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BAGHDAD – Vice President Joe Biden pressed Iraqi leaders Friday to do more to foster national reconciliation and offered U.S. assistance in achieving that, as concerns grow that a lack of political progress is fueling violence in Iraq.
He stressed that America wanted to "build up" its partnership with Iraqi leaders even as it draws down its forces, starting with Tuesday's deadline for pulling back combat troops from cities.
But protesters in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City demonstrated against his visit, burning an American flag and chanting anti-U.S. slogans after Friday prayers.
Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr hold such demonstrations weekly after Friday prayers, but the rally underscored the challenges facing the United States as it begins drawing down its military forces and losing its dominance in Iraq.
"Iraq has traveled a great distance over the past year, but there is a hard road ahead if Iraq is going to find lasting peace and stability. It's not over yet," Biden said at a joint news conference after meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Biden, who was making the three-day visit to Iraq after being appointed to oversee the administration's Iraq policy, said he came with a "clear message" of the U.S. commitment to Iraq's success.
"There are still political steps that must be taken and Iraqis must use the political process to resolve their remaining differences and advance their national interest," he said. "We stand ready, if asked and if helpful, to help in that process."
The news conference was held in the same hall at al-Maliki's ceremonial residence in which an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush during his last visit to Baghdad in December.
Biden arrived in Baghdad late Thursday for an unusually long visit that followed the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq's cities and towns as part of a security agreement that will see all American soldiers out of the country by the end of 2011.
President Barack Obama also has said all combat troops will be gone by the end of August 2010, leaving 30,000 to 50,000 troops in advisory roles.
But Biden's visit and his new position as Obama's point man on Iraq reflect growing concern in the U.S. administration about a recent rise in violence after a series of bombings that killed scores of people.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has been criticized for failing to take advantage of security gains to make progress in overcoming disputes between Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and other groups as divisions deepen before Jan. 30 general elections.
Wearing a tan suit and suede combat boots, Biden discussed the security situation, the capabilities of Iraqi forces and political issues in a morning meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno and Ambassador Christopher Hill, America's top soldier and diplomat in Iraq.
He then traveled in a 22-vehicle motorcade after a sandstorm prevented him from flying to the walled-off Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters, where he held meetings with al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials.
Biden expressed his concern that Arab-Kurdish tensions in northern Iraq might erupt into violence, according to a close al-Maliki aide who attended the meeting, which lasted just over an hour.
A senior U.S. administration official said all sides acknowledged the importance of moving forward on disputes over internal boundaries, the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and integrating Sunni fighters who fought with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq into official security services, according to a White House pool report.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the closed talks.
It was Biden's first trip to Iraq as vice president, although he has traveled to the country as a senator and said he wanted to re-establish contacts with Iraqi leaders. He said this was the first of several trips to the region.

Violence remains at low levels in Iraq compared with previous years, but U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of more attacks after the city withdrawal deadline and in the run-up to the elections.

At least 447 Iraqi civilians were killed in June, double the toll from the previous month, according to an Associated Press tally.

Al-Maliki has called the U.S. withdrawal from cities as a "great victory" and declared June 30 National Sovereignty Day.

On Friday, he expressed gratitude for the U.S. support.

"I have seen very clearly the keen determination from the vice president and his administration to support Iraq ... and a great readiness to give us a lending hand and support anywhere we ask," he said.

Biden also had breakfast with his son, Beau, an Army captain serving in Iraq, in the private room where the vice president spent the night.

Biden planned Saturday to speak at a naturalization ceremony for U.S. troops to mark the Fourth of July, then to travel to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq for meetings with President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.

___

Associated Press Writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

GARMSIR, Afghanistan (AFP) –
Brigadier General Larry Nicholson demonstrated the more open approach he wants to see among the new US troops sent to southern Afghanistan by going shopping for melons.

Nicholson, commander of the 4,000 Marines deployed on Thursday in the mainly Taliban-held Helmand River valley, headed to Garmsir district centre to visit a bazaar selling fruit, vegetables and meat.

The day after launching Operation Khanjar -- intended to establish international and Afghan government control in the region -- he was keen to show how the Marines must interact with locals to defeat the insurgents.

"I need a good price," he said with a big grin as he held up a green watermelon. "50 afghani (one dollar)? Am I over-paying? No tourist prices for me, please."

Once the bargaining was over, he asked the stallowner about security in the mud-wall streets just outside a small international military base called Camp Delhi.

"It is good now," the heavily bearded man said. "But one year ago, there was a lot of fighting here between troops and the Taliban. Our shops and homes were destroyed and we have had no help rebuilding them."

Nicholson, who deliberately took off his helmet and sunglasses when talking to local residents, nodded and explained why the Marines had arrived in the Helmand valley.

"We are here to provide security for you and to help you," he said. "We have been sent by the president and district governor, and we are only here until there are enough Afghan police and soldiers to take over security.

"If there is peace in Garmsir, it is because everyone is working towards it. The Marines or the police cannot do it themselves. We need the help of local people."

For more than an hour, Nicholson -- protected by a guard of 11 alert and armed Marines -- walked from stall to stall holding much the same conversation to get his message across.

"What is the one thing Garmsir needs?" he asked five men sitting on a carpet drinking tea.

"We need peace and we need better mobile telephone coverage," one of them replied.

"We need the troops to stop blocking roads with their vehicles," said another.

Nicholson stressed that it was Marines who pushed the Taliban out of these streets a year ago.

"You remember that? We gave you the city back. Now we have returned and want to work as partners for the future."

The Camp Delhi area was fought over by the Taliban and NATO-lead British troops until a short-term contingent of US Marines last year established a secure zone that has become a model for the new wave of reinforcements.

Nicholson also faced questions about US forces killing innocent civilians by mistake, and he said he realised the damage that such incidents could do to the international effort in Afghanistan.

"Any Marine who shoots improperly will not stay here. We have been sent here to make things safer, not to frighten people," he said.

"We are not perfect and sometimes can make mistakes but we will go out of our way to help the citizens of Garmsir."

Control of the relatively fertile Helmand River valley is key as it is where much of the opium that funds the insurgency is grown.

The US troops who have pushed south down the valley since Thursday have begun to open communication channels with local elders, the military said, but a Taliban fightback is expected.

Some people in the bazaar turned away from the brigadier general, but most appeared willing to listen to his argument that their future would be better under the government than under the Taliban.

Virtually all the men said they would vote in August 20 presidential elections, adding they were already registered. A few election posters were stuck onto the market's crumbling walls.

Some residents complained about the Afghan police, who are generally less respected than the Afghan army, and others complained they had never seen the provincial governor.

With one more melon bought and after a jokey discussion with a tailor about how many wives a man should have, the patrol headed back to Camp Delhi.

"Sometimes they just say the things we want to hear, but there was a lot I heard that was honest and useful," Nicholson told his men at their debrief.

"When I go to meetings in the next few days, now I can tell people what I found out by walking the streets of Garmsir."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) –
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate in 2008, said on Friday she will resign this month, an unexpected move that could signal a run for higher office.

