Thursday, 28 February 2013

Benedict begins final quiet day as pope

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict slips quietly from the world stage on Thursday after a private last goodbye to his cardinals and a short flight to a country palace to enter the final phase of his life "hidden from the world".

In keeping with his shy and modest ways, there will be no public ceremony to mark the first papal resignation in six centuries and no solemn declaration ending his nearly eight-year reign at the head of the world's largest church.

His last public appearance will be a short greeting to residents and well-wishers at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome, in the late afternoon after his 15-minute helicopter hop from the Vatican.

When the resignation becomes official at 8 p.m. Rome time (02.00 p.m. EST), Benedict will be relaxing inside the 17th century palace. Swiss Guards on duty at the main gate to indicate the pope's presence within will simply quit their posts and return to Rome to await their next pontiff.

Avoiding any special ceremony, Benedict used his weekly general audience on Wednesday to bid an emotional farewell to more than 150,000 people who packed St Peter's Square to cheer for him and wave signs of support.

With a slight smile, his often stern-looking face seemed content and relaxed as he acknowledged the loud applause from the crowd.

"Thank you, I am very moved," he said in Italian. His unusually personal remarks included an admission that "there were moments ... when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping".

CARDINALS PREPARE THE FUTURE

Once the chair of St Peter is vacant, cardinals who have assembled from around the world for Benedict's farewell will begin planning the closed-door conclave that will elect his successor.

One of the first questions facing these "princes of the Church" is when the 115 cardinal electors should enter the Sistine Chapel for the voting. They will hold a first meeting on Friday but a decision may not come until next week.

The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead the Holy Week services that culminate in Easter on the following Sunday.

In the meantime, the cardinals will hold daily consultations at the Vatican at which they discuss issues facing the Church, get to know each other better and size up potential candidates for the 2,000-year-old post of pope.

There are no official candidates, no open campaigning and no clear front runner for the job. Cardinals tipped as favorites by Vatican watchers include Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, Italy's Angelo Scola and Timothy Dolan of the United States.

BENEDICT'S PLANS

Benedict, a bookish man who did not seek the papacy and did not enjoy the global glare it brought, proved to be an energetic teacher of Catholic doctrine but a poor manager of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that became mired in scandal during his reign.

He leaves his successor a top secret report on rivalries and scandals within the Curia, prompted by leaks of internal files last year that documented the problems hidden behind the Vatican's thick walls and the Church's traditional secrecy.

After about two months at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict plans to move into a refurbished convent in the Vatican Gardens, where he will live out his life in prayer and study, "hidden to the world", as he put it.

Having both a retired and a serving pope at the same time proved such a novelty that the Vatican took nearly two weeks to decide his title and form of clerical dress.

He will be known as the "pope emeritus," wear a simple white cassock rather than his white papal clothes and retire his famous red "shoes of the fisherman," a symbol of the blood of the early Christian martyrs, for more pedestrian brown ones.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; editing by Philip Pullella and Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/low-key-departure-pope-steps-down-hides-away-000419898.html

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Ricky Gervais Releases Video From 'Muppets... Again' Set

Filming in currently underway on "The Muppets... Again," a follow-up to the successful reboot of Jim Henson's beloved characters, but all we've seen from the English set is two photos of the felt cast and their new human leading man, Ricky Gervais. But a few days ago, Gervais uploaded a short video to his YouTube [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/02/28/ricky-gervais-muppets-again/

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Has Ted Cruz Hit The Tipping Point?

ABC's Michael Falcone reports:

The Ted Cruz headlines just won't stop.

"Sen. Ted Cruz says Obama wants immigration bill to fail to hurt GOP," wrote the Dallas Morning News last week. Another Texas paper, the Houston Chronicle, published a recent piece titled: "Ted Cruz: The next Reagan or the next Joe McCarthy?"

Politico carried this on their homepage: "Ted Cruz defends his blunt style." And Salon ominously foreshadowed, "The coming Rand Paul-Ted Cruz brawl."

In recent weeks the freshman senator from Texas has been the subject of a profile in The New York Times, which dubbed him "Washington's new bad boy," and in the New Yorker, which surfaced a speech he delivered in 2010 accusing a dozen members of the Harvard Law School faculty of being communists. (Cruz is a Harvard Law School graduate). Earlier this month, CNN's chief Congressional correspondent Dana Bash traveled to Texas to interview Cruz and so did the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody.

Without a doubt, Cruz has attracted more attention than any other freshman member of Congress from either party in the opening months of the 113th Congress. The Republican lawmaker made waves for his blunt questioning of Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel during his confirmation hearings, and he has been embraced by conservative leaders seeking a new hero.

He has been hailed by the Tea Party Express as a politician who is "shaking up Washington, D.C. just like he promised" and by another political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, as someone who is "showing Washington what courage looks like."

And that is almost exactly how Cruz sees it too.

"I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo," Cruz recently wrote to The New York Times and Politico in response to a list of e-mailed questions. (The Texas Republican declined to grant interviews to either publication).

"Ted's always been ambitious, he's always been arrogant," said one Republican strategist who has known Cruz since before coming to Washington. "I think the honest truth is, he's doing exactly what he's said he was going to do when he campaigned."

But keeping his promise has also earned him his share of criticism - and not just from those on the other side of the aisle - from prominent fellow Republicans too.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called some of the questions Cruz posed to Hagel "out of bounds" and Sen. John McCain of Arizona told The Times' Jonathan Weisman in an interview that "the appropriate way to treat Senator Hagel is to be as tough as you want to be, but don't be disrespectful or malign his character" (implying that Cruz had fallen short of that standard). Democrats piled on too.

In an interview on Tuesday with the Texas Tribune, Cruz defended his conduct at the Hagel hearings, saying he "focused on substance and, in particular, Mr. Hagel's policy record."

"It has not focused on personal issues, and, indeed, the character attacks that have been raised have been leveled at me for asking questions that I think every senator should be concerned to know the answer," he told the Tribune's Emily Ramshaw.

Cruz has won prominent advocates for his take-no-prisoners style.

