Helle Ib: Pinslerne fortsætter i Masochistisk Folkeparti

Det siges, at Jehovas Vidner har en samling ældste – en gruppe tilsynsførende, der registrerer og støtter medlemmerne i at holde sig på dydens smalle sti. Dvs. afstå fra utroskab, hasard, blodtransfusioner og andre gerninger i strid med troen. Måske det er herfra, visse SF-medlemmer har hentet inspiration til forslaget om, at den unge skatteminister Thor Möger Pedersen (SF) skal have en bisidder, når regeringen indleder forhandlinger om næste års finanslov.

This Android Robot Is Controlled by Your Phone

Love robots? Have an Android phone? Have we got the thing for you. Meet BERO, and Google Android-inspired robot that is controlled by an app on your Android phone or tablet.

Originally inspired by the Google Bug Droid at Maker Faire, the open-source robot can be programmed to do virtually anything you want, with a fully programmable and customizable interface. Robots can be voice activated, and can be programmed to react to smartphone notifications.

Out of the box BERO comes with software so it can play your favorite tunes, and dance to the music with “realistic” dance moves such as head turns, arm waves, and side-to-side poses. Headphones on the top of the robot will also light up to match the beatof whatever tunes you’re playing.

SEE ALSO: This Robot Will Out-Dance You [VIDEO]

For getting around, BERO utilizes two infrared transmitters for navigation that allow the robot to detect obstacles up to 3-5 inches to the left, right and front. Users can interact with BERO and have the robot interact back with the user.

The project launched Tuesday currently on Kickstarter with a number of different BERO options available ranging from a non-functional desk model to a special fully-functional gold-plated limited edition only for Kickstarter backers.

BERO is expected to start shipping in late November 2013. Initially only capable of working with Android phones and tablets, plans are in the works to add iOS compatibility in the future as well as Twitter and MP3 functionality.

Reuters People News Summary

Following is a summary of current people news briefs.

Pioneering comedian Phyllis Diller dies at age 95

Comedian Phyllis Diller, the former
housewife whose raucous cackle and jokes about her own looks
made her one of America's first female stand-up comedy stars,
died in her sleep on Monday at age 95, her longtime manager
said. Diller was found in her bed at her home in the affluent
Brentwood section of Los Angeles by her son, Perry, who had
come to visit her, manager Milt Suchin said.

Rihanna admits she still loves Chris Brown

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than three years after being
beaten up by then-boyfriend Chris Brown, R&B singer Rihanna has
admitted that she still loves him, calling Brown possibly ``the
love of my life.'' The ``Umbrella'' singer told Oprah Winfrey in a
television interview broadcast on Sunday that she and Brown,
23, had rebuilt their trust and now had a ``very close
friendship.''

Rosie O'Donnell says ``lucky to be here'' after heart attack

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian and talk show host Rosie

Jordan vs LeBron James: The Greatest of All Time?

There has been recent debate lately ever since team USA won gold and that is has LeBron James taken the torch from Michael Jordan as the best player of all

time? There’s no question that LeBron is the best basketball player on the planet right now, but that sure does not make him the best of all time. LeBron

may be able to reach that title, but the matter of the fact is that comparing anybody to the great Michael Jordan it has to be compared by the number of

rings they have at the end of their career.

I know it must be exciting to win gold for our country and the person on that team was LeBron James, so automatically people have ranked him the best player

of all time. I guess people have forgotten about Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and the one that’s still playing Kobe Bryant.

There is nothing wrong in comparing LeBron to Jordan because if you think about it they are very similar in many ways.

Michael won his first NBA Title at the age of 28 and LeBron won his first title at the age of 27 a year younger than Michael was. However, it took MJ seven

seasons to win that first one and took James nine years, so if you look at it LeBron James should be on his way to win at least five more since Jordan won

his first title around the same age as LeBron is now.

The one thing that may hurt LeBron to take the best player of all time title away from MJ and that’s him going to another team. A team that has a Dwyane

Wade and a Chris Bosh which may not go well for people to name LeBron the greatest of all time. Yes, James did leave in a way that wasn’t acceptable by

pretty much everybody and that made him a villain until he won the NBA Title this past season. LeBron was a free agent and he had every right as any free

agent has to join a team that he seemed that he had a better chance to win a ring.

Trust me if Michael, Magic, Kareem, Larry and Kobe were on a team like LeBron was with in Cleveland all of them would have taken the advantage of free agency

to join another team that puts them in a better chance in winning a NBA Title. The fact is that all of those players were already on a great team. Magic came

to a Lakers team that already had Kareem and Kareem wasn’t going to leave once he learned that Magic was the guy to help him win multiple titles. Kobe had

Shaq and Phil Jackson as a coach, so Kobe isn’t going to leave. Larry had Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson and with Larry’s talent he wasn’t going to leave

that team. As for Michael he was not on a great team when he came to the Bulls. The Bulls did not have the great players to put around Michael until Scottie

Pippen was drafted in 1987 and got Phil Jackson as their head coach in 1989 and we all know what happened in the 1990′s with Michael taking the Bulls to six

NBA Championships

The Cleveland Cavaliers never put the right keys around LeBron that’s why he left. He did not have a Kareem, a Magic, a McHale, a Pippen next to him in

Cleveland until he went to Miami and now has Wade by his side.

There’s no doubt that LeBron will end his career with multiple titles the question is how many? Kobe has five right now and is on his way to try to win his

sixth ring and tie Michael Jordan for the number of NBA Championships.

I wonder if anybody still thinks about Kobe possibly still being in the debate if he’s better than Michael. Why all of a sudden did LeBron surpass Kobe and

Michael at the same time? I don’t think so! LeBron needs to get in the discussion in which we talk about if LeBron is better than Kobe first before we start

talking about him being better than Jordan. Kobe has five championship titles and may be on his way to his sixth.

