18-Nov-2013 18:56

Murder charges recommended in Minnesota Nazi case - Colorado Springs Gazette :: <a href="http://gazette.com/murder-charges-recommended-in-minnesota-nazi-case/article/feed/63191">http://gazette.com/murder-charges-recommended-in-minnesota-nazi-case/article/feed/63191</a><br /><br><br /><br>Justices Reject Challenge to NSA Program - New York Times :: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/us/justices-reject-challenge-to-nsa-program.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/us/justices-reject-challenge-to-nsa-program.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Obamacare turns into a war for the President - New York Daily News :: <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/obamacare-turns-war-president-article-1.1520159">http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/obamacare-turns-war-president-article-1.1520159</a><br /><br><br /><br>Cheney sisters spar over gay marriage on social media - USA TODAY :: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2013/11/18/liz-cheney-gay-marriage-sister-facebook/3625829/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2013/11/18/liz-cheney-gay-marriage-sister-facebook/3625829/</a><br /><br><br /><br>Rob Ford: Mayor challenges councillors to call an election - Toronto Star :: <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/18/rob_ford_council_proposal_to_curb_mayors_power_moves_ahead.html">http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/18/rob_ford_council_proposal_to_curb_mayors_power_moves_ahead.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>US, Boeing Officials to Travel to Russia After Kazan Plane Crash - RIA Novosti :: <a href="http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131118/184789013/US-Boeing-Officials-to-Travel-to-Russia-After-Kazan-Plane-Crash.html">http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131118/184789013/US-Boeing-Officials-to-Travel-to-Russia-After-Kazan-Plane-Crash.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Liberation newspaper and Societe Generale targeted in gun attacks - BBC News :: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24987792">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24987792</a><br /><br><br /><br>Pa. pastor stands church trial over gay marriage - FoxReno.com :: <a href="http://www.foxreno.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/3dfbc7b3-www.foxreno.com.shtml">http://www.foxreno.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/3dfbc7b3-www.foxreno.com.shtml</a><br /><br><br /><br>Gov. Quinn after killer storms: 'We will prevail' - USA TODAY :: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/18/weather-tornadoes-twister-midwest-illinois/3625235/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/18/weather-tornadoes-twister-midwest-illinois/3625235/</a><br /><br><br /><br>Dow breaks 16000 barrier, S&P 500 tops 1800 as stocks hit milestones - NBCNews.com :: <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/business/dow-breaks-through-16-000-point-barrier-first-time-2D11603445">http://www.nbcnews.com/business/dow-breaks-through-16-000-point-barrier-first-time-2D11603445</a>

18-Nov-2013 18:56

Murder charges recommended in Minnesota Nazi case - Colorado Springs Gazette :: http://gazette.com/murder-charges-recommended-in-minnesota-...

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11-Nov-2013 18:10

Bryant Park 'shooter' all but confessed online - New York Post :: <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/11/10/cops-bust-alleged-bryant-park-skating-rink-shooter/">http://nypost.com/2013/11/10/cops-bust-alleged-bryant-park-skating-rink-shooter/</a><br /><br><br /><br>No Charges For Shock Artist Over Red Square Stunt - RIA Novosti :: <a href="http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131111/184642162/No-Charges-For-Shock-Artist-Over-Red-Square-Stunt.html">http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131111/184642162/No-Charges-For-Shock-Artist-Over-Red-Square-Stunt.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>European satellite burns up after plunging into Earth's atmosphere - Chicago Tribune :: <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-space-satellite-20131109,0,1837151.story">http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-space-satellite-20131109,0,1837151.story</a><br /><br><br /><br>Gunmen Kill Senior Haqqani Leader in Pakistan - Voice of America :: <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/gunmen-kill-senior-haqqani-leader-in-pakistan/1787837.html">http://www.voanews.com/content/gunmen-kill-senior-haqqani-leader-in-pakistan/1787837.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Veterans Day meal deals - KOB.com :: <a href="http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3214913.shtml?cat%3D500">http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3214913.shtml?cat%3D500</a><br /><br><br /><br>Gunman kills 3, then self, in rampage tied to New York rock group - Los Angeles Times :: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nyc-shooting-rampage-20131111,0,5778774.story">http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nyc-shooting-rampage-20131111,0,5778774.story</a><br /><br><br /><br>Amy Robach of 'GMA' reveals breast cancer diagnosis detected after on-air ... - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com :: <a href="http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2013/11/amy_robach_breast_cancer_good_morning_america.html">http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2013/11/amy_robach_breast_cancer_good_morning_america.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Typhoon-ravaged Philippines declares state of calamity - TVNZ :: <a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/typhoon-ravaged-philippines-declares-state-calamity-5707757">http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/typhoon-ravaged-philippines-declares-state-calamity-5707757</a><br /><br><br /><br>The iPhone: Should Apple change its screens? - Washington Post :: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-iphone-should-apple-change-its-screens/2013/11/11/2232cde4-4ad8-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-iphone-should-apple-change-its-screens/2013/11/11/2232cde4-4ad8-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Veterans Day: Events and Ceremonies Around Nation - ABC News :: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/veterans-day-events-honor-military-service-20847631">http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/veterans-day-events-honor-military-service-20847631</a>

