Rights group: U.S. asylum likely for blind China dissident

BEIJING (AP) ? U.S. and Chinese officials are ironing out a deal to secure American asylum for a blind Chinese legal activist who fled house arrest, with an agreement likely before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives this week, a U.S. rights campaigner said Monday.

Bob Fu of the Texas-based rights group ChinaAid said that China and the U.S. want to reach agreement on the fate of Chen Guangcheng before the annual high-level talks with Clinton and other U.S. officials begin in Beijing on Thursday.

"The Chinese top leaders are deliberating a decision to be made very soon, maybe in the next 24 to 48 hours," Fu said, citing a source close to the U.S. and Chinese governments. Both sides are "eager to solve this issue," said Fu, a former teacher at a Communist Party academy in Beijing whose advocacy group focuses on the rights of Christians in China and who maintains a network of contacts in the country.

"It really depends on China's willingness to facilitate Chen's exit," Fu said.

Chen, a well-known dissident who angered authorities in rural China by exposing forced abortions, made a surprise escape from house arrest a week ago into what activists say is the protection of U.S. diplomats in Beijing, posing a delicate diplomatic crisis for both governments.

The U.S. Embassy declined comment Monday either on Chen's situation or talks involving Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.

Both want the annual talks, known as the strategic and economic dialogue, to provide ballast to a relationship that is often rocky and to provide ways of working out disputes on trade, Taiwan, Syria, Iran and North Korea.

In a video made after Chen escaped from his village and released last Friday, the activist made no mention of wanting to go abroad. Instead he beseeched Premier Wen Jiabao to investigate the beatings, harassment and other mistreatment he, his wife and daughter suffered at the hands of local officials during 20 months of house arrest.

If Chen were willing to leave China, Washington could ill afford to turn him away. Clinton and other senior officials have repeatedly raised his case in meetings with Chinese officials. President Barack Obama is already under fire from Republicans over a case in which an aide to a senior Chinese leader entered the U.S. Consulate in Chendgu but then left, turning himself over to Chinese investigators.

For Beijing, the issue is sensitive because Chen enjoys broad sympathy among the Chinese public for perservering in his activism despite being blind and despite repeated reprisals from local officials. And though Beijing dislikes bargaining with Washington over human rights, allowing Chen to go abroad would remove an irritant in relations with Washington. It would also prevent him from becoming a bargaining chip in an already bumpy transition of power under way from President Hu Jintao's administration to a younger group of leaders.

Fu, who has been a point of contact for people helping Chen, said he offered to help the dissident leave China through "a sort of underground railroad" shortly after he made a daring nighttime escape from his heavily guarded farmhouse on April 22. Fu had made such arrangements previously, helping the wife and two young children of another dissident lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, flee to the U.S. after they'd exited China overland from Beijing to Thailand.

But Fu said that Chen refused the offer and chose instead to go to Beijing. Despite Chen's initial resistance to exile, Fu said that might now be the only option.

"My sense is that at the end of the day, after China is willing to facilitate it in a face-saving way with the U.S., he and his family may have to choose to travel to the U.S. in whatever way that China agrees," he said.

Chen is widely admired by rights activists in China who last year publicized his case among ordinary Chinese and encouraged them to go to Dongshigu village and break the security cordon. Even Hollywood actor Christian Bale tried to visit, but was roughed up by locals paid to keep outsiders away

A self-taught lawyer blinded by fever in infancy, Chen served four years in prison on what activists say were trumped-up charges after exposing forced abortions and sterilizations in his and surrounding villages. Since his release in September 2010, local officials confined him to his home. Amnesty International and other human rights groups say he was abused over the last 18 months.

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Italy goes big to save Venice as it sinks into the sea

A multibillion-dollar flood-prevention system will be put in place starting next year, a decade after the project began.

Venetians have been coping with tidal flooding, or ?acqua alta,? for centuries. A recent study suggests the problem may be worsening faster than previously believed.

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But a multibillion-dollar system to be implemented starting next year could help prevent major flooding, according to two engineers who presented the project yesterday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass.

According to scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Miami, and Tele-Rilevamento Europa, an Italian company specializing in ground deformation measurement, the lagoon city is sinking, and won?t stop any time soon.

The team, who published their findings in the March issue of Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, combined GPS and space-borne radar information on the lagoon over the past 10 years and came to the conclusion that the city is sinking about two millimeters (0.08 inches) per year. This contradicts previous studies, according to which Venice?s land subsidence, the scientific term that refers to its slow sinking into the waters, had stopped after the city discontinued groundwater pumping in the 1990s, as reported by the Italian newspaper Il Gazzettino.

?It?s a small effect, but it?s important,? lead author Yehuda Bock said in a press release.

In 20 years, the study says, 80 millimeters (3.2 inches) of the lagoon will be taken over by the sea. But that is not the only thing Venetians should be worried about: The city is also tilting eastward, a problem the authors of the research say wasn?t detected in other studies.