If LeBron can get to five or six NBA Championships then there will be a debate in who’s the greatest of all time is, but we have to wait for that. He just

one his first title and I’m positive that LeBron will end up with multiple championships just like Kobe and Michael, but until that happens we need to are

just going to have to wait and see what more LeBron James can do with the Miami Heat and only then we will be able to discuss who the greatest of all time

is.

Lebanon Militia Kidnaps Syrians

Syria's conflict sent shocks throughout the Middle East on Wednesday, with militiamen in neighboring Lebanon saying they had taken more than three dozen Syrian nationals and a Turkish man hostage, while several regional governments urged their citizens to immediately leave Lebanon.

Inside Syria, government jets razed homes and reportedly killed nearly two dozen people in a rebel-held town in the country's north. In Geneva, a United Nations commission held Syria's government and affiliated militia responsible for crimes against humanity, including for an attack that left scores of villagers dead in May.

Shiite Muslim militiamen in Beirut, Lebanon's capital, said Wednesday they had taken some 40 people—Syrians and a Turkish national—into captivity since the previous day. Dressed in military fatigues and brandishing assault rifles, masked gunmen from Lebanon's powerful Meqdad family demanded the release of a kinsman they said had been snatched inside Syria on Monday by fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army. The militia members vowed to target Qatari, Saudi and Turkish nationals as well.
"We have a very wide range of targets and we do not advise anyone to test us," one of the masked gunmen, who identified himself as a member of the Meqdad family's military wing, said in remarks broadcast on several Lebanese stations from the family compound in Beirut's southern suburb.

Syria's conflict, as the kidnappings attest, is increasingly splitting the region along sectarian lines.

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has surrounded himself primarily with members of his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Most Shiites in Lebanon support Mr. Assad. The Syrian president is opposed largely by Sunnis, the majority population in Syria. As the conflict has deepened, Sunni-majority neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have supported Syria's rebels.

People familiar with the Meqdads characterized them as essentially a large family with guns, which has had a contentious history with the far more influential Shiite militia Hezbollah, as well as the Lebanese state. Regional governments appeared to take the group seriously. The Saudi Embassy in Beirut told its nationals to leave Lebanon immediately after the "public threats" against them. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar issued similar warnings, their state media reported.

Many Lebanese, meanwhile, watched with apprehension as the government and security forces made no apparent attempt to intervene as boasts of mass kidnappings were playing out on national television.

The country was further destabilized by news that Wednesday's Syrian government offensive against Azzaz, a northern Syrian town near Aleppo, struck a building where rebels have been holding 11 Lebanese Shiites who were kidnapped in Syria in May. After the attack, angry Lebanese in Beirut blocked the road to the airport, as they have done before to demand the release of their kidnapped relatives in Syria.

The strike on Azzaz leveled buildings and brought chaos to a town where rebel fighters had begun to experiment with self-governance after having proclaimed the territory liberated from government troops three weeks ago.

Syrian fighter jets conducted two bombing runs that sent civilians fleeing, said Associated Press reporters who witnessed the attack, adding that they saw at least eight dead, including a baby, and dozens wounded, most of them women and children. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group, gave a preliminary death toll of 23 people, and more than 200 injured.

A building housing the 11 Lebanese hostages was struck in the bombing, injuring two of them and leaving the fate of four unknown, said Louay Mokdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army's higher military council. The four men who are unaccounted for are believed to be trapped under concrete rubble in the building's basement, where many of the men were seeking shelter, Mr. Mokdad said. The two injured were being treated at a nearby field hospital.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese men had made video and press statements—one broadcast live by a Lebanese station reporting from Azzaz last week—saying their Syrian captors were treating them well and they were all in good health.

The Azzaz attack came as a U.N. human-rights commission said government forces and pro-government militia had committed crimes against humanity—including murder, torture, sexual violence and war crimes—in Syria, and were responsible for the May 25 killings at Houla of over 100 Syrian civilians.

The report on the findings of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria between March and July is the first time a U.N. body concludes that the Syrian government has committed crimes against humanity, a charge that sets the stage for the potential trial of individuals at the International Criminal Court.

Antigovernment rebels have also committed "murder, extrajudicial killings and torture," the report by the commission said, adding: "These violations and abuses were not of the same gravity, frequency and scale as those committed by government forces and the Shabbiha," or pro-government militants.

The Lebanon kidnappings underscored the fragile balance in the country, where sectarian tensions are deep. The government is a delicate and often dysfunctional offset between rival camps—with parties allied with the Shiite Hezbollah militia and political party dominating government posts, and opposition Sunni and Christian factions controlling some institutions. Feudal-like political leaders rule local areas. The country's army, under the 1989 accord that ended Lebanon's 15-year civil war, is supposed to maintain neutrality.

Lebanon's divisions are so deep that any intervention by the country's security forces risks making matters worse, according to Khaldoun al-Charif, an adviser to Prime Minister Najib Mikati. He said calls were being made to all political faction leaders to contain the crisis.

"The role of the government is to try to preserve the balance as much as possible to keep the country from imploding," said Mr. Charif.

But several observers and officials, including those allied with anti-Syrian factions in government, saw Wednesday's events as a deliberate attempt by the Assad regime and its allies in Lebanon to widen the sphere of the conflict to deflect the increasing international pressure on Damascus.

"This is an attempt to plant Syria's problems in Lebanon," said Khaled Daher, a Lebanese lawmaker with the anti-Syrian March 14 bloc.

Questions surround the clan that took responsibility for the recent kidnappings. The Meqdads, like several other Shiite clans that hail from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, maintain virtual private armies and have long had a troubled relationship with the Lebanese state, as well as with the country's two most powerful and organized Shiite militia and political parties, Hezbollah and the Amal movement.

On Wednesday, the Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television station broadcast what it said were armed members of the Meqdad family. One could be heard interrogating two captive Syrians identifying themselves as members of the Free Syrian Army, or FSA, the grouping of local militias and defected soldiers fighting President Assad's regime.

