Skip to Content

July 2009

Report: Shortage of cyber experts may hinder govt (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 06:36 — admin

WASHINGTON – Federal agencies are facing a severe shortage of computer specialists, even as a growing wave of coordinated cyberattacks against the government poses potential national security risks, a private study found.
The study describes a fragmented federal cyber force, where no one is in charge of overall planning and government agencies are "on their own and sometimes working at cross purposes or in competition with one another."
The report, scheduled to be released Wednesday, arrives in the wake of a series of cyberattacks this month that shut down some U.S. and South Korean government and financial Web sites.
The recruiting and retention of cyber workers is hampered by a cumbersome hiring process, the failure to devise government-wide certification standards, insufficient training and salaries, and a lack of an overall strategy for recruiting and retaining cyber workers, the study said.
"You can't win the cyber war if you don't win the war for talent," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington-based advocacy group that works to improve government service. "If we don't have a federal work force capable of meeting the cyber challenge, all of the cyber czars and organizational efforts will be for naught."
The study was drafted by the partnership and Booz Allen Hamilton as the Obama administration struggles to put together a more cohesive strategy to protect U.S. government and civilian computer networks.
The size of the government's cyber work force is largely unknown, because agencies often classify their employees differently. The Pentagon says it has more than 90,000 personnel involved with cybersecurity, while the non-defense department civilian cybersecurity work force has been estimated at 35,000 to 45,000. Intelligence community estimates are classified.
While President Barack Obama has declared cybersecurity a top priority, the White House so far has been unable to fill its new cyber coordinator position — a job regarded as critical.
The study recommends that the yet-unnamed federal cyber coordinator lay out a strategy to meet the government's work force needs, set job classifications, enhance training and lead a nationwide effort to promote technology skills, including through the use of scholarships.
The federal government's vulnerabilities have been underscored by cyberattacks that breached a high-tech fighter jet program and the electrical grid, although no classified material was compromised.
Earlier this month, unknown hackers knocked several U.S and South Korean government Web sites off line in a widespread and unusually resilient computer attack.
Ron Sanders, chief human capital officer for the national intelligence director's office, said it is difficult to draw a link between the work force shortages and the increased cyber threats against the government.
"It's hard to say that there is any cause and effect there," said Sanders, adding that the U.S. probably will have to live with the nearly constant attacks. But, he said, the intrusions have heightened awareness of the problem, forcing officials to focus on the hiring needs.
___
On the Net:
Partnership for Public Service: http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/

The Starting Point: A lettuce recall, a pot tax and a botched surgery (The Yahoo! Newsroom)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 05:57 — admin

The Starting Point is a snapshot of the news stories that occurred overnight. Look for updates throughout the day on Yahoo! News and in the news box on Yahoo.com.