So, is Venice doomed? ?Perhaps not. First of all, some question the study?s methodological approach. Pierpaolo Campostrini, director of Corila, a Venice-based research center that studies the lagoon, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that subsidence may not be constant. ?It could accelerate or slow down,? he said.

Then there is Mose, a complex 5 billion euro ($6.5 billion) flood-prevention system part of which will be operational in 2013 ? 10 years after the project, one of Italy's largest public works, first began. Mose engineers Maria Teresa Brotto and Giovanni Cecconi were at MIT yesterday to present the project, which MIT faculty helped to develop. Mose?s four barriers, placed in the water at the lagoon?s inlets, are designed to rise with the water level, thus protecting the lagoon from flooding.

The goal, Mr. Cecconi said, is ?to keep the water level under 100 centimeters [3.28 feet]? in the city. Critics of the project, however, are concerned about its environmental impact and its maintenance costs, which Ms. Brotto said will amount to 15 to 20 million euros per year.

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Brain circuitry associated with addictive, depressive behaviors identified

ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) ? Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have determined how specific circuitry in the brain controls not only body movement but also motivation and learning, providing new insight into neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease -- and psychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression.

Previously, researchers in the laboratory of Gladstone Investigator Anatol Kreitzer, PhD, discovered how an imbalance in the activity of a specific category of brain cells is linked to Parkinson's. Now, in a paper published online April 29 in Nature Neuroscience, Dr. Kreitzer and his team used animal models to demonstrate that this imbalance may also contribute to psychiatric disorders. These findings also help explain the wide range of Parkinson's symptoms -- and mark an important step in finding new treatments for those who suffer from addiction or depression.

"The physical symptoms that affect people with Parkinson's -- including tremors and rigidity of movement -- are caused by an imbalance between two types of medium spiny neurons in the brain," said Dr. Kreitzer, whose lab studies how Parkinson's disease affects brain functions. "In this paper we showed that psychiatric disorders -- specifically addiction and depression -- might be caused by this same neural imbalance."

Normally, two types of medium spiny neurons, or MSNs, coordinate body movements. One type, called direct pathway MSNs (dMSNs), acts like a gas pedal. The other type, known as indirect pathway MSNs (iMSNs), acts as a brake. And while researchers have long known about the link between a chemical in the brain called dopamine and Parkinson's, Gladstone researchers recently clarified that dopamine maintains the balance between these two MSN types.

But abnormal dopamine levels are implicated not only in Parkinson's, but also in addiction and depression. Dr. Kreitzer and his team hypothesized that the same circuitry that controlled movement might also control the process of learning to repeat pleasurable experiences and avoid unpleasant ones -- and that an imbalance in this process could lead to addictive or depressive behaviors.

Dr. Kreitzer and his team genetically modified two sets of mice so that they could control which specific type of MSN was activated. They placed mice one at a time in a box with two triggers -- one that delivered a laser pulse to stimulate the neurons and one that did nothing. They then monitored which trigger each mouse preferred.

"The mice that had only dMSNs activated gravitated toward the laser trigger, pushing it again and again to get the stimulation -- reminiscent of addictive behavior," said Alexxai Kravitz, PhD, Gladstone postdoctoral fellow and a lead author of the paper. "But the mice that had only iMSNs activated did the opposite. Unlike their dMSN counterparts, the iMSN mice avoided the laser stimulation, which suggests that they found it unpleasant." These findings reveal a precise relationship between the two MSN types and how behaviors are learned. They also show how an MSN imbalance can throw normal learning processes out of whack, potentially leading to addictive or depressive behavior.

"People with Parkinson's disease often show signs of depression before the onset of significant movement problems, so it's likely that the neural imbalance in Parkinson's is also responsible for some behavioral changes associated with the disease," said Dr. Kreitzer, who is also an assistant professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, with which Gladstone is affiliated. "Future research could discover how MSNs are activated in those suffering from addiction or depression -- and whether tweaking them could reduce their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

Graduate student Lynne Tye was also a lead author on this paper. Funding came from a variety of sources, including the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Pew Biomedical Scholars Program, the McKnight Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Gladstone Institutes.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexxai V Kravitz, Lynne D Tye, Anatol C Kreitzer. Distinct roles for direct and indirect pathway striatal neurons in reinforcement. Nature Neuroscience, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3100

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Louisville: One of Kentuckys History and Legacy Factories - News ...

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If the state of Kentucky rings a bell, maybe it?s the fact that it?s where the ?finger-lickin?? chicken started. The Bluegrass State has its share of history along with famous people hailing from its cities and towns. One of the cities where legacies are born and history is made is the biggest in the state: Louisville.

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The founders of this bustling city decided to thank Louis XVI of France for helping America win the Revolution by naming it after him. Since its inception in 1778, steamboats helped the once quaint town grow into an industrial power. Throughout history, it was the site of major battles, as well as a frequent itinerary for tornadoes. Of course, those did not stop Louisville from producing ordinary people who made history people like:

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Muhammad Ali: Known as the Louisville Lip, Ali is, simply put, one of the greatest the world of boxing has ever seen. One of his most historical fights took place in Manila in the Philippines, where he faced off Joe Frazier and retained his heavyweight champion title. His feats would go down in history and be set in stone in the form of places like the Muhammad Ali Center at Museum Row, near I-64.