"Most politicians know what to say to get elected but then arrive in Washington with no real spine - or in many cases, no intention of ever doing what they promised," former Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative icon who now heads the Heritage Foundation, wrote in a Politico Op-Ed. "Not Cruz. He's proved himself an effective advocate for the founding principles that made our nation great: personal freedom and responsibility, local control and adherence to the law as it is written, not the way some politicians wish it was written."

And the junior senator from Texas has already achieved a certain iconic status himself. A Texas Republican who filed paperwork to mount a primary challenge to incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn told the Daily Caller that Cruz is an inspiration to him.

"If I'm trying to describe somebody who I would best mimic, it would be Sen. Cruz," the challenger, Erick Wyatt, told The Daily Caller's Alexis Levinson. (Regardless of Wyatt's compliment, reports have suggested a close political alliance between Cruz and Cornyn).

Those who know him say Cruz has been more than happy to take full advantage of his time in the spotlight, but the freshman lawmaker who previously served as solicitor general of Texas, emphasized in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody that he is taking all of the new-found attention in stride.

"I try to pay, pay very little attention to the media," he said. "It is, as you know, a fickle creature."

Notably, Cruz's approach represents a marked contrast to that of another prominent Republican, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who started out his career in the U.S. Senate quietly. In 2011, Rubio spent his first months in Washington mostly out of the public eye. Since then, of course, he has become a major player in the Republican Party, emerging as a key voice in the immigration reform debate and stoking speculation about a potential 2016 presidential run.

With Cruz and Rubio's stars rising fast, one Texas GOP insider predicted that the U.S. Senate may eventually not be big enough for the both of them: "At some point the fire hydrant is going to get crowded, and we'll see who marks it."

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ted-cruz-hit-tipping-point-not-pub-153606221--abc-news-politics.html

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Ex-Yugoslav army leader acquitted of war crimes

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The former head of the Yugoslav army was acquitted on Thursday of charges of aiding and abetting atrocities committed in Bosnia and Croatia during the 1990s, in a ruling that was condemned by victims but welcomed by Serb officials.

United Nations war crimes judges said Momcilo Perisic had provided legitimate military support to the ethnic Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) forces in Bosnia, but ruled he had not ordered them to commit war crimes.

"While Mr Perisic may have known of VRS crimes, the Yugoslav Army aid he facilitated was directed towards the VRS's general war effort rather than VRS crimes," said Theodor Meron, president of the appeals chamber at the tribunal in The Hague.

Dressed in a charcoal-grey suit and a black tie, a stern-faced Perisic, 68, showed no emotion as Meron read out the acquittal and ordered his immediate release.

Rebel Serbs fought to carve out an ethnically Serb state in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 after its Muslims and Croats voted for independence from Serbian-led federal Yugoslavia.

Judges said he also was innocent of ordering Serbian forces to shell the Croatian capital Zagreb.

Serb forces committed some of the gravest crimes in post-war European history during Yugoslavia's break-up, including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, and the siege of Sarajevo in which more than 10,000 civilians died.

The acquittal means the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has not convicted a single Belgrade official for involvement in crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, which claimed tens of thousands of lives.

"We are still digging up the bones of our sons, and we know all the evil came from Serbia," said Munira Subasic, whose husband and son were killed in Srebrenica.

The court put Slobodan Milosevic, the long-serving Yugoslav president who appointed Perisic and presided over the break-up of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, on trial but he died in detention in 2006 before its conclusion.

SERBIA WELCOMES VERDICT

Serbian officials welcomed the verdict, which follows the acquittal on appeal last year of Ante Gotovina, the Croatian general who led the counter-attack that took the Croatian region of Krajina back from Serb forces.

While Croatia has been welcomed back into the international fold and will join the European Union this July, Gotovina's acquittal fuelled a belief in Serbia that the ICTY was an instrument of an international community that was biased against Serbs.

"This ruling is extremely important for Serbia," said Bruno Vekaric, the Serbian war crimes prosecutor. "They have concluded that General Perisic did not violate the customs of war ... as a member of the Yugoslav Army."

Lower court judges sentenced him to 27 years in prison in 2011 after a six-year trial. They said he regularly met and provided guidance to Serb commanders in Bosnia and Croatia, providing them with millions of bullets and thousands of shells.

But appeals judges accepted defense claims that Perisic was implementing policy set by Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, and that he had provided legitimate support to armies that were engaged in fighting a war.

Gregor Guy-Smith, Perisic's lawyer, welcomed a "common-sense" verdict.

But Pedrag Matic, Croatia's minister for war veterans said his country would respect a verdict it disagreed with.

"We have to trust the Hague tribunal's decisions, even if we personally don't agree with them," he said.

While Gotovina immediately was flown back by government jet to a rapturous welcome in Croatia's main public square following his acquittal, Perisic's lawyers said his return would be a more low-key journey on a scheduled flight to Belgrade on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo, Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade and Zoran Radosavljevic in Zagreb; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-war-crimes-judges-acquit-ex-yugoslav-160427913.html

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Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Benitez says he'll leave Chelsea at end of season

By STEVE DOUGLAS

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 7:28 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2013

LONDON (AP) - Worn down by constant criticism by fans, Rafael Benitez announced Wednesday he will leave as Chelsea's manager at the end of the season.

Benitez made his decision public during an extraordinary post-match outburst in which he also took aim at the Premier League club's hierarchy.

The Spanish coach spoke during the news conference after the Blues won 2-0 at Middlesbrough and advanced to an FA Cup quarterfinal against Manchester United, saying his position had been untenable since he was appointed "interim manager" in November.

"I will leave at the end of the season - they don't need to waste time with me," said Benitez, referring to a section of fans who jeered him at Riverside Stadium.

Benitez was hired as the replacement for the fired Roberto di Matteo, and has never been accepted by a large section of Chelsea fans.

Many are still angry at Di Matteo's departure after he led the club to its first Champions League title last season. Others haven't forgiven Benitez for allegedly disparaging comments he made toward Chelsea earlier in his career while he managed Liverpool. Others don't like his style of soccer.

Benitez said some fans have had an "agenda" against him and made a passionate defense of his managerial record.

"I have been in charge in football for 26 years - I have won the Champions League, won the FIFA Club World Cup, the FA Cup, the Italian Super Cup, the Spanish league twice, nine trophies, all the trophies you can win at club level," he said. "A group of fans, they are not doing any favors for the team when they are singing and wasting time preparing banners. It's because someone made a mistake. They put my title (as) `interim manager.'

