditions. It can remind us of how incredibly brave our ancestors were to face a charging Grizzly with a single shot black powder gun that may or may not shoot when you pulled the trigger. It can also remind me to never store my gunpowder in a container that’s not airtight. Henceforth I too will take great care to keep my powder dry.

Friendship Quotes

The “World Friendship Day” was splendidly celebrated in US on July 30, 2011, which took different signs and shapes to express their degree of friendship each other among friends. Now days Mobile phones, internet and greeting card are the best mediums to exchange their friendship among the friends.
The people celebrated the Friendship Day by sending Friendship SMS, Friendship MMS and Friendship Quotes by mobile phones and sending emails with greeting messages and greeting cards. Some of the friends exchanged valuable gifts like golden ornamentals, books, dictionaries and flower bouquets in their memory as a token of friendship.
The General Assembly of the United Nations (UNO) has declared July 30^th as the official International Friendship Day on April 27, 2011.

The idea to celebrate ‘The World Friendship Day” was flourished in the mind of Dr. Artemio Bracho on July 20, 1958 during he was in dinner with his friend in Puetro Pinasco, Paraguay.
“Even if there is a lot of relationship in the world, Friendship is termed as equivalent Mother because both are selfless, if any problem for us they both will be coming forward first to saves us. So as I’m concerned friendship is one step above because there is a blood relationship behind mother but no such relationship behind Friendship but ready to sacrifice at the time of dangers.”
In this good occasion Day breaking News ‘Wishes U All Happy Friendship Day!!!!!”

Friendship Day

On the first International Day of Friendship, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Sunday urged the global community to work together to build a peaceful, more prosperous world, where old friendships flourish and new ones are made.
“Friendship harmony tolerance mutual respect and mutual concern, these concepts are part of the Organization’s [United Nations] very fibre” said Ban. “They inform our activities, from peacekeeping and defending human rights to our collective efforts to achieve the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“And they are now the focus of the International Day of Friendship, a new observance established by the General Assembly in a resolution that highlights the potential of friendship to ‘build bridges’ and ‘ inspire peace efforts’,” he said. Ban recalled that the UN Charter proclaims that one of the purposes of the UN is to develop friendly relations among nations, words that also appear in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The constitution of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), he added, also stressed the need for peace based not only on the political and economic arrangements of Governments, but on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. The Secretary-General said individual friendships brought humans face to face with diversity and different points of view, as well as joy and support,notwithstanding the tests that can encumber even the best of relationships.
“The same pillars that support sturdy personal friendships  trust, respect, mutually beneficial decision-making also have an important place in the community of nations,” he said. He quoted the late Woodrow Wilson, a former President of the United States, who once said: “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.

Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired former All-Star shortstop Rafael Furcal from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for a minor league outfielder.

It's not known whether or not Furcal will be in uniform tonight when the Cardinals close out their three-game series with the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium.
Furcal, who had to approve the deal, has been slowed by injuries this season, hitting just .197 with a .272 on-base-percentage in 37 games. However, over his past nine games Furcal is hitting .303 and has driven in five runs.

"We feel that Furcal will give us added veteran experience when it comes to a pennant race," said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. "Rafael has been an excellent top of the order hitter and he brings plenty of athleticism and defense."

For his career, the two-time All-Star is a .283 hitter with a .349 on-base percentage and a .407 slugging percentage in 1,434 games for the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, with whom he broke into the league in 2000.

Last season he hit .300 with 22 stolen bases in 97 games for the Dodgers. His .370 on-base-percentage was also the majors' best among leadoff hitters

Furcal, 33, is in the final year of a three-year deal that contains a club option for 2012 worth $12 million.

Los Angeles receives 24-year-old Alex Castellanos, a 10th round pick of the Cardinals in the 2008 draft. He had belted 19 home runs and was hitting .319 in 93 games for Double-A Springfield this season.

The Furcal acquisition caps a busy week for St. Louis, which completed an eight-player deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday. In that trade, the Cards acquired starting pitcher Edwin Jackson, relievers Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel, and outfielder Corey Patterson, while dealing away outfielder Colby Rasmus and three relievers.

