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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Egypt Islamists take two-thirds of 2nd-round vote (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egypt's two leading Islamist parties won about two-thirds of votes for party lists in the second round of polling for a parliament that will help draft a new constitution after decades of autocratic rule, the election committee said Saturday.

The party list led by the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 36.3 percent of the list vote, while the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour Party took 28.8 percent, pushing the liberal Wafd party into third place.

The vote, staged over six weeks, is the first free election Egypt has held after the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who routinely rigged polls before he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February.

The West long looked to Mubarak and other strongmen in the region to help combat Islamist militants, and has watched warily as Islamist parties have topped votes in Tunisia, Morocco and now Egypt.

Parliament's prime job will be appointing a 100-strong assembly to write a new constitution which will define the president's powers and parliament's clout in the new Egypt.

Second-round results for party lists gave the liberal Wafd Party 9.6 percent of the vote. The Egyptian Bloc of mostly liberal and leftist parties won 7 percent of the list vote.

Analysts say poor coordination among non-Islamist groups has divided the liberal vote, sometimes handing the majority to an Islamist by default.

TRANSITION

The election, which began on November 28 and ends on January 11, has been marred by a flare-up of clashes in Cairo between police and protesters demanding an immediate end to military rule.

At least 17 people were killed in the protests, in which troops clubbed women and men even as they lay on the ground.

The ruling army council fuelled suspicions it wanted to hang on to power, even after a new president was elected, when its cabinet last month proposed inserting articles in the new constitution that would have shielded it from civilian scrutiny.

The army took over after Mubarak was ousted and remains in charge until a presidential election in mid-2012, but parliament will have a popular mandate that the military lacks.

In the first round of the poll, the Brotherhood's FJP won about 37 percent of list votes and Nour about 24 percent.

The complex electoral system gives two-thirds of the 498 elected seats to lists and the rest to individuals.

The FJP said it had won 40 of the 60 individual seats up for grabs in the second round, similar to its first-round showing.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111224/wl_nm/us_egypt_election_results

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Suicide attacker kills 7 at Baghdad checkpoint (AP)

BAGHDAD ? A suicide bomber set off a car bomb Monday at a checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32 others, officials said.

The attack followed a series of bombings last week that killed up to 70 people in a single day, increasing fears about Iraq's future after U.S. troops withdrew this month.

Two police officers said the bomber struck during morning rush hour, hitting one of many security barriers set up around the ministry's building. Five policemen were among the dead, they said.

Two doctors at nearby hospitals confirmed the causality figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

No one has claimed responsibility, but suicide attacks are the hallmark of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group.

U.S. and some Iraqi officials have warned of a resurgence of Sunni and Shiite militants and an increase in violence after the full U.S. troop withdrawal.

Adding to Iraq's troubles is an increase in political tension stemming from a showdown between the Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and the top Sunni political leader in the country.

Al-Maliki's government has issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges that he ran hit squads against government officials.

Al-Hashemi has denied the charges and said they are politically motivated.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Japan, China look to trade talks, debt buys

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

BEIJING | Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:27pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan and China agreed to start formal talks early next year on a free trade pact that would also include South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Sunday after talks that showed the deepening bonds between Asia's two biggest economies.

Japan also said it was looking to buy Chinese treasury debt, and the two governments agreed to enhance financial cooperation.

"On a free trade agreement among Japan, China and South Korea, we've made a substantial progress for an early start of negotiations," Noda told reporters after his meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao.

China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, said on its website (www.pbc.gov.cn) that the two leaders agreed to strengthen bilateral financial market cooperation and "encourage the use of the renminbi and Japanese yen in international trade transactions between the two countries."

The renminbi is another name for China's yuan currency.

The trade talks announcement builds on an agreement between the three countries last month also to seek a trilateral investment treaty and finish studies on the proposed free trade agreement by the end of December so that they could start formal negotiations on the trade pact.

"China is willing to closely coordinate with Japan to promote our two countries' monetary and financial development, and to accelerate progress of the China-Japan-Republic of Korea free-trade zone and East Asian financial cooperation," Wen told Noda at the meeting, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry's official website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

But the regional trade negotiations could also compete for attention with Washington's push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), after Japan said last month it wants to join in the talks over the U.S. proposal.

CLOSER ECONOMIC TIES

Despite sometimes rancorous political ties between the two neighbors, Japan's economic fortunes are increasingly tied to China's economic growth and consumer demand.

China and Japan are also the world's first and second-biggest holders of foreign reserves. Wen told Noda that closer economic ties were in both countries' interests.

"The deep-seated consequences of the current international financial crisis continue to spread, and the complexity and severity of global and world developments have exceeded our expectations," Wen said.

"China and Japan both have the need and conditions to join hands more closely to respond to challenges and deepen mutually beneficial strategic relations."

China has been Japan's biggest trading partner since 2009.

In 2010, trade between the two nations grew by 22.3 percent compared to levels in 2009, reaching 26.5 trillion yen ($339.3 billion), according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

In a statement issued after the two leaders' meeting, the Japanese government said it would seek to buy Chinese government bonds -- a tentative step toward diversification of Tokyo's large foreign exchange reserves that are believed to be mostly held in dollars.