Ahead of the game, Benitez played down reports of a confrontation with players at a training session after Sunday's 2-0 loss at Manchester City. John Terry, dropped for the City match, was reported by British media to have been involved.

"I am the manager and I will be managing the team I like to manage - players and no names," Benitez said Wednesday. "I have proved in these three months that I want to win every single game ... If a group of fans continue their agenda ... they are not making any favors for the team.

"They should concentrate on supporting the team," he continued. "They put pressure on the players and don't create a good atmosphere at Stamford Bridge. They have to realize they rare making a big mistake. ... it would be much better to have a good atmosphere."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Excerpts from Pope Benedict's final address

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience on Wednesday, acknowledging the "rough seas" that marked his papacy "when it seemed that the Lord was sleeping".

Here are excerpts from his last address as pope to more than 150,000 people in St Peter's Square translated by Reuters from Italian:

"I feel I am carrying all of you with me in prayer ... gathering together every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I gather everything and everyone in prayer to entrust them to the Lord, because we have full knowledge of his will in every wisdom and spiritual knowledge, and so that we can behave in a manner worthy of him and his love, so that every good work bears fruit."

-----

"There were moments of joy and light, but also moments that were not easy ... there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping."

-----

"I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and rarity but with a profound serenity of spirit".

-----

"In these last few months I felt that my strength had diminished, and I asked God earnestly, in prayer, to enlighten me to make the best decision, not for my sake, but for the good of the Church. I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and its newness, but with a deep serenity of the spirit. To love the Church also means having the courage to make difficult choices, painful choices, always putting the good of the Church before our good."

-----

"I am not returning to private life, a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on. I am not coming down from the cross, but remaining in a new way before the crucified Lord. I don't have the power to govern the Church anymore, but in prayerful service, I remain, so to speak, in the paddock of St. Peter"

----

"I will continue to follow the path of the Church with prayer and reflection ... I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the cardinals, called to such a weighty task, and for the new successor of the apostle Peter. May the Lord accompany him with light and the force of his spirit".

Text read in English:

"The decision I have made, after much prayer, is the fruit of a serene trust in God's will and a deep love of Christ's Church. I will continue to accompany the Church with my prayers, and I ask each of you to pray for me and for the new Pope. In union with Mary and all the saints, let us entrust ourselves in faith and hope to God, who continues to watch over our lives and to guide the journey of the Church and our world along the paths of history."

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Philip Pullella)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/excerpts-pope-benedicts-final-address-001223529.html

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Police and firefighters at higher risk for mental disorders following traumatic events

Police and firefighters at higher risk for mental disorders following traumatic events [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Police, firefighters and other protective services workers who are repeatedly exposed to traumatic events and are new to their profession are at greater risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers also found that protective services workers do not appear to have a higher prevalence of mental health problems than workers in other occupations. The study results are featured in the February 2013 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

"Our findings suggest that exposure to diverse types of traumatic events among protective services workers is a risk factor for new onset of psychopathology and alcohol use disorders," said Christopher N. Kaufmann, MHS, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "When we examined the relationship of exposure to common traumas with the development of mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers, we found that these workers were at greater risk for developing a mood or alcohol use disorder. Interestingly, this relationship was not seen in those who had been in these jobs for a longer period, but was strong and statistically significant in workers who recently joined the profession. Developing curricula in coping skills and providing timely interventions for early career protective services workers may help reduce future psychiatric morbidity in these workers."

Using data from the U.S National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions researchers compared the prevalence of mental disorders of protective services workers to that of adults in other occupations. In addition, they examined the association of exposure to common traumatic experiences with the development of new mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers who recently joined the workforce and those who had been in these jobs for a longer period. Lifetime and recent trauma events most commonly reported by protective services workers included: seeing someone badly injured or killed; unexpectedly seeing a dead body; having someone close die unexpectedly and having someone close experience a serious or life-threatening illness, accident or injury.

"The association between the number of different traumatic event types and incident mood and alcohol-use disorders, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, was virtually confined to the group of early career protective services workers," said Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Future research should examine the coping skills of protective services workers who have been in these jobs for many years, which might make them less likely to develop psychiatric complications in the face of various potentially traumatic experiences."

The authors note, "Special support programs and services for these early career workers can potentially help to prevent development of chronic psychopathology and attrition from these critical jobs."

###

"Mental Health of Protective Services Workers: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions," was written by Christopher N. Kaufmann, Lainie Rutkow, Adam P. Spira and Ramin Mojtabai.


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Police and firefighters at higher risk for mental disorders following traumatic events [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Police, firefighters and other protective services workers who are repeatedly exposed to traumatic events and are new to their profession are at greater risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers also found that protective services workers do not appear to have a higher prevalence of mental health problems than workers in other occupations. The study results are featured in the February 2013 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

"Our findings suggest that exposure to diverse types of traumatic events among protective services workers is a risk factor for new onset of psychopathology and alcohol use disorders," said Christopher N. Kaufmann, MHS, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "When we examined the relationship of exposure to common traumas with the development of mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers, we found that these workers were at greater risk for developing a mood or alcohol use disorder. Interestingly, this relationship was not seen in those who had been in these jobs for a longer period, but was strong and statistically significant in workers who recently joined the profession. Developing curricula in coping skills and providing timely interventions for early career protective services workers may help reduce future psychiatric morbidity in these workers."

Using data from the U.S National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions researchers compared the prevalence of mental disorders of protective services workers to that of adults in other occupations. In addition, they examined the association of exposure to common traumatic experiences with the development of new mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders among protective services workers who recently joined the workforce and those who had been in these jobs for a longer period. Lifetime and recent trauma events most commonly reported by protective services workers included: seeing someone badly injured or killed; unexpectedly seeing a dead body; having someone close die unexpectedly and having someone close experience a serious or life-threatening illness, accident or injury.

"The association between the number of different traumatic event types and incident mood and alcohol-use disorders, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, was virtually confined to the group of early career protective services workers," said Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Future research should examine the coping skills of protective services workers who have been in these jobs for many years, which might make them less likely to develop psychiatric complications in the face of various potentially traumatic experiences."