Ramadan

Each year, the state must declare an emergency and exceed its normal production rate of staples to sync with the skyrocketing consumption of food. The import of massive amounts of wheat for bread and dried fruits - both constitute an essential part of the Ramadan menu - all add to the already struggling Egyptian balance sheet.
This can be translated into two bills, the first economic and the second environmental. The two are linked due to excessive consumption leading to a massive build-up of waste, burdening the environment and negatively impacting the nation's economy. Although this waste production exists at other times of the year, Ramadan is the peak.
Another negative outcome of Ramadan is traffic congestion, which translates into large amounts of car-generated toxic greenhouse gases. With traffic being stalled almost constantly (except right after iftar, when the city is devoid of cars and pedestrians), often the likelihood of reaching your house after work in under an hour is more a fantasy than a possibility. In addition, people tend to travel extensively to every corner of the country in order to visit family, and traverse Cairo on a daily basis to visit one another.
Not only should we pay attention to the amounts of food consumed during the month, but also to the vast quantities that are discarded, despite the fact that nearby countries are suffering shortages of food and water (a plight with which some Egyptians are familiar). Unfortunately, all this discarded waste is thrown into our partially untreated sewage system and eventually flows into the Nile.
Also during the month, many stay up deep into the night, therefore consuming energy (gas and electricity) as much as food, depleting fossil fuel resources.
Because of this maximal consumption pattern, food prices become incredibly high. In this period of uncertainty and instability, purchasing a product at an inflated price can only have two consequences: the price of this already expensive product will keep on increasing or it will run out and other customers will be deprived of it.
You are what you eat?
The fact that our bodies are composed of 90 percent water, combined with the interdiction on drinking liquids, can significantly increase some health problems. Smokers who have to refrain the entire day from drawing on a Cleopatra often catch up at night and smoke just as much, although in a very short period of time, on top of an excessively absorbing food.

Ramadan also causes other health problems, as it significantly increases the occurrences of atherosclerosis, diabetes and gastrointestinal tract diseases (GIT). GIT diseases are the most common in Egypt that result directly from food consumption habits, which become uncontrolled during Ramadan. To combat this problem, people resort to medication to decrease cholesterol and sugar levels. The water treatment system is often incapable of separating medications from our sewage before the water reaches the Nile.
Moreover, Ramadan’s stressful schedules make those who observe it more vulnerable to weight gain, due to a lack sports and exercise.
Last but not least, we should not forget the infamous polluter, shisha. Not only does shisha pollute from the smoke exhaled, but the charcoal is carbon-intensive, which is terrible for the environment. Indoor shisha consumption during Ramadan is rampant and results in indoor air contamination.
For those of us who observe Ramadan, it would be wise to restrain ourselves a bit for once and eat, drink, smoke and drive sensibly during the holy month, especially at a time when Egypt deploys such efforts to avoid a major food security problem. It is also important to keep an eye on the month's ecological dimensions.

SOS

An aftermath of the divorce debate has been a demand for revision of the relations between Church and State. However, the actual adjustments proposed in legal terms do not seem to amount to more than fine-tuning. Shouldn’t there be more reflection on the relationship between religion and culture in our island as globalisation and the electronic revolution become increasingly prevalent?
Concrete instances are usually the best way to tackle such general questions. On July 19, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority issued permits to the parish priest of Manikata, Fr Reginald Magri, and to Joseph Attard, an architect I’m not acquainted with, to demolish a significant part of the parvis of the internationally-famous church designed by Richard England, and to develop some underground spaces to be illuminated by three skylights, each of which four metres high.
I do not know whether this project had previously obtained approval of the aesthetics board of the Liturgical Commission. If so there would be just cause for complaint about clerical insensitivity to contemporary art.
When I first learnt of the apparently imminent outrage, I was even more taken aback to discover that the State was not doing any better. It had failed to schedule the building, now more than half a century old.
Of all 20th century Maltese buildings it has figured most frequently in books and foreign journals of art and architecture.
An ironist would no doubt delight in this shining instance of Church-State collaboration in damaging a pinnacle of the not-so-abandoned masterpieces expressive at once of the sacred and of our national building traditions with its recollections of the ġirna and megalithic culture.
Surely Mepa should agree urgently to schedule Manikata church. It would at least be preserving a memory of that happy moment of religious and cultural rebirth that occurred in the wake of Independence on one hand and Vatican Council II on the other.
There were some excellent examples of the intersecting values of religion and politics coming together against their common enemy, which is mediocrity in the recent arts festival. What do you say about that?
Let me again tackle your question by way of a concrete example: the Globe’s Hamlet.
I will begin by confessing incidentally that I would prefer – in the run-up to the European Capital of Culture Year – getting a local company of actors set up as was done last year for the production Ospizio. It would perform Elizabethan plays with a special local reference, such as Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta or The Knight of Malta by John Fletcher.
Although admittedly popular, the Globe performances continue to be profoundly perverse.
For instance, as critic Paul Xuereb could not help observing in his review, the most famous speech in the whole of world theatre – “to be or not to be” – was thrown away, spoken so fast that it led a woman sitting next to me to wonder after the performance whether it had been cut.

