At Pacific Place

regards,

Monday... People are so busy and - think, most of them are back to Jkt. It is unbelieveable, I can' get a travel to Jkt. All are full booked. So, I had to take bus and I am on bus now. Then, I contact my friend to give me a dricetion.
Luckily my friend Elan knows well the place I'll visit. He called and gave me a direction , so I will not get lost when I hit the place sometime in 2 hours. Thanks, Elan.

@cipularang
Powered by Telkomsel BlackBerry®

AirAsia Counter check-in fee

Guys, from now on Airasia will charge 5 dollar if you do counter check-in. So, do self-check in for free. You can do it through mobile and Airasia website.

Here is the notice sent by Airasia regarding its counter check-in fee..

Experience all the freedom and convenience when you Self Check-In via web or mobile today! It's FREE, SIMPLE & QUICK you'll wonder why you never tried it in the first place.And it's the best alternative to the Rp 30.000 counter check-in fee.So go on, try our Self Check-In services. Since it's FREE you've got nothing to lose! 



Powered by Telkomsel BlackBerry®

Awake

Gosh, I can't sleep. This is bad coz I need to leave in the early morning. Hope during my trip to Jkt, I will be able to sleep in the car. Um, good nite.
Powered by Telkomsel BlackBerry®

Nivea pulls ‘offensive’ ad | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

 

Companies like to push the envelope with their ads. Sometimes the gamble works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes, like in the case of a new advertising campaign from Nivea, the whole thing turns into a fiasco.

Nivea, a company that specializes in skin-care products, recently released a print ad that it has since pulled. How to best describe the ad? It shows an African American man preparing to toss a decapitated head (his own?) with an afro-style haircut. The ad copy reads: "Re-Civilize Yourself." The underlying message seems to be that afros are not civilized.

Almost immediately, the ad met with outrage. The Los Angeles Times reported that Facebook users began "posting photos of themselves with Afros on Nivea's wall, saying things such as: 'I wear my hair natural and I just graduated with my doctorate! So who needs to be re-civilized?? Nivea no longer welcomed in my household.' "

 

Nivea has since taken down the ad and issued an apology via Facebook. "Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent 'Re-civilized' Nivea for Men ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company."

While the ad has since been pulled, the massive interest in the controversy it created continues full steam ahead. Over the past 24 hours, Web searches for "Nivea recivilize yourself" surged 629 percent. "Nivea racist ad" spiked 140 percent. The conventional wisdom is that there's no such thing as bad publicity, but the fallout from this ad SNAFU might prove otherwise.

 

Facebook Dont's

- Yahoo! News

 

1. Don't befriend your sketchy neighbor on Facebook. A man in the UK exploited the lame state of security questions to hack into his neighbors' bank accounts and steal from them. Iain Wood, 33, figured out friends and neighbors' bank account usernames -- perhaps the same as their email addresses? -- and then claimed to have forgotten the password. The banks asked security questions -- you know these: what's your pet's name? what's your best friend's name? what street do you live on? -- and Wood was able to answer them based on information he had dug up from their social networking accounts. He then broke into the accounts to get direct access to their money. His scheme was a bit more elaborate than that of the 23-year-old Californian who broke into women's email accounts to try to find nude photos of them. Wood says he would spend up to 18 hours a day going through people's profiles to find the information he needed to crack their accounts, reports the Telegraph. He stole over $55,000 over two years.

Remember, it's okay to defriend someone if they seem like the hacking type. And don't post information about your mother's maiden name if you can help it. Moving forward, for many of us, "social engineering hacking" may be a bigger concern than the more tech-savvy variety.

2. Don't make your Facebook events open to anyone who wants to come. New Yorkers, be aware that the NYPD have started patrolling the mean streets of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. A new unit in the Community Affairs Bureau will "mine social media, looking for info about troublesome house parties, gang showdowns and other potential mayhem," according to the New York Daily News. The police commissioner has specifically asked officers to keep track of parties that are advertised online, as they could get out of hand should they go viral. So party carefully, folks.