On Monday, an FSA unit said it had abducted Hassan Salim Meqdad, a Lebanese national in Syria, and accused him of being a member of Hezbollah. It claimed that Mr. Meqdad had entered Syria with almost 1,500 Hezbollah members to fight alongside the Assad regime.

Although Hezbollah has long backed the Assad regime, it issued a statement Tuesday denying this, adding that Mr. Meqdad wasn't a member of its organization.

People close to Hezbollah said the group was "exercising maximum restraint" to avoid being dragged into sectarian war in Lebanon and worse, a Shiite-on-Shiite fight. Hezbollah appeared to be controlling its constituents against showing force in the streets.

"This is an incident when you want Hezbollah to have an active role, but it's impossible for it to do so. The stakes are extremely high," said Amal Saad-Ghoreyb, a political analyst close to the group.

The Meqdad clan said it kidnapped a Turkish citizen in Beirut on Wednesday. Later in the day, Lebanon's New TV broadcast a short interview of a man it identified as a Turkish appliance-company worker being held by the clansmen, who said he had been kidnapped after he left the airport in Beirut earlier in the day.

Turkey's foreign ministry confirmed late Wednesday that a Turkish male citizen, Aydin Tufan Tekin, had been taken hostage in Lebanon and said Turkish diplomats were working to obtain his release.

Lebanese officials couldn't be immediately reached to comment.

In Syria's capital, Damascus, a fuel tanker truck exploded Wednesday near a hotel used as the headquarters and residence of the U.N. observer mission to Syria, wounding three people, Syrian officials and state media said.

The attack happened one day before consultations in New York on the fate of the mission, whose mandate expires by the end of the week.

Syrian state media said a "terrorist armed group"—the term the government has used for the rebels now waging an insurgency against it—had attached an explosive device to the fuel truck. Footage from the early-morning attack in Damascus broadcast by Syrian and Arab television stations showed a thick black plume of smoke billowing from the scene shortly after the blast.

No U.N. staff members were injured in the blast, said Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Syria. Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mokdad met representatives of the U.N. mission staying at the hotel and said later that they were unscathed in the blast, and expressed his government's pride that not a single member of the U.N. mission has been harmed since the start of their mandate in late April.
—Farnaz Fassihi, Nada Raad and Leila Hatoum contributed to this article.

Mitt Romney, Obama camp spar on Medicare plans

 Mitt Romney wants to make the Medicare debate easy to understand. So on Thursday, he pulled out a black marker and stepped toward a trusty white board

propped up on a school-room easel here to make a presentation.

 The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s message was simple: For current seniors under President Obama, he said, Medicare would be cut by $716

billion, and some 4 million people would be kicked off their Medicare Advantage plans. Under Romney, he said, current seniors would see “no adjustments, no

changes, no savings.”
 For younger Americans who make up the next generation of seniors, Romney said, Obama would “bankrupt” Medicare, while Romney’s plan would leave the

federal retiree health-care program “solvent.”

“The differences in our Medicare perspective could not be more stark and dramatic, and I think as the people, as the seniors in America understand what the

president’s plan is doing to Medicare, they’re going to find it unacceptable,” Romney said at a news conference at the Greenville-Spartanburg

International Airport here.

The $716 billion in Medicare funding cuts are part of Obama’s 2010 health-care overhaul. An estimated 4 million seniors would shift off the Medicare

Advantage program, which offers seniors a chance to buy into a series of advanced coverage plans, but the Obama cuts do not result in the elimination of

Medicare coverage for anyone.

“Approximately 4 million people will lose their coverage under Medicare Advantage,” Romney said. “This is the plan they’ve chosen. … The president’s

plan has a dramatic impact on today’s seniors, people 55 years of age and older.”

Romney, gesturing at his white board, added, “As you can see, there’s no change in Medicare for seniors – none under my plan.”

Obama’s campaign was quick to respond.

“Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, a whiteboard presentation can’t change that he’s got his facts wrong on Medicare – so Obama for America’s Truth Team is

releasing a whiteboard of its own to set the record straight,” the Obama campaign said in a statement. “The president has extended the life of the program

by nearly a decade. If Romney had his way, it would run out of money by 2016. The president’s health care law eliminates insurance company subsidies and

cracks down on waste and fraud in Medicare – saving $716 billion – and doesn’t cut a single guaranteed Medicare benefit. Congressman Ryan included the

same savings in his budget, which Romney called ‘marvelous’ and said he’d sign into law.

“But it makes sense that Romney wouldn’t want to tell the truth,” the statement continued. “The Romney-Ryan budget eliminates the guarantee of Medicare

and instead provides people with a voucher to buy health care. In fact, a voucher plan authored by Paul Ryan and endorsed by Romney would cost future

retirees an additional $6,400.”

 Asked by one reporter whether his plan for future generations of seniors could be characterized as a voucher system, Romney said no.

 “Which of these two do you think is better?” Romney asked, pointing to the words “bankrupt” under Obama and “solvent” under Romney. “Going bankrupt

or being solvent? Well, obviously, being solvent.”

 Romney said his plan to keep Medicare solvent revolves around greater competition, such as having various private plans compete to provide Medicare benefits

through the government, as well as a means test so that higher-income people would not receive as many benefits as lower-income people.

 “By virtue of doing those things, why we’re able to keep Medicare solvent as opposed to what the president’s proposed, which at this time is to cut

Medicare, not to save it – that’s the amazing thing,” Romney said.