In spite of this, Shakespeare’s play could not be prevented from stimulating inward rumination on the deep interlocking of religion and politics.
Many literary historians have written books about whether it is a Catholic culture (as argued for instance, by Peter Milward) or a Protestant (Grace Tiffany) or secular (Stephen Greenblat) that is reflected in Hamlet.
Yet there seems to be a convergence on what the real choice that “to be or not to be” is about.
The events in the year when Shakespeare was writing this speech were forcing upon everyone whose family was like the author’s recusant Catholic the dilemma: should they continue to accept passively “the slings and arrows of outrageous” persecutions, or “to take arms” against it, as Essex did and was done in the Gunpowder Plot?
Shakespeare built the whole play as generally recognised, on the credibility of the ghost. He claims to be in purgatory (“confined to fast in fires/Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature/Are burnt and purged away”). But, purgatory had been declared non-existent by the Protestants.
Worse still, the ghost urged in the most unholy way from a Christian point of view, revenge, rather than forgiveness. Hamlet begins to question: “The spirit that I have seen/May be the devil”.
In the Globe’s performance the other great soliloquy by Claudius, the murderer who kneels to ask forgiveness of God, which has been called “the most religious speech in all the plays of Shakespeare” was also spoken in throwaway fashion. Nevertheless, even this mode of delivery could not completely blunt the power with which Shakespeare drives home the literary vital importance of morality in politics.
A play like Hamlet, even perversely performed in the prevalence spirit of political populism, acts like the Manikata church: a beacon in which the twin tongues of the most authentic religious and political values conjoin in a single flame.
On the basis of these two concrete examples can you formulate in more general terms your answer to my basic question?
Let me answer in the words of Marilynne Robinson, considered by some to be the greatest living American novelist after Thomas Pynchon, or perhaps even ahead of him:
“There are those who think that the majority religious tradition in the country, by virtue of its being the majority religion, ought to be asserted very forcefully as an intrinsic part of our national identity.
“These people see an onrush of secularism intent on driving religion to the margins, maybe over the edge, and for the sake of Christianity they want to enlist society itself in its defence…”
How is it consistent with the belief that the Church is the Body of Christ, a belief I share, to think it has no intrinsic life to be relied on, and must, for the sake of its survival, be fastened to a way more vigorous body, that of the nation?

Syria

At least 100 people were said to have been killed Sunday when the Syrian regime launched a fresh crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hama. The flashpoint central city was the target of an earlier brutal crackdown in the 1980s, at the hands of the father of the current Syrian leader, Bashar Assad.
"Hama is used to massacres by the Assad family, but we tell this tyrant the more you kill us the more we are determined to oust you," the activist, who requested anonymity, told DPA by phone.
In 1982, a government crackdown caused the deaths of up to 20,000 people in the city, when the town's Sunni population attempted to revolt against then president Hafez Assad's minority Alawite sect.
On Sunday, tanks stormed the city at dawn, shelling different neighborhoods. Electricity and water supplies to the main areas were cut before the attack began, said Omar Idlibi, a Syrian activist based in Lebanon.
Troops surrounded one of the major hospitals to prevent the wounded from reaching it. Over 100 people were injured in the attacks.
Activists also said that four buses filled with security forces personnel arrived at the Southern entrance of Hama, located around 200 kilometers north of Damascus.
Activists believe that Sunday's attacks are decisive in their battle against the regime.
"The harsh crackdown is a means of telling protesters even if Ramadan starts we will keep killing you if you go out to the streets," Idlibi said. "But we tell them we will continue and won't stop no matter what means you use on us."