11-Nov-2013 18:10

Bryant Park 'shooter' all but confessed online - New York Post :: http://nypost.com/2013/11/10/cops-bust-alleged-bryant-park-skatin...

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Google prevails over authors in book

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://www.ndtv.com/news/images/story_page/Google_AFP360.jpg" width="600"/><br /><p>New York: Google Inc on Thursday won dismissal of a lawsuit by authors who accused the Web search and media group of digitally copying millions of books for an online library without permission.</p><br /><p>US Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google's argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books, and making 'snippets' of text available for online searches, constituted 'fair use' under US copyright law.</p><br /><p>The judge said the massive library makes it easier for students, teachers, researchers and the public to find books, while maintaining 'respectful consideration' for authors' rights. He also said the digitization was 'transformative,' and could be expected to boost rather than reduce book sales.</p><br /><p>'In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits,' Chin wrote. 'Indeed, all society benefits.'</p><br /><p>The decision on Thursday is a turning point for litigation that began in 2005, when authors and publishers sued Google over its digital books plan.</p><br /><p>Google had estimated that it could owe more than $3 billion if the Authors Guild, an association of authors that demanded $750 for each scanned book, prevailed.</p><br /><p>Michael Boni, a partner at Boni & Zack, the law firm representing authors, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google did not immediately respond to a similar request.</p><br /><p>In March 2011, Chin rejected a $125 million settlement, saying it raised copyright and antitrust issues by giving Google a 'de facto monopoly' to copy books en masse.</p><br /><p>The publishers eventually settled in October 2012.</p><br /><p>In July, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals found that Chin had prematurely certified a class of authors without first evaluating the fair use defense.</p><br /><p>Chin oversaw the case as a trial judge, and kept jurisdiction after joining the 2nd Circuit.</p><br /><p>The case is Authors Guild Inc et al v. Google Inc, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 05-08136.</p><br /></div>

Technology Google prevails over authors in book

New York: Google Inc on Thursday won dismissal of a lawsuit by authors who accused the Web search and media group of digitally copying milli...