Top story overnight: Former president Pervez Musharraf was ordered to appear in front of Pakistan's top court to explain why he fired several dozen judges in 2007. According to The Associated Press, the case could lay the groundwork for future action against the one-time military ruler. "If he does not do it, the court can initiate proceedings against him in his absence," said Wasi Zafar, a law minister during Musharraf's rule.
In other news: A solar eclipse shrouded Asia in darkness today, prompting millions of people to peer at the sky in wonder while millions of others hid in fear. Total eclipses occur when a new moon moves directly between the sun and the earth. The celestial event was the longest solar eclipse this century will see; a longer eclipse won't be visible until 2132. Click here to view pictures of the rare event.Voters in Oakland, Calif., overwhelmingly approved a tax on medical marijuana on Tuesday, The AP reported. The tax, which is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, will require the city's four cannabis dispensaries to pay $18 for every $1,000 in gross sales. The tax is expected to generate an estimated $294,000 for the city in its first year. Should the U.S. decriminalize and tax marijuana? Click here to share your thoughts.Finally, 22,000 cartons of romaine lettuce have been recalled from stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, The AP reported. The produce, distributed by Tanimura & Antle Inc. of Salinas, Calif., may be contaminated with salmonella.Most-read stories overnight: Three people in Ohio have been accused of letting rats bite a 6-week-old girl and chew off her toes. Police made the arrests last weekend after receiving an anonymous tip and visiting their home. The unidentified trio has been charged with felony child endangering; the baby is in fair condition at a Columbus hospital.Readers were also interested in this AP story of a botched operation. Airman 1st Class Colton Read was having his gallbladder removed at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in California when surgeons nicked or punctured an aorta. The breach was repaired enough to save his life, but soon began leaking. This complication disrupted the blood supply to Read's legs and prompted doctors to fly him to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for a partial amputation. The case is currently under investigation by the base.Looking ahead: President Barack Obama will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House today to discuss political reconciliation efforts in Iraq. The Senate plans to vote on a measure that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry those hidden weapons into other states. And Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will head back to Capitol Hill to face more questions about the central bank's efforts to rescue the economy.Yesterday's poll: Suspended NFL star Michael Vick ended his federal dogfighting sentence on Monday. Do you think he should be allowed to return to the field? Fifty-five percent of respondents said yes and 41 percent said no.Today in history: In 1934, notorious bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents in Chicago.Birthdays: Singer Rufus Wainwright, 36. Baseball player Mike Sweeney, 36. Football player Keyshawn Johnson, 37. Actor Colin Ferguson, 37. Actor Rhys Ifans, 42. Actor Patrick Labyorteaux, 42. Actor/comedian David Spade, 45. Actor/comedian John Leguizamo, 45. Singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls), 46. Actor Rob Estes, 46. Singer Keith Sweat, 48. Actor Willem Dafoe, 54. Composer Alan Menken, 60. Singer Don Henley, 62. Actor Danny Glover, 62. Actor/director Albert Brooks, 62. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), 66. Singer George Clinton, 68. Game show host Alex Trebek, 69. Actor Terence Stamp, 71. Actress Louise Fletcher, 75. Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, 77. Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), 86.

Note: Want to receive The Starting Point in your e-mail box? Subscribe to our new mailing list by sending a blank e-mail to ystartingpoint-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Reminder: The Starting Point Twitter feed is available @ystartingpoint. Sign up today!

--Jade Walker is the overnight editor of Yahoo! News. News doesn't stop when the lights go out, and neither does Jade.

 

**Yahoo! News bloggers compile the best news content from our providers and scour the Web for the most interesting news stories so you don't have to.

Member Management Software

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 05:27 — admin

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.

Member Management Software

Obama may have to wait for health care passage (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:33 — admin