Hinode scientists' stellar effort keeps sun mission 'burning bright'

Whilst the most powerful earthquake since records began hit Japan in 2011, triggering a massive tsunami which devastated much of the country, space

scientists involved in one of the 'brightest' international Sun missions continued working tirelessly at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in

Sagamihara, Japan, to capture new data from our turbulent star. Ads by Google What Happens When You Die - New theory says death isn't the end -

RobertLanzaBiocentrism.com These latest Hinode results, to be discussed in a meeting at the University of St Andrews this week, include new data on the

structure of the Sun's coronal magnetic field, obtained whilst studying a violent solar eruption, and the observation of an unusual asymmetry in our star's

magnetic field – a finding that could have a significant impact on the behaviour and prediction of the next solar cycle. The new results will be presented

by David Long (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) and Masumi Shimojo (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) respectively. The Hinode mission is led

by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with the UK, USA and European Space Agency. The UK Space Agency funds the operation of

the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) - a UK-led instrument, building on the UK's long history of pioneering work in solar ultraviolet

spectroscopy. The Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is the lead institute for EIS, and STFC's RAL Space provided the calibration and observing

software. Louise Harra, UK Principal Investigator for the Hinode EIS instrument and Professor of Solar Physics at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, said,

"The latest Hinode results will allow us to probe the Sun's activity both on short time scales of minutes, and on the longer scales of years, both of which

are critical to understanding our nearest star." Solar flares and associated coronal mass ejections have a wide range of effects on technology infrastructure

and our day to day lives, potentially disturbing the Earth's magnetic field, knocking-out orbiting satellites and disrupting satellite signals. The impacts

are wide-ranging, affecting radio communication, navigation and power systems. With its three advanced and highly sensitive telescopes (visible, X-ray and

ultraviolet), the Hinode spacecraft is studying the solar magnetic field at scales smaller than ever before and revealing new information about these

colossal explosions in the Sun's atmosphere. In recent years there have been disruptions to power grids, spacecraft have been lost completely and more than

half the Earth orbiting spacecraft were affected in their operation by high energetic particles that bombard the Earth's atmosphere during a storm. We are

dependent on spacecraft for everything from navigation to using credit cards, so predicting the impact of such storms is important for a technology- driven

world. The Hinode mission acts as a microscope on the Sun. The instruments onboard probe in detail the generation, transport, and dissipation of magnetic

energy from the photosphere to the corona and are recording how energy stored in the Sun's magnetic field is released as the field rises into the Sun's outer

atmosphere. This magnetic field can unleash huge amounts of energy in only tens of minutes. An example of this was observed on the 12th July, where a huge

flare exploded on the Sun, leading to disruption to radio communications and a reduction in the power output of a nuclear power station on the east coast of

the US. The data from Hinode are being analyzed in order to determine quantitative measurements of the pre-flare Sun to assist in predicting activity.

Ex-Syria PM Urges Defection

Syria's newly defected prime minister was helpless to stop the regime's bloody crackdown against its opponents, he said, urging other military and civilian

officials to leave their posts to save the country and its institutions from collapse.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime is losing control over most of Syria, the former minister, Riad Hijab, said in his first public remarks since he defected

earlier this month. "The regime is falling apart morally, financially and economically, and cracking militarily," he said.

Mr. Hijab's assessment dovetails with those of other recent high-level defectors, largely former military brass, who for months have said that Mr. Assad's

regime is fragile and that his inner circle is closing ranks, leaving those in the broader government and military institutions demoralized but also fearful

of crossing those close to the president.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. officials said they saw Iran expanding its support for Mr. Assad, in part by helping organize a militia in Syria to fight on behalf of

the Assad government. "We are seeing a growing presence by Iran, and that is of deep concern to us," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters.

Part of this assessment is based on the U.S. officials' belief that several of the 48 Iranian bus passengers captured by Syrian rebels this month were

members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Iranians were sent to Syria to train government forces and possibly conduct covert missions to aid the

embattled Damascus regime, these officials said. Iranian and Syrian officials have denied the captives were government operatives, with Iran saying they were

religious pilgrims.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that the Syrian army had been overtaxed after 18 months of fighting.

"They are having resupply problems; they are having morale problems; they are having the kind of wear and tear that would come of being in a fight for as

long as they have," Gen. Dempsey said. "And I actually think that's why Iran is stepping in to form this militia, to take some of the pressure off of the

Syrian military."

Mr. Hijab, a career government and ruling party functionary from the eastern province of Deir el-Zour on the Iraqi border, was Syria's agriculture minister

when President Assad appointed him prime minister in June, a time when government forces had already conducted brutal operations against Homs and other

populated areas. His job was largely administrative and had no involvement in military, security and intelligence matters.

But Mr. Hijab's characterization of his own powerlessness would suggest that Mr. Assad is continuing to close ranks, leaning on a few key political and

security aides while leaving a largely ceremonial government.

"God only knows my suffering, and the agony of my soul, when I watched and heard the shelling of Homs, Deraa, Idlib, Hama, Deir el-Zour, Aleppo, Damascus and

the other cities, and not being able to do something to shield them from the killing and injustice," he said, appearing rigid and occasionally hesitant as he

read a 15-minute statement in Jordan's capital, Amman.

Like the majority of those opposed to the Assad regime, Mr. Hijab is a member of the country's Sunni majority. The regime's inner circle, by contrast, is

dominated by Mr. Assad's Shiite-linked Alawite minority sect.

While several top military officials have defected during the increasingly bloody 18-month Syrian uprising, Mr. Hijab represents one of the few top officials

or diplomats to have broken ranks. Members of Syria's opposition and their foreign backers have said that an increase in such defections would serve as a

catalyst for toppling Mr. Assad.

Nawaf Fares, Syria's former ambassador to Iraq and the highest-ranking diplomat to defect, said last month the regime was on its "last legs."

In his statement on Tuesday, Mr. Hijab appealed to the Syrian armed forces to follow earlier precedents in the region's Arab Spring uprisings.

"I urge the army to follow the example of Egypt's and Tunisia's armies—take the side of the people," he said. Those armies' reversals triggered the collapse

of their countries' regimes within weeks.