3. If you go on a looting spree during a week of riots, don't post the bounty in a photo on Facebook. That's what this dude did in London. It's wise that cops are getting on the digital beat, because crooks are often pretty revealing online. Even if your privacy settings are high enough that digital detectives can't see your booty, your crime-hating friends might rat you out. A 23-year-old Arizonan was charged with burglary this month after he robbed a fire department. He got burned by a Facebook friend, who called the police after he posted a photo of himself wearing a stolen fireman's helmet.

4. Finally, don't kid around about wanting to hire a hitman to kill somebody, because they could actually end up dead. We mentioned the case of London Eley as a previous folly. Eley, 20, posted a Facebook status message about being willing to "pay a stack" to someone to "kill her baby daddy." Timothy Bynum said he would take her up on the offer asking, "where he be at" and saying "i need that stack first." The baby daddy, Corey White, alerted police who arrested and charged Bynum and Eley. They went before a judge on Monday, who upheld the charges against them. Hours later, White was shot and killed. Though Eley and Bynum both said that they were not serious about their postings -- and were both in jail at the time of the shooting -- their prosecutions for murder solicitation and murder conspiracy, respectively, surely aren't helped by this.

Here is some more practical advice on "Facebook don'ts" via All Facebook: 7 Stupidest Mistakes We Keep Seeing on Facebook.

 

Rick Perry: Outflanking George W. Bush on the Far Right

 - The Daily Beast

 

Dog-whistle politics probably date back at least to Cato the Elder, but in our time the practice was perfected by George W. Bush. Tossing a scriptural reference into a public utterance that would go unnoticed by us heathens but would reassure the touched was a trademark of Bush and his talented speechwriter Michael Gerson. Well, we’re now in a new era. Rick Perry has traded in his dog whistle for an air-raid siren. He wants everyone to hear, loud and clear. His is the most right-wing presidential candidacy by a “serious” contender since I don’t know when (Warren Harding? But he pardoned Eugene Debs!). Have we really reached the point where reveling in conservative hatreds and revenge fantasies can get a man elected president?

Bush—and it leaves me speechless that he’s starting to look reasonable by comparison with the current crop of GOP presidential hopefuls—was hardly apologetic about his political views. But he and Karl Rove did have the sense to know when they were throwing gasoline on the domestic fire, and they did it in smallish doses. You might be able to Google up the odd careless quote from Bush about something like global warming, but in general, and especially on the occasions when he knew his words were being very closely watched, he steered well clear of extremism.

Remember “Clear Skies,” the Bush environmental initiative from 2002? It ended up being laughable, but hey, at least it was an environmental speech. To read it today is astonishing. He acknowledged the importance of protecting the environment. He recognized the existence of global warming. He came out in favor of—ready?—a cap-and-trade plan for reducing emissions. Yes, he spoke those very words, even elaborating: “This approach enjoys widespread support, with both Democrats and Republicans, because we know it works. You see, since 1995 we have used a cap-and-trade program for sulphur dioxide pollution.” The dog-whistle part came in the sentences that proclaimed the science “uncertain,” and in his refusal to acknowledge straight up a human role in global warming.

Now fast-forward to Perry. During his maiden week on the hustings, when he knew every word would be carefully tracked, Perry declared that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by scientists greedy for grant money. This earned him a rare Four Pinocchios from The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column, which in PerryWorld is, of course, merely proof about how right he is.