Palin took no questions after a brief news conference in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, members of her state Cabinet by her side. She gave no indication of her future plans.

"I'm not seeking re-election" in 2010, Palin said, adding she would transfer authority to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on July 26.

Palin, Arizona Sen. John McCain's surprise pick as his running-mate in the 2008 presidential race, rallied the party's conservative base but alienated others who believed she did not have the experience to be vice president.

She has been mentioned as one of the top three Republicans who could vie for the party's presidential nomination in 2012. Those mentioned most often include Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

"We are not retreating, we are advancing in a different direction," Palin said. "We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time."

Palin, 45, said her decision came after much "prayer and consideration." She said she did not want to waste time on "political blood sport" and cited public criticism of her actions and her family since the 2008 campaign.

"You are naive if you don't see a full-court press right now on the national level picking apart a good point guard," Palin said, using a basketball analogy.

"She closed a chapter in Alaska politics on a very weird and bizarre note," said former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, a Democrat who served two terms, in a telephone interview.

"Friends or foes alike would have never thought that she would be a quitter, but that's what she did today."

WHAT LIES AHEAD

The announcement at the beginning of a three-day holiday weekend, with little Washington news expected, gave Palin wide access to the airwaves and could make for a strong start at gaining public attention.

Republican strategist Sophia Nelson said in the online publication Huffington Post that Palin vowing to work for change "from outside government" was "code for 'I'm running for president.'"

Other analysts wondered if it was a smart political move.

Andrew Halcro, a Republican who ran against Palin in 2006, said he did not think resigning would help her chances.

"If she was trying to transition to the national stage, there was a much better way to do it," he said.

Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer said Palin's future in public life depends on the reason she stepped down.

"If there is any evidence that the decision was a result of political problems or looming scandals, she is done," he said.

"The Republican Party already feels to be in a moment of crisis," after losing the presidency and control of Congress to the Democrats. He noted that in 2008 "she revealed many weaknesses ... limited policy knowledge, association with fringe groups, weak performances on television and more."

Palin faced criticism and ridicule from Republicans and Democrats alike after embarrassing television interviews that raised questions about her knowledge and experience.

During the campaign, the mother of five revealed her unmarried 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant but planned to marry the baby's father. The couple split in March.

Palin was cleared of wrongdoing in an abuse-of-power probe into the firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner.

In May, Palin signed a book deal to tell her own story, for an undisclosed sum, with News Corp's HarperCollins.

Palin established herself as a party outsider by promoting a natural gas pipeline project opposed by Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski. She ran against the governor in 2006, defeated him in the primary, and then won the general election.

The project to ship abundant North Slope gas reserves to U.S. markets has been dimmed by the economic recession and a sharp dip in natural gas prices.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Robert Campbell in Mexico, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Chris Wilson, Jeff Mason in Washington; writing by Doina Chiacu, editing by Jackie Frank and Todd Eastham)

LOWER HELMAND RIVER VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN (Reuters) –
U.S. Marines launched a helicopter assault early on Thursday in the lower Helmand river valley in southern Afghanistan, spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said.

A Reuters correspondent in the valley saw flares in the sky over the town of Nawa, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

Nearly 4,000 Marines and U.S. sailors are taking part in the assault, code-named Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), along with about 650 Afghan troops and police, a Marines press statement said.

"What makes Operation Khanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert and the fact that where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold ..." it quoted Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commanding officer of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, as saying.

The valley of irrigated wheat and opium fields along the Helmand river is largely in the hands of Taliban fighters who have resisted British-led NATO forces for years.

The United States has sent 8,500 Marines to Helmand province in the last two months, the largest wave of a massive buildup of forces that will see the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan rise from 32,000 at the beginning of this year to 68,000 by year's end.

President Barack Obama has declared the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to be the main security threat facing the United States.

Helmand province is one of the Taliban's main heartlands in southern Afghanistan and produces the largest share of the country's opium crop which supplies 90 percent of the world's heroin.

Attacks by Taliban fighters are at their highest levels since the strict Islamists were driven out of Kabul by U.S.-backed Afghan opponents in 2001 after refusing to turn over Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S. and NATO commanders have said they intend to deploy American reinforcements to seize Taliban-held territory in the south in time for Afghanistan to hold a presidential election on August 20.

(Reporting by Peter Graff, editing by Tim Pearce)

The relationship between human and canine has deep roots. Converging archaeological and genetic evidence indicate a time of domestication in the late Upper Paleolithic close to the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary, between 17,000 and 14,000 years ago. Fossil bone morphologies and genetic analysis of current and ancient dog and wolf populations have not yet been able to conclusively determine whether all dogs descend from a single domestication event, or whether dogs were domesticated independently in more than one location. Domesticated dogs may have interbred with local populations of wild wolves on several occasions (a process known in genetics as introgression).

This set up a selective breeding situation that resulted in a strain of wolves having shorter and shorter flight distances, until they were eventually comfortable near humans, having domesticated themselves, so to speak. At that point, they were tolerated by humans, so long as they were also useful, in such ways as catching rats or driving away other predators. In time, other uses, such as hunting, were found for them. The Farm Fox Experiment Evolution of Dogs

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MORONI, Comoros – The lone survivor of a Yemeni jetliner crash, who clung to wreckage for 13 hours before being rescued, lay in a hospital bed with a broken collarbone Wednesday, asking for little — except for a chance to see her mother.
But relatives said 14-year-old Bahia Bakari was too traumatized to be told her mother was feared dead, along with 151 others on board the Yemenia airways flight.
"I have told her that her mother is in the next room," the girl's uncle, Joseph Yousouf, told The Associated Press outside a hospital in this former French colony, where the jetliner was attempting to land in fierce winds before dawn Tuesday when it slammed into the Indian Ocean.
He said the girl was coherent and asking for food.
"They were coming to Comoros for vacation," Yousouf said of Bahia, who lived with her parents and three younger siblings outside Paris. "She was going to be staying with her grandmother."
The girl's father, Kassim Bakari, described his daughter as "fragile" and said she could "barely swim," but still managed to hang on for hours.
Her account of the crash aftermath seemed to indicate others survived the initial impact.
"I spoke to her this afternoon ... and I asked her what happened," Bakari said from his home in a suburb south of Paris. "She said 'Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the water, I could hear people talking, but I couldn't see anyone. I was in the dark, I couldn't see a thing.'"
Bakari fingered his wife Aziza's old passport as he recalled the final moments before she and his daughter boarded the plane in Paris.
"When we arrived at the airport, I kissed both, then my wife turned around, she looked at me and she waved," he said. "That was the last time I saw my wife alive. My daughter... I will see her again I hope, but for my wife it was the last time."
The passengers on the downed plane, an aging Airbus 310, were flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most on board were from Comoros and 66 were French citizens. Severe turbulence was believed to be a factor in the crash, Yemen's embassy in Washington said.
For many, Bahia's survival was nothing short of miraculous.
On Wednesday, more than a dozen people — most of them government officials — crowded into a small room in Moroni's El Maaruf Hospital where Bahia lay curled in a fetal position, covered by a blue blanket.
She was conscious with bruises on her face and gauze bandages on her right elbow and right foot; at one point, she gamely shook the hand of Alain Joyandet, France's minister for international cooperation.
"It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl," Joyandet said of Bahia, who held onto floating debris from 1:30 a.m to 3 p.m. before she was seen by a passing boat, which rescued her.
"She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength," he said. "She is physically out of danger, but she is evidently very traumatized."
Bahia was flown home to Paris late Wednesday aboard a chartered executive jet and was to be taken to a hospital for further treatment, Joyandet said.
French and American recovery crews, meanwhile, continued to search for the plane's black boxes in deep waters off the Comoros after detecting a distress beacon. Officials hope the flight data and cockpit voice recorders will provide clues to the cause of the crash. Once retrieved, they will be taken to France for analysis, Yemenia said.