Activists wrote on the Syria Revolution page online that "if this campaign fails to achieve its goal, it will mark the beginning of the end for the regime."
On Friday, protesters vowed that pro-democracy protests would be held every night in the fasting month of Ramadan and continue until dawn.
Local human rights advocates say that more than 1,500 civilians have been killed since protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad began in mid-March. Over 350 security personnel have also been killed.
In the southern Harak town, in Daraa province, several including a three-year-old girl were killed after security forces stormed the town.
Tanks have surrounded Harak and black smoke was covering the city and no one can reach the town as all roads are blocked, an activist in the provincial capital Daraa said.
"I just want to address the Arab world and tell them their silence is killing the Syrian people, this regime has no mercy," the activist said.
In the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, at least six people were killed when tanks stormed al-Joura district early Sunday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said. Some 50 people were injured.
Syrian troops were also advancing elsewhere in the country, as tanks entered the Damascus suburb of Moadamiyya, where over 200 people have been arrested in recent days, regional media reported.
Meanwhile State-run agency SANA praised the Syrian Arab army on the occasion of the August 1 national day, saying it "represents an honorable and brilliant image of the military institution ... through its valor in providing security and stability for all citizens."
It continued the government line of blaming terrorist groups for the unrest, saying the army was confronting "criminal acts of armed terrorist groups who terrified the people, killed innocents and sabotaged private and public property.

Tourist in Syria, Crimes Against Humanity Daraa

Tourist in Syria, Crimes Against Humanity Daraa: Is this your 1st call to Syria, the passport control man asks me. No, I say him; I came here once earlier over a 10 ago. He stamps my passport. I had been very lucky to get a Syrian visa this time. The travel advice wasn't to call. The Syrian regime is very wary of foreigners, fearing that journalists and spies are inflaming the situation additional. I collect my bag and walk through customs, passing a poster, of modest size, of President Bashar al-Assad with the words in Arabic proclaiming: "Leader of the youth, desire of the youth." I jump in a taxi. I ask the driver how is things in Syria. Things are good, he assures me. There's been some difficulty around the nation, but things are OK in Damascus. As we drive, we chat. He points out the area where Druze lives. With his hand, he waves in another direction to wherever Palestinian refugees live, then over again to where Iraqi refugees live. Alawites are over there and in villages. Christians these way and in villages Sunnis are around sixty-five percent of the population. Kurds live in the north. A lot of different folkses live in Syria. I ask him how he knows who someone is or whether they are Sunni or Shiite. He tells me that he doesn't know and it doesn't interest him to know: there's no sectarianism here in Syria. We pass Damascus University. Outside there are lots of flags and images of Bashar and his deceased father. Across the city, the Syrian flag is flying strong and pics of the president are omnipresent. As I drive through al-Umawiyeen Square, I see lots of young men and women gathering holding Syrian flags. It isn't a demonstration, a Syrian tells me, and it’s a celebration a celebration of the regime. After, I see the event on TV. It's made the international news. 10s of thousands of Syrians have come out to al-Umawiyeen Square to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in a lively celebration which admits pop singers and fireworks. When I had called previously, the city had been filled with huge images of Hafez al-Assad; and Bashar had been studying ophthalmology in London. The death of his elder brother, Basil, in a car crash, propelled him back into the family business of ruling Syria. In the evening, I stroll down the street to a restaurant. It is very modern and western. All you can eat sushi for $20. I try to read my emails on my blackberry. I switch between 2 different networks. But can only receive GPS not GPRS. The restaurant claims to have WiFi. I ask the waiter. There is WiFi, he tells me, but it's not working at the moment. Internet access is limited. I walk through souq al-hamdiyya in the old city of Damascus. It is a wide, pedestrianized street, two-story high, and covered. It's buzzing with life. Store owners sit outside their shops, trying to entice potential customers. Traders sell their wares down the middle of Wall Street. Walking with the flow of folks, I emerge to find the Umayyad Mosque direct in front of me. I go to the ticket office, pay the entrance fee for foreigners and collect a hooded grey cloak to cover myself. The cloaks come in three sizes. A woman sitting there directs me towards the smallest size. The cloak stinks and I wonder when it was final washed and how a lot of women have had to wear it in the sweltering summer heat. I put the cloak on over my dresses, pulling up the pointed hood to ensure my hair is covered. I enter the Umayyad mosque built on the site of a shrine dedicated to John the Baptist looking like a member of the Ku Klux Klan except dressed in grey, and carrying my shoes in my hand. I wander into the covered area where hundreds of folks are praying, men in one area, and women in another. I walk out to the courtyard. In one area, a group is seated on the ground. One man is kneeling, raising his arms, weeping "ya Hussein." The others follow suit, tears flowing, looking quite distraught.Tourist in Syria, Crimes Against Humanity Daraa:

