Kerry: $4b Palestinian economic plan could work

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all shake hands during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all shake hands during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli President Shimon Peres, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, participate in the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Center at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas share words the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)

SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he believes a plan potentially worth $4 billion is emerging that could expand the Palestinian economy by up to 50 percent in the next three years.

It could also cut unemployment by almost two-thirds and average wages could jump 40 percent, he said. But Kerry said it all depends on parallel progress on peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Kerry has been working with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and global business leaders to devise economic plans to revitalize the Palestinian economy. There were few specific details offered.

Kerry spoke at a business conference in Jordan alongside Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Kerry called the plan "transformative" and "different than anything we've done before."

He was to meet later Sunday in Amman with Blair, American hedge fund investor Tim Collins and the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

The plan is expected to address tourism, construction, light manufacturing, agriculture and communications opportunities.

Kerry said Palestinian agriculture production could double or triple. Tourism could triple, and 100,000 new homes, many of them energy efficient, could be built in the next three years.

Kerry acknowledged the plan offers a very optimistic vision for a region that has suffered through decades of conflict, and where peace prospects remain dim.

But he insisted: "We know it can be done."

He said Netanyahu and Abbas support the plan. He said economic plans won't take hold unless Israel and the Palestinians make headway on restarting peace talks, however.

Kerry has been trying over the last two months to rejuvenate the peace process. He hasn't made any tangible success so far, but insists he is engaged in productive talks with both sides.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-26-US-Mideast/id-b0421786b03b47b6afa8947d7bb814c0

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?I?d Buy Them Drinks? ? Haley Barbour Explains Why He?d Rather Support Less-Conservative Republicans Than Lose Elections

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, whose been active in conservative politics for going on five decades, called the infighting among Republicans "the enemy of victory."

In an interview with TheBlaze contributor Mallory Factor, Barbour lamented?that some conservative organizations are spending too much money trying to beat Republicans in primaries, resulting in Democrats winning the seats in the general election.

"That's bad for our country, I would rather have Olympia Snowe today than Angus King. I mean, I would celebrate, I'd buy them drinks if we could have her back compared to left-wing 'independent' who took her place," Barbour said in a video interview (below). ?"Purity in politics is the enemy of victory."?

Barbour said Republicans must put the most emphasis on what they have in common, and manage the differences.

"When you go out and say 'look here's a guy who's a?lock-synch?to get reelected,' and you say 'well he isn't perfect so we're going to beat him in the primary,' and you turn out losing the seats to the Democrats, at least admit you?shouldn't?have done it."

When questioned by Factor about supporting 'Republicans In Name Only,' the former RNC chairman said he was more than willing to support the most conservative Republicans in liberal areas like Jim Jeffords in Vermont, who upon leaving the Senate was replaced by a self-described socialist. Barbour?emphasized that?recent Republican candidates or incumbents he supported like Mike Castle in Delaware and Dick Luger in Indiana,?who were defeated in the primaries, would have been "so much better" than the left-wing Democrats who took those seats in the general election.

Referring back to his former boss, President Ronald Reagan, Barbour said "at the end of the day he never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, he never allowed us to be foiled on getting really good legislation that did good things for the country because it wasn't exactly what he wanted."

Barbour has been active in Republican politics going on five decades, serving roles on Republican presidential campaigns, in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, as RNC chairman during the 1994 Republican revolution, ?two terms as Governor of Mississippi, and Chairman of the Republican Governors Association.?

In the interview at TheBlaze newsroom in New York, Barbour also?discussed his?work on immigration reform with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

"I think immigration reform is really important if we're going to have economic growth," Barbour?said. "We're in a global battle for capitol of labor, we need to win that battle, but our immigration reform is making it harder."

Major keys for immigration policy for Barbour include bringing more workers into the country from both ends of the skill spectrum to improve the economy, in addition to giving the American people total confidence that the border will be secured.

Barbour told Factor the border can be controlled, and "if it can't we're a failure as a nation."

That said, he?doesn't?think there is anything easy about passing any immigration reform bill without compromise. Barbour alleges that President Obama has kept immigration reform an issue for political purposes, while the GOP has made mistakes damaging their?credibility?on the issue, like Mitt Romney's "self-deportation" comment during the Republican primary debates.