The U.S. Treasury said Tuesday it was lifting sanctions imposed on the former official. David Cohen, the department's undersecretary for terrorism and

financial intelligence, urged other Syrian officials "to take similarly courageous steps to reject the Assad regime and stand with the Syrian people."

Meanwhile, some 70 antiregime Sunni Muslim clerics created an association that they said would seek to rein in human-rights abuses and revenge attacks by the

rebels, according to a statement issued by the group following a two-day meeting that ended Monday in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Several instances of summary executions and torture by the rebels have been documented by the media and rights groups in the northern city of Aleppo since

fighting began there last month.

Mr. Hijab's exit from Syria was a covert journey with armed rebels from Damascus to Deraa, 63 miles to the south, and through the border to neighboring

Jordan, according to people familiar with the escape.

Mr. Hijab left Syrian territory two days after a spokesman in Amman announced his defection, these people said. At the time of the statement, these people

said, Mr. Hijab was in fact hunkered down in a safe house in Deraa, then under artillery attack.

Asked the day after the announcement why Mr. Hijab had yet to make a public appearance, his spokesman, Mohammad al-Outri, said he was recovering from the

"very difficult experience of defecting from government and the long journey out."

6 things you didn’t know about VP candidate Paul Ryan (hint: one involves a Wienermobile)

A USA Today/Gallup poll shows 42 per cent of Americans see Paul Ryan as either a “fair” or “poor” choice of vice-presidential selection, while 39 per

cent see him as “excellent” or “pretty good.”

Not exactly home-run numbers, as the poll points out. But it is just a snapshot of how Americans see the seven-term Washington, D.C., politician who

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney selected on Saturday as his running-mate.
The Romney campaign is quick to point out that, to many Americans, Mr. Ryan is still not widely known. The next several weeks will aim to connect voters to

the Wisconsin native and give the Romney-Ryan ticket a boost in the polls.

Here are six little-known facts that voters and observers of U.S. politics may not know about the 42-year-old – including his Canadian connection:

He’s a lean, mean exercising machine

There is a reason why “shirtless” is the second-most popular Google search tied to Paul Ryan since Saturday.

Mr. Ryan is arguably one of the fittest Washington, D.C. politicians – a die-hard devotee since 2008 of a daily exercising regimen called P90X that helps

him keep his body fat as low as six per cent on his 6’2”, 163-pound frame.

In 2010, Mr. Ryan explained how he and another congressman lead a group of 12 on Capitol Hill in P90X workouts – an exercise program that can transform a

person from “regular to ripped” in 90 days.

The P90X program consists of 12 intense cross-training workouts, with the aim of creating “muscle confusion” and preventing the problem faced by many in

the fitness pursuit: the exercise plateau, which is when the body adjusts to identical daily work-outs yielding little or no results.

“So this gets you out of that plateau,” said Mr. Ryan, who once worked as a fitness trainer after graduating from college. “It works because it’s called

muscle confusion – it hits your body in many different ways: pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, lots of cardio, karate, jump-training, yoga.”

However, the six-pack is unlikely the driving motivation.

“(My father) died of a heart attack at 55, my grandfather died of a heart attack at 57, my great-grandfather died of heart attack at 59, so I’m into the

health thing,” said Mr. Ryan in a 2009 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Incidentally, there is no shirtless picture.

He used to drive the Wienermobile

Mr. Ryan worked the grill at McDonald’s while in high school.

But it was a job in between college sessions selling Oscar Mayer products in northern Minnesota that landed him the rare honour of being allowed to drive the

Wienermobile – which is basically a car in the shape of a hotdog and bun.

“It was a great job,” Mr. Ryan told CNN’s State of the Union.

According to Marty Padgett at The Car Connection: “The Wienermobile was created in 1936 by the Oscar Meyer company, and an example sits in Michigan’s The

Henry Ford museum.

“Today, Oscar Meyer runs eight Wienermobiles around the country, six full-size vehicles and two Vienna Sausage-sized models, one a conversion of a MINI

Cooper.”

He and Romney share a “father and son” connection

He became a congressman at the age of 28 in 1998, winning 57 per cent of the vote in his Wisconsin district.

Twenty-three years separate Mr. Ryan, 42,  and Mr. Romney, 65.

In fact, Mr. Ryan is the same age as Mr. Romney eldest son. The father-and-son feel of the Republican presidential ticket will be hard to escape.

But it is by no means the biggest age gap on a presidential ticket.

A survey by the University of Minnesota Smart Politics blog shows that the Romney-Ryan pairing ranks seventh – that is below the 28-year gap that separated

Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008, and tied with the 23 year gap between President George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle in 1988.

“The largest gap in age between two candidates on the same ticket occurred in 1856, when Democrat James Buchanan ran with former Kentucky U.S.

Representative John Breckinridge,” according to the Smart Politics blog.

“Buchanan was 65 years old on Election Day, while Breckinridge – who became the youngest vice-president in history – was just 35, for a 30-year age

difference.”

He’s already good at dodging the media

The Romney campaign was determined to keep the candidate’s vice-presidential pick a secret. Mr. Ryan kept it that way.

The congressman was in Wisconsin Friday to attend a memorial for the Sikh victims at shooting rampage in Oak Creek, Wisconsin that killed six Sikh-Americans.

He was dropped off at his residence in Janesville after the memorial, entered through the front doors, and walked out the back into the woods and to an

awaiting car.

“I know those woods like the back of my hand,” Mr. Ryan later told reporters. “So it wasn’t too hard to walk through them. So I just went out my

backdoor, went through the gully in the woods I grew up playing in. I walked past the tree that has my own tree fort I built back there.”

As the Romney team publicized that it would make a vice-presidential announcement in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday morning, reporters began to stake out Mr.

Ryan’s house. By then, Mr. Ryan was already en route – avoiding flying out of, and in to, airports where reporters expected him to be.