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24-Nov-2013 22:21

MSNBC's Chris Matthews weighs in on Martin Bashir fiasco. Sort of. - Washington Post (blog) :: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/11/23/msnbcs-chris-matthews-weighs-in-on-martin-bashir-fiasco-sort-of/">http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/11/23/msnbcs-chris-matthews-weighs-in-on-martin-bashir-fiasco-sort-of/</a><br /><br><br /><br>'Knockout game' leads to arrests, more police patrols - USA TODAY :: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/22/knockout-game-arrests/3676649/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/22/knockout-game-arrests/3676649/</a><br /><br><br /><br>Bahrain welcomes (5+1) Group – Iran Interim Nuclear Deal - Bahrain News Agency :: <a href="http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/589597">http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/589597</a><br /><br><br /><br>Egypt's interim president issues law restricting protests - Fox News :: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/24/egypt-interim-president-issues-controversial-law-to-restrict-protests-no/">http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/24/egypt-interim-president-issues-controversial-law-to-restrict-protests-no/</a><br /><br><br /><br>Pope Francis shows 'St Peter's bones' to public for first time - <a href="http://Telegraph.co.uk">Telegraph.co.uk</a> :: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10471075/Pope-Francis-shows-St-Peters-bones-to-public-for-first-time.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10471075/Pope-Francis-shows-St-Peters-bones-to-public-for-first-time.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Two Rhodes Scholars with Chicago ties named - Chicago Tribune :: <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-rhodes-scholars-20131124,0,6979045.story">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-rhodes-scholars-20131124,0,6979045.story</a><br /><br><br /><br>Large storm already blamed for 8 deaths threatens Thanksgiving travels - Fox News :: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/11/24/powerful-storm-system-slams-west-killing-at-least-5/">http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/11/24/powerful-storm-system-slams-west-killing-at-least-5/</a><br /><br><br /><br>Secrecy shrouds Sandy Hook shooting investigation - San Francisco Chronicle :: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Secrecy-shrouds-Sandy-Hook-shooting-investigation-5007901.php">http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Secrecy-shrouds-Sandy-Hook-shooting-investigation-5007901.php</a><br /><br><br /><br>Japan Rejects China's Claim to Air Rights Over Disputed Islands - New York Times :: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/world/asia/japan-rejects-chinas-claim-to-air-rights-over-disputed-islands.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/world/asia/japan-rejects-chinas-claim-to-air-rights-over-disputed-islands.html</a><br /><br><br /><br>Officials Say Toughest Work on Iran's Nuclear Program Lies Ahead - New York Times :: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/world/middleeast/officials-say-the-toughest-work-on-irans-nuclear-program-still-lies-ahead.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/world/middleeast/officials-say-the-toughest-work-on-irans-nuclear-program-still-lies-ahead.html</a>

24-Nov-2013 22:21

MSNBC's Chris Matthews weighs in on Martin Bashir fiasco. Sort of. - Washington Post (blog) :: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik...

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Civil War In Syria -- News Updates February 13, 2014

<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JwITt9e04dI" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Syria Conflict: 'Surge' In Fighting Death Toll -- BBC</b></span></div><br /><i>Activists in Syria have reported a surge in fighting across the country, amid attempts to broker a peace deal in Geneva.</i><br /><br />The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said more than 200 people had been killed every day for the past three weeks.<br /><br />Both government forces and rebels were trying to gain territory, it said.<br /><br />This was possibly to strengthen their negotiating position at the peace talks, it added.<br /><br />The talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups are continuing in Switzerland, but there is no sign of a breakthrough.<br /><br />At least 4,959 people had died in the three-week period since 22 January, the SOHR reported. About a third of the casualties were civilians, including 515 women and children.<br /><br />That casualty rate was higher, the group added, than in any other three-week period since the conflict began in March 2011. <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26166834">Read more</a></b> ....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>More News On Syria's Civil War</b></span></div><br /><a href="http://www.albawaba.com/news/syria-554319">More Syrians dying than ever before as peace talks stumble in Geneva</a> -- Al Bawaba<br /><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-syria-crisis-talks-idUSBREA1B0TX20140213">Syria killing accelerates as peace talks falter </a>-- Reuters<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/surge-in-deaths-as-syria-talks-flounder/2014/02/12/c36d7272-9411-11e3-9e13-770265cf4962_story.html">Surge in deaths as Syria talks founder</a> -- Washington Post<br /><br /><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middle-east/2014/02/13/syrian-airstrikes-shelling-kill-aleppo/PuV7uyvkkBzVFva4rxrEGP/story.html">Syria strikes kill 400 so far this month in Aleppo</a> -- AP<br /><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-13/syrian-government-strikes-kill-51-as-peace-talks-in-geneva-stall.html">Syrian Government Strikes Kill 51 as Peace Talks in Geneva Stall</a> -- Bloomberg<br /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26171825">Syrian troops bombard rebel stronghold of Yabroud </a>-- BBC<br /><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/25551673-418/syrian-planes-pound-rebel-town-near-lebanon-border.html">Syrian planes pound rebel town near Lebanon border </a>-- AP<br /><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/syrian-army-starts-crucial-battle-against-rebels-114021300769_1.html">Syrian army starts crucial battle against rebels</a> -- Business Standard<br /><a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1211084/syrian-army-gains-ground-in-key-region">Syrian Army Gains Ground In Key Region</a> -- SKY News<br /><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/lebanese-sunnis-fighting-holy-war-syria-201421394828913798.html">Lebanese Sunnis fighting 'holy war' in Syria</a> -- AL Jazeera<br /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-26181501">Anil Khalil Raoufi killed in Syria 'was jihadist'</a> -- BBC<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dw.de/syrians-flee-besieged-homs/g-17423542">Syrians flee besieged Homs </a>-- Deutsche Welle<br /><a href="http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-452878/">U.N. Resumes Aid Mission in Homs</a> -- Wall Street Journal<br /><a href="http://www.dw.de/syria-ceasefire-extended-in-homs-as-talks-in-geneva-deadlock-again/a-17429638">Syria ceasefire extended in Homs as talks in Geneva deadlock again</a> -- Deutsche Welle<br /><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/un-watching-fate-200-men-homs-powerless-n28661">UN Watching Fate of 200 Men from Homs, But Powerless</a> -- NBC<br /><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26171674">Syria conflict: Emerging from the siege of Homs</a> -- BBC<br /><br /><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/opposition-plan-post-war-syria-ignores-assad-228893">Opposition Plan for Post-War Syria Ignores Assad </a>-- Newsweek/Reuters<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/world/middleeast/syria.html">Syrian Rebels Sketch Peace Plan That Omits Demand for Assad’s Ouster </a>-- New York Times<br /><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=673279">Syria regime refuses to discuss opposition plan</a> -- Ma'an News Agency<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/world/middleeast/syria.html?hpw&rref=world">U.S. and Russian Diplomats Confer With Syria Mediator </a>-- New York Times<br /><a href="http://rt.com/news/syria-resolution-russian-variant-818/">Russia offers alternative Syria resolution, slams West-Arab draft as helping 'military aggression'</a> -- RT<br /><a href="http://en.ria.ru/world/20140213/187506770/Russian-Resolution-Focuses-on-Fighting-Terror-in-Syria--Minister.html">Russian Resolution Focuses on Fighting Terror in Syria – Minister</a> -- RIA Novosti<br /><br /><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/13/us-ship-tasked-with-destroying-syrian-chemical-arms-arrives-in-spain-en-route/">US ship tasked with destroying Syrian chemical arms arrives in Spain en route to Italy </a>-- FOX News/AP<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hD8-IXUlZn5R9EebNmxNkFp2WbRw?docId=023b519d-4e12-4033-9b71-e69f5f8ad66c">US ship stops in Spain on way to destroy Syria weapons</a> -- AFP<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/us-ship-on-syria-chemical-arms-mission-in-spain/2014/02/13/e5411cc4-9483-11e3-9e13-770265cf4962_story.html">US chemical arms ship arrives in Spain</a> -- Washington Post/AP