Looking at the shockingly high number of Hispanics, but also Asian-Americans and Indian-Americans who supported Obama, Barbour says?there can only be one explanation.

"They had the feeling 'they don't want me here.' Well, we do want those people here, they contribute to our economy, ?they contribute to our schools, they contribute to our communities."

Watch Barbour's full interview here:

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/d-buy-them-drinks-haley-barbour-explains-why-001613760.html

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Visa, Mastercard ask U.S. court to declare card fees are lawful

By Jessica Dye

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, opening another front in an eight-year battle over credit card fees paid by retailers, on Friday asked a federal judge to declare that the fees do not violate antitrust law.

The lawsuit seeks to give the card companies legal ammunition against some retailers who are trying to opt out a proposed settlement under which they would receive a share of $7.2 billion in cash and fee discounts from the card companies.

The complaint filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court by the credit card giants and a number of banks that issue their cards asks U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to declare that interchange, or swipe, fees are lawful and pro-competitive.

On Thursday, Target Corp and other retailers, including JC Penney and Kohl's, broke away from the pact. The retailers filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against the credit card companies alleging past antitrust violations and seeking damages.

The proposed settlement would end eight years of litigation by merchants who accused Visa and Mastercard of inflating swipe fees.

Friday's complaint was brought against retailers and trade groups who were named plaintiffs in the swipe fee litigation, but later opted out. If Gleeson rules that the swipe fees do not violate antitrust law, it could prevent them from pursuing separate damage actions.

It could also affect the ability of other retailers who opt out to seek damages over swipe fees.

"A declaration in plaintiffs' favor against the defendants is necessary to prevent the continuation of endless, wasteful litigation between defendants and plaintiffs," the complaint on Friday said.

The motion from the card companies is the latest volley in a fierce legal fight over the settlement, which Gleeson preliminarily approved in November. If granted final approval, it would be the largest private antitrust settlement in U.S. history.

On Tuesday, Wal-Mart and 18 other major retailers said they would opt out of receiving damages from the proposed settlement and consider separate legal action. They say the pact offers inadequate compensation for the billions of dollars they pay each year in interchange fees and forces them to sign broad litigation releases that could shield Visa and Mastercard from future lawsuits over antitrust violations.

May 28 is the deadline for nearly 8 million merchants to decide whether to opt out of receiving monetary damages from the settlement.

Visa and Mastercard, as well as lawyers for merchants that support the deal, have said they are confident the settlement will be approved.

"Enough is enough - this battle needs to be put to bed," Trish Wexler, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, a trade group representing the payment card industry, said Friday in a statement responding to the filing.

If merchants that account for 25 percent or more of credit-card volume opt out of receiving damages, Visa and Mastercard have the option of terminating the proposed settlement.

A lawyer representing some of the merchants and trade groups that have opted out of the settlement, Jeff Shinder, declined to immediately comment on the filing.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/visa-mastercard-ask-u-court-declare-card-fees-214008923.html

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?Fast & Furious 6? Nearly Overheats | Triangle Arts and Entertainment

?The Fast and the Furious? franchise began as an homage to B-movies of old that centered around street racing and hot rods, becoming a sleeper hit for Universal. That was back in 2001. Twelve years and five sequels later, the ?Fast? franchise is still humming along, with ?Fast 5? being the best in the series since the original. The gang is all back for what the credits call ?Furious 6,? but how does it stack up to the mayhem and fun of its predecessor?

At the end of ?Fast 5,? the characters had pulled off the heist of a lifetime in Rio, each of them driving off into the sunset with ten million dollars. Now, things are personal, as Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), the FBI agent formerly on their trail, needs their help to take down an international thief whose accomplice is none other than Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), the former flame of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). She supposedly died in the fourth film, ?Fast & Furious,? but much like soap operas, death can?t stop a character from living. In exchange for full pardons, Dom, Brian (Paul Walker) and the rest of the crew from the other ?Fast? films convene in London to take down this criminal mastermind, played by Luke Evans.