The authors note, "Special support programs and services for these early career workers can potentially help to prevent development of chronic psychopathology and attrition from these critical jobs."

###

"Mental Health of Protective Services Workers: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions," was written by Christopher N. Kaufmann, Lainie Rutkow, Adam P. Spira and Ramin Mojtabai.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/jhub-paf022613.php

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Lawyer: Cop's plan to cook women was just a fantasy

By Chris Francescani, Reuters

NEW YORK -- A New York City police officer accused of plotting to kidnap and cannibalize women had been having dark fantasies since he was a teenager, but had no intention of ever turning those thoughts into reality, his attorney said at the start of his federal trial.

Attorney Julia Gatto also said Monday that Officer Gilberto Valle, who faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted, talked online about torturing his own wife and her female friends and colleagues.

What turns him on is "the idea of a woman -- oiled, bound, laid out on a platter with an apple in her mouth, about to be cooked," Gatto told jurors in opening arguments. "That's his dirty little secret."

She argued that Valle was engaged in online sexual fantasy role play involving a little-known Internet subculture where people with unconventional desires gather to act them out in cyberspace but with no intention of ever carrying out criminal acts.

"There are literally thousands and thousands of people doing the same thing, online, every day," she told jurors, saying that government investigators misunderstood what they found on his computer.

Federal prosecutors countered that Valle, who has pleaded not guilty, took the plot beyond fantasy and into real life when he "engaged in surveillance of some of the women he was targeting."

Prosecutors say Valle, 28, improperly accessed a federal law enforcement database to get information about one woman, and met a second woman -- a former classmate -- for brunch.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson also said Valle searched online for homemade recipes for chloroform to subdue victims and recipes for cooking human flesh.

"Make no mistake," Jackson told jurors. "Officer Valle was deadly serious."

Valle's estranged wife testified Monday that she placed web tracking software on the couple's computer last fall after she said he began acting strange. When asked what she discovered, she burst into tears.

Kathleen Mangan-Valle, 27, said she found pictures of herself and her female friends and colleagues, attached to emails her husband sent discussing extreme brutality and murder.

"I was going to be hung up by my feet and my throat slit," Mangan-Valle testified, choking back tears.

She said Valle also discussed kidnapping one of her friends and delivering her to a New Jersey mechanic for torture and murder. Another was to be "burned alive" and two more would be "raped in front of each other to heighten their terror," she added.

Mangan-Valle continued to cry as she quoted emails she said she found in which her husband discussed "driving a spit through their wombs over and over again."

"He kept saying the suffering was for his own enjoyment,'' she said, sobbing.

This story was originally published on

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17101026-attorney-nyc-cop-fantasized-about-women-laid-out-on-a-platter-but-never-planned-to-act-on-it?lite

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Tuesday, 26 February 2013

2013 Oscars Blog | People's Critic: Film Reviews - seattlepi.com

Live from my living room?.it?s the 2013 Oscars. My party consists of hummus, Gatorade, Twitter, and a space heater. Bring on the awards!

5:30PM ? The opening from Seth McFarlane is pretty lackluster. I would?ve never thought he?d be hosting a show like this. As I imagined the opening turned into a bit from Family Guy. Dance number, puppets, Captain Kirk. It feels like a bad opening for the MTV Awards

I can?t believe I?m missing The Walking Dead for this.

5:47 ? The first award goes to Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained. Leo is somewhere screaming ?That?s MY Oscar?. It?s Waltz second Oscar and well deserved. He?s a pretty film treasure. I hope we get to see more of him soon.

5:55 ? Paperman wins for Best Animated Short. I loved it. Simple, cute, and engaging. ?Best Animated feature goes to Brave.? The best part was the guy who accepted the award wore a kilt. See what Kanye West started.

6:05 ? The Avengers assemble, minus Thor, to hand out the award for cinematography. The Oscar goes to Life of Pi. So far the winners haven?t been a disappointment. Pi gets back-to-back awards winning for Visual Effects as well.

I love the Jaws music as the play off music for the speakers. Hilarious

6:17 ? Anna Kjoinnaoinfoe wins an award for Costume Design while Les Mis wins its first award for Make Up. How do they even decide those categories? Does the entire makeup team get an Oscar? If I clean the makeup kits, do I get an award too?

Halle Berry hasn?t aged in years. She leads off the Bond montage bridges into Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger. It?s a reminder at how long the Bond themes have been around and how much they?re a part of Hollywood. Bassey sounds amazing. I hope Alicia Keys is watching this and taking notes.

This Scandal commercial just reminded me why I love Kerry Washington.

Why wasn?t Richard Parker nominated. He was one of my favorite supporting actors this year. I want him to win just for the awkward exchange between Anne Hathaway and a live tiger. That would be riveting?television.

6:32 ? Kerry Washington comes out to present as if I needed another reminder. It?s smart doing the Best Picture nominees in batches. What?s not smart is how these montages are giving away the entire movie. They should come with spoiler alerts.

Searching for Sugar Man wins for Best Documentary. It?s such a good film by a first time director. Seth McFarlane?s jokes have been hit and miss for most of the night.

Musical montages are kryptonite for people who hate musicals. Luckily it?s Catherine Zeta-Jones so you can?t be too mad. The Chicago, Dreamgirls, Les Mis musical performance gets a standing ovation. Hilarious seeing Russell Crowe pop up on stage. Critics have killed Les Mis for Crowe?s performance. ?I bet he threatened to go Gladiator on everyone if they didn?t include him. Surprisingly he didn?t sound like a drowning cat this time.

7:09 ? Captain Kirk and Uhura are giving out awards for tech. Everyone?s favorite foul mouth stuffed animal Ted makes some orgy jokes/Jewish jokes that I?m sure are going to get ABC some lovely letters from parents all over. ?I?m not sure when the ?edgy? Oscar jokes became a thing, but it looks like the jokes are here to stay.

I can?t believe they have a tie for the sound editing Oscar. Has this ever happened before? This is messing up Oscar pools everywhere. How do you tie for an Oscar when you can?t tie in Uno. Something doesn?t seem right.

I think guys with long hair are 5-0 tonight.

Best Supporting Actress goes to Anne Hathaway for getting her haircut and her tooth pulled out. I would love to see her win for The Dark Knight Rises. It even looks like she?s still wearing that necklace she stole from Bruce Wayne.