Civil War In Syria -- News Updates February 13, 2014

Syria Conflict: 'Surge' In Fighting Death Toll -- BBC Activists in Syria have reported a surge in fighting across the country, amid ...

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Google defeats authors in US book

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20131114&t=2&i=811838408&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE9AD15RK00" width="600"/><br /><p>Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith</p><br /><p>A photo of the Google Inc. logo is shown on a computer screen in San Francisco, California July 16, 2009.</p><br /><p>U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google's argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books, and making 'snippets' of text available for online searches, constituted 'fair use' under U.S. copyright law.</p><br /><p>The judge said the massive library makes it easier for students, teachers, researchers and the public to find books, while maintaining 'respectful consideration' for authors' rights. He also said the digitization was 'transformative,' and could be expected to boost rather than reduce book sales.</p><br /><p>'In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits,' Chin wrote. 'Indeed, all society benefits.'</p><br /><p>The decision on Thursday is a turning point for litigation that began in 2005, when authors and publishers sued Google over its digital books plan.</p><br /><p>Google had estimated that it could owe more than $3 billion if the Authors Guild, an association of authors that demanded $750 for each scanned book, prevailed.</p><br /><p>Michael Boni, a partner at Boni & Zack, the law firm representing authors, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google did not immediately respond to a similar request.</p><br /><p>In March 2011, Chin rejected a $125 million settlement, saying it raised copyright and antitrust issues by giving Google a 'de facto monopoly' to copy books en masse.</p><br /><p>The publishers eventually settled in October 2012.</p><br /><p>In July, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Chin had prematurely certified a class of authors without first evaluating the fair use defense.</p><br /><p>Chin oversaw the case as a trial judge, and kept jurisdiction after joining the 2nd Circuit.</p><br /><p>The case is Authors Guild Inc et al v. Google Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 05-08136.</p><br /><p>(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Jeffrey Benkoe)</p><br /></div>

Technology Google defeats authors in US book

Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith A photo of the Google Inc. logo is shown on a computer screen in San Francisco, California July 16, 2009. U...