After some hiccups along the way, the ?Fast? franchise has molded itself into a finely tuned machine, focusing on what the audiences want most: vehicular warfare. ?Fast 5? worked so well because the formula was tweaked into a heist film, making it a fun, low rent version of ?Ocean?s Eleven? with cars. ?Furious 6? returns to the kind of film the others were, capping off a sort of trilogy that began with ?Fast 4.? Making things business as usual leaves the story somewhat lacking, with scenes that tread water, especially at the beginning. To compensate, ?Furious 6? features some of the biggest action to date in the series, with cars designed to make other cars fly through the air, people jumping across bridges from car to car and, not to be outdone, also from a moving cargo jet to a moving car. The whole thing is just a little too over the top, especially for a purist like me who longs for the non-CGI car chases of old featured in ?The French Connection? and ?The Road Warrior.? Few things are as viscerally exciting as a car chase, with one wrong turn resulting in chaos, but something about CGI car chases kill that sense of danger.

The huge action setpieces are entertaining, but the ?Fast? series has veered directly into cartoon land. Everyone is more super human than human, especially Hobbs, who can throw people his own size up into the ceiling like they were stuffed dolls. Even funnier, Hobbs and Dom seem to be competing in a man-off in the scenes they share, with Johnson holding his arms out like they?re so big he can?t keep them by his side. That?s on top of the oil that makes his muscles nice and shiny. Dom, despite being a millionaire now, still traipses around in wife beaters, presumably so he can also show off his massive arms and teach Johnson that he isn?t the only one in the movie who knows how to lift a weight or two.

All of the over-the-top shenanigans aside, ?Furious 6? is a fun summer blockbuster, featuring everything one could hope for in not only an action movie, but a ?Fast? movie. Sure, it doesn?t compare to some of the better entries in the series, but the film is miles better than the worst movies in the series, like ?Tokyo Drift.? Even better is the post-credits sequence, which makes the promise of ?Fast 7? more exciting than anything in ?Furious 6.?

Tagged as: cars, fast 6, fast and furious, Film, furious 6, jordana brewster, london, ludacris, michelle rodriguez, movies, paul walker, tyrese, vin diesel

Source: http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/2013/05/fast-furious-6-nearly-overheats/

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NTSB: Bridge collapse in Washington is wake-up call

SEATTLE (AP) ? The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday the bridge collapse in Washington state is a wake-up call for the nation.

"This is a really significant event and we need to learn from it, not just in Washington but around the country," Debbie Hersman said after taking a boat ride on the Skagit River below the dramatic scene where a truck bumped against the steel framework, collapsing the bridge and sending two vehicles and three people falling into the chilly water.

Investigators need to find out what happened in Washington and if it could be repeated at similar bridges around the country, Hersman said.

"At the end of the day it's about preventing an accident like this," she said.

Her team will spend a week to 10 days looking at the bridge, talking to the truck driver whose vehicle hit it, and examining maintenance documents and previous accident reports.

Other over-height vehicles struck the Skagit River bridge before the collapse on Thursday, she noted. Investigators are using a high tech 3-D video camera to review the scene and attempt to pinpoint where the bridge failure began.

Hersman does not expect the investigation to delay removal of debris from the river or work on a temporary solution to replace or repair the I-5 span. State and federal officials can, and will, work together on the investigation, she said.

They'll be watching for safety issues that could affect other bridges.

"The results can be very catastrophic," Hersman said. "We're very fortunate in this situation."

Washington state officials said Saturday that it will take time to find both short- and long-term fixes for the bridge that collapsed on Interstate 5.

While, the National Transportation and Safety Board finishes its inspection, state workers will begin removing debris from the river. Next, a temporary solution will be put in place to return traffic to Washington state's most important north-south roadway.

Inspectors are working to find out whether the disintegration on Thursday of the heavily used span over the Skagit River, 60 miles north of Seattle and 40 miles south of the Canadian border, was a fluke or a sign of bigger problems.

"These things take time. We want to make sure it's done right, done thoroughly," Washington Transportation Department spokesman Bart Treece said.

A trucker was hauling a load of drilling equipment Thursday evening when his load bumped against the steel framework over the bridge. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw the span collapse into the water behind him.

Motorists should not expect to drive on I-5 between Mount Vernon and Burlington for many weeks and possibly months, Treece said.

Treece asked people to plan for an extra hour to make their way through detours around the collapsed bridge. There are three detour options northbound and two options southbound.

About 71,000 vehicles use that stretch of highway every day. Late Saturday morning, traffic was moving freely through the detours.