ABC finally nails it with a great promo for Nashville. We need more of those tonight. ?Who knew the girl for Heroes would become a country singer.

7:29 ? ARGO wins ARGO wins?for editing. Let?s hope it?s a sign of things to come later.

Jennifer Lawrence is amazing. That is all.

Adele?s Skyfall is in my Top 5 Bond songs. Of course, Adele?s performance is dope as always. She?s got such an amazing voice. ?I want her to sing Skyfall at my wedding and every major sporting event.

7:43 ? Kristen Stewart looks like she?s still transforming into a vampire or has been hanging out with Snoop backstage. They need to get her off screen pronto.

7:57- The In Memoriam part of the show is always sad. I wonder who gets the last shot. Composer Marvin Hamilsch gets the final photo followed by a sad Barbara Streisand song.

McFarlane nails a hilarious Rex Reed joke. So far he?s got in a few good zingers.

Adele wins again. That makes a Golden Globe, Grammy, and Oscar in one year. Not bad. Not bad at all. She?s running for President next.

My friend Maia just tweeted ?Adele could sing the ingredients from a Lean Cuisine box for all I care?. I couldn?t agree more.

How tall is Charlize Theron because Dustin Hoffman looks like TED standing next to her. Adapted Screenplay goes to Argo while Original Screenplay Tarantino for Django. That?s the first big surprise of the night.

I?m still campaigning for The Academy to make a category for Best Villain. Who wouldn?t want to see Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, and Javier Bardem up there tonight? That?s a win-win.

8:43 ? Time for the big awards. Ang Lee snags the first one for Life of Pi. Two shockers in a row with Tarantino and Ang Lee winning. My Oscar pics are all messed up. I?m happy for Ang Lee and everyone involved in Life of Pie. It?s such a beautiful movie.

Best Actress is up next and I have big money on Jennifer Lawrence although I did love Jessica Chastain?s performance?..and she wins. 2012 was the Year of J.Law. Good for her until she fell on the stairs. I?m sure those internet memes of her falling will be popping off soon. Either way, Katniss won The Hunger Games and an Oscar. Great year for her.

Daniel Day Lewis wins in the only category that was a lock since Lincoln came out. In heaven, I fully expect Lincoln to be Daniel Day Lewis. Daniel Day also delivers the best speech of the night. That man can do no wrong. I need Zac Efron to play younger me in my biopic and Daniel Day Lewis to play the older me.

FLOTUS with the biggest surprise of the night ? she?s presenting for Best Picture. The Oscar goes to Argo. Ben did it! Who knew he?d be here after Gigli and Daredevil. I?m happy for Ben. His career has made a complete 180.? Not to mention he?s 3 for 3 directing movies.

Always a fun time at the Academy Awards. Till next year.

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/peoplescritic/2013/02/24/2013-oscars-blog/

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Salazar: Thousands of Interior workers imperiled (The Arizona Republic)

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Another blizzard slams Plains region

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) ? Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the central Plains Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow.

National Weather Service officials in Kansas and Oklahoma issued blizzard warnings and watches through late Monday as the storm packing snow and high winds tracked eastward across West Texas toward Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Forecasters also warned of possible tornadoes further southeast.

Snow covered Amarillo, Texas, where forecasters said up to 18 inches could fall, accompanied by wind gusts up to 65 mph. Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transport, said whiteout conditions and drifting snow had made all roads in the Texas Panhandle impassable. Interstate 40 was closed from Amarillo to the Oklahoma state line.

"It's just a good day to stay home," Braun said.

"This is one of the worst ones we've had for a while," he said. "And we kind of know snow up here."

The weather service issued a blizzard warning for the Oklahoma Panhandle and counties along the Kansas border, warning that travel in the area would be "very dangerous" until Tuesday morning with near zero visibility and drifting snow.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed all highways in the Panhandle, citing slick roads and limited visibility. Trooper Betsy Randolph said the patrol advised its non-essential personnel to stay home until Wednesday.

Forecasters said up to 16 inches of snow could accumulate in some areas, with wind gusts reaching up to 55 mph.

About a dozen flights were canceled at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported normal operations at Midway and O'Hare ? the bellwether air hub of the Midwest.

Matt Lehenbauer, emergency management director for Woodward County, Okla., told The Associated Press he was expecting whiteout conditions and that although there was plenty of salt and sand on hand to clear roads, delays were still likely.

"We may not get the roads cleared until midday Tuesday if we get the expected amount of snow and wind. As it's falling, in the blizzard-like conditions, we just won't be able to keep up," Lehenbauer said late Sunday.

The weather service warned of similar high winds and upward of a foot of snow across south-central Kansas. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback amended a state of emergency declaration to include the new weather.

"This storm has the potential to be more dangerous than last week's storm," Brownback said late Sunday. The storm late last week dumped more than a foot of snow in some places, closing airports and leading to several deadly traffic accidents.

Brownback urged motorists to "stay off the road unless it's absolutely critical," adding that drivers who must travel should pack charged cellphones and emergency kits containing food, water, blankets, road flares and shovels.

"It would have been nice if we'd had a few days to recover, to do some equipment rehab," Joe Pajor, deputy director of public works in Wichita, Kan., told The Wichita Eagle. The city saw its second-highest snowfall Thursday with 14.2 inches.

The southern Kansas town of Zenda saw 18 inches of snow last week, while 17 inches fell in Hays, Kan., about 13 inches in northeast Missouri and 12 inches in parts of Kansas City.

Pajor warned that sand and salt supplies were low after last week's storm and that the city's strategy might just be to plow snow into the center of arterial streets and cut traffic to one lane in each direction. He said the city wouldn't begin to use its limited sand and salt supply until the snow stopped falling and plowing was under way.

Steve Corfidi, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the storm also will affect southern states and could spawn tornadoes Tuesday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Georgia.

By Monday morning, several inches of snow had fallen on much of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle, where forecasters predicted more than a foot could fall. The incoming storm sent Amarillo residents running out for last-minute supplies. Mario Delgado, 57, needed milk.

"I got all the good stuff like soup and peanut butter the other day," Delgado told the Amarillo Globe-News. "We're used to it here."