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KOSOVO: NATURAL RESOURCES JACKPOT?

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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt6he-wOSiqT5S-tT7Wdn1zxmMDt7MuOWLSHj0QGlYmc5AuycWy25Ean2iDV_6vyxmE1iddLdpaIqg9xma_lRc9Ym7LWdtvAQ5aInWn8rTBJ5T1ltjzP3MQKBXilVAV5PR-iNzatRLmza/s1600/rs-ks@al.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt6he-wOSiqT5S-tT7Wdn1zxmMDt7MuOWLSHj0QGlYmc5AuycWy25Ean2iDV_6vyxmE1iddLdpaIqg9xma_lRc9Ym7LWdtvAQ5aInWn8rTBJ5T1ltjzP3MQKBXilVAV5PR-iNzatRLmza/s320/rs-ks@al.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FIRE SALE: “PRIVATIZING” KOSOVO, THE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT WAY</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Source: GSI</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Balkan states of ALBANIA and KOSOVO are, without doubt, the most pro-AMERICAN Muslim-majority countries in the world.</span> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to a new census including religious affiliation – the first since 1930 – ALBANIA now counts 57% of its total population of 2.8 million as Muslim, down from 70% eighty-two years ago. Its Catholic population has remained stable at 10%, and ALBANIAN citizens identifying themselves as Orthodox Christians have fallen from 20% in 1930 to about 7%.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Although KOSOVO does not tally figures for religious communities, the Muslim share of the population is thought to be larger, at around 80%. Both republics are secular.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TURKISH PRESSURE ON ALBANIA TO VOTE “YES” FOR PALESTINIAN OBSERVER SEAT IN THE UNITED NATIONS</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">AMERICANS are beloved in ALBANIA thanks to a significant history of ALBANIAN immigration and success in AMERICA, and early contributions by ALBANIANS in the U.S. to the national movement for freedom from the OTTOMAN EMPIRE. At the end of November, the ALBANIAN government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha was prepared to vote with the U.S. against a Palestinian observer seat in the United Nations, and, following unsuccessful pressure to vote “yes,” from the TURKISH Islamist prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ALBANIA became the sole Muslim-majority UN member to abstain on the Palestinian issue.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">KOSOVO does not belong to the UN, although if it did, it might likely have followed the AMERICAN lead and voted against the Palestinian bid, which was supported, among the ex-YUGOSLAV successor states, only by SERBIA. The ALBANIANS of KOSOVO have expressed undiluted appreciation for the actions of the Clinton administration, represented by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former General Wesley Clark as Supreme Allied Commander for Europe at NATO, in the 1998-99 military intervention that rescued the KOSOVAR ALBANIANS from SERBIAN repression.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Its pro-AMERICAN stance has caused the KOSOVO Republic to be denied diplomatic recognition by most of the Arab states. The late LIBYAN dictator Mu’ammar Al-Qadhdhafi dismissed the KOSOVARS contemptuously as “AMERICAN lapdogs.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ENERGY QUEST: KOSOVO</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Recently, however, Albright and others have commenced new efforts at involvement in KOSOVO that left local people concerned about the intentions of their benefactors of more than a decade past. In <i>The New York Times</i> on December 12, Matthew Brunwasser wrote under a page-one headline, “That Crush at KOSOVO’S Business Door? The Return of U.S. Heroes.” The <i>Times</i> account described Albright and James W. Pardew, a special envoy sent to the Balkans by President Bill Clinton, offering competing bids for privatization of the KOSOVO state postal and telecommunications agency, known as PTK (from its ALBANIAN and SERBIAN initials).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">KOSOVO COAL MINES: POTENTIAL FOR SYNTHETIC FUEL PRODUCTION</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCT8QSUslH33rD9UP2lUPJtE3tYdN6HdT8tyqx1hPWCvHWBfe6BVJnEdE7dZteymv7v99kqOBBrswedpdt3bKDbSWjwZDvVCPy4gLiboAtn2tSg9QA72GmQMRNWJDF_PZJ3AohOCxVd3UO/s1600/Outcrop_Showing_Layering_of_Lignite_and_Consolidated_Calcareous_Mud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCT8QSUslH33rD9UP2lUPJtE3tYdN6HdT8tyqx1hPWCvHWBfe6BVJnEdE7dZteymv7v99kqOBBrswedpdt3bKDbSWjwZDvVCPy4gLiboAtn2tSg9QA72GmQMRNWJDF_PZJ3AohOCxVd3UO/s1600/Outcrop_Showing_Layering_of_Lignite_and_Consolidated_Calcareous_Mud.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coal mining in Kosovo</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">General Wesley Clark, chairman of Envidity, a CANADIAN firm interested in KOSOVO’S coal mines and potential for synthetic fuel production, has also gone to KOSOVO in search of financial advantage. </span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But Albright’s involvement has given her the highest profile in the discussion of KOSOVO’S economic future. According to the <i>Times</i>, “Albright Capital Management, founded by Ms. Albright, has been shortlisted in the bidding for a 75 % share in PTK.