$24 million accede to since for broadband Internet

KINSTON, N.C. - The Golden LEAF Foundation has awarded $24 million to a nonprofit organisation to capture $78 million in sovereign dollars for high-speed Internet entrance opposite North Carolina.

When sum with alternative state relating funds, the sum plan cost would be $111 million.

Golden LEAF President Dan Gerlach says that would be the largest expenditureexpanding broadband entrance in North Carolina history.

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The income will go to bringing some-more than 1,448 miles of broadband essential element to 69 counties, 67 of that are now lagging in high-speed Internet capability.

The Research Triangle Park-based nonprofit MCNC will be in assign of the project.

Gerlach says the sovereign supervision will have the preference about the $78 million by summer.

The state Legislature combined the Golden Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation in 1999 to conduct and discharge half of North Carolinas share of the inhabitant tobacco settlement.

Click for associated content1,100-plus communities vie for Google networkGoogle Fiber inspires WTF movie festivalFCC unanimously approves broadband plan

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RDU cant anathema journal racks

The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority is violating the First Amendment with the anathema on journal silver vending racks at the open airport, a sovereign appellate justice ruled Friday.

By a 2-1 vote, a row of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond endorsed a revoke justice sequence in preference of The News & Observer and 3 alternative journal companies that sued RDU in 2004.

U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle ruled in Nov 2008 that RDU contingency concede the newspapers to implement headlines racks at the airport, that is owned by internal governments in Durham and Wake counties. The appellate row additionally inspected Boyles sequence that RDU compensate the newspapers" authorised expenses.

Orage Quarles III, The N&Os publisher, pronounced he hoped the airfield management would dump the appeals.

"We"re gratified that the courts go on to behind the position, and we"re seeking brazen to putting the racks out there," Quarles said. "From the beginning, we felt we had First Amendment protections. And the courts have agreed."

RDUs reaction

The RDU house can imitate with the statute released Friday or ask to have the box listened again by the three-judge panel, by the full 13-member Fourth Circuit court, or by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We are reviewing the preference with the profession and advising the house members," RDU orator Andrew Sawyer pronounced by e-mail.

RDU officials pronounced last Apr that they had outlayed some-more than $400,000 to quarrel the newspapers" lawsuit. Sawyer pronounced he could not yield total for the airports one more losses given then.

The N&O was assimilated in the authorised case by the companies that tell The Durham Herald-Sun, The New York Times and USA Today. Charles Coble, a Raleigh counsel representing the newspapers, pronounced their authorised billsto be reimbursed by RDUhave surpassed $300,000.

Free press protections on hearing by the First Amendment embody the right to pass out the news, the Fourth Circuit statute said. The judges deserted RDUs evidence that airfield travelers have sufficient event to buy newspapers from the airfield shops that sell them now.

RDU lawyers pronounced the anathema was in accord with since headlines racks would poise security risks, block newcomer upsurge by the terminals, revoke airfield aesthetics and revoke airfield management revenues from shops. But the Fourth Circuit row resolved that RDUs arguments unsuccessful on all 4 points.

"The supervision interests asserted to clear the anathema do not blow the poignant limitation on stable expression," the row pronounced in a 35-page opinion. It was created by Judge Allyson Duncan of North Carolina and assimilated by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of Virginia.

In his dissent, Judge Andre M. Davis of Maryland wrote that Boyle should have hold a hearing to solve significant issues in between RDU and the newspapers, instead of arising a outline visualisation opposite the airfield authority. Davis pronounced majority air travelers have plenty event to buy newspapers from airfield shops.

Boyle and the Fourth Circuit row formed their statute opposite RDU on a 1993 Fourth Circuit preference that finished a journal rack anathema at the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., International Airport. The airfield right away allows headlines racks and collects rent on them.

bruce.siceloff or 919-829-4527.

Using a superficial knowledge of neon can lift the dullest room out of the winter ennui

When majority people think of neon, visions of Eighties Day-Glo wardrobe and smiley faces open to mind. But how about neon in interiors? Somehow that doesn"t receptive to advice as if it would work in the homes.

And yet, here we are at the commencement of a new decade with a superficial knowledge of neon looming in the shops.

Neon is not for timorous violets - rather it"s for people who wish to have a confidant statement.