WASHINGTON – After more than a week of tirelessly pressuring Congress to move his top domestic priority, President Barack Obama may have to settle for a fallback strategy on health care overhaul.
Instead of votes in the House and Senate by August, the best Democrats may be able to hope for this summer is action by the full House by the end of the month and some sort of agreement on a bipartisan plan in the Senate before lawmakers head home for vacation.
Not only are Republicans honing their opposition, but some Democrats in both chambers are voicing doubts about moving such complex and costly legislation too quickly.
"No one wants to tell the speaker (Nancy Pelosi) that she's moving too fast and they damn sure don't want to tell the president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a key committee chairman, told a fellow lawmaker as the two walked into a closed-door meeting Tuesday. The remark was overheard by reporters.
Obama has scheduled a prime-time news conference Wednesday, expected to focus on health care. It's turning into a major test of his leadership. One Republican senator says if the party can stop Obama on health care, it will break him.
In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, the president insisted on action by lawmakers, even as he conceded some of the criticism was valid. Referring to objections from a group of conservative Democrats in the House, Obama said, "I think, rightly, a number of these so called Blue Dog Democrats — more conservative Democrats — were concerned that not enough had been done on reducing costs."
Obama said those issues can be addressed as the legislation keeps moving forward. Congress has already spent years studying and debating the problems in the health care system, he said.
Meanwhile, a conservative South Carolina Republican, Sen. Jim DeMint, refused Wednesday to back away from his earlier assertion that the health care overhaul will prove to be Obama's "Waterloo."
Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, DeMint said the statement was "not personal." But he also said someone must "put the brakes on" Obama, accusing the president of engaging in "a spending spree."
DeMint said he agrees that health care changes are needed but that it would be a mistake to push through such complex legislation before the August congressional recess, as Obama has demanded.
House Democrats put their divisions on display over the details and timing of health care legislation Tuesday. The Democratic leadership juggled complaints from conservatives demanding additional cost savings, first-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and objections from members of the rank-and-file opposed to allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.
Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed weeks ago that the House would vote by the end of July on legislation to meet two goals established by Obama. The president wants to extend health coverage to the tens of millions who now lack it, and at the same time restrain the growth in health care costs far into the future. The upfront costs, however, could reach $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
The president also has vowed that the legislation will not swell the deficit, although a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday that the pledge does not apply to an estimated $245 billion to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients over the next decade.
Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, said that was because the administration always assumed the money would be spent to avert a scheduled cut of 21 percent in doctor's fees.
At the White House, Obama and moderate and conservative Democrats verbally agreed on a council of experts to find savings in Medicare, coupled with a mechanism to force Congress to act on the recommendations. The cost curbs may help woo some of the conservatives.
In the Senate, a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors, pursuing an elusive agreement. The negotiations, led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., have taken on new urgency. But it's unclear whether they will produce a breakthrough — or peter out in frustration.
Obama has spoken in public nearly every day for more than a week on health care, some times more than once. At the same time Republicans have upped the political stakes.
On Monday, Michael Steele, the Republican Party chairman, likened Obama's proposals on health care to socialism, and said the chief executive wanted to conduct a "risky experiment" that will damage the nation's economy and force millions to lose the coverage they now have.

Last week, DeMint was quoted as telling fellow conservatives: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Given the struggle, the polls show slippage for Obama, although he remains popular. The president is battling the impression if not the reality that his proposal is stalled. In the CBS interview, Obama recognized that perception.

"There have been so many times, during my political career ... where people have said, 'Boy, this is make or break for Obama,'" he said. "When the stock market went down everybody was saying, 'This is a disaster.' And what I found is that as long as we are making good decisions, thinking always what's ... best for the American people, that, eventually, as long as we're persistent and we're listening to the American people, that things get done."

___

Associated Press writers David Espo, Erica Werner, Charles Babington and Ben Feller contributed to this report.

Democrats irked by Obama signing statement (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:24 — admin

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has irked close allies in Congress by declaring he has the right to ignore legislation on constitutional grounds after having criticized George W. Bush for doing the same.
Four senior House Democrats on Tuesday said they were "surprised" and "chagrined" by Obama's declaration in June that he doesn't have to comply with provisions in a war spending bill that puts conditions on aid provided to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
In a signing statement accompanying the $106 billion bill, Obama said he wouldn't allow the legislation to interfere with his authority as president to conduct foreign policy and negotiate with other governments.
Earlier in his six-month-old administration, Obama issued a similar statement regarding provisions in a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. He also included qualifying remarks when signing legislation that established commissions to govern public lands in New York, investigate the financial crisis and celebrate Ronald Reagan's birthday.
"During the previous administration, all of us were critical of (Bush's) assertion that he could pick and choose which aspects of congressional statutes he was required to enforce," the Democrats wrote in their letter to Obama. "We were therefore chagrined to see you appear to express a similar attitude."
The letter was signed by Reps. David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as well as Reps. Nita Lowey and Gregory Meeks, both of New York, who chair subcommittees on those panels.
Obama needs Obey and Frank in particular to push through Congress key pieces of his agenda, including health care and financial oversight reform.
The White House said Tuesday the administration plans to implement the provisions of the bill and suggested that Obama's signing statement was aimed more at defending the president's executive powers than skirting the law.
"The president has also already made it clear that he will not ignore statutory obligations on the basis of policy disagreements and will reserve signing statements for legislation that raises clearly identified constitutional concerns," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.
Bush issued a record number of signing statements while in office as he sparred with Democrats on such big issues as the war in Iraq.
Democrats, including Obama, sharply criticized Bush as overstepping his bounds as president. In March, Obama ordered a review of Bush's guidelines for implementing legislation.
"There is no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused," Obama wrote in a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies.
At the same time, however, Obama did not rule out issuing any signing statements, which have been used for centuries. Rather, he ordered his administration to work with Congress to inform lawmakers about concerns over legality before legislation ever reaches his desk. He also pledged to use caution and restraint when writing his own signing statements, and said he would rely on Justice Department guidance when doing so.
Two days after issuing the memo, Obama issued his first signing statement after receiving a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. He said the bill would "unduly interfere" with his authority by directing him how to proceed, or not to, in negotiations and discussions with international organizations and foreign governments.
Obey and the other House lawmakers said this week that Obama's signing statement on the war bill will make it tougher in the future to persuade other lawmakers to support the World Bank and IMF.
If Congress can't place conditions on the money, "it will make it virtually impossible to provide further allocations for these institutions," they wrote.