He has cheese in his veins – figuratively speaking, of course

Wisconsin has a proud dairy and cheese industry. No need to look further than a Green Bay Packers football game and the cheese-head hats worn by fans.

With the vice-presidential candidate and the head of the Republican National Committee hailing from Wisconsin, some have commented on the cheese-head

revolution in GOP politics.

Speaking on Sunday night before a raucous crowd of 10,000 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Mr. Ryan was moved to tears.

“My veins run with cheese, bratwurst and a little Spotted Cow, Leinenkugels and some Miller,” said Mr. Ryan.

“I was raised on the Packers, Badgers, Bucks and Brewers. I like to hunt here. I like to fish here. I like to snowmobile here. I even think ice fishing is

interesting.”

He has a Canadian connection

The Globe and Mail recently reported on the Toronto-raised foreign policy adviser at Mitt Romney’s side during his international tour last month.

Dan Senor played a key role during Mr. Romney’s two-day visit to Israel.

It turns out that Mr. Senor – a Canadian – now has a new job.

According to Politico, Mr. Senor will now be travelling full time with Mr. Ryan as the vice-presidential candidate’s senior adviser – responsible for

prepping Mr. Ryan for his televised debate in the autumn and his Republican National Convention speech later this month in Tampa Bay, Florida.

The two candidates are known to each other when they both worked as congressional staff on Capitol Hill in the 1990s, reports Politico’s senior political

writer Maggie Haberman.

Residents describe terror of Iran quake, 250 die

Residents of the zone in northwestern Iran hit by powerful twin earthquakes described moments of terror and panic with birds crowing loudly in warning

seconds before the ground shook. As the death toll rose Sunday to more than 250 with entire villages leveled, rescuers called off searches for survivors and

turned their attention to caring for the 16,000 people left homeless.

At least 20 villages were totally destroyed in the quakes on Saturday that were followed by some 36 aftershocks, state television reported. Ahmad Reza

Shajiei, a senior government official in charge of rescue operations, said more than 5,000 tents have been set up to shelter the thousands of displaced who

spent the night outdoors.

"The moment the earthquake hit, it was like a snake biting from underground. It was the worst experience of my life," said resident Morteza Javid, 47, from

Ahar.

"The walls were shaking and moving from side to side. It took about a minute before I could run out of the house," he said. "Seconds before the earthquake,

crows were making a lot of noise, but I didn't understand why. It was only after the quake that I learned the crows were warning us." Javid said he drove

more than a dozen injured people to hospitals during the night.

State television said at least 250 died. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted a local official who put the toll at 277. State TV said 44,000 food

packages and thousands of blankets have been distributed in the stricken area.

In Washington, the White House press secretary sent a message of sympathy for the victims.

"Our thoughts are with the families of those who were lost, and we wish the wounded a speedy recovery," it said." We stand ready to offer assistance in this

difficult time."

The U.S. and Iran are locked in a bitter fight over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, which the West suspect is aimed at producing weapons. Iran denies the

allegation.

The U.N. also issued a message of sympathy and offered aid.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that Saturday's first quake was magnitude 6.4 and struck 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz at a

depth of 9.9 kilometers (6.2 miles). State TV quoted local Crisis Committee chief Khalil Saei as saying the epicenter was a region between the towns of Ahar

and Haris, about 600 kilometers (350 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran.

The second quake was a magnitude 6.3 and struck 11 minutes later, the USGS reported. Its epicenter was 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz at a

depth of 9.8 kilometers (6.1 miles).

The quakes hit the towns of Ahar, Haris and Varzaqan in East Azerbaijan province, state television reported. In addition to 20 villages destroyed, more than

130 others sustained heavy damage, state TV said.

The aftershocks were felt in a wide region near the Caspian Sea, causing panic among the people.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one earthquake every day on average, although most are so small

they go unnoticed. In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.

Television showed images of people being evacuated on stretchers, while others were treated for broken limbs and concussions. Dozens of families were

sleeping on blankets laid out on the ground in parks. Some were crying, and others shivered from the cold in the mountainous region hit by the quake, near

the border with Azerbaijan.

More than 1,100 rescuers worked through the night to pull out those trapped under rubble and to reach some of the more remote villages affected. Some 15 dogs

were brought in to search for survivors.

By afternoon, state television reported that search operations had ceased. The government's attention shifted to providing shelter to the homeless and

removing debris from the buildings destroyed.

Officials said the search was ended relatively quickly because the remote area is sparsely populated.

Naimeh Alapour said she ran out of her house without the mandatory Islamic headscarf when she felt the earthquake. Alapour, 35, lives in Tabriz, the

provincial capital, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the epicenter of the earthquake.

"I simply took my kid and ran down the steps. The elevator was out of service. I don't know how I walked nine floors down. It felt like this was the end of

the world," she said.

Officials have announced two days of mourning in East Azerbaijan province.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the government will allocate funds to rebuild the houses destroyed in the quake, aiming to complete the

construction before the arrival of cold winter temperatures.

Najjar said the plans aim to construct buildings resistant to earthquake. Most of houses in rural areas are built of mud, and they can crumble when even a

moderate quake hits.

According to Najjar, several foreign countries have offered assistance, but he said Iran doesn't need outside help and can manage the situation. He did not

name the countries.

Mitt Romney's Bain games

My daughter has not yet reached her ninth birthday, but I already have her pegged for a job at Bain Capital.
My evidence for this is the ease with which she has embraced "Tiny Tower," a business-simulation game that millions of people are using their iPhones and

tablets to play capitalist, attempting to build ever larger towers with ever more businesses that generate ever more coins and "tower bux."

My daughter's 12 businesses include a casino, a bank, a doughnut shop and a soda brewery. But in this game it doesn't matter what type of business she

operates -- only that she operates it with maximum efficiency, firing and evicting her "bitizens" at will and benefiting from the help of "VIPs" to bring her

more business and accelerate construction.