Spoon club stool, 280, Heal"s, heals.co.uk Briar lampshade, 89, Clarissa Hulse at Abode Living, abodeliving.co.uk

lift let loose natural room for acne to help this mulls

A mothers mount opposite Frankie the infamous stand-up India Knight

India Knight & ,}

Are people with disabilities alone funny? Its a critical subject to which the answer isnt as candid as it competence be, since there was a time when they used to be or, rather, when it was deliberate ideally reasonable to find them so.

Anyone flourishing up in the 1970s will recall, not indispensably with pride, the way infirm young kids were ridiculed, bullied, noticed as small some-more than brainless lumps, and the ease with which, to take one example, the word mong, short for mongoloid, was bandied about.

I know a man, right away in his forties, who will secretly answer to Mong when in the association of his old schoolfriends no incapacity there; usually a little ancient classroom fun about carrying once been spectacularly thick about something.

And, yes, the funny: theres the disturb of the bad word, the frisson that comes with meaningful you shouldnt laugh, but additionally the stupidity of it the on-its-headness of a full of health adult masculine responding to a tenure of abuse and the slight, silken pang of perversion of the thing, too, so aromatic of school days.

Mong has finished rather well for himself, that of march creates job him Mong all the some-more irresistible: it keeps him in his place. If Mong objected to being called Mong, it would show that he was up himself, as well conceited to be teased; ergo Mong needs to go along with the joke, which, similar to all good jokes, is multiform layers deep, a little darker than others.

Would it be droll if Mong unequivocally were a mong, in the parlance of the day if he had Downs syndrome, or trisomy 21, and his friends deftly reminded him of the actuality each time they pronounced his name? Not so much, since a matter of actuality cant be a joke, at slightest not in this context.

For a fun to work, it has presumably to suggest up a little discernment or flip something around, or well, you know, be funny. And if statements of actuality about disability or anything else were funny, marry all be utterance with cheer every time we walked down the street, keeping up a debilitatingly waggish internal discourse that would go, Blind. Bent in two. Wheelchair. Gaga. Downs. Funny-looking. Stroke. Paki. Ginger. Fat. No legs. Black. Poof, and so on. Maybe a little people do this, but I dont know any, presumably since I dont know Frankie Boyle, the Scottish comedian.

I had no thought who he was when someone on Twitter called Sharon Smith sent me a link to something strew created about him. He used to be on Mock the Week, apparently that someway Ive never watched and is a renouned stand-up, or at slightest renouned sufficient to be on tour; hes created a book called My Shit Life So Far; hes from Glasgow (like Mong); his humour is dim and he recently piloted a show for Channel 4 called common money entrance in of breath from Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells Deal with This, Retards.

Anyway. Sharon Smith and her husband, Keiron, have a daughter, Tanzie, who is five and has Downs syndrome. The integrate are fans of Boyles dry, nasty, crude humour, so they paid for tickets to his show in Reading.

They were sitting there happily in the front row until Boyle proposed a riff about people with Downs. Smith after described it on her blog: Jokes about the approach people with DS talk, jokes about the approach they dress, jokes about the jobs they can do, jokes about their haircuts, jokes about their parents being old and out-of-date ... The some-more jokes he made, the harder I found it to be impassive and detached.

Noticing her discomfort, Smiths father asked her if she was okay. Boyle saw this and came over. He asked since they were articulate during his show.

Despite wanting the belligerent to swallow me up, Smith explained. I told him that my five-year-old daughter has Downs set of symptoms and that I was simply upset at a little of his jokes. He attempted to giggle it off Ahh, but the all true, isnt it? Everything I have pronounced is true, isnt it? To that I replied no, it wasnt.

He went on to contend it was the majority agonizing impulse of his career but afterwards tried to scratch the humour behind by observant we had paid to come and see him and what should we expect? To that I replied I accepted that and that it was my personal problem/upset. He afterwards pronounced it was the last debate ever and that he didnt give a f***.

You can review on Sharon Smiths blog (go to tinyurl.com/y8ltuux) about how this made her feel. Someone who went to see Boyle last Thursday pronounced that he alluded to the part but didnt repeat the gags about play haircuts and early death.

Its tough to know what to contend but trotting out platitudes about one amatory pitch-black humour. But there are lines you dont cross, and revelation the tearful mom of a kid with Downs that you dont give a f*** is one of them.