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Abraham Lincoln: As the man who ended slavery in the United States, Lincoln helped push the country in a new era of prosperity. During the Civil War, he led the larger Union States to victory and gave slaves equal rights to life, liberty, and property. Scholars and the public continue to adore him as one of the greatest presidents the country ever had.

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George R. Clark: Who could forget the man who founded Louisville? Clark led famous battles in the Northwest, like in Kaskaskia and Vincennes, which significantly weakened British hold in the region. The early seed of Louisville KY was sown in Corn Island, an outpost in the Falls of Ohio. His resting place can be found in Cave Hill Cemetery along Baxter Avenue.

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Thomas A. Edison: Perhaps, if it weren?t for Edison, the world would still be using candles and gas lamps. Although born in Ohio, Edison settled in Louisville KY for a few years while working as a telegrapher for Western Union. He was also credited with other inventions such as the phonograph.

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You can check out more famous people in Louisville by visiting its website for tourist information at GoToLouisville.com. Don?t forget to check Louisville KY events for any event to honor the fine men and women who hailed from this bustling city.

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UK High Court: ISPs Must Block Access To The Pirate Bay

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) finally got its will today. According to a ruling by Britain's High Court, UK Internet providers must now block access to Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The BBC reports that the BPI had asked British ISPs to voluntarily block access to the site in November 2011. At that time, though, the ISPs said they wouldn't do so unless ordered by a court. That court order has now arrived. Five UK ISPs (Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media) have already announced that they will comply with this order. BT asked the court for more time to consider its position.

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Head of UN mission in Syria urges halt to violence

BEIRUT (AP) ? The head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria on Sunday called on President Bashar Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous cease-fire to take hold.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood spoke after arriving in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to take charge of an advance team of 16 U.N. monitors trying to salvage an international peace plan to end the country's 13-month-old crisis.

Under the plan, a cease-fire is supposed to lead to talks between Assad and the opposition on a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people.

On Sunday, at least 25 people were killed, including 14 civilians shot dead by troops in a village in central Syria, and three soldiers killed in a clash with army defectors, activists said.

Mood told reporters that the 300 observers the U.N. has authorized for the mission "cannot solve all the problems" in Syria, asking for cooperation from forces loyal to Assad as well as rebels seeking to end his rule.

"We want to have combined efforts focusing on the welfare of the Syrian people," he said, "true cessation of violence in all its forms."

The cease-fire began unraveling almost as soon as it went into effect April 12. The regime has kept up its attacks on opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters have continued to ambush government security forces. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military has failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from city streets.

Despite the violence, the truce still enjoys the support of the international community, largely because it views the plan as the last chance to prevent the country from falling into civil war ? and because it does not want to intervene militarily.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that while he is still hopeful, "unfortunately, I am also aware how much this plan is at risk."

"That's why it's especially important for this mission to expand quickly," Kellenberger told the Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag. He met with Syrian leaders earlier this month.

Most analysts say the plan has little chance of succeeding, though it could temporarily bring down the level of daily violence.

That has largely been the case in Homs, Syria's third largest city, which has emerged as the heart of the uprising. Regime forces pounded parts of Homs for months, leaving large swaths of the city in ruins, before two U.N. monitors moved into an upscale hotel there last week.

Since then, the level of violence has dropped, although gunbattles still frequently break out. "The shooting has not stopped in Homs," local activist Tarek Badrakhan said Sunday.

An amateur video posted online Saturday showed the observers walking through a heavily damaged neighborhood, where residents collected a body lying in the street and put it in the back of a pickup truck.

Mood, a Norwegian, was appointed head of the observer mission by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. One hundred monitors should be in the country by mid-May, said mission spokesman Neeraj Singh. It is unclear when or if the full contingent of 300 monitors will deploy to Syria.

Mood brings a wealth of Middle East experience to the job, including stints with U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon in 1989-1990 and as the head of a U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNTSO from 2009 to 2011. That mission was the U.N's first-ever peacekeeping operation, starting after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to monitor a cease-fire. It now watches cease-fires around the Middle East.

The Syrian state news agency said observers visited the embattled Homs neighborhood of Khaldiyeh on Sunday but provided no further information.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, said government snipers shot and killed two people in the neighborhood of Joret al-Shayah, which borders Khaldiyeh.

The group said an additional 20 people were killed by troops, including 14 in the village of Hamadi Omar in the central Hama province and a child in the southern province of Deir el-Zour. Also Sunday, three Syrian soldiers were killed in clashes with army defectors, it said.

Ban has blamed the regime for widespread violations of the truce ? prompting Syria to fire back that his comments were "outrageous" and accuse him of bias.

The spat has further stoked concerns among the Syrian opposition and its Western supporters that Assad is merely playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that ? if fully implemented ? would likely sweep him out of office.

___

Associated Press writer Albert Aji contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria.