Whirlpool profit falls on lackluster sales (Reuters)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 03:42 — admin

(Reuters) –
Whirlpool Corp (WHR.N) reported a lower second-quarter profit on Wednesday as sales at the world's biggest appliance maker crumbled in the global economic slowdown.

Net earnings available to common shareholders of the maker of Maytag and KitchenAid appliances fell to $78 million, or $1.04 a share, from $117 million, or $1.53 a share, a year earlier.

In April, Whirlpool said it saw a more challenging market than it had previously expected for the rest of the year as consumers continued to delay replacement purchases, even for appliances that are beyond repair, because of the economic uncertainty.

Sales at the Benton Harbor, Michigan-based company fell 18 percent to $4.17 billion.

(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Allen Stanford's women stand by their man (Reuters)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 02:57 — admin

HOUSTON (Reuters) –
Most men would not want to be in a room with their estranged wife, current girlfriend and two former mistresses, but Allen Stanford is not most men.

The women, who have enjoyed million-dollar homes and luxury lifestyles, appear united in their loyalty to the Texas financier who faces criminal charges for an alleged $7 billion (4.2 billion pound) Ponzi scheme.

Stanford's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, cites the support of Stanford's unconventional extended family in arguments to overturn a ruling keeping Stanford in a federal detention centre without bail.

They are committed to "fighting Mr. Stanford's battle together," DeGuerin wrote in a recent court filing.

Stanford, whose net worth was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008, was initially granted bail by a magistrate judge, but prosecutors successfully argued he was a flight risk and his release order was revoked.

Both times Stanford, 59, has appeared before a judge in Houston, his supporters have included his parents and extended family, former lovers who are the mothers of his children, some of whom have been in court, and his current girlfriend.

The women appear to be on good terms, despite the potential for bad blood. They patiently sit through hours of hearings, rolling their eyes at the prosecutors' allegations, passing notes, sharing mints and gum and whispering to each other. They come in a group, sit in a group, and avoid reporters.

"It is not uncommon to have family support in a case like this," said Douglas Burns, a former federal prosecutor who now has his own firm in Westbury, New York. "But it is very unusual to have this type of dynamic."

CIRCLING THE WAGONS

Stanford's backers are showing their support outside the courtroom as well. Andrea Stoelker, Stanford's 31-year old girlfriend, put him up in her mother's basement in Virginia after a court-appointed receiver seized the billionaire's assets.

Stoelker, a petite brunette who used to work for Stanford, travelled extensively with him on company jets and moved to Houston where she had planned to live with the 6-foot four-inch billionaire in a luxury high-rise.

"I've got people that love me and care about me," Stanford said in an April interview. "I'm better off than I have been in my whole life right now."

Louise Sage, the mother of two of Stanford's six children, Ross and R. Allena, once lived with Stanford in South Florida and has signed a $7,000 a month lease for an apartment in the same building as girlfriend Stoelker.

