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October 2009

Clinton: Stronger efforts needed for Mideast peace

Mon, 10/26/2009 - 16:54 — admin

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's hopes for a fast track to renewed Mideast peace talks were dashed Thursday when his chief diplomat reported few new steps by either Israelis or Palestinians toward negotiations.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Obama Thursday in the Oval Office to report little to no new progress in a status report he had asked for by mid-October.
Clinton advised the president that challenges remain before peace talks can resume, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss a private conversation with the president.
Clinton reported that Palestinians have strengthened security efforts and reforms of Palestinian institutions, but that more needs to be done to prevent terror and end incitement, meaning they must stop those who carry out or even encourage attacks on Israel.
On the Israeli side, she said they have eased Palestinians' freedom of movement and expressed a willingness to curtail the building of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas. The administration, however, like the Palestinians, are asking for an end to all new settlement construction — something on which the Israelis are not budging. Clinton said the Israelis also must do more to improve Palestinians' daily lives.
Last month in New York, Obama held a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, hoping it would prod them to relaunch talks that broke off more than a year ago. In an indication that no progress has been made since, Obama's assessment of the situation at the time was virtually identical to the description in Clinton's report Thursday on what steps the two sides have made and still need to take.
The president walked away from that meeting in September with no more than a handshake between the two Mideast leaders. He tasked George Mitchell, his envoy to the region, to continue meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also asked Clinton to report back on the status of all sides' efforts in mid-October, in the belief that setting a deadline could spur action.
Mitchell recently wrapped up the latest round of what the official described as "intensive" talks in Washington and in the region with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. He is due to return to the Mideast soon to continue.
Clinton told the president that Israelis must translate their willingness on settlements into "real, meaningful action" — a continuation of particularly strident rhetoric by the Obama administration toward Israel on the emotional issue.
A senior State Department official said Mitchell has made some inroads in getting the two sides to agree on the terms of reference to relaunch the talks, but that they were far from an agreement. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to detail Mitchell's meetings.
Clinton also was expected to discuss the issue with Arab foreign ministers in Morocco early next month.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Wrought Iron Gates

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 15:07 — admin

Wrought Iron Gates

Ownership of the fence varies. In some parts of the country all boundaries are shared; in other parts of the country you may own the boundary on the left-hand or right-hand side, however, only the title deeds can be depended on to tell you which side is yours. (A 'T' symbol indicates who is the owner). It used to be normal for the cladding to be on the non-owners side (enabling access to the posts for the owner when repairs need doing), but increasingly this cannot be depended on.

Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's property, including the front border, with a gate to obtain access to the property. However, in many parts of North America, fences are commonly used only on the borders between properties that back onto each other (on the side away from the street) and along the sides of properties up to the point where the house begins. Such fences are often made of chainlink and do not prevent people from seeing into neighboring yards. They may be intended to mark property lines or to keep dogs in, or out of, yards. The front yards in such neighborhoods are often open to the street.

Park Benches

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 10:31 — admin

Park Benches

A bench is a piece of furniture, which mostly offers several persons seating. As a rule, benches are made of wood, but one can also find stone benches and benches made of synthetic materials. Many benches have arm rests. In public areas, benches are often donated by persons or associations, which may then be indicated on it, e.g. by a small copper plaque.

Often benches are simply called after the place they are used, regardless whether this implies a specific design Garden benches are very similar to public park benches set outdoors, but the former offer usually only two or three -, the latter mostly up to five persons sitting places. Picnic tables, or catering buffet tables have long benches as well as a table. These tables may have table legs which are collapsible, in order to expedite transport and storage. Church pews inside places of worship are equipped with an additional kneeling bench.

Christian Singles

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 07:46 — admin

Christian Singles

Group dating and Social Dating are also trends.

Psychologists have suggested that all humans have a basic, motivational drive to form and maintain caring interpersonal relationships. According to this view, people need both stable relationships and satisfying interactions with the people in those relationships. If either of these two ingredients is missing, people will begin to feel anxious, lonely, depressed, and unhappy.