It was not immediately clear which section of the passenger cabin the girl had been sitting in. But if the plane flew into the water at speed, the impact damage to the fuselage would have been so violent and extensive that no part of the cabin would have been safer than any other, experts said.

Hassan al-Hawthi, the head of maintenance at Yemenia, told reporters Wednesday that air traffic controllers had instructed the pilot to change course because of the strong wind. He said there was no distress call before the crash.

The London-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association said the plane may have been trying to go around for another approach when it hit the sea.

The 9,558-feet long runway at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport on Moroni island is adequate for modern airliners, but is considered a difficult one due to weather conditions and the surrounding hills. Some airlines provide special training to pilots who need to fly in there.

Pilots coming in from the north, as the Yemenia flight was doing, must land their planes visually and don't have any all-weather instrument landing system to help them.

"The field in question is thought of as being challenging, and certain operators consider it a daytime-only airport," said Gideon Ewers of the pilots' association.

Tuesday's crash came two years after aviation officials reported equipment faults with the plane.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA was sending a team of safety investigators, accompanied by advisers from Airbus, to Comoros, an archipelago of three main islands 1,800 miles south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar.

A judicial inquiry headed by three judges was also opened to determine the cause of the crash and those who eventually could be held responsible.

Rescue boats plied the waters north of the main island Wednesday and scores of people gathered on nearby beaches to watch.

"The sea is pretty rough at the present time, the wind is blowing hard and the drift is strong ... The bodies of the victims and the debris are drifting rapidly towards the north," said Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the French military joint staff.

The tragedy prompted an outcry in Comoros, where residents have long complained of a lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.

French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" in the plane's equipment during a 2007 inspection, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said.

European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks but would now face a full investigation amid questions over why passengers were put on another jet in Yemen for the final leg to Comoros.

"We can't accept that a plane is banned from Europe but still allowed to fly in Africa. It's the proof that our world isn't fair and that human beings don't weigh the same depending on which side of the Mediterranean they are," said Gilles Poux, mayor of the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, where Comorans gathered for prayers.

Mohammed Abdul Qader, the Yemenia spokesman and deputy head of civil aviation, said the same plane that crashed had flown to London about a week ago.

Abdul-Khaleq Al-Qadi, chairman of Yemenia's board, said the company has decided to pay families $28,300 for each death.

He added that maintenance was carried out regularly according to high standards.

"The crash has nothing to do with maintenance," he told reporters in San'a, adding that the aircraft received maintenance just two months before the crash under the supervision of an Airbus technical team.

___

Associated Press writers Emmanuel Georges-Picot in Paris, Yoann Guilloux in Saint-Denis de la Reunion, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Ahmed al-Haj in San'a, Yemen contributed to this report.

MORONI, Comoros – The lone survivor of a Yemeni jetliner crash, who clung to wreckage for 13 hours before being rescued, lay in a hospital bed with a broken collarbone Wednesday, asking for little — except for a chance to see her mother.
But relatives said 14-year-old Bahia Bakari was too traumatized to be told her mother was feared dead, along with 151 others on board the Yemenia airways flight.
"I have told her that her mother is in the next room," the girl's uncle, Joseph Yousouf, told The Associated Press outside a hospital in this former French colony, where the jetliner was attempting to land in fierce winds before dawn Tuesday when it slammed into the Indian Ocean.
He said the girl was coherent and asking for food.
"They were coming to Comoros for vacation," Yousouf said of Bahia, who lived with her parents and three younger siblings outside Paris. "She was going to be staying with her grandmother."
The girl's father, Kassim Bakari, described his daughter as "fragile" and said she could "barely swim," but still managed to hang on for hours.
Her account of the crash aftermath seemed to indicate others survived the initial impact.
"I spoke to her this afternoon ... and I asked her what happened," Bakari said from his home in a suburb south of Paris. "She said 'Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the water, I could hear people talking, but I couldn't see anyone. I was in the dark, I couldn't see a thing.'"
Bakari fingered his wife Aziza's old passport as he recalled the final moments before she and his daughter boarded the plane in Paris.
"When we arrived at the airport, I kissed both, then my wife turned around, she looked at me and she waved," he said. "That was the last time I saw my wife alive. My daughter... I will see her again I hope, but for my wife it was the last time."
The passengers on the downed plane, an aging Airbus 310, were flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most on board were from Comoros and 66 were French citizens. Severe turbulence was believed to be a factor in the crash, Yemen's embassy in Washington said.
For many, Bahia's survival was nothing short of miraculous.
On Wednesday, more than a dozen people — most of them government officials — crowded into a small room in Moroni's El Maaruf Hospital where Bahia lay curled in a fetal position, covered by a blue blanket.
She was conscious with bruises on her face and gauze bandages on her right elbow and right foot; at one point, she gamely shook the hand of Alain Joyandet, France's minister for international cooperation.
"It is a true miracle. She is a courageous young girl," Joyandet said of Bahia, who held onto floating debris from 1:30 a.m to 3 p.m. before she was seen by a passing boat, which rescued her.
"She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength," he said. "She is physically out of danger, but she is evidently very traumatized."
Bahia was flown home to Paris late Wednesday aboard a chartered executive jet and was to be taken to a hospital for further treatment, Joyandet said.
French and American recovery crews, meanwhile, continued to search for the plane's black boxes in deep waters off the Comoros after detecting a distress beacon. Officials hope the flight data and cockpit voice recorders will provide clues to the cause of the crash. Once retrieved, they will be taken to France for analysis, Yemenia said.

It was not immediately clear which section of the passenger cabin the girl had been sitting in. But if the plane flew into the water at speed, the impact damage to the fuselage would have been so violent and extensive that no part of the cabin would have been safer than any other, experts said.

Hassan al-Hawthi, the head of maintenance at Yemenia, told reporters Wednesday that air traffic controllers had instructed the pilot to change course because of the strong wind. He said there was no distress call before the crash.

The London-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association said the plane may have been trying to go around for another approach when it hit the sea.

The 9,558-feet long runway at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport on Moroni island is adequate for modern airliners, but is considered a difficult one due to weather conditions and the surrounding hills. Some airlines provide special training to pilots who need to fly in there.