An acquaintance of Stanford's 27-year-old daughter, Randi, agreed to pay one year's rent -- $36,000 cash -- for the apartment where Stanford and Stoelker planned to live.

Randi's mother, Susan Stanford, filed for divorce last year, but she has been separated from Allen Stanford for a decade.

One of Stanford's sons, Reid, has moved to Houston from Frisco, Texas where he lives with his mother -- another woman who is also called Susan Stanford -- to finish his senior year of high school, according to DeGuerin.

Rebecca Reeves-Stanford, who is the mother of two of his children, including Robert Allen Stanford, has not been mentioned in any of DeGuerin's filings and it is not clear whether she has attended any court hearings.

LUCKY LADIES

Court records indicate that Stanford, who says he is now penniless because a court-appointed receiver has frozen his assets, has been very generous.

Before the asset freeze, Susan received $100,000 per month in spousal support payments from her husband and lived in a 5-bedroom Houston home with a pool appraised at $2.5 million on the county tax roll.

Randi, who also worked at Stanford, lives in a luxury condominium high-rise in Houston valued at more than $1 million, a gift from her father. Court records show Stanford put down a $1 million deposit on the apartment in 2007, while Susan pitched in $50,000.

Court records from a 2007 paternity lawsuit show that Louise Sage and her children were also very well provided for by Stanford. The group lived in a $10 million castle in Florida, flew on the company's jets and took six-figure vacations.

"The respondent (Stanford) has provided a privileged and luxurious lifestyle for the children, including, but not limited to, private school, designer clothes, first-class vacations, a personal support staff and extracurricular activities including dance, gymnastics and music lessons," said the paternity lawsuit, which was later settled.

Stanford paid about $150,000 a year in child support for the two children, according to court documents, an amount a judge in the case described as "quite generous."

(Reporting by Anna Driver; additional reporting by Eileen O'Grady in Houston)

Pakistan's Musharraf told to appear in court (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 02:45 — admin

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's top court has summoned former President Pervez Musharraf to explain his 2007 firing of several dozen independent-minded judges. Wednesday's court notice allows Musharraf to send a lawyer in his place.
The case, brought up in petitions challenging Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule and firing of the judges that year, could lay the groundwork for future action — even a trial — against the one-time military ruler.
It could also rattle Pakistan's political scene at a time when the U.S. wants the nuclear-armed nation to focus on fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban along the Afghan border.
Pakistani Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa confirmed the court order.
He said the federal government would not defend the actions taken by Musharraf on Nov. 3, 2007, when faced with growing challenges to his rule, he declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and dismissed the judges.
Musharraf is currently staying in London with his family. He could not immediately be reached for comment. The next hearing in the case is on July 29.
Wasi Zafar, a law minister during Musharraf's rule, said the retired general could appear before the Supreme Court either through his lawyer or in person.
"If he does not do it, the court can initiate proceedings against him in his absence," he said.
The former army chief seized power in a 1999 military coup and became a critical, and criticized, U.S. ally following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that sparked the American-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
In early 2007, Musharraf dismissed the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. That triggered mass protests led by lawyers that damaged Musharraf's popularity.
The court managed to bring Chaudhry back, but — faced with growing rancor — Musharraf declared the emergency, tossing out Chaudhry and around 60 other judges. That only deepened popular anger against the military ruler.
Under domestic pressure, and prodding from the U.S., Musharraf lifted the emergency rule after about six weeks, stepped down as army chief and allowed parliamentary elections to take place the following February.
The elections brought his political foes to power, and they ultimately pushed him to resign the presidency in August 2008.
But the fate of the judges, especially that of Chaudhry, has caused fissures among those who came to power.
A coalition government consisting of Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N fell apart over the slow pace of reinstating the ousted jurists.
Ultimately, facing escalating lawyer-led protests reminiscent of Musharraf's era, now-President Zardari agreed to reinstate Chaudhry — whom he'd viewed as too political a figure — in March.
Ever since, there have been rumblings in some corners about whether and when Musharraf would have to answer in court for his actions, and court petitions were filed over the issue.