He added: "As long as you got plenty of clothes and the right kind of shoes, you'll be alright."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-blizzard-less-week-slams-plains-region-124708575.html

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Facebook urged to remove fake Newtown pages

Three Connecticut lawmakers on Monday urged Facebook to remove fraudulent and abusive tribute pages related to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In the months since 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 students and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, the world's No. 1 social network has been host to an outpouring of genuine online tributes ? as well as a hotbed of fraud. In December, a New York City woman was arrested for allegedly posing as the relative of a shooting victim on Facebook and swindling donors.

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, as well as Rep. Elizabeth Esty, wrote to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in a joint letter, pressed the company to stamp out pages that "violate the privacy of families as they grieve, or seek financial gain through soliciting donations under false pretenses, or generating Facebook 'likes' for marketing purposes."

Facebook, in a statement, said it had devised a new process with dedicated staff to respond to user complaints related to Sandy Hook, in the wake of the December shooting.

"For the past few months, our rapid response team has acted swiftly to remove inappropriate materials flagged by the foundation and the families," Facebook said. "We will continue to be vigilant."

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/lawmakers-urge-facebook-remove-fraudulent-sandy-hook-tributes-1C8544611

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Monday, 25 February 2013

UFC 157 prelims: Dennis Bermudez, Matt Grice deliver Fight of the Year candidate

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- UFC 157's preliminary card started with a bang and ended with a snoozer on Saturday.

Dennis Bermudez took a tight split decision in a fight that will go down as a fight of the year candidate. He won it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 over Matt Grice.

Bermudez fell into full mount early in the round and rained punches down on Grice's head, but Grice got out and came back late in the round by leveling Bermudez with a left hook.

But it's the third round of the fight that the MMA world will remember. Bermudez threw everything but the kitchen sink at Grice, but Grice hung in. He continued to throw kicks and punches at Bermudez right up until the horn sounded and a grateful crowd in Anaheim came to its feet.

?That was insane. Somewhere around the second round I woke up and thought 'Oh, I?m in a fight, I think I am in California somewhere'," Bermudez said. "If he?d given me a reason, maybe I would have quit. I had that battle inside me where I maybe could have [quit] but I won that battle and from there got back into the fight."

Brendan Schaub used takedowns, and little else, to beat Lavar Johnson 30-27 on all the judges cards in the final fight of the prelims. With the crowd booing, Schaub repeatedly took down Johnson, who had little takedown defense.

Michael Chiesa continued his unbeaten streak with a rear naked choked of Anton Kuivanen. Chiesa rolled through to get into perfect position. He sunk in a rear naked choke that turned Kuivanen's face red. Kuivanen tapped at 2:29 in the second round.

Sam Stout managed another decision win, taking the split 29-28, 28-29 over Caros Fodor. 14 of his fights have ended with judges cards being read, and this decision put his record to 19-8.

Kenny Robertson made quick work of Brock Jardine. He stopped him with a knee bar at 2:57 in the first round.

"Sometime you gotta go with what you are handed. He was on top of me but didn?t have a great posture," Robertson said after the fight. "I saw the opening, so I grabbed his leg and hyper-extended it and he verbally submitted. I?ll take it. It is a first round win in the UFC."

For the card's opener, Nah-Shon Burrell and Yuri Villefort put on a thrilling bout that ended with Burrell taking the decision 30-27, 29-28, 29-28. Villefort had a strong first round, grabbing Burrell for two different submission attempts. But Burrell fought back in the second round, busting up Villefort's face with smart boxing. In the final round, Villefort grabbed a heel hook, but left his face open. Burrell used the opportunity to punch Villefort several time.

After the thriller by Burrell and Villefort, Neil Magny and Jon Manley's bout was a let down for the crowd in Anaheim. They spent much of the bout in a clinch, with Manley trying for a takedown that never came. Magny took the bout with better striking as the bout wore on.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-157-prelims-dennis-bermudez-matt-grice-deliver-033448621--mma.html

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Can escape clause save voting rights provision?

FILE - This July 27, 2006 file photo shows President George W. Bush signing legislation for a 25 year extension of the Voting Rights Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's most onerous aspects. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case, which is among the term's most important. From left are Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

FILE - This July 27, 2006 file photo shows President George W. Bush signing legislation for a 25 year extension of the Voting Rights Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's most onerous aspects. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case, which is among the term's most important. From left are Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

FILE ? In this Oct. 1, 2012, file photo people wait in line to enter the Supreme Court in Washington at the start of the new term. The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's most onerous aspects. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, the court will hear arguments in the case, which is among the term's most important, in a challenge from Shelby County, Ala. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key section of the landmark voting rights law at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's strictest provision.

The Voting Rights Act effectively attacked persistent discrimination at the polls by keeping close watch, when it comes to holding elections, on those places with a history of preventing minorities from voting. Any changes, from moving a polling place to redrawing electoral districts, can't take effect without approval from the Justice Department or federal judges in Washington.

But the Voting Rights Act allows governments that have changed their ways to get out from under this humbling need to get permission through a "bailout provision." Nearly 250 counties and local jurisdictions have done so; thousands more could be eligible based on the absence of recent discriminatory efforts in voting.

The viability of the bailout option could play an outsized role in the Supreme Court's consideration of the voting rights law's prior approval provision, although four years ago, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said the prospect of bailing out had been "no more than a mirage."

The court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case, which is among the term's most important, in a challenge from Shelby County, Ala.

Opponents of the law say they no longer should be forced to live under oversight from Washington because the country has made enormous racial progress, demonstrated most recently by the re-election of President Barack Obama. They object in particular to the 40-year-old formula by which some jurisdictions, most in the Deep South, are swept under the law and others remain outside it.

The administration and its allies acknowledge that there has been progress. But they say minority voters still need the protection the law affords from efforts to reduce their influence at the polls. Last year, federal judges in two separate cases blocked Texas from putting in place a voter identification law and congressional redistricting plan because they discriminated against black and Hispanic residents.

Obama himself talked about the case in a radio interview last week. He told SiriusXM host Joe Madison that if the law were stripped of its advance approval provision, "it would be hard for us to catch those things up front to make sure that elections are done in an equitable way."