Associated Press

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Obama criticizes GOP in speech to union members

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is rallying union workers by painting a bleak portrait of America's infrastructure. He blames Republicans for focusing on tax cutting rather than creating jobs by updating and rebuilding highways, railroads and airports.

Obama tells the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO that U.S. highways are clogged, railroads are no longer the fastest in the world and airports are congested. Yet, he says, Republicans have repeatedly voted against his initiatives to create jobs by spending on construction projects.

Union members greeted him with chants of "Four more years." He urged House Republicans to pass a stalled transportation bill.

Obama says: "Republicans in Congress would rather put fewer of you to work rebuilding America than ask millionaires and billionaires to live without massive new tax cuts."

Associated Press

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Jimmy Fallon's 'SNL' audition tape is impressive

By Randee Dawn

"I'm going to do some celebrity impressions." Talk about your low-key, understated introductions! That's how Jimmy Fallon's 1998 audition for "Saturday Night Live" kicked off, with a statement that doesn't even come close to describing the following eight minutes of Fallon hilariously hitting the nail on the head again and again.

Back in 1998, Fallon was just another rising comic, but the future "Late Night" host and Slow Jammer clearly knew his craft and his strengths. He started off with a "celebrity walk-a-thon" with John Travolta, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, then segued into original characters like "Double Take Guy" and "Wannabe Composer."?

About six minutes into the audition, once he got the expected stuff out of the way, Fallon hit his stride by picking up a guitar, noting, "I also do a lot of musical impressions, but I'm going to make them short for you." Short they may have been, but they were also some of the funniest stuff he did. He slid from U2's Bono gasping at the start of "Desire" to The Cure ("My tears are like hydrochloric acid, it burns my face") to The Wallflowers ("Everybody knows that I'm Bob Dylan's son; that's how I got to open for the Stones") and Alanis Morissette ("My voice is annoying; my video's boring").

The "SNL" bigwigs clearly agreed they had something special with Fallon, and he was hired to work on the 1998-99 season.

What's your favorite part of Fallon's audition tape? Tell us on our Facebook page!

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B&N, Microsoft team up on Nook, college businesses

FILE - This file product image provided by Barnes & Noble Inc., shows the new $249 Nook Tablet, which was unveiled Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are teaming up to create a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8. The companies said Monday, April 30, 2012 that they are exploring separating those businesses entirely. That could mean a stock offering, sale, or other deal could happen. (AP Photo/Barnes & Noble Inc., File)

FILE - This file product image provided by Barnes & Noble Inc., shows the new $249 Nook Tablet, which was unveiled Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are teaming up to create a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8. The companies said Monday, April 30, 2012 that they are exploring separating those businesses entirely. That could mean a stock offering, sale, or other deal could happen. (AP Photo/Barnes & Noble Inc., File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Books and bits united Monday as Microsoft provided an infusion of money to help Barnes & Noble compete with top electronic bookseller Amazon. In exchange, Microsoft gets a long-desired foothold in the business of e-books and college textbooks.

Microsoft Corp.'s $300 million investment sent Barnes & Noble Inc.'s stock zooming up $9.15, or 67 percent, to $22.83 in early afternoon trading. The opening price of $26 was a three-year high. Microsoft's stock rose 2 cents to $32.

The two companies are teaming up to create a subsidiary for Barnes & Noble's e-book and college textbook businesses, with Microsoft taking a 17.6 percent stake.

The deal gives Barnes & Noble ammunition to fend off shareholders who have agitated for a sale of the Nook e-book business or the whole company, but the companies said Monday that they are exploring separating the subsidiary, provisionally dubbed "Newco," entirely from Barnes & Noble. That could mean a stock offering, sale or other deal.

The deal also puts to rest concerns that Barnes & Noble doesn't have the capital to compete in the e-book business with market leader Amazon.com Inc. and its Kindle, said analyst David Strasser at Janney Capital.

For Microsoft, the investment means that it will own part of a company that sells tablet computers based on Google Inc.'s Android, one of the main competitors of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's smartphone software.

Microsoft also said the deal means that there will be a Nook application for Windows 8 tablets, set to be released this fall. The app is likely to get a favored position on Windows 8 screens.

There's already a Nook application for Windows PCs, but none for Windows phones.

William Lynch, the CEO of Barnes & Noble, said Nook software will continue to be available on devices like the iPhone that compete with Windows Phone.

He declined to say whether it was Barnes & Noble or Microsoft that initiated the discussions, but he said the talks had been going on since before the beginning of the year.

"We have been circling the relationship for quite a long time," added Microsoft president Andy Lees. "When you think of different types of reading and what's going to happen when that goes digital, it's really quite dramatic to be bringing that to Windows customers."

The Nook has pleasantly surprised publishers, who worry about Amazon.com's domination of the e-market. Unveiled to skeptical reviews in 2009, the Nook is estimated to account for about 25 percent of the U.S. e-book market. The Nook helped to cut Amazon's share from what was believed to be 90 percent to around 60-65 percent. David Pogue in The New York Times called the initial device "an anesthetized slug," but praised the new Nook Simple Touch as a "very big deal" that offers "spectacular, crisp pages to read in any light."