World trade to shrink 10 percent, Asia leads recovery: WTO (Reuters)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 02:36 — admin

GENEVA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) –
Asia is leading a recovery in global trade, but world trade volumes are still expected to shrink 10 percent this year, the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.

The WTO's forecast for 2009 world trade, issued in a press release on Wednesday, confirmed comments by its Director General Pascal Lamy to Reuters in an interview in June, a revision from a previous forecast of a 9 percent contraction.

The WTO said however the contraction appeared to be slowing.

"Our figures showed that Asian countries may be leading a recovery in global trade," Lamy told a news conference in Singapore, where he was attending a two-day Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade meeting.

"There's no room for complacency," he added.

Trade officials at the meeting offered cautious optimism over their export outlooks, with China, leading hopes for a tentative global recovery, saying the decline in its exports could ease in the second half of the year.

Lamy said it was too early to see if measures to boost trade financing were working, after a freeze in credit markets last year dried up funding for trading firms.

"Has it worked? A bit too soon to say," Lamy said, referring to measures taken by the WTO and financial institutions to lift financing for exporters.

"This trade finance is in many ways the oil of world trade," he said. "In this region, it appears that more oil is coming back to the market."

World exports of merchandise goods grew 15 percent in nominal terms in 2008 to $15.78 trillion, the WTO said in its latest World Trade Report on Wednesday.

The WTO report noted that trade rose 2 percent in real or volume terms in 2008 after rising 6 percent in 2007.

"However, trade still managed to grow more than global output, as is usually the case when production growth is positive," it said. "Conversely, when output growth is declining, trade growth tends to fall even more, as is evident in 2009."

CHINA FOCUS

The share of developing country exports in world trade rose to a record 38 percent in 2008, the WTO said.

Germany retained its position as the world's leading merchandise exporter last year, with exports of $1.47 trillion, slightly larger than China's $1.43 trillion.

China's export performance faltered at the end of 2008. Its exports to the United States rose only 1 percent over the whole year after growth of 14 percent in the third quarter.

China's commerce minister said on Tuesday a recovery in its exports could not be guaranteed, though he said on Wednesday that overall its economy was stabilizing and improving.

The WTO said the United States was the biggest importer in 2008, bringing in $2.17 trillion of merchandise goods, 13.2 percent of the total, followed by Germany with a 7.3 percent share of $1.21 trillion.

Total world imports rose 15 percent to $16.12 trillion, giving a $345 billion discrepancy with exports, due to different ways of measuring imports and exports, the WTO data show.

The severity of the slowdown was reflected in a fall of 23 percent in air cargo traffic in December compared with a year earlier, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures, the WTO said.

The decline recorded in September 2001, when most of the world's aircraft were temporarily grounded following the attacks on the United States, was only 14 percent.

(For the full WTO report go to www.wto.org)

(Additional reporting by Kevin Yao and Candida Ng in SINGAPORE; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Jeremy Laurence)

Sexy Lingerie

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 01:11 — admin

click here

Chemise is a French term (which today simply means shirt). This is a cognate of the Italian word camicia, and the Spanish / Portuguese word camisa (subsequently borrowed as kameez by Hindi / Urdu / Hindustani), all deriving ultimately from the Latin camisia, itself coming from Celtic (The Romans avidly imported cloth and clothes from the Celts). The English called the same shirt a smock and the Irish called it a léine (pronounced /ˈleɪnjə/). For an alternative etymology from Farsi via Arabic and ultimately Greek, rather than Latin roots, refer entry under Kameez.

In modern usage the term chemise generally refers to women's fashions that vaguely resemble the older shifts but are typically more delicate, and usually provocative. Most commonly the term refers to a loose-fitting, sleeveless, shirt-like undergarment or piece of lingerie. It can also refer to a short, sleeveless dress that hangs straight from the shoulders and fits loosely at the waist.



Theme by Dr. Radut.