Also, the law's defenders say places that have changed their ways can win release from having to get Washington's blessing for election changes. Governments seeking to exit have to show that they and the smaller jurisdictions within their borders have had a clean record, no evidence of discrimination in voting, for the past 10 years.

Shelby County has never asked to be freed from the law, but would seem to be ineligible because one city in the county, Calera, defied the voting rights law and prompted intervention by the Bush Justice Department.

Yet places with a long, well-known history of discrimination probably could find their way out from under federal monitoring, according to a prominent voting rights lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department.

"Birmingham, Ala., where they used to use fire hoses on people, may well be eligible to bail out," said the lawyer, Gerry Hebert. Birmingham officials said they've never considered asking.

The Supreme Court made clear its skepticism about the ongoing need for the law when it heard a similar case in 2009. "Past success alone, however, is not adequate justification to retain the preclearance requirements," Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court. That ruling sidestepped the constitutional issue and instead expanded the ability of states, counties and local governments to exit the advance approval process.

At that point, so few governments had tried to free themselves from the advance approval requirement that, in 2009, Thomas said the "promise of a bailout opportunity has, in the great majority of cases, turned out to be no more than a mirage."

At the time, Thomas said, only a handful of the 12,000 state, county and local governments covered by the law had successfully bailed out.

The overall numbers remain low, but the Obama administration argues that "the rate of successful bailouts has rapidly increased" since the high court last took up the Voting Rights Act nearly four years ago.

In the past 12 months, 110 local governments have been freed from the requirement to show in advance that their proposed election changes are not discriminatory. Places that have won their release from coverage include Prince William County, Va., with more than 400,000 residents, and Merced County, Calif., and its 84 municipalities.

Shelby County says that even with the recent jump in bailouts, "only a tiny percentage" of governments have found their way out of oversight from Washington.

The advance approval was adopted in the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.

The provision was a huge success, and Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent time was in 2006, when a Republican-led Congress overwhelmingly approved and President George W. Bush signed a 25-year extension.

The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan and New Hampshire. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaskan Natives and Hispanics.

The 10 covered towns in New Hampshire are poised to become the next places to win their release from the law. An agreement between the Justice Department and the state is awaiting approval from a federal court in Washington.

Critics of the law contend the Justice Department is highlighting the escape hatch and agreeing to allow places such as the New Hampshire towns to exit to try to make the entire law look more palatable to the court.

Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty says in his court filing in support of Shelby County that the Justice Department "commonly agrees to bailouts for jurisdictions that are not legally entitled to receive them."

But supporters of the law argue in response that the federal government's willingness to agree to free places from the need to get permission shows that the voting rights act is flexible and helps focus attention on potentially discriminatory voting schemes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-25-US-Supreme-Court-Voting-Rights/id-8940d6bb8f494c76a2a89ea0f309a625

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The Economic Growth Imperative Within Capitalism And The Islamic ...

Federal Hall, Wall Street

Federal Hall, Wall Street


By New Civilisation -- (February 23, 2013)

By Jamal Harwood and Sarfraz Wali

Introduction

There has been much discussion during the on-going financial crisis, on how to initiate a sustained recovery and the consensus shown by the mainstream commentators has been through returning to sustained economic growth.

Such is the focus in the capitalist order towards growth, that any program or strategy that is not able to demonstrate how compounding levels of growth can be achieved is not given credibility and hence many, such as the Turkish economics professor Timur Kuran, have written extensively showing how the Shariah has rules which limit the ability of economies to grow and hence are an impractical alternative to the current order.

It is the aim of this paper to demonstrate that the current capitalist economic paradigm with its fractional reserve banking model has within it a destructive growth imperative which is on an unsustainable trajectory and to present Islam?s alternative approach to the subject.

Section 1:? What is economic growth and how is it measured

Economic output is the volume of goods and services produced over a financial year. The measure is called GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Other measures such as the Gini Coefficient have been developed to measure the distribution of wealth among the population.

A coefficient of 0 suggests a completely even distribution and 1 suggests totally uneven distribution where a small number of market participants own the majority of wealth. It is worth noting that this figure is moving towards 1 in the states which adopt the growth strategy and is something the Occupy movement has tapped into.

The disruption in continual growth in output for 2 successive quarters is defined as a recession and this is regarded as a severe harm to the economy necessitating economic management to minimize the duration of the slowdown in output. This is the essence of the business cycle which is the alternating phases of growth and contraction which have been witnessed for hundreds of years under capitalism.

What then are the stated outcomes sought from economic growth?

According to all mainstream schools of Capitalist economic thought, growth in production is the solution to the fundamental economic problem facing society due to the coupling of the unlimited wants of man in relation to the limited resources available to satisfy such wants. This definition includes both needs and wants and not just basic needs.

The thinking of the founders of the first modern economic school of thought argued that increasing production was the key to maximizing happiness for the individual.

Adam Smith, the founder of modern Capitalism, considered that if the society focused on maximizing production, this would equate with distributing wealth to the greatest number of individuals. His focus was not on targeting distribution as he felt that distribution would be a natural by-product of materialistically driven individuals all seeking their self-interest. In his book ?The Wealth of Nations? Smith quotes:

?By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually (sic) than when he intends to promote it?.

Soon it became clear that the unregulated free market approach of the Classical school of Adam Smith was good at increasing production but deficient as far as the distribution of the gains of higher rates of production.

The next development was the neoclassical school, which emerged at the end of the 19th Century, proposing new ideas relating to value. As far as the breakthrough in the view of value and exchange, its input was to bring in a more accurate way of price formulation as far as considering both demand and supply and at the micro economic level. This had some positive impact on wages being more likely to be linked to the value that the labourer?s service provided, however no distinct policy changes were associated at the macro-economic level with the emergence of the neoclassical school as far as formal re-distribution of wealth.

Since then, new thinking came in the latter part of the 20th Century through works such as the 1956 book entitled ?The Future of Socialism? which argued for a new way of breaking the disparity between rich and poor by not focusing on the size of the slice but the size of the pie. The argument being the same slice of a bigger pie would give more wealth to the less privileged classes.

We shall now turn to a discussion on the schools of modern capitalist economic thought relating to growth and demonstrate the single minded attitude of the mainstream approaches towards endless and exponential growth. These schools fundamentally differ over key factors that hinder growth through the mechanics of what is called the business cycle. It is of no surprise that much focus is thus placed on the business cycle by all capitalist schools of thought.