Pilots coming in from the north, as the Yemenia flight was doing, must land their planes visually and don't have any all-weather instrument landing system to help them.

"The field in question is thought of as being challenging, and certain operators consider it a daytime-only airport," said Gideon Ewers of the pilots' association.

Tuesday's crash came two years after aviation officials reported equipment faults with the plane.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA was sending a team of safety investigators, accompanied by advisers from Airbus, to Comoros, an archipelago of three main islands 1,800 miles south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar.

A judicial inquiry headed by three judges was also opened to determine the cause of the crash and those who eventually could be held responsible.

Rescue boats plied the waters north of the main island Wednesday and scores of people gathered on nearby beaches to watch.

"The sea is pretty rough at the present time, the wind is blowing hard and the drift is strong ... The bodies of the victims and the debris are drifting rapidly towards the north," said Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the French military joint staff.

The tragedy prompted an outcry in Comoros, where residents have long complained of a lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.

French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" in the plane's equipment during a 2007 inspection, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said.

European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks but would now face a full investigation amid questions over why passengers were put on another jet in Yemen for the final leg to Comoros.

"We can't accept that a plane is banned from Europe but still allowed to fly in Africa. It's the proof that our world isn't fair and that human beings don't weigh the same depending on which side of the Mediterranean they are," said Gilles Poux, mayor of the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, where Comorans gathered for prayers.

Mohammed Abdul Qader, the Yemenia spokesman and deputy head of civil aviation, said the same plane that crashed had flown to London about a week ago.

Abdul-Khaleq Al-Qadi, chairman of Yemenia's board, said the company has decided to pay families $28,300 for each death.

He added that maintenance was carried out regularly according to high standards.

"The crash has nothing to do with maintenance," he told reporters in San'a, adding that the aircraft received maintenance just two months before the crash under the supervision of an Airbus technical team.

___

Associated Press writers Emmanuel Georges-Picot in Paris, Yoann Guilloux in Saint-Denis de la Reunion, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Ahmed al-Haj in San'a, Yemen contributed to this report.

President Obama is heading into stormy waters. His healthcare plans have stalled on Capitol Hill; he is being faulted for a shaky response to the post-election violence in Iran; his job-approval ratings are dropping; and confidence in his handling of the economy is ebbing. The warning signs are enough to worry Democratic strategists that Obama may be sinking into a trough that will sap his influence just when he needs it most. [See photos of Obama abroad]

Until now, President Obama has enjoyed a honeymoon with the country and the media (although not with opposition Republicans). This was because the supremely articulate, charismatic Obama presented such a contrast to George W. Bush, who remains unpopular. In addition, voters wanted action from their president in tough times, according to Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, and Obama delivered. In fact, he has moved the federal government into a more activist role than it has had under any other president in years, bailing out the financial industry, taking over much of the U.S. auto industry, injecting vast sums of money into the economy, and proposing huge changes in healthcare, energy policy, and other areas of national life. Finally, Obama is very appealing as an individual, which initially boosted his ratings.

But the ground may be shifting. Over the past couple of weeks, Obama has endured a surge of bad news, reversing his momentum. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that one of the major Democratic healthcare proposals being circulated in the Senate would cost an astounding $1 trillion; the estimate for another plan was even larger--$1.6 trillion. This sent legislators scurrying to reduce the price tags, which will in turn cause delays in considering the massive bills this summer and could jeopardize passage in the fall. [Read "Tallying the Bill for Healthcare Reform"]

Another setback came when two powerful insurers' associations announced their opposition to an Obama-backed government health plan that would be in competition with private, employer-sponsored plans. In a letter to senators released this week, America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association wrote, "Regardless of how it is initially structured, a government plan would use its built-in advantages to take over the health insurance market." But Obama told a news conference Tuesday, "The public [government] plan, I think, is an important tool to discipline insurance companies."

Beyond healthcare, unemployment continues to rise, and Obama has conceded that it will probably exceed 10 percent later this summer. The economy remains in a recession, and forecasters say there will be more pain ahead. Overall, Obama's programs have run up the deficit by astronomical margins, at least $1 trillion this year alone. This has sparked criticism that he is breaking the bank, and the public seems increasingly rattled. A Washington Post/ABC News poll this week found that while 65 percent of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, his positive rating has declined by 4 percentage points since April. Only 52 percent say Obama's ballyhooed $787 billion economic stimulus program has succeeded or will succeed, down from 59 percent two months ago. Americans are evenly split, 48 to 48 percent, in approving or disapproving of how Obama is handling the deficit. [Read "Obama's 12 Most Important Decisions"]

"I see his popularity continuing to diminish," says Frank Donatelli, former political director for President Ronald Reagan and current chairman of GOPAC, a conservative political action committee. "He'll come down to a more normal level."

In the most serious foreign crisis of his young presidency, the violent crackdown on protesters after the disputed presidential election in Iran has made Obama seem off balance. At his news conference Tuesday, he finally got tough with his rhetoric. But his critics argue that his response has been weak and that his newfound toughness comes too late to do much good in helping the Iranian reformers who are battling the government. [Read "Obama Walks a Fine Line on Iran"]

Adding to his problems, there has been a noticeable increase in tension between the president and the press corps. At his news conference, reporters were more adversarial than they've been since he took office, and they homed in on topics that made him uncomfortable, such as his response to the abuses in Iran and even his inability to give up smoking. [Read "Obama's Relationship With Media Getting More Adversarial"]

Clearly, some of Obama's luster is wearing off. The question is whether his setbacks will be temporary or mark the start of a long-term decline for his presidency.

--Read "Obama Criticized as Mr. Nice Guy Toward Iran, Congress"

-- Read "Obama's Congressional Friends (and Foes)"

-- Learn About the Members of Obama's Inner Circle

-- See Photos of the Obamas Behind the Scenes

Independent, unsalaried salespeople of multi-level marketing referred to as distributors (associates, independent business owners, franchise owners, sales consultants, consultants, independent agents, etc.), represent the parent company and are rewarded a commission relative to the volume of product sold through each of their independent businesses (organizations).

The 70% rule requires participants to sell 70% of previously purchased inventory before placing new orders with the company. There are however variations in interpretations of this rule. Some attorneys insist that 70% of purchased inventory should be sold to people who are not participants in the business, while many MLM companies allow for self-consumption to be a significant part of the sales of a participant .