For all I know, Boyles total shtick hinges on a retro-bigot 1970s premise, and he riffs hilariously about nignogs and inflexible accents; he puts the ha in to handicapped; hes Mr Edgy; hes so dim and indignant you never know what competence come subsequent hes Richard Pryor and Denis Leary rolled in to one!

Or may be not. What he is, as they contend in Glasgow, is a big f****** diddy one who isnt even sufficient of a man to suggest up an apology. Sharon Smith, on the other hand, is a dauntless woman for station up for her daughter and, by extension, for the flourishing series of young kids with Downs, for indicating out to Mr Hilarious that the written homogeneous of kicking the spastic around the playground wouldnt do any more.

She says in her blog that the assembly were shouting at Boyles jokes and thats since what she did was so critical and so brave. All it takes is one person to cut your demur as against to one cut to massage it right out in the name of humour.

- Incredibly, Nick Clegg is wearing a red tie as I type. Its a stirring departure from the hulk omelettes value of egg-yolk yellow that weve been subjected to over the past 10 days, to contend zero of the reams of red and blue from the alternative two.

Why do politicians hold fast to the thought that we are so fantastically foolish and/or inattentive that we assimilate where theyre entrance from usually if they colour-code themselves?

Do they think the bad smarts would implode if they opted for a settlement that, say, red and blue checks would means us to yowl with difficulty and yellow dots on a blue credentials would simply short-circuit the pathways?

I fright this is an additional cack-handed try at enchanting with the bad stupid womens vote, since patently when were not scrutinising photographs of the wives dresses to assistance us confirm how to opinion Boden-y Sam or Toast-y Sarah? Lets think about it whilst we go shopping, shall we? were desperately cast of characters around for flattering colours since we love rainbows and ponies and since policies have us cry clear tears.

Its unequivocally commencement to get on my nerves and there are 3 weeks to go please have it stop.

india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk

Fulham have no box to answer! Roy Hodgson scoffs at West Hams Premier League censure

Fulham will confirm this week end how to reply to West Ham"s claims that they pennyless Premier League manners by lazy five key players for last week"s better at Hull.

Manager Roy Hodgson insists he did zero wrong when he chose to rest Damien Duff, Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora, Aaron Hughes and Dickson Etuhu for the match, that brought Iain Dowie his initial win as Tigers boss.

Premier League manners state that teams contingency margin their strongest accessible XI in each diversion and Hodgson will disagree that he was merely rotating a patrol that has had to fool around 52 matches in a tiresome campaign.

Greece might take some-more debt stairs as EU revisit looms

Renee Maltezou ATHENS Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:45pm EST Related News UPDATE 1-French Econ min says state debt CDS should be bannedSun, Feb twenty-eight 2010Germany, France, Dutch to buy Greek bonds: MEPSat, Feb twenty-seven 2010UPDATE 2-Germany, France, Dutch to buy Greek bonds-MEPSat, Feb twenty-seven 2010France, Germany to benefit Greece lift money-reportSat, Feb twenty-seven 2010Greek PM to encounter Merkel, Obama among debt crisisFri, Feb twenty-six 2010

People travel outward the Bank of Greece in Athens Feb 26, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/John Kolesidis

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece competence shortly make known new stairs to cut the bill deficit, a supervision apportion pronounced on Sunday, among signs that Athens competence be impending a understanding with European Union governments to ease the Greek debt crisis.

Economy Minister Louka Katseli pronounced Prime Minister George Papandreou would examination Greece"s mercantile plans, after an EU mission to Athens last week motionless that the country"s purgation measures were not clever sufficient to encourage monetary markets.

"If some-more measures are to be taken, they will be voiced soon," Katseli told state television. "The red line for everybody in this supervision is that the measures are effective, bringing one more revenues, and that they are socially just."

EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn was due to revisit Athens Monday for talks with Greek officials about the crisis, that has rocked Europe"s debt marketplace and undermined investors" certainty in the usual euro currency.

The marketplace has been speculating that Rehn"s visit, if successful, could move EU governments closer to announcing a little form of puncture assist for Greece in sell for a oath by Athens to take uninformed bill steps.

A German part of the European Parliament, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, pronounced Saturday that Germany, France and the Netherlands would buy Greek holds in the deal, utilizing state-run banks such as Germany"s KfW and France"s Caisse des Depots.