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The<i>Times</i> estimates the probable payout to KOSOVO political leaders for PTK, if a deal is consummated, at “between $400 million and $800 million.” Officials of another Albright entity, Albright Stonebridge Group, have a minor share in PTK’s only competitor, the private company IPKO, based in SLOVENIA. <i>Times</i> correspondent Brunwasser wrote that the situation could “threaten… market competition if Ms. Albright’s consortium wins the bid” for PTK.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Privatization in post-Communist economies often presents multiple problems: State enterprises may be handed over to individuals or groups favored by the prior dictatorial authorities, as has allegedly occurred in SLOVAKIA, previously a part of CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Government-owned companies may also be privatized, turned profitable, and then re-nationalized by authoritarian rulers. In RUSSIA, the Yukos oil company was branded an example of “oligarchic privatization” and taken over by the government of Vladimir Putin, only to be bankrupted between 2003-2007.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“VOUCHER” PRIVATIZATION</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The abolition of statist “command” economics has most often been considered a positive outcome in any context. Some observers have advocated “voucher” privatization, through which shares in government-controlled companies are distributed to all the citizens of a country, either free or at a low cost. “Voucher” privatization succeeded most notably in the CZECH Republic.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">KOSOVO is among the poorest countries in EUROPE, with the growth of its economy hampered by the failure of the “supervising” international authorities, with titles like the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in KOSOVO (UNMIK) and the EUROPEAN Union Rule of Law Mission in KOSOVO (EULEX). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They have imposed all of KOSOVO’S most important political decisions, but these have left the country in a calculated stasis since the end of the 1998-99 war. They have interfered with media, elections, and border relations with SERBIA, but have neglected to reform KOSOVO’S financial regulations or even to settle who owns various industries, such as the large-scale Trepca mining complex in northern KOSOVO. Trepca, which produced lead, zinc, gold, silver, and rare minerals, is the object of opposing claims of proprietorship by SERBIA and KOSOVO; it also owes about 40 million Euros to FRENCH, GREEK, and BULGARIAN companies. Similar state assets are KEK, the KOSOVO Energy Corporation, and its subsidiary KEDS, or KOSOVO Electricity Distribution.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TURKISH STRONGHOLD IN KOSOVO</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In June 2012, KEDS was sold by the KOSOVO government to a TURKISH consortium, Limak Yatirim Enerji and Calik Enerji Sanayi. <b>Limak owns KOSOVO’S only international airport. Limak also purchased KEDS for 26 million Euros</b>, although its capitalization totaled 180 million Euros. Economic analysts criticized a lack of transparency in the transfer to TURKISH control. KOSOVO still suffers frequent electrical power outages.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Unemployment in KOSOVO is estimated officially at around 50%, although local reporting suggests it is closer to 60%.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When Albright and other humanitarian liberators appear in KOSOVO as “privatizers,” questions are bound to be asked. Although “entrepreneurship” usually means investment and expansion of commerce, in the absence of a secure domestic financial system and other guarantees for legitimate and desirable foreign ventures, KOSOVO’S economy continues to shrink. As a prominent Democrat and Clinton administration figure, Albright is associated with that party’s strident rhetoric against the free market in the 2012 AMERICAN presidential election, including allegations of Republican corporate looting and similar “heartless” practices.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmdeO5X-Gpz_AsjaUeSsiMLtNTCv7OhPqWx-j6dS18UhMUErll7qzC1hp6YUXh0K54x4dYnnNS_gYzXo2NQQbrZSBe8BZC8cwUOGg456sKJo97tQ1Uk4oUl_VgnoI5ZzDlLfBAtpqaaeh/s1600/kos_UNMIKmine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmdeO5X-Gpz_AsjaUeSsiMLtNTCv7OhPqWx-j6dS18UhMUErll7qzC1hp6YUXh0K54x4dYnnNS_gYzXo2NQQbrZSBe8BZC8cwUOGg456sKJo97tQ1Uk4oUl_VgnoI5ZzDlLfBAtpqaaeh/s640/kos_UNMIKmine.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It is difficult for some KOSOVAR political leaders to imagine that Albright’s leap into their economy would create jobs, greater efficiency, and modernization of infrastructure. The KOSOVO “Self-Determination” movement, which is represented in the republic’s parliamentary opposition and which stands for a maximum standard of independence for the country, issued an open letter to the KOSOVAR public. It appealed for e-mails to be sent to prospective bidders for privatization of PTK, criticizing the project for the sell-off of the post and telecoms agency. “Self-Determination” warned that properties were being offered for sale as if they were the private holdings of politicians, rather than resources of all KOSOVO residents.