Nearly every day has brought forth a new gem. On Thursday, he told a New Hampshire school-age child that he’s “not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely” how old the Earth is. He preceded these with a remark about Barack Obama not being respected by the military. And, of course, there was the infamous statement that Ben Bernanke would be committing “treason” by priming the economy. Not bad—nail the black guy and the Jew in your very first week on the trail!Michele Bachmann aspires to be the right-wing It Girl. Perry wants to be the movement’s Id Boy. He’ll speak the words that the others won’t quite. Given this assemblage, that is really saying something, but consider: Even Bachmann has stuck largely to an economic script so far. Perry will home in on the darkest corners of the Tea Party mind and work relentlessly to activate the demons that lurk there. It will all be right out in the open. The questions are whether it can succeed, and whether Obama has the backbone to respond. It was, as usual, profoundly discouraging to see Obama’s flaccid response to Perry’s Bernanke remarks. Perry needs to be “a little more careful” with his words? That’s the best the guy could do? And then he remained silent on Perry’s military slam. Yes, I know all the reasons why: Don’t elevate him and so on. But please. That above-the-fray strategy has helped guide the president to his lofty 40 percent approval rating.

Perry may lose the nomination for other reasons, but I think we can be reasonably certain that GOP primary voters will not punish him for expressing extreme views in the language of prideful ignorance, nor for speaking disparagingly of the president. So if he does become the nominee, Obama is going to have to mix it up. He’ll need to do so with any GOP candidate, but this is especially so with Perry, because he will say anything, and he will make it personal. Every few weeks, or days even, something happens that makes me ask myself how much more right-wing this party can get. As long as Perry is in the race, we’re going to keep finding out.

 

Israeli Diplomatic Tsunami

Analysis: Diplomatic woes pile up for isolated Israel - Yahoo! News

 

Israel was expecting a diplomatic tsunami to strike in September, but the problems have come sooner than expected, leaving it ever more isolated in the Middle East.

Egypt's decision on Saturday to recall its envoy from Israel will remove the last Arab ambassador from Tel Aviv, further undermining a relationship that had started to buckle following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Tensions flared after a cross-border attack earlier this week, with Cairo accusing Israeli forces of shooting dead three Egyptian security guards during gunbattles with Palestinian militants who had earlier ambushed and killed eight Israelis.

The row comes days after renewed verbal barbs between Israel and its one-time ally Turkey, which is still fuming over the deaths of nine Turks last year when Israeli commandos stormed a boat trying to break the blockade of Gaza.

Turkey is demanding an apology for the incident, something Israel is refusing to provide. Now Egypt wants to hear "sorry" too, but all it is getting so far are offers of "regret."

"Egypt is trying to re-educate Israel and is following the same line as the Turkish foreign policy," said Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern studies in Tel Aviv.

Israel's international standing faces a fresh assault next month as Palestinian leaders from the West Bank seek full membership of the United Nations in a General Assembly vote that will expose decades of rancour.

"Israel needs to learn that it is facing a different Middle East," Rabi told Reuters Television.

PRESERVING THE PACTS

Israel's 1979 peace deal with Egypt has been the cornerstone of its Middle East policy, providing much-needed stability to its southern flanks and enabling successive leaders to maintain the status quo in the unresolved Palestinian conflict.

Egypt's new military leaders are highly unlikely to tear up the Camp David accords, which brought Cairo enhanced security stability and also gave it access to generous Western funds.

But after an uprising among a populace that is overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, the military has already shown itself to be more open to the Islamist Hamas group that governs the Gaza enclave and more assertive when it comes to dealing with Israel.

"Israel must be aware that the days when it kills our children without getting a strong, appropriate response are gone for ever," Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister and ex-Arab League chief, said on his Twitter feed.

In the heady days following the Egyptian peace deal, which eventually opened the way for treaties with other Arab states such as Jordan and Morocco, many Israelis hoped that they would find partners to forge a reconstructed and secure Middle East.

Those dreams have long vanished and some analysts believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government have simply decided to by-pass the region and build alliances elsewhere.

"They don't expect peace with the Palestinians. They are giving up on the Middle East. They are focusing on eastern Europe," said Alon Liel, former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry.

"If you think like that then you can't expect good relations with your neighbours," he told Reuters.