Barnes & Noble investors have also been concerned about the recent government lawsuit against Apple and some leading publishers over alleged price fixing. When Apple launched its iPad in 2010, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group (USA) and other publishers switched to an "agency" model that allowed publishers to set prices for e-books, a system many believe helped Barnes & Noble.

Amazon.com had been offering top-selling e-books for $9.99, a cost publishers, agents and writers believed was so low it could drive competitors out of business. Three of the five publishers sued? Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and the Hachette Book Group ? have already agreed to settle, meaning prices for their e-books likely will again drop on Amazon.

Microsoft has a long-standing interest in the e-book field. It launched e-book software in 2000, but was never able to build a substantial library of books. It's discontinuing the software on Aug. 30.

Barnes & Noble, based in New York, currently runs 691 bookstores in 50 states. The companies said that the subsidiary will have an ongoing relationship with Barnes & Noble's retail stores, but what that relationship will be is unclear.

"The whole reason the Nook business is expanding so rapidly is because bookstores are committed to it and know how to market the product in that environment," said Michael Norris, an analyst at Simba information.

The possibility of a separation of Barnes & Noble's digital and college businesses has been brewing.

In January, Barnes & Noble said it was considering options for its Nook business, including possibly spinning it off or expanding overseas, and said it expected the review to be complete by the end of the year.

And in March, private investment firm G Asset Management, a Barnes & Noble shareholder, offered $460 million for a 51 percent stake in the company's college bookstore unit, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC.

Under that plan, the college bookstore unit was proposed to begin as a private business but become public within a "reasonable" amount of time. G Asset's offer was contingent upon Barnes & Noble keeping current management in place and separating its Nook e-business from the rest of the company. At the time the offer was made, Barnes & Noble declined to comment.

In 2009, Barnes & Noble Inc. bought the college bookstore unit from Chairman Leonard Riggio in a deal worth $596 million. The deal ended up costing Barnes & Noble $460 million after accounting for the unit's cash on hand at the closing date.

___

AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson, Business Writer Michelle Chapman and AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Renew Wedding Vows in Paris

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon took a vacation this week to the most romantic city on the planet, and the famous couple made the most of it:

They renewed their vows in Paris!

With the Eiffel Tower in the background and with Cannon donning a white tuxedo and Mariah in a similar-colored gown, Cannon got down on one knee once again and professed his love for his lovely wife.

It's not the first time the pair has renewed its vows, either.

With Rev. Al Sharpton officiating, Carey and Cannon did so last year in the hospital where twins Moroccan and Monroe were born. Speaking of those adorable tykes:

They turn one on Monday!

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Understanding the PayPal 1099-K Tax Form | Personal Finance Blog

In an effort to combat financial discrepancies in income reporting, the IRS has become more proactive in looking at non-traditional income sources. Small businesses in particular are subject to this oversight, and PayPal has been the primary target. In fact, some people have begun to call this new tax form the PayPal 1099. It doesn?t effect everyone, though. Are you an occasional seller on Ebay of some of your personal possessions? Don?t have time for a yard sale? Chances are that the 1099-K has nothing to do with you. In fact, the form is only sent out to those online sellers and independents who gross more than $20,000 per year or who have more than 200 transactions from online selling.

Most independent contractors are familiar with the standard 1099 income reporting form. It covers all forms of miscellaneous income, from hobby income to contract work done for firms that you don?t actually work for except on a contract basis. Fortunately, this new 1099 form doesn?t require any more work than previous forms did.

The most important thing about the 1099-K for small businesses and contractors is to track your expenses on a job-by-job basis. If you end up getting audited, you?ll have some tough questions to answer if you don?t have your ducks in a row. Not familiar with accounting practices? It isn?t as difficult as you might think. For one thing, you don?t necessarily need a ledger, though it does help. A standard spiral-bound notebook will suffice, but you?ll need to keep your receipts for expenses where you can find them, as well. Try this trick to keep yourself organized: first, get yourself some notecard dividers that will fit in a shoebox. Use the dividers to organize the receipts you have into jobs. In your spiral notebook, track the expenses and income of the job, along with a reference to the location of the proper receipt. Keeping yourself organized in this manner, and your taxes will be a breeze, as will an audit, should it come to that.

The new PayPal 1099 tax form isn?t intended to discourage small operators from selling off their collection of Beanie Babies and Avon Bottles on Ebay, but rather allows tracking of large companies or people who make their living doing business through the internet. It may seem to be invasive, but one has to remember that the internet is one of the ways terrorists fund their activities. The 1099 form puts up a roadblock to help prevent criminal activities in the same way that the IRS helps to prosecute felons. Did you know that it?s a federal crime not to report income from criminal activities? There?s actually a line on the long form that asks for illegally received income such as bribes and other crimes. Most crooks don?t fill out that form, so when they?re caught, if a case is shaky against them, the prosecutors simply look at their tax records and then get them for tax evasion. Al Capone was perhaps the most famous example.