Tea Party

I stand firmly by my Thursday column that hit President Obama for failing to come up with a viable plan as the debt-ceiling deadline looms.
That does not mean that Republicans look good. Far from it. House Speaker John Boehner put together a respectable package earlier this week, that tied raising the debt ceiling to holding a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment, but not its passage. Now it appears that out-of-touch Republicans in his caucus have forced Boehner to make his plan less viable, by requiring that Congress pass a BBA.
As my colleague, Carolyn Lochhead points out, these zealots have handed more power to Democrats.
Be it noted, many conservatives have warned of the consequences. On July 27, a Wall Street Journal editorial warned:
The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.
This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.
And as I wrote on July 19, any measure that holds a debt-ceiling bill hostage to passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment is a loser.
The Democrats' new favorite word is "compromise." But the real GOP problem is not a refusal to compromise, but a failure to live in the real world.

Ramadan Mubarak

This year’s holy month of Ramadan starts early next week and for Egyptians, it will be the first since the revolution in January and February ousted then-President Hosni Mubarak.

On a street leading to a mosque, vendors have set up a market selling holiday items, including lots of traditional Egyptian Ramadan lamps. There also are toys for the children, and nuts, dates and other treats. A man spreads incense smoke over the goods to ward off the evil eye.

It is a busy time as families rush to get ready for the nightly fast-breaking meal, the Iftar, which traditionally includes lots of food and especially sweets. Several people take time, though, to talk about the significance of celebrating Ramadan now that Mubarak is no longer president.

“I feel like people have started to love each other more and cooperate with each other more,” said one woman interviewed at the marketplace.

“There is some change since Mubarak got deposed and those thieves left," said another woman with her child. "But we’re still waiting for something good to happen to the country.”

Walid, the owner of a large stall that sells goods, has a more negative view.

“There’s a lot of tension and nervousness in the street these days," said Walid. "We changed the regime. Now it’s time for people to change.”

Another vendor, Mahmoud, said the holy month is always the same. “Ramadan is a blessed month. It is the same every year," he said. "There is no change with Mubarak out.”

But that is not the view at the headquarters of the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood’s new political party. Senior Brotherhood member and party Vice-chairman Esam El-Erian spent eight years in prison under Mubarak.

“It has a very good significance because mosques are free now for all activities, which reflect unity of not only Muslims, Muslims and Christians, and solidarity between rich and poor, and free speech for all scholars to give and address the population about the real facts about Islam,” said El-Erian.

While many Egyptians may not be thinking about politics as they do their holiday shopping, they likely are noticing a different sort of change.

Prices are up sharply on some items, meaning that while Egyptians who opposed the old regime may have something extra to celebrate this year, they will find it more expensive to do so.