The game is devoid of business ethics; the goal is to maximize value by boosting output. Tiny Tower functions, in other words, strikingly like Bain Capital

did under Mitt Romney.

I thought of the similarity as I read a powerful report by Bloomberg News this week on Romney's adventure with Bain in the Italian yellow-pages business. The

news service revisited Bain's experience in the privatization of the Italian phone directory Seat Pagine Gialle SpA, which generated $1 billion in profits

for Bain (and $50 million to $60 million for Romney) when Bain's investment group sold the company for about 25 times the original purchase price two years

after buying it.

That's a lot of tower bux.

According to the Bloomberg account, Bain invested 36 million euros as part of a group that bought a majority of Seat for 853 million euros in late 1997. In

February 2000, during the dot-com bubble, Telecom Italia bought back the Seat shares it didn't own for 14.6 billion euros-- generating a windfall for Bain.

Three years later, according to the report, Seat's value had collapsed to 3.7 billion euros, and today it's worth just 57 million. The plunge didn't matter

to Bain, however; it had moved its profits into subsidiaries in Luxembourg, avoiding taxes in Italy.

More troubling than the Bain windfall were the responses to Bloomberg from Bain and the Romney campaign. Bain noted that it was "in full compliance with all

tax and reporting requirements." A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign argued that Romney and Bain "partnered with a new management team to transform this

company, and grow it into a tremendous success."

A tremendous success that quickly toppled, like a child's tower.

Both responses relied on Tiny Tower-style ethics: Romney and Bain followed the rules of the game, and the business grew, so all's fair. That may have been

true, at least in the short run, but it gets at Romney's larger problem with Bain and his personal income taxes: The question is not whether he did well, or

whether he did it legally, but whether he did it with any sense of ethics.

Romney almost certainly didn't break the law by putting his money in Switzerland or the Caymans, or by paying an income tax rate of 15 percent. He didn't

necessarily break any laws by creating a $100 million 401(k).

The question is whether such things are fair, or whether Romney has exploited a system that allows rich people like him to get richer at the expense of less

wealthy taxpayers -- Italian, in the most recent case, or American, in other cases. Of more concern is that, as president, Romney would further expand the

advantages of fellow rich people.

Romney encouraged that worry on Tuesday, when he announced at a campaign stop that he would be tough on welfare -- "we will end the culture of dependency and

restore a culture of good hard work" -- and then went to a pair of fundraisers where high-rolling donors paid as much as $75,000 for access to him.

In that sense, Romney seems to be playing a real-life version of Tiny Tower. By day, he warns the bitizens that they must work harder and produce more. By

night, he courts the VIPs, whose support brings him more coins. Tiny Tower players are not concerned about the very poor, and they like being able to fire

people.

Like Bain, Tiny Tower nods to corporate responsibility: You improve your efficiency if you place bitizens in their "dream jobs." But savvy players have

discovered that you generate more tower bux if you fire people from their dream jobs and evict them from the tower after their birthdays pass.

Cold and heartless, yes, but within the rules -- and in Tiny Tower, that's enough. In real life, other considerations should apply.

Seven bodybuilders banned for two years

The seven bodybuilders who tested positive at the 50th Singapore National Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Championship 2012 on Jul 1, 2012 have been banned

for two years.

The National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee (NADC), appointed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), met on Aug 6 to review

the case and decided to impose a two-year ban on the athletes.

They were disqualified from the 50th Singapore National Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Championship 2012 and are ineligible to participate, as an athlete

or support personnel, in any sport during the period of the ban.
The athletes have been notified by the Anti-Doping Singapore (ADS) on Jul 25 that they have committed a possible Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV).

They were also informed that they can ask to have a B sample tested (another separate sample), but none of them responded by the Jul 31 deadline.

The athletes have until Aug 19 to appeal the decision.

Schulze Looks to Join Kinder, Heffner in Founder Buyouts

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is looking to add his name to a roster of corporate founders who decided they’d rather take their companies back into the

private world.

Schulze has made an offer for Best Buy, though he no longer even works for the company, a difference from other founder-led buyouts. But if he succeeds, he

would join such business magnates as energy titan Richard Kinder and Playboy’s Hugh Hefner.

Here’s a list of other founders who have taken their companies from public to private, with some going back again:

Richard Kinder — Kinder Morgan — The co-founder of the energy pipeline company in 1997, Richard Kinder led a $15 billion buyout in 2006, at that time, the

biggest management takeover ever and one of the biggest leveraged buyouts. He had paired up with Goldman Sachs, AIG, Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings

for the deal. The company returned to the public markets with a $3.3 billion IPO in early 2011, the biggest PE-backed IPO on record at the time. Richard

Kinder remains Chairman and CEO.

Dr. Thomas F. Frist Jr. — HCA — HCA  holds the record for the biggest leveraged buyout of all time and biggest PE-led IPO of all time. In 2006, HCA was

taken private for $21 billion, with the Frist family teaming up with Bain Capital, KKR., and Merrill Lynch.  The highly successful deal returned the

investors about 250% with last year’s IPO. Frist remains on the board.

Hugh Hefner — Playboy Enterprises — The magazine publisher offered to take his media company private for $185 million in mid-2010. He then had to fight off

a rival, the owner of Penthouse and online-date company FriendFinder Networks Inc., which also tried to buy the adult-entertainment company. Hefner increase

his bid and won the day signing a deal in early 2011 that valued Playboy at $207.3 million.

Kenneth Cole — Kenneth Cole — The eponymous founder offered to buy his apparel maker in February for $280 million. He already owned about 46% and

controlled 89% of the voting power after taking the company public in 1994. Though some analysts questioned the price as too low, the board agreed to the

deal soon after the offer.

Solomon Kerzner — Sun International Hotels Ltd. — The South African casino magnate took his company public in 1996 as he bought Merv Griffin’s casino

company and made aggressive plans in Atlantic City, N.J. But in early 2000, calling the Atlantic City results a “disappointment,” Kerzner and partners

purchased the 47% of Sun International he didn’t own for $368 million.