As ties with regional neighbours sour, relations with some of Israel's closest allies, including the United States, are not as rosy as they once were.

Western diplomats have pinned much of the blame for stalled Palestinian peace talks on Israel, with Washington and European capitals roundly condemning a spurt of recent approvals for settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

While the United States has said it will side with Israel in the impending showdown in the United Nations, a big majority of U.N. members are likely to back the Palestinians.

"The real wake-up call will come in September. The Palestinians are headed toward a diplomatic Intifada, not a military Intifada," Liel said, seeing diplomacy rather than street violence as the main threat for Israel.

(Created by Crispian Balmer; editing by Andrew Roche)

 

Seven ways Rick Perry wants to change the Constitution

| The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Rick Perry has many ideas about how to change the American government's founding document. From ending lifetime tenure for federal judges to completely scrapping two whole amendments, the Constitution would see a major overhaul if the Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate had his druthers.

 

Perry laid out these proposed innovations to the founding document in his book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington. He has occasionally mentioned them on the campaign trail. Several of his ideas fall within the realm of mainstream conservative thinking today, but, as you will see, there are also a few surprises.

 1. Abolish lifetime tenure for federal judges by amending Article III, Section I of the Constitution.

The nation's framers established a federal court system whereby judges with "good behavior" would be secure in their job for life. Perry believes that provision is ready for an overhaul.

"The Judges," reads Article III, "both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office."

Perry makes it no secret that he believes the judges on the bench over the past century have acted beyond their constitutional bounds. The problem, Perry reasons, is that members of the judiciary are "unaccountable" to the people, and their lifetime tenure gives them free license to act however they want. In his book, the governor speaks highly of plans to limit their tenure and offers proposals about how to accomplish it.

"'[W]e should take steps to restrict the unlimited power of the courts to rule over us with no accountability," he writes in Fed Up! "There are a number of ideas about how to do this . . . . One such reform would be to institute term limits on what are now lifetime appointments for federal judges, particularly those on the Supreme Court or the circuit courts, which have so much power. One proposal, for example, would have judges roll off every two years based on seniority."

2. Congress should have the power to override Supreme Court decisions with a two-thirds vote.

Ending lifetime tenure for federal justices isn't the only way Perry has proposed suppressing the power of the courts. His book excoriates at length what he sees as overreach from the judicial branch. (The title of Chapter Six is "Nine Unelected Judges Tell Us How to Live.")

Giving Congress the ability to veto their decisions would be another way to take the Court down a notch, Perry says.

"[A]llow Congress to override the Supreme Court with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, which risks increased politicization of judicial decisions, but also has the benefit of letting the people stop the Court from unilaterally deciding policy," he writes.

3. Scrap the federal income tax by repealing the Sixteenth Amendment.

The Sixteenth Amendment gives Congress the "power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." It should be abolished immediately, Perry says.

Calling the Sixteenth Amendment "the great milestone on the road to serfdom," Perry's writes that it provides a virtually blank check to the federal government to use for projects with little or no consultation from the states.

4. End the direct election of senators by repealing the Seventeenth Amendment.

Overturning this amendment would restore the original language of the Constitution, which gave state legislators the power to appoint the members of the Senate.

Ratified during the Progressive Era in 1913 , the same year as the Sixteenth Amendment, the Seventeenth Amendment gives citizens the ability to elect senators on their own. Perry writes that supporters of the amendment at the time were "mistakenly" propelled by "a fit of populist rage."

"The American people mistakenly empowered the federal government during a fit of populist rage in the early twentieth century by giving it an unlimited source of income (the Sixteenth Amendment) and by changing the way senators are elected (the Seventeenth Amendment)," he writes.

5. Require the federal government to balance its budget every year.

Of all his proposed ideas, Perry calls this one "the most important," and of all the plans, a balanced budget amendment likely has the best chance of passage.