If you fall within the parameters for receiving a Paypal 1099 form, one will be automatically mailed to you beginning in the 2012 tax year. That means you might see one come January 2013. Make certain that you don?t double up your income by overreporting the PayPal 1099 and other 1099s you receive, any you should be in pretty good shape to avoid any stress when your 2012 taxes need finished.

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British Red Cross worker held captive since January in Pakistan has been killed

QUETTA, Pakistan - The body of a British Red Cross worker held captive in Pakistan since January has been found in an orchard, his throat slit and a note attached to his body saying he was killed because no ransom was paid, police said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was managing a health program in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan when armed men seized him from a street close to his office. The identities of his captors are unknown, but the region is home to separatist and Islamist militants who have kidnapped for ransom before.

The director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the "barbaric act."

"All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends," said Yves Daccord.

Dale's throat had been slit, according to Safdar Hussain, a doctor who examined the body, which was discovered Sunday.

Quetta police chief Ahsan Mahboob said the note attached to it read: "This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying a ransom."

Militants and criminal gangs often kidnap wealthy Pakistanis and less commonly, foreigners.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Dale's killing, and said "tireless efforts" had been under way to secure his release after he was kidnapped.

Khalil had worked for the Red Cross for years, carrying out assignments in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, the group said.

Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, lies close to the Afghan border and for decades has hosted thousands of refugees from that country. The Red Cross operates clinics in the city that treat people wounded in the war in Afghanistan, including Taliban insurgents.

A Pakistani foreign office statement condemned the crime, promising to bring its perpetrators to justice. However, arrests for this type of crime are rare.

Much of Baluchistan and the tribal regions close to Afghanistan are out of Pakistani government control, and make good places to keep hostages. Large ransoms are often paid to secure their release, but such payments are rarely confirmed.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials in Quetta said they were investigating whether this could be the work of the Pakistani Taliban. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

There are at least four other foreigners being held in Pakistan.

Last August, a 70-year-old American humanitarian aid worker was kidnapped from his house in the Punjabi city of Lahore. Al-Qaida claimed to be holding the man, Warren Weinstein, and said in a video he would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

In March, a Swiss couple held captive for eight months by the Taliban turned up at an army checkpoint close to the Afghan border. Insurgents have claimed a large ransom was paid to secure their freedom. That has not been confirmed by Pakistani or Swiss authorities, who are unlikely to acknowledge it even if they did.

The couple was kidnapped in Baluchistan.

Also Sunday, American missiles killed three suspected Islamist militants sheltering in an abandoned school in North Waziristan, said intelligence officials, who did not give their names because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Pakistan's government strongly condemned the attack. In a statement, it said such attacks violate international law and Pakistan's "territorial integrity and sovereignty."

The strike comes as the U.S. is trying to rebuild its relationship with Pakistan, which opposes the missile attacks and has demanded they stop. The frequency of the attacks, which critics say kill innocents and energize the insurgency, has dropped dramatically this year.

___

Associated Press Writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

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CBSRC-246-1718313A4 ? Human Resources Manager ? North ...

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? Strong business acumen, analytical and project management skills
? Experience acting as business partner to understand needs and creatively work with management to grow business results
? Positive, proactive approach to problem solving
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? Change agent, results orientated and high energy
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Pixlr-o-matic (for iPad)

Pixlr-o-matic may not have gotten a billion dollars from Facebook, but well before Instagram's big payday, it was acquired by a pretty big name in design software?Autodesk. And though Pixlr-o-matic lacks the rich social networking of Instagram (Free, 3 stars), it goes much further when it comes to pimping up your images with loads of effects. You can start with the free version, which is itself pretty capable, or upgrade to the 99 cent version, an investment that pays off richly in added effects. Pixlr-o-matic has another big advantage over Instagram: It's available for far more platforms?there's a Web app, Windows and Mac desktop apps, a Facebook app, as well as iOS and Android apps.?

Interface
The Pixlr-o-matic interface is dead simple and pleasing to the eye. You start out on its wood-panel home screen, from which you can snap a photo for use in the editor/enhancer, "upload" one from the device, use a sample image, or open the last one you worked on. I'd prefer the ability to see more than one recent image. The "upload" is a misnomer here and a remnant from the Web version: You're really just loading a photo from your Camera Roll here.

After you've snapped or selected your photo from storage, you'll see the picture framed on the wood-panel background, with just a few buttons: at top-left, the Crop button has but one option?square. Tapping it again takes you back to the photo's original aspect ratio. Along the bottom you'll see five buttons, Undo (which actually just takes you back to the home screen), a film canister (mood and vintage effects), a light bulb (lighting overlays), a picture frame (border effects), and a floppy disk. The last actually full-screens your photo and shows the sharing button.