Watkins Products

WASHINGTON – The economic downturn appears to be bringing out the worst in some people.
The Federal Trade Commission announced a major crackdown Wednesday on scammers trying to take advantage of people worried about the tough economy by promising jobs that don't exist, get-rich-quick schemes, debt-reduction scams and other phony services.
The biggest case involved a California company called Family Products that marketed alleged get-rich schemes such as "John Beck's Free & Clear Real Estate System." The FTC says the company made bogus claims through DVDs, brochures and national infomercials about the ability to raise cash fast.
In all, more than 600,000 people were duped out of about $300 million, said the agency.
The law enforcement sweep — dubbed "Operation Short Change" — was announced jointly with the Justice Department. The operation included 15 cases from the FTC, and dozens of additional cases brought by Justice and at least 13 states.
These scams, said David Vladeck, head of the commission's consumer protection bureau, "raise people's hopes and then drive them deeper into a hole."
Beverly Steward, 46, fell for one of the scams alleged by the FTC. In her case, the single mother of two in Washington said she was bilked by a company — identified as Job Safety USA — that promised people certifications for a cleaning job.
"I wanted a job," says Steward. "I was desperate."
She answered a newspaper ad and forked over $89. The certifications never came, she said. Neither did a job.
Steward wasn't alone. The FTC says more than 4,000 people fell prey to the scam.
Messages were left for Family Products and Job Safety USA, but not immediately returned.
The government is going to court in many of the cases to halt the operations and seek return of victims' money.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said complaints to his office about these kinds of scams are up 27 percent.
"In the down economy," said Cooper, "the scam artists crawl out from under rocks."
His number-one rule: never pay money up-front.
"If they want money up-front, then they're up to no good," said Cooper.
___
Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov

NEW YORK – American International Group Inc. on Wednesday said it agreed to sell all of its ownership interests in its consumer finance operations in Colombia, the latest in a recent string of asset sales by the embattled insurer to bolster its finances.
New York-based AIG is selling 100 percent of its interests in Inversora Pichincha SA and Interdinco SA to Banco Pichincha CA of Ecuador and other parties. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is subject to conditions including approvals from regulators in Colombia and Ecuador.
Inversora Pichincha offers consumer finance products in Colombia including vehicle financing and personal, student and commercial loans through 19 branches in Colombia.
Wednesday's sale brings to 18 the total number of asset sales AIG has announced since last fall, when the company's near-collapse led the U.S. government to offer the company a financial lifeline. The government now has an 80 percent stake in AIG.
Shares of AIG fell $5.12, or 22 percent, to finish at $18.08 on Wednesday, a day after shareholders at the company's annual meeting approved a 1-for-20 reverse-stock split.

DETROIT (Reuters) –
Auto seating supplier Lear Corp (LEA.N) said on Wednesday it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a reorganization supported by key secured lenders and bondholders and that it had obtained $500 million in bankruptcy financing.

Lear, which had been in talks with its lenders since late June, said in a statement that its board of directors had approved a bankruptcy filing as the "fastest and most effective way" to reduce its debt in the face of slumping global auto demand.

The Southfield, Michigan-based company said its restructuring plan had the support of most of the members of a committee representing its secured lenders and another group representing its bondholders.

Lear said its operations outside the United States and Canada would not be affected by the bankruptcy filing.

Lear had sales of $13.6 billion in 2008. Almost 80 percent of its sales were from auto seats supplied to customers such as General Motors Corp (GMGMQ.PK) and Ford Motor Co (F.N).

The company had warned in March that it might have to file for bankruptcy protection after breaching debt covenants at the end of last year and borrowing all of the $1.2 billion in its main credit facility.

A waiver from lenders on its loan defaults expired on June 30. Lear was also near the end of a 30-day grace period on a $38 million bond interest payment it missed on June 1.

The Obama administration, which made $5 billion available to guarantee receivables GM and Chrysler owed suppliers earlier this year, last month rejected a request by suppliers for up to $10 billion in additional loans.

Suppliers and restructuring advisers have said the lack of new financial assistance would result in a wave of bankruptcies because many auto parts suppliers lack capital to ramp up production to meet expected demand in the current quarter.

(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

Diabetic Supplies

Diabetes mellitus is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually due to a combination of hereditary and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia). Blood glucose levels are controlled by a complex interaction of multiple chemicals and hormones in the body, including the hormone insulin made in the beta cells of the pancreas. Diabetes mellitus refers to the group of diseases that lead to high blood glucose levels due to defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action.

Diabetes develops due to a diminished production of insulin (in type 1) or resistance to its effects (in type 2 and gestational). Both lead to hyperglycaemia, which largely causes the acute signs of diabetes: excessive urine production, resulting compensatory thirst and increased fluid intake, blurred vision, unexplained weight loss, lethargy, and changes in energy metabolism. Monogenic forms, e.g. MODY, constitute 1-5 % of all cases.

On 22 July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station. CCTV footage debunked claims made by the Metropolitan Police in defence of the shooting of an innocent man.

Industrial processes that take place under conditions dangerous for humans are today often supervised by CCTV. These are mainly processes in the chemical industry, the interior of reactors or facilities for manufacture of nuclear fuel. Use of thermographic cameras allow operators to measure the temperature of the processes. The usage of CCTV in such processes is sometimes required by law.

Security Camera Systems

It took the story of one firefighter to expose the tension between fairness and affirmative action.

The nation's four most prominent liberal justices ignored that tension Monday. By consequence, the liberal justices decided that equal outcome should trump equal opportunity, when the two values compete. And in that decision, supported by a chorus of liberal analysts, American liberalism continued decades of thinking that places diversity, not fairness, as its first principle.

In Depth: 7 Firsts in Supreme Court History

In Depth: America's 10 Freest and Least Free States

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white and Hispanic firefighters were unfairly discriminated against when the city of New Haven discarded a promotional exam because no blacks, or not enough minorities in the city’s view, earned a sufficient score to be promoted.

The ruling concludes one of the most widely debated discrimination cases of the past decade. Much of that attention is based on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's involvement in the case. Sotomayor, as an appellate judge, upheld the initial decision siding with New Haven.

In the end, the Court's conservative majority prevailed in yet another 5 to 4 vote. But it's the minority's dissent--a view supported by the Obama administration in its brief submitted to the Court--which stirs up liberalism's ongoing avoidance of affirmative action's "real-world" negative consequences.

The Court's united liberal view on affirmative action carries heightened resonance today. Democrats hope President Obama marks the beginning of an enduring political majority. A primary aim of either party, when seeking sustained dominance, is to shift the Court to their side. Had today's Court been left leaning, liberals should be troubled to know, it would have almost certainly upheld a policy that denied a promotion based on the color of those promoted.

The Ricci case gets to the core of the American ideal of "the pursuit of happiness" as an "inalienable right." This right was most egregiously denied to blacks through slavery. It was not until the 1960s that the nation finally confronted and outlawed discriminatory practices. Affirmative action was instituted to correct past inequality.

Nearly a half-century later, liberalism faces new questions. In the time of the first black president, when white men's unemployment rate increases at twice the rate of black women in this recession, liberal thought has remained hinged to an earlier era.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based on disparate treatment or disparate impact. In 1960s and 1970s America the tension between the two principles was mitigated by the need to right history.

The liberal opinion, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on behalf of all four left-leaning justices, argued Monday that the "purpose" of Title VII's disparate-impact provision "is to ensure that individuals are hired and promoted based on qualifications manifestly necessary" and "do not screen out members of any race."

The liberal justices refused to reckon with instances when the desire for "manifestly necessary" skills creates an unequal racial outcome, as was the case in New Haven.

The conservative majority addressed this tension Monday. It decided New Haven's actions amounted to disparate treatment, what the rest of us call overt discrimination.