"The most important thing we could do is amend the Constitution--now--to restrict federal spending," Perry writes in his book. "There are generally thought to be two options: the traditional 'balanced budget amendment' or a straightforward 'spending limit amendment,' either of which would be a significant improvement. I prefer the latter . . . . Let's use the people's document--the Constitution--to put an actual spending limit in place to control the beast in Washington."

A campaign to pass a balanced budget amendment through Congress fell short by just one vote in the Senate in the 1990s.

Last year, House Republicans proposed a spending-limit amendment that would limit federal spending to 20 percent of the economy. According to the amendment's language, the restriction could be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress or by a declaration of war.

6. The federal Constitution should define marriage as between one man and one woman in all 50 states.

Despite saying last month that he was "fine with" states like New York allowing gay marriage, Perry has now said he supports a constitutional amendment that would permanently ban gay marriage throughout the country and overturn any state laws that define marriage beyond a relationship between one man and one woman.

"I do respect a state's right to have a different opinion and take a different tack if you will, California did that," Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network in August. "I respect that right, but our founding fathers also said, 'Listen, if you all in the future think things are so important that you need to change the Constitution here's the way you do it'.

In an interview with The Ticket earlier this month, Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said that even though it would overturn laws in several states, the amendment still fits into Perry's broader philosophy because amendments require the ratification of three-fourths of the states to be added to the Constitution.

7. Abortion should be made illegal throughout the country.

Like the gay marriage issue, Perry at one time believed that abortion policy should be left to the states, as was the case before the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. But in the same Christian Broadcasting Network interview, Perry said that he would support a federal amendment outlawing abortion because it was "so important...to the soul of this country and to the traditional values [of] our founding fathers."

 

The most popular snapshot : American Girl in Italy

It is said that shoot was not staged. Do you believe that?

American girl in Italy: 60 years later | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

A stunning young woman walks down a street in Florence, her head held high. All around, men playfully gawk at her grace and beauty. Just then the camera shutter snaps. "American Girl in Italy" is among the most popular snapshots of all time, and it's turning 60 years old this month.

thermal imaging can give away your ATM pin in 10 seconds

Always be careful when doing anything, including witdrawing money. Too many dangerous people outside trying to con you. Yesterday, I lost my mobile which I bought last June.

Thermal imaging can give away your ATM pin number in 10 seconds | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

 

If you live near the University of California at San Diego, you may want to venture elsewhere if you need grab some cash at the ATM. Researchers at the school have figured out an exceedingly easy way to identify ATM pin numbers, and the method uses your own body heat against you. With the help of a thermal imaging camera, the researchers were able to glean the secret digits of ATM users without ever seeing them press the buttons.

The team found that once an ATM customer completes their transaction, an individual armed with a heat-sensing camera could swoop in and take a snapshot of the keypad. As the heat from the button presses cools, the crook could easily determine what buttons were pressed, and even in what order. In testing, if the picture was snapped within 10 seconds of a customer leaving the ATM, the success rate of predicting the correct sequence was a staggering 80%. If 45 seconds had passed, that rate dropped to 60%.

The type of keys an ATM uses are also a factor, with metal buttons being the least vulnerable to thermal thieves. Plastic pads were found to hold the heat much longer, making the scam possible. Thankfully, thermal imaging cameras are considerably more expensive than your standard point-and-shoot, and a pin number on its own is nearly useless without the matching credit card or other personal information.

UC San Diego via Geekosystem

 

Jon Huntsman and Global Warming

Jon Huntsman turns to Twitter to criticize Perry - Yahoo! News

 

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman on Thursday turned to Twitter to attack a rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, for his positions on evolution and climate change.

"To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy," Huntsman tweeted.

Although Huntsman didn't mention Perry by name, the tweet was sent within hours of a campaign stop by Perry in New Hampshire where was asked by the crowd about both topics.

While Perry dodged a question about climate change, he has previously said the theory is unproven. On Thursday, he defended the teaching of creationism in schools because evolution "has some gaps to it."