The final two buttons I'll talk about, at top-right, let you get load more effects of each kind, and a shuffle button that applies a random combination of film, lighting, and border effects; there are over 5 million possible combinations, so you could spend all day tapping this button to find just the right look. A real undo button would be nice here, since, if you get a combo you like and then tap shuffle again, you've lost the previous combo forever. Double-tapping on the preview image full-screens it

A couple of beefs about the interface: I could only view the site in portrait mode, rendering the app unusable with my iPad stand. And when I went to take a picture in Pixlr-o-matic with the iPad, the photo view was iPhone-size?kind of a waste of my big high-def new iPad screen. Same goes for the sharing menu, but there it's less important, and both of these size issues aren't as bad as using the always small Instagram on an iPad. A red-ribbon links you to Pixlr's site in the browser, which would include more editing capabilities if the iPad's browser had Adobe Flash capability.

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La Bergerie?Second Time's Not the Charm ? Woman Around Town

The first time we visited La Bergerie in Old Town Alexandria, we were charmed. Located in a beautiful brownstone on North Lee Street, this classic French restaurant has a loyal following. The service, while at times officious, was overall professional. We had a nice table where we could admire the kitschy decor (it?s French, after all). My Dover sole was prepared table side and so expertly filleted that I didn?t find one bone. We were very pleased with the suggested wines and tipped an extra $40 on our way out. A perfectly delightful evening.

So delightful, in fact, that we couldn?t wait to go back. We should have quit while we were ahead. Our second visit was a disaster. We ended up leaving frustrated, angry, and hungry. We reconvened in Overwood, located on the first floor of the brownstone, and over burgers tried to figure out what went wrong. How could a restaurant be so good on one visit and so awful the next time?

Perhaps we were reeling from our experience the preceding week when we encountered a less than stellar performance at D.C.?s Bibiana. We had been to Bibiana before (read my review), and loved the food. On our second visit, however, disaster struck. Although the maitre d? and the staff were extremely apologetic (an attitude that was totally missing at La Bergerie), we left hungry and disappointed.

Dining out should be an enjoyable experience. (For guidance on how the perfect dining out experience should unfold, see my earlier story). With the cost of eating out increasing, patrons should expect food and service that is worth the price. When the effort falls short, someone needs to take responsibility. The staff at Bibiana was quick to apologize, take our main courses off the bill, and treat us to dessert. The waiter, maitre d? and manager all came over to apologize. We will certainly return.

Our experience at La Bergerie had a less satisfactory ending. After being shown to a table, the waiter quickly produced menus and our water glasses were filled. (One of my pet peeves is being handed a menu before I have had a chance to relax and order a drink. And I would have preferred sparkling water, thank you very much). My request that we order drinks was delivered to the waiter?s back as he made a hasty retreat. He reappeared five minutes later, pad in hand to take our order. When I said again that we wanted to order drinks, he seemed less than pleased. He took our drink order and left.

We started with a dozen oysters which arrived on time. Then we hit a snag. We sat for a full hour waiting for our main courses?Dover sole and a beef filet. We asked several times what had happened to our food with no response. Finally, the waiter told us there had been a snag in the kitchen, poured us more wine (which we didn?t want), and left again. When another fifteen minutes went by, we stood up, told the owner we were upset, wanted to pay for what we have consumed, and leave. He told us there would be no charge but still refrained from apologizing or offering to reseat us and bring us our main courses.

La Bergerie was crowded and certainly didn?t seem to be suffering. Yet there are no guarantees in the restaurant business, even ones that have loyal, local followings. It takes a lot to survive in a competitive environment. Consistency, making sure each visit lives up to a high standard, is necessary to keep people coming back. And these days, with the internet, one bad experience goes viral and suddenly people stay away in droves. Getting those customers back will prove an arduous task. Wouldn?t it be better not to lose them in the first place?

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Quebec, Canada Clash Over Long-Gun Registry

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Gun Tests Index 2011-1999

Here are all the items tested in Gun Tests magazine from 2011 back through 1999.

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Questions We'd Like to Ask Calderon Re: F&F

David Kopel, adjunct law professor at Denver University and co-author of ?Firearms Law and the Second Amendment?, wrote in the Washington Times this week: 'Mexican President Felipe Calderon?s visit to Washington last week featured his usual lecturing of Americans about gun control. This time, he had some good ideas, although he remains wedded to many bad ones, too. A polite guest, Mr. Calderon did not mention the ?Fast and Furious? operation during his public events with President Obama. But reports indicate that he did bring it up privately, and he was furious - justifiably so.'

In Florida, People Use Refunds to Buy Guns

At FOX 35 News in Orange County, Fla. comes this report: 'Forget about paying the bills with your tax refund, some are heading to the gun shop instead. Over at Shoot Straight employees say more people are taking a shot at a owning a gun, thanks to Uncle Sam.? As people debate the Stand Your Ground law, many worry about losing the right to own a gun, 'Any time people feel their second amendment right might be taken away or altered, they get concerned and buy the guns that they can buy now, while they can.'

Gun Reports Home >> News April 23, 2012

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(GunReports.com) -- Gun-control advocates in the province of Quebec applauded last week when a judge prevented the Canadian federal government from completely abolishing the country's long-gun registry.