An Illiberal Argument

Liberals now find themselves bunkered down beneath illiberal logic. Conventional affirmative action supporters effectively back discrimination for the sake of diversity. The driving role that class and culture play in endemic inequality is ignored. Affirmative action has become an entitlement supported despite consequence or context.

Whites overwhelmingly support a move toward class-based affirmative action that would still disproportionately aid minorities. But liberals remain seemingly vested in defending affirmative action as it was conceived, in a time far different than today.

The liberal opinion on the Ricci case upheld the city's effort to find any means to hold fast to conventional affirmative action. The city, after extended deliberation, decided that it was legal to discard the test results if no one was promoted.

Ginsburg echoed earlier decisions when she wrote that the city policy was "race-neutral in this sense" because "‘[A]ll the test results were discarded, no one was promoted, and firefighters of every race will have [the opportunity] to participate in another selection process to be considered for promotion.'"

The liberal argument feels like the cold legal judgment opposed by Barack Obama, in his criteria for nominating new liberal justices.

"She understands that upholding the rule of law means going beyond legal theory to ensure consistent, fair, common-sense application of the law to real-world facts," the White House wrote when Sotomayor was nominated.

Consider the well known details of the case's lead plaintiff, Frank Ricci. He gave up a second job and spent a third to half of his days studying over a period of months. He paid an acquaintance more than $1,000 to read textbooks onto audiotapes to overcome his dyslexia. He passed the test. Earned the promotion. But he was denied that promotion because diversity took precedent over qualification.

As I wrote in an earlier article on Ricci and concepts of "white male privilege," Ricci personifies the negative impact of so-called "positive discrimination." It's precisely this impact that liberalism must confront. The liberal argument ignored issues of harm, the loss of time or additional income suffered by Ricci and his fellow plaintiffs.

Ginsburg wrote that the majority opinion ignores firefighters' "long history of rank discrimination against African-Americans." It's an important consideration. But Ginsburg ignored the decades of distance from that history.

The liberal opinion goes on to write of the city's "unlikely" desire to exclude white firefighters from promotion because "a fair test"--fair, in this sense, meaning equal outcome--"would undoubtedly result in the addition of white firefighters to the officer ranks."

This line of argument would have us believe that a "fair" system would promote some white applicants who passed the test while denying other white applicants who also passed. Ginsburg argues that the deliberate denial of some white men’s hard-won promotion because of their race is preferable to an inadvertent result in which no members of a minority group passed. This logic may be based on precedent. But it does a disservice to the brave fight for equality that liberals championed for decades.

The Ginsburg argument places disparate impact above disparate treatment. It argues, at best, that subtle discrimination is preferable over its more overt form. This is the inverse of our common hierarchy of justice. Common sense dictates that intentional harm is worse than accidental.

The test was created by a company specializing in employment exams and met legal requirements, such as a review by independent experts. But the liberal argument ignored the quality of the test and focused on the result. This logic is again based on civil rights era precedent and again faulty. It defines quality by demographic outcome. It consequently attempts to uphold the outdated use of quotas in that earlier era.

The city claimed that it trashed the test only because it was afraid of being sued for discrimination by the minority applicants. But practical consequences also matter in law, as Obama has said.

Liberals continue to argue today that affirmative action is the result of employers impeding the progress of minorities. But the Ricci case captures how affirmative action improves the position of minorities often by impeding the progress of whites. And it's the most vulnerable whites who often pay the price of affirmative action, those men who lost blue-collar jobs and know nothing of privilege.

Mistaking Cure for Disease

Sotomayor has commendably acknowledged that affirmative action played a critical role in her admittance to Ivy League universities. And to be sure, diversity has its practical benefits. One needs Spanish speaking social workers or black police officers patrolling black neighborhoods. Whites can be ill served by a homogenous education. But when diversity is emphasized solely for its own sake, the cure becomes the cause rather than the true cause--curing the disease of discrimination.

It has been suggested that New Haven could have certified the test results and found "alternative ways to deal with these issues in the future." Does this mean that every test that does not achieve the desired demographic result should be tossed out?

At some point, in some cases, the liberal argument places diversity above the skill level of a workforce. It is exactly this thinking that contributes to the decades of distance between Democrats and working and middle class whites.

For Sotomayor in particular, her role in the Ricci case is hardly radical. She upheld precedent. So-called "judicial activism" is not a tool exclusive to the right or left. Sotomayor's view on affirmative action was in the mainstream of liberal thought. But on this policy, liberal thought is not in the mainstream.

A Quinnipiac University poll recently detailed the Ricci case and found that seven in ten Americans, including 53 percent of blacks, believed the Court should compel "the city to promote" the firefighters even if no blacks "scored high enough to qualify."

Blacks overwhelmingly support affirmative action. But when given a specific example of the negative side of the policy, even a majority of blacks changed their mind.

Yet the liberal justices hid from these moral issues. The minority opinion sought to stay within the safe confines of precedent. It focused on defending the city's effort to avoid a civil rights lawsuit. The deeper issues that liberal justices ache to confront on other occasions, questions of fairness and equality, went ignored.

Imagine the opposite of the Ricci case. A test is tossed out because not enough whites earned a promotion and too many blacks did. Would liberals support the city's action then?

"We are not unsympathetic to the plaintiffs' expression of frustration," Sotomayor and her fellow appellate justices wrote last year. The Supreme Court liberal justices wrote in their opinion that the firefighters denied a promotion "understandably attract this Court's sympathy."

Sympathy is exhibited not in words but actions. The liberal justices sought sanctuary in the legalese of the case. They argued for the continued use of unequal actions to attain an equal outcome and thereby undercut the roots of liberalism, the right to equal opportunity. Those who once fought for equality, and stood on the shoulders of that fight, are reduced to justifying inequality to combat inequality. In this era of Obama, it's the measure of what remains unchanged that is sometimes most striking.

In Depth: 7 Firsts in Supreme Court History

In Depth: America's 10 Freest and Least Free States

In Depth: 8 Things Americans Believe in 2009

Cap Cana is located in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic known as Juanillo. The site was founded as a new and more ambitious touristic site with contributions from international investors and strategic partners such as Ritz-Carlton, Sotogrande, Donald Trump and many others. The site has a Marina, Large resorts, beaches, and many others. Primarily founded as a site to attract international visitors. The Cap Cana Championship, a Champions Tour golf tournament, is held at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana Villa Rental

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is dispatching top administration officials and Cabinet members on a "rural tour" this summer to explore ways to strengthen rural America.
The tour starts Wednesday in Wattsburg, Pa., where Vice President Joe Biden, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will discuss rural broadband service.
The White House says other events will be held in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. In addition, Vilsack will hold "listening sessions" in other states with local and state elected officials.
Obama says "a healthy American economy depends on a prosperous rural America."
___
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
California prepared on Tuesday to resort to issuing IOUs as the giant but cash-strapped U.S. state struggled to approve a new budget in time for the new fiscal year that begins on Wednesday.

The IOUs, which are notes promising payment to vendors and local agencies, or shutting down some public services, are among measures that California and other states may have to rely on as they contend with staggering budget gaps caused by the U.S. recession.