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said Huntsman, a former governor of Utah, was "entitled to his opinion" but that the Texas governor believes it's important for students to get all pertinent information.

"It is required that students evaluate and analyze the theory of evolution, and creationism very likely comes up and is discussed in that process," Miner said in a statement. "Teachers are also permitted to discuss it with students in that context. Schools are also allowed to teach biblical history as an elective and creationism is part of that teaching."

Twitter statistics showed that Huntsman's comment was re-tweeted hundreds of times within a few hours. By comparison, a follow-up tweet by Huntsman criticizing President Barack Obama for taking a vacation received about 50 re-tweets.

Spokesman Tim Miller said Huntsman gained nearly 4,000 new followers in the hours following the tweet, up to more than 16,000. The tweet reinforced Huntsman's position as the moderate candidate in a race where others are pushing hard to the right.

For a couple of weeks, Huntsman and his staffers have been promising a more aggressive campaign after having pledged to run a civil campaign. Most of their attacks have focused on the front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Huntsman has generally been complimentary of Perry.

 

Snaptu: The stock market crash: how it affects you

The debt crisis has sent stock markets into turmoil – painful news for pension savers and investors, but the silver lining is falling mortgage rates

Panic is sweeping through stock exchanges across the world, with the FTSE 100, the Dow Jones and the…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Joe Gordon and silly Thai law

American charged with insulting Thai monarchy - Yahoo! News

 

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok says it is disappointed Thailand has charged an American citizen with insulting the country's monarchy. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted under the strict law against criticizing the revered king or the royal family.

An embassy spokeswoman on Friday said it has urged Thai authorities to respect freedom of expression.

Joe Gordon was charged Thursday. He allegedly translated parts of an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and posted articles online that were deemed to have defamed the royal family.

Embassy spokeswoman Kristin Kneedler said the U.S. is "disappointed with the prosecutor's decision."

Gordon was born in Thailand but lived in the U.S. for about 30 years before returning to Thailand.

 

More on Breivik

Police: Norway killer called police twice, hung up - Yahoo! News

 

The man behind the Norway attacks that killed 77 people last month hung up twice on authorities after calling to surrender during the shooting at a youth camp on Utoya island, police said Thursday.

The first phone call came 26 minutes before officers arrested Breivik, who identified himself as the commander in an anti-communist resistance movement, police said.

"I am at Utoya at the moment. I want to surrender," he said, according to a transcript distributed at a news conference.

Local police chief Sissel Hammer said "the operator took the conversation seriously and called back. No one answered."

Breivik called again one minute before being captured and asked to be transferred to the commander of the anti-terror police unit.

"I am a commander in the Norwegian resistance movement," the shooter said. "I have fulfilled my operation, so I want to ... surrender."

Once again, Breivik hung up, but he surrendered to police one minute later.

Anders Behring Breivik's lawyer Geir Lippestad told Norwegian daily Verdens Gang, that the the self-confessed killer said he shot at two groups of young people at Utoya and also fired over the lake in between two phone calls.

Police officials also said that based on information they received from calls about the shooting on the island, they believed at the time that two to five attackers were involved and that they had various weapons and explosives available.

Breivik detonated a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight, and then shot dead 69 others at the youth camp outside Oslo on July 22.

The last funeral for the victims who died from Breivik's shooting spree was held on Thursday.

 

European stocks to extend slump

 - Yahoo! News

 

European stocks are slated for another fall on Friday after Asian stocks slumped on growing fears the U.S. economy was sliding into recession and as some European lenders faced short-term funding strains, raising fears of a systemic banking crisis on the continent.

European shares were expected to extend Thursday's steep losses when they suffered their biggest daily slide in 2-1/2 years, with key indexes in Britain, France and Germany set to open as much as 1 percent lower.