Washington Redskins Trade Albert Haynesworth Is In The New England Patriots

Washington Redskins Trade Albert Haynesworth Is In The New England Patriots: Bill Belichick may have simply made yet. Adam Sechefter reports the Washington Redskins have agreed to send Albert Haynesworth to New England Patriots to a fifth round. I still cannot understand why anyone would ever make a trade with the Patriots. It never ends well for the other team. We obviously know the story about Haynesworth. It is the best defensive tackle, and perhaps the most disruptive defender in the entire NFL, because he wants to be. On when he wants to be part of the problems have been throughout his career. That's what kept Tennessee Titans to give him the money two years ago and what his entire career in Washington, never to anything. My money was on Skins release Haynesworth and meets him in Philadelphia with Jim Washburn. Belichick has a story to make these things, so do not be surprised if Fat Albert turned in another All-Pro season in 2011.Washington Redskins Trade Albert Haynesworth Is In The New England Patriots

Richard Chandler

Singapore-based investment group Richard Chandler Corp. again boosted its stake in beleaguered tree-plantation operator Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE.T), this time with the purchase of more than 5.3 million common shares on Tuesday.
Last week, the company, founded by New Zealand-born entrepreneur Richard F. Chandler, bought more than 2.4 million Sino-Forest shares.
Richard Chandler Corp. bought the shares through wholly-owned Mandolin Fund Pte Ltd. It said Wednesday that Mandolin's stake in Sino-Forest now totals about 36.8 million shares, or 14.95%.
The shares acquired Tuesday were purchased on the Toronto Stock Exchange at an average price of about C$7.36 each. The average price for the shares acquired last week was about C$4.06.

Sino-Forest's stock took a beating in early June, when allegations of questionable accounting by a U.S.-based short seller surfaced. Sino-Forest, which operates in China, denied the allegations, including that it fraudulently exaggerated its tree-plantation assets.
Sino-Forest's stock tumbled 64% to C$5.23 on June 3, the day a trading halt on its shares was lifted. It hit C$1.99 on June 21 but has risen in each of the last seven sessions. Early Wednesday, it's up 8% to C$7.69.
Prominent investor Paulson & Co. dumped its Sino-Forest stake in June.

Asiana Crash

Both pilots aboard a China-bound Boeing 747 cargo jet were killed when it crashed off South Korea after experiencing mechanical problems.
The plane, which was flying for South Korea's Asiana Airlines, came down off Jeju island in the very south of the country, local media report.
It had left Incheon en route to Pudong in China.
A South Korean coast guard boat found debris from the jet in waters about 107km (66 miles) west of Jeju city.
After taking off at 0305 (1800 GMT) the plane disappeared from radar at 0409 while trying to reach Jeju airport, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reports. The wreckage was spotted at 0640.

Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Heavy rain has lashed South Korea this week, with landslides and floods killing dozens and causing havoc, but Asiana Airlines said it was unclear whether the weather had caused any problems for the plane.
The 747, nicknamed the Jumbo Jet, has been in service around the world for more than four decades, and is still in production.

Child Labour

Farmers in the country have been asked to stop using child labour on their farms since it negatively affect the wellbeing and development of children.

Mr Solomon Koomson, Jukwa District Officer of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot and Virus Disease Control Unit, who made the call, said investors were monitoring activities of cocoa farmers, and the produce of those who would use child labour on their farms would be boycotted.

He was speaking at a sensitization rally for farmers on the “Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa Growing Areas” at Wassa Atobiase, a cocoa growing community in the Western Region.

The event was organised under the National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa Producing Areas, which was government’s response to child labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector.

The Cape Coast District Quality Control Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr. Kwesi Bediako, said the Programme, which was started in 2006, sought to eliminate worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector by the end of this year and in all sectors by 2015.

He said despite measures by COCOBOD to stop child labour, the menace was on the ascendancy even though parents denied its prevalence.

Mr. Bediako advised the farmers to send their children to school instead of engaging them on the farms.

He expressed worry that some children were trafficked and used for illegal activities such as prostitution and smuggling.

Mr. Bediako warned people who engaged in child labour and child trafficking would be arrested and prosecuted.

The District Chief Farmer, Mr Kwabena Nkrumah, gave the assurance that farmers would support the campaign against child labour.