Several U.S. states are due to start their fiscal years on July 1 with budget talks at an impasse. California, the most populous state, is especially hard hit.

The Golden State, hit by a leap in unemployment and a crash in property values, is suffering its worst tax revenue fall since the Great Depression and faces a $24.3 billion budget deficit.

"It's been a sort of perfect storm, of a very deep recession hitting us and exposing the weakness of depending on revenue sources sensitive to economic cycles," labor lobbyist Barry Broad said.

Fixing the massive budget gap "is going to require pain. That's the only way out of it," added Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger insists on deep spending cuts. But Democrats who run the Legislature want tax increases that Schwarzenegger and fellow Republicans oppose.

GIVING WALL STREET HEARTBURN

Budget talks have ground to a stalemate, forcing State Controller John Chiang to prepare IOUs to be mailed on Thursday.

They would preserve dwindling cash for payments to schools and, just as important since California needs to sell short-term debt, for cash-flow purposes -- once it has a budget agreement.

Chiang plans to issue $3.36 billion in IOUs in July to help California maintain $10.9 billion in normal cash payments during the month, including payments to bondholders.

"The general obligation bonds will be paid," Chiang told Reuters. "California has never defaulted on its debt obligation and we don't plan to do so."

California's budget woes are making Wall Street nervous.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded its rating on the state's general obligation debt and warned it may lower the rating again, citing the state's fiscal and economic stress. The agency cut California's rating by one notch to A-minus, placing it four notches above speculative, or "junk" status, and making it the lowest rating of any U.S. state.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investors Service have also warned there may be downgrades of California's general obligation debt. Moody's has warned the state could see a multi-notch downgrade of its A2 rating. S&P rates $57 billion of the state's outstanding general obligation bonds A.

A MUDDLE IN THE MIDWEST

As California officials readied their IOUs, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland on Tuesday signed a seven-day interim spending plan that buys lawmakers more time to craft a two-year budget.

"It is troubling that Senate Republicans are still refusing to say what they would do to fill the budget gap. Because of this, I have no other option but to sign a temporary budget that only delays the inevitable hard choices before us," Strickland, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Indiana appeared to be on course to avert a government shutdown at midnight. A vote on a compromise budget was heading for a vote on Tuesday, according to John Schorg, a spokesman for Democrats who control the House.

Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has said safety services, such as state police and prisons, will continue to operate should there be a shutdown, while other services would stop.

Illinois lawmakers could send Governor Pat Quinn legislation to sell $2.23 billion of shorter-term general obligation bonds to ease spending cuts in a budget they passed late last month. Proceeds from the bonds would fund part of a fiscal 2010 pension payment, freeing up money in the budget.

But Quinn, who has claimed the Legislature's budget has a $9.2 billion shortfall, appeared to be holding out for a balanced spending plan to avoid drastic cuts in social services spending. He has been pushing for an income tax increase.

Pennsylvania's lawmakers were stuck on Governor Edward Rendell's plan to raise the income tax rate, possibly pushing negotiations past the midnight deadline.

(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and Jon Hurdle in Philadelphia; Editing by Jan Paschal)

In some instances, it could be argued that this is as a natural professional evolution and recognition of the outstanding clinical expertise some nurses have attained over the course of their careers in areas such as wound management.

Similarly the NCNZ caused minor controversy when they gave the title nurse practitioner, thus preventing those with the title from using it. As a nurse practitioner, the nurse must undertake an approved course of study and present a portfolio of evidence to NCNZ for approval. There are now approximately 20 NP's in New Zealand with a smaller number of granted prescribing rights.

Forensic Nursing

MORONI, Comoros – A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it attempted to land amid severe turbulence and howling winds. Officials said a teenage girl was plucked from the sea, the only known survivor.
The crash in waters off this island nation came two years after aviation officials reported equipment faults with the plane, an aging Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a Yemenia airlines flight from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes.
Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
Khaled el-Kaei, the head of Yemenia's public relations office, said a 14-year-old girl survived the crash, and Yemen's embassy in Washington issued a statement saying a young girl was taken to a hospital. It also said five bodies were recovered.
Sgt. Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio that he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water. She couldn't grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so he jumped into the sea, Abdilai said. He said rescuers gave the trembling girl warm water with sugar.
There were earlier statements from officials that a 5-year-old boy survived. El-Kaei said that was not known and the airline had lost contact with its office in Comoros because of bad weather.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But he said winds in excess of 40 miles per hour were pummeling the plane as it was landing in darkness in the early morning hours Tuesday.
Turbulence was believed to be a factor in the crash, Yemen's embassy in Washington said.
"The weather was very bad," Qader said, adding the windy conditions were hampering rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Mohammed Moqbel, a Yemeni pilot who has flown to the Comoros, said the route can be difficult because of the geography and weather.
"The airport is also very poor in terms of equipment," said Moqbel. "They don't have advanced radars to guide planes."
The tragedy — and dwindling hopes that anyone else made it out alive — prompted an outcry in the Comoros, where residents complained of a lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.
The Comoros, a former French colony of 700,000 people, is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about nine miles north of the Comoran coast and 21 miles from the Moroni airport. Searchers encountered an oil slick at the site, the Yemeni Embassy statement said.
French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" in the plane's equipment during a 2007 inspection, French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said on France's i-Tele television Tuesday. He did not elaborate
In Brussels, European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the airline had previously met EU safety checks and was not on their blacklist. But he said a full investigation was being launched amid questions about why the passengers — who originated in Paris — were transferred on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San'a.
An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia since 1999. Airbus said it was sending a team of specialists to the Comoros.

The A310-300 is a twin-engine widebody jet that can seat up to 220 passengers. There are 214 A310s in service worldwide, with 41 operators.

A crisis center was set up at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Many passengers were from the French city of Marseille, home to around 80,000 immigrant Comorans, more even than Comoros' capital of Moroni.

Yemenia has long been a target of criticism for the poor condition of its passenger cabins, with recent passenger complaints about missing or faulty seat belts.

Still, analysts have cautioned against equating the condition of the passenger cabin on any airline with the aircraft's maintenance records.

Yemenia airways has a solid safety record. In 2008 it passed the International Airline Transport Association's operational safety audit, a rigorous set of inspections considered an indication of high quality for any airline.

One problem that does crop up with older aircraft, particularly when a certain model has been discontinued, is the issue of fake replacement parts, experts said.

Airline companies sometimes unwittingly purchase fake parts, which are then put into aircraft by their maintenance crews. Despite rigorous international efforts to root out counterfeit spares in the past decade, they are still believed to be in circulation.

"Pirate spare parts remain a big maintenance problem in aviation," said Capt. Harry Eggerschwiler, chief of operations for the African Civil Aviation Authority. "This is true everywhere in the world and not just in (developing) countries."

Some French Comorans insisted their complaints about the airline's safety weren't heeded by authorities.

Zalifa Youssouf, a member of SOS Voyages, which seeks to improve passenger conditions and safety, told France's i-Tele television that the Comoran community had complained about the flight from San'a to Comoros.