The FTSEurofirst index has already lost 15 pct this month, on track for its worst monthly loss since at least 1997.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.8 percent in Asia, pointing to more losses for battered Western markets later in the day.

Spot gold rose more than 1 percent to an all-time high of $1,844.55 an ounce, before easing to $1,841.94 by 1:30 a.m. EDT. The gains put it on track to a 5.6 percent weekly rise, its seventh gain in a row and the largest since February 2009.

The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 3.4 percent, taking its losses this month to nearly 14 percent.

"(The U.S. data) presents the worst combination for an economy, i.e. slower growth but higher inflation, that impacted quite negatively sentiment in Asia trading hours," Frances Cheung, strategist at Credit Agricole told Reuters Insider.

"Worse still, we also have some funding squeeze coming from Europe and also across a number of Asian markets," she said.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.1 percent for a third day of declines, while Korea's KOSPI tumbling over 6 percent and Taiwan down almost 4 percent, suggesting the pressure was more on markets with a higher exposure to technology.

Several global industry heavyweights such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and LG Electronics have cut sales forecasts this week as the outlook for corporate, government and consumer tech spending dims.

U.S. DATA DISAPPOINTS

A drop in factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region to the lowest level since March 2009 stunned investors, as the data from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank is viewed as a forward-looking indicator of national manufacturing.

An unexpected fall in existing U.S. home sales in July and a greater-than-expected rise in new claims for jobless benefits in the latest week also added to fears that the U.S. economic recovery could stall and possibly slide into recession.

In Europe, renewed fears that the euro zone debt crisis could infect the region's financial system put pressure on short-term funding markets, forcing some European banks to pay higher rates for U.S. dollar loans and reviving memories of the dark days of late 2009 after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers as funding dried up.

"Clearly, these euro-zone banks are having a tough time raising money, but it's not at a level that's alarming," said Joe D'Angelo, managing director of money markets at Prudential Fixed Income in Newark, New Jersey, who oversees $50 billion in assets.

The U.S. dollar booked modest gains in Asia as investors piled into the safety of U.S. Treasuries despite falling yields.

"There are still some strains in Asian FX swap... markets, in which investors are selling dollar and then buying dollar forwards in order to get some short-term U.S. dollar funding," said Cheung.

Oil prices fell and U.S. Treasuries surged as investors rushed into safe-havens after heavy losses on U.S. and European markets overnight.

U.S. 30-year Treasuries surged more than a full point in Asia, with traders saying the papers were getting an added boost from vague rumors about an emergency Fed meeting later on Friday.

Brent oil hit a session low of $106.05 a barrel, down nearly $1 from the previous session. Brent has lost more than 9 percent this month, the worst since a near 15 percent drop in May 2010.

 