China central bank said the two governments agreed to support Japanese businesses issuing yuan bonds in Tokyo and other markets outside of China, and Japan Bank for International Cooperation would begin a pilot scheme for issuing yuan-denominated bonds in mainland China.

The People's Bank of China also said it will support Japan in using the yuan for direct investment in China.

But Japanese officials have stressed that Japan's trust in dollar assets remains unshaken, and the scale of the planned purchase of Chinese government bonds will be small.

Wen and Noda also agreed to set up a framework to discuss maritime issues after diplomatic ties deteriorated sharply last year following Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain near disputed isles in the East China Sea.

Bilateral meetings attended by vice ministers and senior officials from relevant ministries will be held periodically to exchange views, in an effort to prevent a similar row from happening.

"On maritime matters, we have successfully set up a channel to solve problems through multi-layered dialogue," Noda told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/25/us-china-japan-korea-idUSTRE7BO07S20111225?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

sethacohen33: Instant classic (& funny) Channukah vid from my pal @Btraq in S. #Africa (to entertain u on the way 2 #Limmud!) http://t.co/EPPxPJbK

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Instant classic (& funny) Channukah vid from my pal @Btraq in S. #Africa (to entertain u on the way 2 #Limmud!) youtube.com/watch?v=Wl98UN? Il y a environ 18 heures via UberSocial for BlackBerry

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Source: http://twitter.com/sethacohen33/statuses/150658619325689856

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Video: Boehner cuts a deal

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45770038#45770038

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Chris Tina Bruce: 'LGBT' Transforming into Alphabet Soup?

LGBTQIAAP: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, allies, and panseuxal

Really? Are we trying to communicate a message or create alphabet soup?

As a newbie to the LGBT community, I felt it was my responsibility to learn the history and understand how we came to be where we are and how I can help move us forward. These are the majority of acronyms and definitions (based on GLAAD's glossary of terms), even with some disagreement within our community:

Lesbian: a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay, or as gay women.
Gay: the adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., a gay man, gay people).
Bisexual: an individual who is physically, romantically, and/or emotionally attracted to men and women.
Transgender: an umbrella adjective for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term may include, but is not limited to, transsexuals, cross-dressers, and other gender-variant people. Transgender people may identify as female-to-male (FTM) or male-to-female (MTF). Transgender people may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically.
Queer: traditionally a pejorative term, "queer" has been appropriated by some LGBT people to describe themselves. However, it is not universally accepted even within the LGBT community and should be avoided unless quoting or describing someone who self-identifies that way.
Questioning: the adjective used to describe people who are unsure of their sexual orientation.
Intersex: the adjective used to describe a person whose biological sex is ambiguous. There are many genetic, hormonal, or anatomical variations that make a person's sex ambiguous (e.g., Klinefelter syndrome). The term "intersex" is not interchangeable with or a synonym for "transgender."
Asexual: an individual who is not physically, romantically, or emotionally attracted to others.
Ally: a person who is not lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, or pansexual but who supports the LGBT(QQIAAP) community.
Pansexual: a person who is attracted to others without taking gender or biological sex into account.

Even in our own community, we are not clear on all the acronyms that represent us. If I, as a person in the LGBT community, am having a hard time understanding and knowing all the acronyms sprouting up every other month, how can we honestly expect mainstream America to understand?

Our message is supposed to about unity to obtain equality, although we cannot even communicate a clear and consistent message. I believe that we are doing ourselves a disservice by expanding our acronym for every micro group instead of projecting a simple and understandable message of equality for all.

A large percentage of mainstream America currently does not even understand the differences between sex, gender, and sexual orientation, and the expansion of additional acronyms only helps to dilute our unity and message. I experienced this lack of knowledge firsthand in my coming out. Just two years ago, while opening up to my mom after 40 years of living as her all-American, football-star and bodybuilding son, she was quite shocked, although she took it in her motherly, loving way. A few weeks (and many hours of talking about the whens, wheres, hows, etc. of being transgender) later, she made a comment that I will never forget: "So you consider yourself more female than male, but you do not like men and still date women? I do not understand." My 60-something, educated, open-minded, and loving mother, like many others, really did not understand the difference between sex, gender, and sexual orientation.

A common misconception is that gender and sex are the same. Wrong. Sex is based on the reproductive organ supplied at birth, whereas gender is the mental perception you have of yourself, and then there is sexual orientation, or your sexual preference (e.g., heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, etc.). In other words, your sex is between your legs, your gender is between your ears, and your sexual orientation is between your sheets. I produced this video to help explain the differences between sex, gender, and sexual orientation for my family and friends.

For the large majority of our population, gender and sex are congruent, and they are heterosexual. For example, Johnny is born with male sex organs, his gender (the way he perceives himself) is male, and his sexual orientation is heterosexual. I, being giftedly gendered, was born with male sex organs, but my gender is more female than male, and my sexual preference has always been toward women. So then am I a trans lesbian? Do we now add another letter to our ever-expanding alphabet soup? I say no. I prefer to the win the war of equality and will sacrifice a few small battles, as the movement is about us, not about me. So let's keep the LGBT a clear, united, and simple message of equality for all.

Be Bold, Be Proud, Be Yourself.

Follow Chris Tina Bruce on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChrisTinaFoxx

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-tina-bruce/lgbt-acronym_b_1159004.html

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