It was misleading how Chatzimarkakis, who is not a high-profile statesman in Germany, competence know of such a plan. His comments echoed a identical inform Saturday in vital Greek journal Ta Nea, that quoted unnamed sources.

GERMANS, DUTCH SAY NO DECISION MADE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pronounced in a radio talk Sunday that she was beholden the Greek supervision was formulation "very courageous" stairs to quell the bill deficit.

She steady comments, initial done last week, that the euro was in the toughest duration given the launch in 1999 -- presumably an bid to hope for German open opinion, that is strongly opposite helping Greece, for involvement by Berlin in the crisis.

But Merkel stressed no preference had been taken on monetary benefit to Greece, and that Berlin one after another to design Athens to take whatever stairs were required to finalise the problems.

"There have been positively no alternative decisions taken. I would similar to to contend that utterly clearly," Merkel said. "Greece has to do what"s required for Greece. But that is additionally critical for all of us."

The Dutch supervision pronounced there were no plans at benefaction to buy Greek bonds, and that the tip priority for the Netherlands was to safeguard the fortitude of the euro.

"We don"t wish to outlay taxpayer income to save the Greeks," pronounced January Kees de Jager, allocated as financial apportion last Tuesday in a caretaker supervision that will oversee until elections on Jun 9.

The Greek financial method and the European Commission declined to criticism on the reports of an assist deal.

But there were alternative signs of strong tactful efforts to finalise the crisis. Papandreou pronounced Friday he would revisit Berlin for talks with Merkel on Mar 5, and Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann met Papandreou in Athens Friday.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde pronounced Sunday that her supervision and others were study options to plunge into the crisis.

"I have no disbelief that Greece will be equates to to refinance itself, utilizing equates to that we are now exploring, and for that we have a series of propositions.

"It would engage in isolation partners or open partners or both," Lagarde said, disappearing to give serve details.

German and French media reports have referred to governments in the 16-country euro section competence suggest assist value a sum of twenty to twenty-five billion euros ($27 billion to $34 billion) to Greece. Officials have declined to criticism on the distance of any assist plan.

Both Greece and EU governments face flourishing vigour to action from the debt market, that fears Athens competence lose the capability to steal at affordable rates as a appropriation break approaches.

Greece has pronounced the appropriation needs are met until mid-March, and it will need to refinance about twenty billion euros of debt sappy in Apr and May. It is scheming to daub the euro debt marketplace with the second down payment issue this year.

Rehn was due to encounter Papandreou at 9:15 a.m. EST Monday, Papandreou"s bureau said. Rehn was additionally approaching to encounter Katseli at 5 a.m. EST and Greek Labor Minister Andreas Loverdos at 10 a.m. EST.

Any swell toward an assist plan for Athens could progress the euro, as well as down payment prices and promissory note bonds in Greece and alternative gladdened countries on the euro zone"s southern periphery.

But any convene by the euro competence be brief, since investors would additionally be concerned that a dangerous fashion was being set for Germany and alternative abounding states in the section to take on the liabilities of poorer ones.

(Additional stating by Matthias Sobolewski and Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin, Reed Stevenson in Amsterdam, Astrid Wendlandt in Paris and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Writing by Andrew Torchia; modifying by Mark Trevelyan)

for acne doctors to help adolescents to treat their acne

Harley play will supplement Triumph

RALEIGH -- Motorcycle racing hall-of-famer Ray Price is about to violate an phonetic formula of respect at his Harley-Davidson salon in Raleigh. His dealership, one of the largest in the country, will shortly sell unfamiliar bikes to one side the all-American Harleys that have gleamed here given 1982.

Next month, Ray Price Harley-Davidson will embrace the initial conveyance of English-bred Triumph bikes, the continental classical innate in 1902, a year prior to the Harley rumbled on Americas soil. Today, Triumphs embody the renouned "crotch rocket" sports pattern that Harley-Davidson doesnt disdain to imitate. Price sees the assertive character as his snack to a younger, hipper market.

The strong Harley, a threat of chrome and leather, can take a heck of a beating, but the Great Recession is putting this unapproachable highway sow to the test. The Harley house not long ago reported the initial quarterly loss given 1993, and Prices operation is down by about a third, from 65 people in make use of a couple of years ago to 46 today. During the mercantile tailspin, motorcycle sales in this nation have plummeted by 43 percent.