The Unique Case of Philip Seaton Waddy

The dispute between a Kentucky man and a surgeon over the necessity of amputating the patient's penis during surgery in 2008 is set to go to trial this week. The doctor maintains he found cancer in the man's penis during surgery and that it had to be removed, according to the physician's attorney. The patient claims the surgery was supposed to be a circumcision and he never authorized the amputation, nor was he given a chance to seek a second opinion. Jury selection begins Thursday in the lawsuit brought by Phillip Seaton of Waddy and his wife, Deborah, against Dr. John Patterson of Louisville. Attorneys hope to start opening statements that afternoon. The Seatons sued Patterson in Shelby County Circuit Court in 2008 after an operation that resulted in the amputation. Seaton, now in his 60s, was having the procedure on Oct. 19, 2007, to better treat inflammation. Neither Kevin George, the attorney for the Seatons, nor Clay Robinson, the attorney for Patterson, would comment on the case. George said Shelby Circuit Judge Charles Hickman asked the lawyers to refrain from making public statements. Robinson did not respond to phone and email messages left at his office in recent weeks. The lawsuit alleges Patterson removed Seaton's penis without consulting either Phillip or Deborah Seaton. George said during a pre-trial hearing on Aug. 2 that the case comes down to whether jurors believe the amputation "was a necessary part of the surgery.' "This is really a fact-driven case," Shelby Circuit Judge Charles Hickman said during the pre-trial conference. George has said that the doctor's post-surgical notes show Patterson thought he detected cancer and removed the penis. But, George added, the situation was not an emergency. "It didn't have to happen that way," George said in 2008, shortly after the lawsuit was filed. Robinson has previously said that Patterson, a Kentucky-based urologist, had permission to perform any medical procedure deemed necessary and that the doctor found cancer in the organ during the surgery. Robinson has said that Patterson "had no reasonable option" but to remove the cancer. "Mr. Seaton's problem was not the surgery, it was the cancer," Robinson said in 2008. The trial had initially been set for January, but Hickman delayed the proceedings because of pre-trial publicity. "I'm optimistic we can seat this jury," Robinson said during the pre-trial hearing. The Seatons are seeking unspecified damages from Patterson for "loss of service, love and affection." The Seatons also sued Jewish Hospital, where the surgery took place. The hospital settled with the Seatons for an undisclosed amount. The Seatons' suit is similar to one in which an Indianapolis man was awarded more than $2.3 million in damages after he claimed his penis and left testicle were removed without his consent during surgery for an infection in 1997. (via Yahoo News)

Australian Law : Women who use veils should show their faces to police on request

Australia law proposal: Muslims must remove veils - Yahoo! News

 

Muslim women would have to remove their veils and show their faces to police on request or risk going to prison under proposed new laws in Australia's most populous state to be introduced to parliament next week.

The New South Wales state government said Friday that under the law, police would be able to require anyone to remove a face covering for identification purposes — including a burqa, niqab, helmet or mask.

Penalties for those who refuse would include a year in prison.

State Premier Barry O'Farrell said those who want to be identified privately for cultural and religious reasons would be able to go to a police station.

The legislation has been condemned by many as an overreaction to a traffic case involving a Muslim woman driver in a "niqab," or a veil that reveals only the eyes.

 

Stock market collapses again
Powered by Telkomsel BlackBerry®

The tea party is "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'"

Survey’s surprising finding: tea party less popular than atheists and Muslims | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, and David E. Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame, say they have collected data indicating that the tea party is "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'"

 

But Campbell says the tea party was really an afterthought in their research.

"We didn't go into this study to look at the tea party," Campbell said in an interview with The Ticket.

The professors were following up on research they conducted in 2006 and 2007 for their book "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us" and decided to add the tea party and atheists to their list of survey queries. By going back to many of the same respondents, the professors gleaned several interesting facts about the tea party.

One of their more surprising findings, Campbell concedes, (and one drawing national attention) is that the tea party drew a lower approval rating than Muslims and atheists. That put the tea party below 23 other entries--including Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Republicans and Democrats--that the professors included on their survey of "a representative sample of 3,000 Americans."

 By examining which respondents became supporters of the tea party, Campbell and Putnam's survey "casts doubt on the tea party's 'origin story,' " they write in the Times--though, in fairness, it's perhaps difficult to generalize on the movement's origins from a poll sample of 3,000 respondents.

Early tea partiers were described as "nonpartisan political neophytes," Campbell and Putnam write, but their findings showed that tea partiers were "highly partisan Republicans" who were more likely than others to have contacted government officials.

"They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do," they went on.

In addition to being socially conservative, the study found  a close tie between religion and the tea party, whose supporters seek out "deeply religious" elected officials.

"This helps to explain why candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are just as much about the public presentation of themselves as religious people as fiscal conservatives," Campbell told The Ticket.

Campbell said Tuesday that he does not regard his research as politically motivated.  "I don't have a particular dog in this or any other political fight," he said.

"We actually didn't go into this study primarily to look at the tea party," he told the Ticket. "The primary purpose of the study is to update what we learned about religion in America."