Isadore Sharp — Four Seasons Hotels Inc. — The founder and long-time CEO, along with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates,

proposed to buy the hotel-operating chain in 2006 for $3.37 billion. Sharp ran the company from ts 1978 founding, through its 1986 IPO on the Toronto Stock

Exchange, and remains chairman today.

Apple's Biggest Marketing Secret Just Got Revealed In Federal Court

Apple no longer actually needs to do ANY advertising when it launches new products, marketing chief Phil Schiller testified Friday in the Apple v. Samsung

patent trial in a San Jose, Calif., federal court.

Instead, the company relies on these two strategies:

    Rely on the media to create buzz for its products through positive reviews.


    Product placement in TV shows and movies.

The media is so reliably disposed to favor Apple's products that when the iPhone was launched in 2007, the company didn't do any advertising for a period,

according to Bloomberg:

Schiller, discussing the iPhone, said Apple decided not to pay for any advertising during a brief period after the device was introduced in January 2007 and

when it went on sale later in the year.

"We didn't need to," Schiller said. He read from several rave reviews of the iPhone and iPad, explaining that such stories did a better job than advertising

to build buzz.

Apple also relies heavily on product placement, Bloomberg says:

"We would love to see our products used by stars," Schiller told the jury.

One of Apple's employees works closely with Hollywood on so-called product placement so its gadgets are used in movies and television shows, Schiller said.

None of the tactics are a surprise. Anyone who has ever watched a movie or a TV show has seen actors turning to their iPads and MacBooks as props.

But Apple, famously, hates talking about its own advertising and marketing. That's why it's so interesting to hear one of Apple's senior executives actually

say this stuff aloud, on the record.

The Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan Resignation

United Nations, NY- It was no secret that Kofi Annan had grown increasingly frustrated over his failure to achieve even a basic cease-fire in the conflict,

which began 17 months ago as a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and has now escalated into civil war.



United Nations Secretary General announced Thursday “It is with deep regret that I have to announce the resignation of the UN-League of Arab States Joint

Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Kofi Annan.”



“Mr. Annan has informed me, and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Nabil El Araby, of his intention not to renew his mandate when it

expires on 31 August 2012.” Ban added.
Ban also hailed Annan rule and said “I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Annan for the determined and courageous efforts he has made as the Joint

Special Envoy for Syria.”



UN Chief indicated “Kofi Annan deserves our profound admiration for the selfless way in which he has put his formidable skills and prestige to this most

difficult and potentially thankless of assignments. He has worked within the mandate provided to him by the General Assembly and with the cooperation of

various Member States. We have worked closely together these past months, and I am indebted to him and his team for all they have tried to achieve. I will

continue to draw on his wisdom and counsel, and on the work of the Office of the Joint Special Envoy.”



Ban Ki-moon said in a separate announcement that the search was on for a successor to Annan, who will serve until the end of August, when his mandate

expires. But there was no word on who might replace Annan.



“My consultations with the League of Arab States Secretary-General are under way with a view to the prompt appointment of a successor who can carry on this

crucial peacemaking effort. I remain convinced that yet more bloodshed is not the answer; each day of it will only make the solution more difficult while

bringing deeper suffering to the country and greater peril to the region.” Ban said.



Ban noted in his statement Thursday about Annan’s resignation that the Security Council’s own divisions “have themselves become an obstacle to diplomacy,

making the work of any mediator vastly more difficult.”



“Tragically, the spiral of violence in Syria is continuing. The hand extended to turn away from violence in favour of dialogue and diplomacy - as spelled

out in the Six-Point Plan - has not been not taken, even though it still remains the best hope for the people of Syria.” Ban said in a statement.



UN Secretary General also accused both sides in Syria at violence “Both the Government and the opposition forces continue to demonstrate their determination

to rely on ever-increasing violence. In addition, the persistent divisions within the Security Council have themselves become an obstacle to diplomacy,

making the work of any mediator vastly more difficult.”



Ban statement concluded telling that “The UN remains committed to pursue through diplomacy an end to the violence and a Syrian-led solution that meets the

legitimate democratic aspirations of its people. This can only succeed – indeed any peacemaking effort can only prosper – when the parties to the violence

make a firm commitment to dialogue, and when the international community is strongly united in support.”



A Nobel Peace Prize winner and former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, 74, is one of the world’s most seasoned diplomats. He agreed in February

to act as a special representative for both the United Nations and the Arab League to negotiate a peace plan in the Syrian conflict, and received unanimous

backing from the Security Council.



Within a few months he negotiated a six-point proposal that called for the Syrian government to withdraw its heavy weapons and troops from populated areas

and for anti-Assad fighters to put down their guns. Other provisions included a process for a political transition that, in theory at least, would have

replaced President al-Assad, a member of Syria’s Alawite minority whose family has dominated Syrian politics for four decades.



Despite a pledge from Syria`s President Bashar al-Assad on March 27 to abide by the peace plan, the Syrian government never implemented it. President al-

Assad’s opponents, sensing that he had no intention of honoring his commitments, did not lay down their weapons either.



Although the Security Council supported Annan’s efforts, two of its permanent members with veto power, Russia and China, opposed any additional coercive

measures that they feared could lead to outside military intervention in Syria.



The disagreement led to bitter recriminations on the council, pitting Russia and China against the United States, Britain and France, the three other

permanent members, which had been pressing for a more forceful Syria resolution.



Word of Annan’s resignation came as the United Nations General Assembly was preparing to vote on a resolution offered by Arab countries that demands that

the Syrian government compliance with his plan.



But the General Assembly resolution, which is scheduled for a vote on Friday, does not have the enforcement power of a Security Council measure, and has been

viewed as largely a symbolic effort to embarrass Syria and its backers.