A key argument is that if a theory can help minimize the slowdown in growth that occurs during a downturn in the business cycle, its policy proscriptions should be adopted by nations seeking endless growth.

However there are some non-mainstream schools, which reject the paradigm of growth. Rejection of growth as an endless strategy was in fact advocated by the mainstream schools including Adam Smith himself and Keynes given the obviously limited capacity of the earth to sustain growth indefinitely. Renewed interest in this area was spurred by a study by a think tank called Club of Rome whose study in 1972 called ?Limits to Growth? argued that the ecosystem imposes limits to growth. From this have arisen branches such as those who argue for a steady state economy that plateaus after a period of exponential growth, and Welfare Economics who differentiate between good growth and bad growth, the latter being termed uneconomical growth.? More extreme movements have also arisen such as the De-growth movement who argue for downscaling production. However these are considered fringe ideas and we now turn to the mainstream view which advocates continual growth.

Section?2: Current Approaches to Economic Growth

The main schools can be broadly grouped into the following camps:

1.????????????? Classical

2.????????????? Keynesian

3.????????????? Neo Classical which includes Monetarists and Rational Expectations

4.????????????? New Keynesian/New Classical

The formulation of the classical school as stated was the overwhelming belief in the efficiency of free markets to self-regulate themselves. It was felt that the laws of supply and demand were sufficient to ensure the allocation of resources would always flow to the most worthy projects and temporary gluts would be short lived as unemployed workers would easily accept lower paid jobs to regain employment.

It became clear very early on that in reality many market imperfections would act as impediments to this idealistic model and some type of interventionist approach by the state would be required to ease the market mechanism along to achieve this level of efficiency. Such intervention takes the form of monetary and or fiscal policy as the primary means of perpetuating the boom phase and minimizing the bust phase of the business cycle.

The period from the work of Adam Smith in 1776 with the publication of his famous book ?The Wealth of Nations? to the onset of the Great Depression following the 1929 stock Market crash in the US was the golden era of the neoclassical school which deemed there to be a minimal role for the state. It became clear after a short while that the market was unable to recover by itself and needed active governmental efforts to kick start a recovery.

Prices were declining and unemployment was rising and the market was unable to self-correct from this situation. The saviour was the British economist John Maynard Keynes who entered the debate with his influential book ?The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money? published in 1936.

The central concept from the work of Keynes was that markets when in a downward spiral would not recover and the government needed to act as a catalyst to reinvigorate demand for goods and services through increased spending when the private sector was saving. This would however increase government deficits, nevertheless the argument was put that when times are good, taxes could be used to pay for such emergency spending for when times are bad.

This approach, adopted by the 1933 Roosevelt administration, was so instrumental in ending the Great depression that Keynes ideas ruled supreme until the 1970?s when new phenomena called stagflation baffled economists on both sides of the Atlantic. This reality threw into question the policy proscription devised by the Keynesian revolution and the new saviour was the Chicago School economist named Milton Friedman whose ideas formed the Monetarist school which remained popular from the late 70?s until the high inflation induced after the end of Bretton Woods was reigned in.

Stagflation saw the simultaneous upward climb of unemployment and inflation. Prior to this, as depicted by the Philips curve, there was always perceived to be an inverse relationship between the two where governments could bring down unemployment at the cost of some inflation and vice versa. As far as unemployment and the supply of money, if there is inadequate money in circulation to sustain trade requirements, then traders will be unable to trade at current prices as they lack the means to conduct their transactions. This would cause unemployment as traders would be unable to trade and be forced to start laying off staff due to the lack of sales for their production.

Therefore Friedman argued that the supply of money should be kept at an optimal level to avoid either extreme. Furthermore, he advocated that there was a `natural rate of unemployment? which the government shouldn?t take action to reduce and instead the government should try to control the money supply so that it was in line with the level of economic activity. This theory was implemented through aggressively raising interest rates to soak up the excess money supply which brought the hyperinflation of the 1970?s to an end.

Other schools such as the Rational Expectations School lead by Robert Lucas came to prominence since the mid 1980?s that added that people could no longer be tricked by the government policy tools and that they would anticipate the actions that the state?s economists would try to do and by so doing would be able to negate the intended aim of such governmental policies. For example when the government would increase the money supply economic agents would tend to bargain for higher wages ahead of time and firms would increase prices, so the effect of lowering unemployment which would otherwise have occurred, is not realised.

This insight was not new in that Friedman also used expectations to explain stagflation by arguing that economic agents anticipate the actions of the government when the government increase the money supply and the effect of lowering unemployment does not occur as economic agents would tend to bargain for higher wages ahead of time and similarly firms would increase their prices ahead of time and this would fuel inflation above the level intended by government policy and hence would render the attempt to reduce unemployment ineffective.

Regarding the development in ideas related to rational expectations, both Keynesians and neoclassical schools reinvented themselves with new and post prefixes.

Other schools such as the Austrian School are variations of these themes and more recent contributions have come from what is known as behavioural economics which try to incorporate the physiological disposition of individual behaviour to explain the un-coordinated and often irrational behaviour of economic agents which prevents markets behaving in an optimal self-adjusting manner.

The final question to ponder is the issue of what the Policy differences are between the major schools. The preceding discussion is quite abstract as far as how theorists such as Keynes and Hayek, who is popularly characterised as the extreme end of the spectrum of mainstream thought, see the economic fundamentals necessary to prolong boom and minimise the bust phase of the business cycle. As far as policy, this difference manifests in the form of monetary and fiscal policy and which instrument is favoured to help return an economy that was in growth, towards growth in a downturn.

Other ways of framing this difference are also well known such as big government vs. small government or whether to regulate or ?get out of the way of business? a game cry of the right popularised by the ?tea party movement ? in the US. Ultimately these labels all point back to the fundamentally different views presented by the schools mentioned above.

This paper earned the Award for Best Paper at Sharia Economics Conference 2013?, authored by Jamal Harwood and Sarfraz Wali. You can find Sarfraz Wali?s blog at?http://www.breakthrougheconomics.blogspot.co.uk

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/23022013-the-economic-growth-imperative-within-capitalism-and-the-islamic-viewpoint-analysis/

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