Before revelation Triumph in to his empire, Price checked with business to see how they"d react. They gave him the go-ahead.

"The British motorcycle is some-more supposed by Harley riders than Japanese brands," Price pronounced at his salon on Thursday. "Right now, we wish to dilemma as most of the marketplace as we can."

Price, 72, is a homegrown fable in the cycling world. The Johnston County local was a speed devil who flew along draw towards strips on 600-horsepower machines powered with a high-performance fuel well known as liquid dynamite. He raced bikes from 1966 until 2003, when an collision forced him to retire.

He overshot the finish line at 218 mph in a Las Vegas speedway draw towards race. The pile-up cost him the make use of his left arm.

He still rides, but right away he gets around in a three-wheeler. He does it by putting his bad palm in to a Velcro-lined glove and attaching the glove to the handlebar.

Triumph has five dealers in this state, the closest ones in Fayetteville and Greensboro.

Prices emporium will be the initial Harley play in the state to sell the Triumph.

Thats OK by Howard Arrington, the executive of the Harley Owners Group section of Raleigh.

"I grew up with friends who had Triumphs," Arrington said. "The dual [brands] have regularly been supposed by each other."

Price pronounced the corporate bureau acquiesced to his decision.

"Harley-Davidson routinely tries to forestall dealers from consistent an additional brand," pronounced Rick Campbell, editor and publishing house of Motorcycle Industry repository in Nevada. "Harley [pushed] dealers to set up monoliths, high value, high prominence locations ... that has backfired to a little degree."

Now Prices racing teams will contest on Triumphs. One of the teams star riders: Jordan Richardson, Prices 24-year-old grandson.

john.murawski or 919-829-8932

New routine yields high-energy-density plant-based travel fuel

The elementary routine preserves about 95 percent of the appetite from the strange biomass, requires small hydrogen input, and captures CO dioxide underneath high vigour for destiny profitable use.

With James Dumesic, Steenbock Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UW-Madison, postdoctoral researchers Jesse Bond and David Martin Alonso, and connoisseur students Dong Wang and Ryan West published sum of the allege in the Feb. twenty-six book of the biography Science.

Much of the Dumesic groupprevious investigate of utilizing cellulosic biomass for biofuels has focused on processes that modify abounding plant-based sugars in to travel fuels. However, in formerly complicated acclimatisation methods, sugarine molecules often reduce to form levulinic poison and formic poison -- dual products the prior methods couldn"t straightforwardly renovate in to high-energy liquid fuels.

The teamnew routine exploits sugartendency to degrade. Instead of perplexing to quarrel the degradation, we proposed with levulinic poison and formic poison and attempted to see what we could do utilizing that as a platform, says Dumesic.

In the participation of steel catalysts, the dual acids conflict to form gamma-valerolactone, or GVL, that right away is done in small quantities as an herbal food and redolence additive. Using laboratory-scale apparatus and stable, cheap catalysts, Dumesicgroup converts aqueous solutions of GVL in to jet fuel. It unequivocally is really simple, says Bond, of the two-step catalytic process. We can lift off these dual catalytic stages, as well as the claim subdivision steps, in series, with simple equipment. With really minimal processing, we can furnish a pristine tide of jet-fuel-range alkenes and a sincerely pristine tide of CO dioxide.

While biofuels such as ethanol are apropos some-more renouned as consistent agents in vehicle fuels, they have stipulations for have make use of of in jet fuel since of their low appetite density. And, since benefaction inner explosion engine designs, required biofuels cannot entirely reinstate petroleum-derived hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons constructed from GVL in this new routine are chemically homogeneous to those used in the benefaction infrastructure, says Alonso. The product we have is ready for the jet fuel focus and can be combined to existent hydrocarbon blends, as needed, to encounter specs.

The greatest separator to implementing the renewable fuel is the cost of GVL. Until now, says Dumesic, there has not been an inducement to mass-produce the compound. The bottleneck in carrying the fuel ready for budding time is the accessibility of cost-effective GVL, he says.

Now that they have demonstrated the routine for converting GVL to travel fuel, Dumesic and his students are building some-more fit methods for creation GVL from biomass sources such as wood, corn stover, switchgrass and others. Once the GVL is done effectively, I think this is an glorious approach to modify it to jet fuel, he says.