A recently passed federal measure called Bill C-19 amends the Criminal Code and Firearms Act so that people will not have to register their non-restricted or non-prohibited firearms. It also provides for the destruction of existing records in the Canadian Firearms Registry for those firearms.

Quebec wants to maintain its own registry, and it wants to use data collected by the national registry.

Last week, Judge Marc-Andre Blanchard extended to June a temporary injunction that orders the Conservative government to continue registering long guns in Quebec and prevents it from destroying 15 years of data collected over the lifetime of the national registry.

"The beneficial effects of maintaining the registry in Quebec appear greater than the urgency of applying the new law which will do away with the long-gun registry and destroy the data," Blanchard concluded.

Read more at www.TheStarPhoenix.com.

Reader Comments

""The beneficial effects of maintaining the registry in Quebec appear greater than the urgency of applying the new law which will do away with the long-gun registry and destroy the data," Blanchard concluded."

Beneficial effects? What beneficial effects? Well, let's see. Over two billion Canadian dollars wasted? Check. Not one single crime solved with the info on the data base? Check. Home invasions by police and unwarranted prosecutions of unoffending Canadian citizens? Check. Over 70% non-compliance rate? Check.

According to the available data, it's a valid mathematical equation: Canada = Bizarro World.

Gaviota

Comment by: Lee W | April 23, 2012

Very eloquently stated..... At least, however, the greater part of Canada appears to be coming to its senses. Le Quebecois and the Newfies, however, have always marched to a different drummer than the rest of the nation.

Comment by: canovack | April 24, 2012

It would appear that the stupidity quotient in Quebec is equal to or higher than that of Washington, D.C. And of course the judge interfering with dumping this mess has a Frenchy name.

Comment by: david b | April 26, 2012

Yes their registration laws are a total waste of resources and the vast majority of Canadians have always been against them another case of the few making laws for the many. Reminds me of the war on drugs we wage here in the US. Although I have no interest in the drug culture I know our dollars could be far better utilized.

Comment by: playhookie | April 27, 2012

An Important Note for GunReports.Com Readers: Our goal on this website is to foster a free expression of views while reining in language that crosses the line of civil discourse. Accordingly, the comments areas are intended to expand the knowledge of all users of this site. But site administrators wish to discourage the use of profanity, insults, disrespect, the advocacy of lawlessness, violence or sedition, or attempts to impinge on the rights of others. While GunReports.Com encourages robust discourse that furthers our understanding of all the issues affecting gun owners, comments that break GunReports.Com?s rules will be removed. In addition, we reserve the right to edit or delete individual comments, and in extreme cases, to ban commenters at our discretion. --Tim Cole Publisher, GunReports.Com To post a comment you must be a registered user of gunreports.com and be logged in. Use one of the forms below to login or register for FREE to gunreports.com

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New 3D Images Let Doctors See What Causes an Irregular Heartbeat [Medicine]

A healthy heart beats evenly as a metronome, sending oxygen-rich blood to your organs and appendages. But if your ticker's rhythm isn't so even, it can lead to fibrillation—rapid, unsynchronized contraction of the muscles that impedes the delivery of blood around the body. More »

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Sony's Alpha A37 and NEX-F3 pose for the camera, reveal more angles, details

Well, well, talk about déjà vu! It was just yesterday that a corner of Sony's 16.1 megapixel NEX-F3 leaked onto the interwebs and now more photos have surfaced, along with a previously unannounced shooter, the Alpha A37 SLT. The pictures come courtesy of Yang Canggih, which says it had a chance to demo the two devices yesterday at Sony's Partner's Conference in Jakarta (curiously, the NEX-F3 post isn't live as of this writing, but Sony Alpha Rumors has the images up). Starting with the F3, the mirrorless camera has lost a smidgen of the curves found on its older sibling, the C3, adopting a slight bit of the angular edges that once made the NEX-7 the badass standout in the lineup. You'll notice that the shutter button and grip have an uncanny resemblance to the 7's, not to mention that it's clearly gained a pop-up flash -- a first for the lower-end NEXs. Past that, the rumored -- and self-portrait friendly -- 180 degree tilt-screen is also present, which'll likely give the C3 an edge over its siblings when it comes to composing shots. Also worth note, some of the buttons on back have been slightly repositioned.

Moving along, those hoping for a successor to the A35 will apparently have their wish granted with the 16.1 megapixel A37. According to Yang Canggih, it features the articulating display from the last generation of NEX cams, Auto Portrait Framing (first introduced with the A57), four more effect modes than the A35 (up from 11) and an ergonomic grip in the vein of the A77. Sadly, that's about all that's currently known, so hopefully we'll get an official introduction to the cameras soon. Head past the break for a shot of the A37 and then check out the links below for even more of both.

Continue reading Sony's Alpha A37 and NEX-F3 pose for the camera, reveal more angles, details

Sony's Alpha A37 and NEX-F3 pose for the camera, reveal more angles, details originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Sony Alpha Rumors (1), (2)  |  Yang Canggih (translation)  | Email this | Comments

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