She said the planes were dirty, frequently did not have safety belts and that flight attendants often did not speak French, just Arabic which passengers did not understand. "We felt we were in danger," Youssouf said.

Mohamed Ali, a Comoran who went to Yemenia's headquarters in Paris to try to get more information about the doomed flight, said complaints about safety went unheeded. "Some people stand the whole way to Moroni," he said.

In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were heading home to visit.

Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesman, said a patrol boat and reconnaissance ship were sent to the crash site as well as a military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as medical personnel, he said.

Yemenia airline officials said the 11-member crew was made up of six Yemenis, including the pilot, two Moroccans, an Indonesian, an Ethiopian and a Filipino.

___

Al-Haj contributed to this report from San'a, Yemen. Associated Press writers Deborah Seward, Angela Charlton and Greg Keller in Paris, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Yoann Guilloux in Saint-Denis de la Reunion, Reunion Island, contributed to this report.

Site

A sample of notable puzzle authors includes Sam Loyd, Henry Dudeney, Boris Kordemsky and, more recently, David J. Bodycombe, Will Shortz and Martin Gardner.

The Rubik's Cube and other magic polyhedrons are toys based on puzzles that can be stimulating toys for kids and are a recreational activity for adults. Puzzles can be used to hide or obscure objects. A good example is a puzzle box used to hide jewelry.

Flower Girl Dresses

Dresses increased dramatically to the hoopskirt and crinoline-supported styles of the 1860s; then fullness was draped and drawn to the back by any dresses had a "day" bodice with a high neckline and long sleeves, and an "evening" bodice with a low neckline (decollete) and very short sleeves.

One may usually wear a bra, but for modesty wearing a camisole / vest or full slip is also an option for the top. Dresses are sometimes worn with tights.

The coast and lowlands of the peninsula were still heavily populated with the descendents of the fallen civilization when the Spaniards arrived. Tulum, less than an hour south of Playa, was the last Mayan outpost and there are plenty of small ruins in Playa del Carmen. The Spanish focused their attention around the area of Mérida, where conditions were better for growing henequén (sisal), a fibre used to make rope. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Caribbean coast was considered a savage place with not much to offer for potential settlers.

In October 2005 Hurricane Wilma passed directly over Playa del Carmen, remaining in the vicinity for two days and causing significant damage and a temporary drop in tourist arrivals. Fortunately most of the damage was relatively superficial and repaired within a few weeks of the storm. Hurricane Wilma arrived from the Caribbean sea, passing over Cozumel before making landfall in Playa del Carmen. It then moved north along the Mexican coast, hitting Cancún especially hard.

Playa Del Carmen Condo Rental

http://www.animalhousepets.com/

The cities of Berkeley, California and Boulder, Colorado have passed laws stating that people who have pets do not "own" them; rather, they are the pet's "guardian."

Animal protection advocates call attention to the pet overpopulation "crisis" in the United States. According to the Humane Society of the United States, 3-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized each year in the country and many more are confined to cages in shelters. This crisis is created by nonneutered animals (spayed/castrated) reproducing and people intentionally breeding animals.

Los Angeles CPA

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA. In most U.S. states, only CPAs who are licensed are able to provide to the public attestation (including auditing) opinions on financial statements. The exceptions to this rule are Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio where, although the "CPA" designation is restricted, the practice of auditing is not.

Many states have a lower tier of accountant qualification (below that of CPA), usually entitled "Public Accountant" (with designatory letters "PA"). However the majority of states have closed the designation "Public Accountant" to new entrants, with only about 10 states continuing to offer the designation. Many PAs belong to the National Society of (Public) Accountants. Many states prohibit the use of the designations "Certified Public Accountant" or "Public Accountant" (or the abbreviations "CPA" or "PA") by a person who is not certified as a CPA or PA in that state. As a result, in many circumstances, an out-of-state CPA is restricted from using the CPA designation or designatory letters until a license or certificate from that state is obtained.

http://www.mineeds.com/Los+Angeles-California-Services/Lawyers-Attorneys

In modern times, Sharia is merely an optional supplement to the civil or common law of most countries, though Saudi Arabia and Iran's whole legal systems source their law in Sharia. During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics.[61]

A judiciary is a group of judges who mediate people's disputes and determine the outcome. Most countries have a system of appeals courts, up to a supreme authority. In the U.S.A., this is the Supreme Court;[107] in Australia, the High Court; in the UK, the House of Lords;[108] in Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht; in France, the Cour de Cassation.[109] However, for most European countries the European Court of Justice[110] in Luxembourg may overrule national law, where EU law is relevant. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg allows citizens of the Council of Europe member states to bring cases to it concerning human rights issues.

LONDON – The promoter who booked Michael Jackson for a sold-out comeback tour says a tribute show based on his canceled concerts is likely.
Randy Phillips, chief executive of promoter AEG Live, told Britain's Sky News television on Tuesday that the "world needs to see" the production Jackson had been working on.
He says members of the Jackson family, and other world music stars, could take part in a tribute show using routines and sets already created for the scrapped tour.
Phillips says he believes Jackson's comeback would have been one of the best arena shows ever produced. He says a video of Jackson's rehearsals for the tour does exist.
He says Jackson said he believed he was ready for the 50 sold-out performances at London's O2 arena.

LOS ANGELES – George Clooney has lined up a new home for his production company.
Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov's Smoke House Pictures is in final negotiations on a two-year development and production deal with Sony Pictures, studio Co-Chairwoman Amy Pascal said Tuesday.
For many years, Clooney had been set up at Warner Bros., first with his Section Eight partnership with Steven Soderbergh and later with Smoke House. Clooney said he felt like "part of a family" at Warner.
"I'm leaving a terrific company and a lot of dear friends. They're a class act," said Clooney, 48, who called Sony a "perfect match" for Smoke House. "Grant Heslov and I hope to deliver the kind of films that will make them proud."
While at Warner, Clooney won a supporting-actor Academy Award for "Syriana" and had a best-director nomination the same year for "Good Night, and Good Luck," which Heslov produced.
Smoke House still has half a dozen projects in development at Warner Bros. that will remain there. Future Clooney and Heslov projects will be developed at Sony.
"We couldn't be more excited to be in business with them," Pascal said. "The broad range of quality projects they have championed and the compelling and sometimes provocative material they support says everything about their company and their creative aspirations."

Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance), motion in inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or genres. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while martial arts kata are often compared to dances.

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.

Ladies Latin Shoes

Leather Handbags

In American English, a purse is a small bag, also called a handbag or a pocketbook.

Purses are usually carried by women, though men sometimes carry one as a smaller alternative to a backpack; such a purse is sometimes termed a murse or manbag (portmanteaus "man" with "purse" and "handbag" respectively). It can also be called a man-purse. Such bags are often similar or identical to messenger bags. Smaller children also use purses, but usually just for show. Kiefer Sutherland, of 24 fame, brought the man-purse into the main stream through his character, Jack Bauer. Jack frequently prominently carried his messenger bag with him in the 5th Season.