Micro-rings Could Help Eliminate Wires in the Home

A new record that converts laser pulses in to air wave signals couldeliminate the confusion of wires in homes by vouchsafing inclination communicatewirelessly, and at speeds most faster than stream Wi-Fi.

Minghao Qi, an partner highbrow of electrical and computerengineering at Purdue University in Indiana says his teams micro-ringresonators will hoop all from high-definition televisionbroadcasts to secure computer connectors and concede interpretation to transmittedthroughout the residence from a singular hub. And the most appropriate part: no cables tohide.

The silicon micro-ring resonators take information-laden laserpulses and modify them in to pulses of radio-frequency signals. Thepulses assistance assuage problems caused when Wi-fi signals rebound off walls and ceilings, that can equates to vigilance interference.

"Sending it in pulses equates to the reflected signals will not be overlapping with the first signal," Qi told TechNewsDaily.

The alternative value of micro-rings is speed.The new complement Purdue is building allows signals to be sent in the 60gigahertz bandwidth, that translates in to faster interpretation transmission.

"What enables this record is that the inclination generateultrabroad bandwidth air wave frequencies indispensable to broadcast the high datarates compulsory for high fortitude displays," pronounced investigate group memberAndrew Weiner, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering atPurdue.

Currently, Wi-fi can send interpretation anywhere from about 50 to 100megabits per second. But micro-ring record could broadcast at 5 to 6gigabits per second fast sufficient to broadcast the complete essence of a Blu-ray front in about 5 seconds. For reference, one gigabit is next to 1,000 megabits.

For now, Purdue is focusing on selling a micro-ring resonatordevice that usually transmits one way. That equates to it cannot now beused for joining to the Internet, that requires two-waycommunication.

"The promulgation section for transmitting interpretation is now still a littlebulky, Qi said. Later, if the promulgation section can be integrated in to thedevices, we could suffer full two-way traffic, enabling the wirelessoperation of things similar to hard-disc drives and computers.

Southwest Airlines to Include In-Flight Wi-Fi 10 Cool Asian Cell Phone Features You Cant Have Yet How 4G Works

Playing banjo eased Oscar highlight for Steve Martin

March 26, 2010, 5:25 AM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Steve Martin says personification the banjo helped hope for him for his Oscar-hosting gig.

The 64-year-old actor-writer-musicia n says behaving live with the Steep Canyon Rangers done him feel gentle on the Kodak Theatre theatre at the Oscars.

Martin says he wasn"t certain since he wasn"t shaken prior to co-hosting the Mar 7 Oscars with Alec Baldwin, but a crony referred to may be it was since he"d been in front of audiences around the nation with his banjo.

Martin pronounced in a new talk that he "hadn"t been on theatre live in front of people in a long, prolonged time, solely for this," gesturing toward the banjo in his hand.

He"ll proceed an additional debate with the Steep Canyon Rangers on Apr 19.

———

On the Net:

http://www.stevemartin.com

,,,

U.S. and Russia in last pull to bind new START covenant

Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA Tue Mar 9, 2010 9:53am EST Related News Medvedev hopes for START successor deal soonMon, Mar 1 2010Russian START negotiators going home but to returnFri, Feb 26 2010Russian START negotiators going home but to returnFri, Feb 26 2010

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian arms control officials began on Tuesday what both sides hope will be a final push to clinch a treaty cutting their strategic nuclear arsenals, officials said.

World&&&&Russia

Dozens of negotiators from each country were taking part in the START talks which resumed at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva after a 10-day break for consultations in their capitals, they said.

"The two sides are committed to concluding negotiations. What is important is that we arrive at a quality agreement," a U.S. spokesman said.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed hope the negotiators could reach agreement within a few weeks.

"We favor the completion (of the talks) in two-three weeks," Lavrov told reporters. "There are chances for this."

Lavrov echoed the U.S. spokesman"s statement that the quality of the first nuclear arms reduction treaty in nearly two decades would be more important than its timing, saying: "There are no artificial deadlines."

The world"s two largest nuclear powers are seeking a replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which could ease relations at a time when major powers are pressing Iran and North Korea to meet Western demands on their nuclear programmes. The Cold War-era pact expired last December.