"We're expecting it to get worse as the day progresses," Treece said, noting that at 11 a.m., the cloudy skies and cool weather could be keeping Memorial Day weekend travelers at home.

State transportation officials began working on both a temporary solution and a permanent fix within hours of the bridge collapse, he said.

The goal is to get I-5 open as quickly as possible, while making sure the solution is as safe as possible, he added.

Officials were looking for a temporary, pre-fabricated bridge to replace the 160-foot section that failed, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday. That option could be in place in weeks. Otherwise, it could be months before a replacement can be built, the governor said.

Inslee said it will cost $15 million to repair the bridge. The federal government has promised $1 million in emergency dollars and more money could come later, according to Washington's congressional delegation.

State officials approved Mullen Trucking in Alberta to carry a load as high as 15 feet, 9 inches, according to the permit released by the state. However, the southbound vertical clearance on the Skagit River bridge is as little as 14 feet, 5 inches, state records show. That lowest clearance is outside of the bridge's vehicle traveling lanes, Transportation Department communications director Lars Erickson said Friday. The bridge's curved overhead girders are higher in the center of the bridge but sweep lower toward a driver's right side.

The bridge has a maximum clearance of about 17 feet, but there is no signage to indicate how to safely navigate the bridge with a tall load.

At a news conference later Saturday, Hersman said Washington state does not require signage unless the clearance is 14 feet, 4 inches or less.

The permit specifically describes the route the truck would take, though it includes a qualification that the state "Does Not Guarantee Height Clearance."

____

Contact Donna Blankinship at https://twitter.com/dgblankinship.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ntsb-bridge-collapse-wash-wake-call-205257926.html

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Breakthrough on Huntington's disease

May 23, 2013 ? Researchers at Lund University have succeeded in preventing very early symptoms of Huntington's disease, depression and anxiety, by deactivating the mutated huntingtin protein in the brains of mice.

"We are the first to show that it is possible to prevent the depression symptoms of Huntington's disease by deactivating the diseased protein in nerve cell populations in the hypothalamus in the brain. This is hugely exciting and bears out our previous hypotheses," explains ?sa Peters?n, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Lund University.

Huntington's is a debilitating disease for which there is still neither cure nor sufficient treatment. The dance-like movements that characterise the disease have long been the focus for researchers, but the emotional problems affect the patient earlier than the motor symptoms. These are now believed to stem from a different part of the brain -- the small emotional centre called the hypothalamus.

"Now that we have been able to show in animal experiments that depression and anxiety occur very early in Huntington's disease, we want to identify more specifically which nerve cells in the hypothalamus are critical in the development of these symptoms. In the long run, this gives us better opportunities to develop more accurate treatments that can attack the mutated huntingtin where it does the most damage," says ?sa Peters?n.

As the role of the hypothalamus in Huntington's disease is gradually mapped, knowledge might be gained from drug research for other psychiatric diseases. It is likely that similar mechanisms control different types of depression, according to ?sa Peters?n.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Lund University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. S. Hult Lundh, N. Nilsson, R. Soylu, D. Kirik, A. Petersen. Hypothalamic expression of mutant huntingtin contributes to the development of depressive-like behavior in the BAC transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease. Human Molecular Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddt203

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/depression/~3/QU3HtivhR7M/130523082927.htm

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Apple drops prices on refurbished iPad mini and iPad 4

Apple has lowered the prices of refurbished versions of the iPad Mini and iPad 4. The discounts hover around 15% off the original price, with the 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad mini starting at $279, and the 32GB and 64GB models starting at $359 and $439, respectively. These refurbished models had previously been available for $299, $389, and $489. The cellular models each go for $389, $469, $549, down from $429, $519, and $619.

Likewise, the iPad 4 models available also received price cuts. Starting with the 16GB version, prices for the Wi-Fi-only model are $419, $499, $579, from $449, $549, and $649. The refurbished cellular models come in at $529, $609, $689, coming down from $579, $679, and $779. A refurbished 128GB model is not available.

Apple notes that all refurbished iPads come with a brand new battery and outer shell. If you have been waiting for lower prices on either the iPad Mini or the iPad 4, now is a great time to get them.

Source: Apple, via MacRumors

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/atc5O3qJuNk/story01.htm

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