Father of Anna Nicole's daughter due to testify

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 06:41 — admin

LOS ANGELES – Larry Birkhead, who gained fame in a custody battle over Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, was due to testify in the preliminary hearing for two doctors and the man who once fought him for custody of little Dannielynn.
Howard K. Stern, the boyfriend-lawyer who claimed he was the baby's father, lost that battle when Birkhead proved by DNA evidence that the little girl was his. Now Stern sits in the defendant's chair before a judge who will decide if he and the two doctors must stand trial in Smith's drug overdose death.
Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Stern are not charged with killing her but with conspiring to illegally provide her with controlled substances.
In testimony by Smith's former bodyguard, Stern was portrayed as a devoted companion to the celebrity model who went through a "commitment ceremony" with her five months before she died.
Witness Maurice Brighthaupt said he was present at the ceremony on a boat off the Bahamas on Sept. 28, 2006, the same month that Smith gave birth to her baby and saw her only son Daniel die.
"It was a unification through the eyes of God is how they put it," Brighthaupt said.
But Brighthaupt also offered damaging testimony against both Stern and Eroshevich saying he witnessed them injecting Smith with medication. It was the first time he has made such an allegation and Stern's attorney Steve Sadow attacked his account as false. He showed that Brighthaupt had given different stories to cable TV outlets after Smith's death in return for payments of $150,000 for his interviews.
Brighthaupt, who spent two full days on the witness stand, was to wind up his testimony Friday morning before Birkhead was due on the witness stand.
He has not commented on Birkhead's role in Smith's life except to say that he was with Smith in May of 2004 when she met Birkhead at the Kentucky Derby and began dating him.
Sadow indicated outside court he was looking forward to Birkhead's testimony.
"I think Larry's going to do his best to tell the truth," said Sadow. "If he does, he'll be very helpful to Howard."
Under Sadow's cross-examination, Brighthaupt said that many of the things he told his TV interviewers were lies, crafted to protect Smith's reputation. Among them was his statement that he never saw her take illicit drugs and never saw the drug methadone in her house. He also said then that Smith was in control of everything including decisions about her medication. He said now that was a lie.
"I had a lot of time to think about everything I said in the past and I'm trying to rectify everything now," he said.
He also acknowledged he had tried to sell a book on the case but the publisher rejected his manuscript calling it "too boring."
Thursday's court session was marked by Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry's decision to bar the prosecution from inquiring about an alleged sexual relationship between Smith and Eroshevich who had been her longtime psychiatrist and friend.
"This is a preliminary hearing," Perry told the prosecutors. "It's not a trial. It's to determine if there's probable cause for a trial. I'm just not going to turn this into some circus sideshow."
Perry said the issue could be raised again at trial before another judge, who could then rule on its relevance.
Outside court, attorney Adam Braun, who represents Eroshevich, called the sexual allegation a distraction and said the judge made the right call in barring the testimony.

Search warrants executed in the case and released a few weeks ago described photos of Smith and Eroshevich in a bathtub in a sexual situation.

Brighthaupt offered no testimony against Kapoor and said he had not heard of him. Kapoor's lawyer asked him no questions.

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Associated Press writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

David Letterman extortion suspect threatened to write book

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 01:31 — admin

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
A television producer charged with attempting to extort $2 million from U.S. talk-show host David Letterman threatened to write a book about the TV star's affairs with employees, court documents showed on Thursday.

A Connecticut judge ordered the release of law enforcement affidavits and a list of evidence taken from the home of Joe Halderman, a producer for CBS news show "48 Hours" who is charged with attempted grand larceny in the case.

According to one affidavit, Halderman told Letterman's lawyers in a meeting at a Manhattan hotel that he planned to "write the book and publicize the information" if he was not paid. He was arrested later after depositing a phony $2 million check into his bank account.

Photographs, a letter, video and audio tapes, a computer hard drive and other items were removed from Halderman's Norwalk, Connecticut home, according to court documents.

Earlier this month, Letterman, 62, admitted on his "Late Show with David Letterman" he had sex with women who worked on the program. He told his audience he went to officials after receiving a package threatening to reveal details.

Prosecutors said Halderman appeared at Letterman's Manhattan home on September 9 and left a package in the comedian's car with a one-page screenplay outlining the affairs and a letter demanding "a large chunk of money."

Halderman has pleaded innocent to the charges.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)



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