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed last July that the successor treaty must cut deployed nuclear warheads to between 1,500 and 1,675 per side from the current 2,200. Bombers and missiles that can deliver them would be sharply limited.

Russia and the United States currently hold some 95 percent of the world"s nuclear warheads.

The Geneva talks have been shrouded in secrecy, but apparent sticking points have included verification and monitoring measures as well as Russia"s opposition to U.S. plans for missile defense facilities in eastern Europe.

A Russian diplomat in Geneva, asked whether this would be the final round, told Reuters: "We hope so, let"s keep our fingers crossed." A draft treaty would be ready "hopefully by early April," he said.

Obama and Medvedev would be expected to sign the treaty at a ceremony, but details on the venue and timing have yet to be worked out, according to the Russian diplomat. "It depends on many factors," he added.

Obama will host a nuclear non-proliferation summit on April 12-13 bringing together representatives from as many as 43 countries to help secure the world"s loose nuclear material.

He called last year in Prague for a world without nuclear weapons and has made preventing the spread of atomic weapons a priority.

Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance and implementation, leads the U.S. delegation. Anatoly Antonov, who heads the Foreign Ministry"s department of security and disarmament, is her Russian counterpart.

(Additional reporting by Denis Dyomkin in Moscow; Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Dominic Evans)

World Russia

RPT-Thai protesters aim hearts and minds of Bangkok

Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:05am EDT Related News UPDATE 1-Thai protesters vow prolonged rally to force electionsThu, Mar 18 2010Thai protesters seek reinforcements for dwindling rallyThu, Mar 18 2010UPDATE 1-Thai "red shirts" splatter blood at PM"s homeWed, Mar 17 2010Thai "red shirts" take protest to PM"s homeWed, Mar 17 2010UPDATE 2-Protesters splash their blood outside Thai PM officeTue, Mar 16 2010

(Refiles to include dropped words in lead para)

Stocks&&&&Currencies&&&&Financials

By Ambika Ahuja

BANGKOK, March 19 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands ofopposition activists in Thailand vowed on Friday to press aheadwith anti-government protests, preparing for a new drive to winover Bangkok"s politically powerful middle classes.

The demonstrators remained at their base in Bangkok"shistoric heart, dancing to live folk music, listening to fieryspeeches decrying the military"s intervention in politics andplanning Saturday"s city-wide recruitment march.

Investors are however convinced there is no danger to PrimeMinister Abhisit Vejjajiva and have poured 35.3 billion baht($1.09 billion) into Thailand"s stock market .SETI in thelast month.

The bourse was up 1.1 percent at a 20-month high on Friday,returning to positive territory after a day of profit-taking onThursday snapped a six-day run of gains.

The "red-shirt" protesters plan to fan out across the cityof 15 million people on motorcycles and pickup trucks onSaturday, handing out leaflets and calling on urbansympathisers to join their push to oust the government.

"We want to win the hearts of Bangkok people," NattawutSaikua, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters.

"We have already proven to them that we are genuine andnon-violent. We want them to help us topple this hypocriticalgovernment."

Analysts said it would be a tough task.

"There is no case so far for the protest to gain masssupport to overthrow the Abhisit government," Citigroup analystSuchart Techaposai said in a research note.

But that is what the protest leaders are trying to change.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Take-a-Look at the political crisis, click [ID:nTHAILAND] Scenarios of possible outcomes, click [ID:nSGE62D00C] Q+A about the "red shirts", click [ID:nSGE62D00D] Analysis on the protests, click [ID:nSGE62F040] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

CONVINCING THE UNDECIDED

The mainly rural supporters of former premier ThaksinShinawatra, who was overthrown in a coup and later convicted ofgraft, are seeking to lure Bangkok middle classes, civilservants and rank-and-file soldiers and policemen to theirbattle against the government and influential establishmentelite.

Their aim is to diversify their support base, strengthentheir legitimacy and sustain a crowd that appears to be waning.

While few expect the rally to topple the government, aprolonged protest could start to undermine the leadership of apremier unable to visit his office, parliament, or his home,opting instead to stay at a fortified military compound.

However, some of the most ardent "red shirts" are beginningto succumb to fatigue and leaders are seeking reinforcements.The number of protesters peaked at up to 150,000 on Sundayalthough tens of thousands still remain.

Some vowed to stay until the end, whenever that will be.

"There is no money at my farm. At least here, we are doingsomething important, and I"m not paid to be here," said SupalakPumarin, from Udon Thani province, who, like many "red shirts",refutes common claims the masses were hired.

Analysts said the support base for the campaign appeared tobe diversifying, but convincing Bangkok residents to join theirmovement could prove difficult, especially given the strongaversion to Thaksin among many in the capital.

"It"s no longer rural versus urban and it has ceased to bethe case for some time," said Charnvit Kasertsiri, a politicalhistorian.

"There is a lot of support for the reds even in Bangkok.The question is: Can they bring them out to the streets?" (Additional reporting by Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul and PloyTen Kate; Editing by Martin Petty and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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UPDATE 1-Bank of Canada reasserts rate position markets heedful

Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:43pm EDT

* Carney says growth, inflation firmer than expected

Currencies&&&&Bonds

* Broad brush of recovery in line with projections

* Rate hike expectations rise after comments

* April 22 report will provide more rate guidance (Adds market reaction, details)

By Louise Egan

OTTAWA, March 24 (Reuters) - Canadian growth and inflationare firmer than expected, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carneysaid on Wednesday, but he highlighted other factors that coulddiscourage the bank from raising interest rates earlier thanexpected to cool the economy.

After giving a speech perceived as slightly more hawkish onraising rates, Carney held a news conference in which he soughtto dampen any market expectations that he could raise borrowingcosts as early as June.

When the bank cut its key rate to 0.25 percent last April,it took the unusual step of committing to hold rates at thatlevel until the end of June this year, conditional on inflationstaying on track.

It has repeated that pledge at every chance but someinvestors began to suspect a bias towards an earlier rise inrates due to stubbornly firm core inflation and a string ofsurprisingly strong economic indicators.

Carney said the big picture was unfolding largely asexpected, or only slightly stronger, and that people should notoverreact to his comments.

"People should just take a step back, there hasn"t been afundamental change in the underlying dynamics here and thosedynamics are pretty broad brushed," Carney told reporters.

"The underlying dynamics affecting inflation haven"tchanged, including the starting point which is an economy witha fair degree of slack in it, a considerable degree in it, bothin the labor market and capacity in general," he said.

Nonetheless, markets were pricing in a slightly greaterchance of credit tightening than before Carney spoke.

"For markets, the inclination is going to be to pullforward rather than push back the probability of a rate hikeout of the BoC given the better than expected economic andinflation performance," said Stewart Hall, markets strategistat HSBC Canada.

"Still, the overall market response has been largely mutedin keeping with the limits of the information provided," hesaid.

Yields on overnight index swaps, which trade based onexpectations for the Bank of Canada"s key policy rate, edgedhigher after the speech was published, showing the market sawcredit tightening as more likely than before Carney spoke.

The market suggests there are high odds the central bankwill hike rates by 25 basis points in July and lift its keyrate to 1 percent by October. BOCWATCH

The Canadian dollar firmed slightly after the speech andnews conference, rising to C$1.0234 to the U.S. dollar fromabout C$1.0250 just before.

AVOIDING A FRENZIED RUSH TO EXITS

Scotia Capital economist Derek Holt sees a second-quarterrate hike as probable and believes Carney carefully managed hismessage on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent markets fromracing ahead of themselves.

"The danger on stimulus withdrawal is to have marketsrapidly price in a full cycle"s worth of hikes, and much of themessaging in this speech is oriented toward ensuring this isdone in as mild a manner as feasible," Holt said.

More answers on the bank"s intentions will come on April 22when it updates it forecasts, two days after an interest rateannouncement where it is expected to keep rates unchanged.

Core inflation was higher than expected in both Februaryand January, but the one-time effects of higher hotel ratesduring the Winter Olympics in Vancouver had many wonderingwhether the central bank would shrug off the data.

Carney acknowledged some of the price pressures weretransitory but said to stay tuned for more details in April.

In a sign of heightened market hunger for any hint from thebank, some found a veiled signal of an imminent rate hike inCarney"s use of new language in describing the low rate pledgeas "expressly conditional".

Carney downplayed the wording change but then said: "It"snot a promise, it"s an expectation. We"ll update that in Apriland lay out that view in more detail." (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Toronto treasuryteam; editing by Peter Galloway)

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