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The “Self-Determination” representatives argued that Kosovo’s leaders aim to drive down the value of the state assets, so that they may be expropriated and sold. “Privatization is a name behind which these officials hide,” the opposition advocates declared. The call by leaders of “Self-Determination” for protests against privatization behind the backs of the populace led to accusations that “Self-Determination” is a violent, anti-American movement.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Albin Kurti, a young philosopher and the articulate founder of “Self-Determination,” refuted in late December charges by U.S. ambassador Tracey-Anne Jacobson that he and his colleagues threatened Madeleine Albright. The leaders of “Self-Determination” pointed out that after they published their letter in September against a distorted privatization, they met with Albright in Kosovo in November. “Self-Determination” did not oppose her visit, or threaten her as Ambassador Jacobson alleged. Kurti has insisted that he and his colleagues respect American principles of freedom, independence, and public responsibility.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The friendship of Kosovo, as a Muslim-majority state, is a major benefit for American foreign policy. The Balkan republic has resisted Islamist radicalization, excluded religion from public education, and acted to protect women’s rights.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">: See <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/04/kosovo.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/04/kosovo.html</a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Comment by <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: red;"><b>GEOPOLITICAL ANALYSIS AND MONITORING</b></span>:</span>  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">PART OF THE KOSOVO PROBLEM HAS ALWAYS BEEN NATURAL RESOURCES</span></b></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Though not admitted officially……….</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">The vast amounts of Mineral deposits in KOSOVO have and still are part of the problems the small country faces, asides of ethnic and religious differences. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">KOSOVO POSSESSES THE WORLD'S FIFTH-LARGEST PROVEN RESERVES OF LIGNITE;</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: blue;">KOSOVO also has substantial amounts of other natural resources such as </span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">lead, zinc, gold, silver, rare minerals and allegedly uranium. See Mineral Deposits <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Kosovo">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Kosovo</a>. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">It is alleged that the USA built Balkans largest army base, <b>Camp Bondsteel</b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Bondsteel">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Bondsteel</a>deliberately on top of a large uranium ore basin in KOSOVO.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">In view of these facts it becomes obvious that the northern SERBIAN enclaves of KOSOVO, Mitrovica <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovska_Mitrovica">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovska_Mitrovica</a>etc. where the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Trepca mining complex is located insist on “reuniting” with SERBIA and that certain USA entities once again want to make sure to keep a foothold in the region in case, rare minerals, lignite and uranium indeed are available in quantities worthwhile to extract, pending increased market demands for afore mentioned minerals. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><b>CONTROVERSIAL OPPOSITION FIGURE: ALBIN KURTI </b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Albin Kurti</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albin_Kurti">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albin_Kurti</a>, has been and still is a controversial figure in KOSOVO. According to known sources Kurti allegedly fosters ties to certain radical UCK </span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Liberation_Army">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Liberation_Army</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">entities that still are active today and who envision a GREATER ALBANIA  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Albania">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Albania</a>as well as having alleged ties to organized crime groups that terrorize communities, and ties to radical Islamic factions in KOSOVO as well as the notorious </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">SANDŽAK</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> region in MONTENEGRO. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9kCUFbJzWriy9RE62mRi4zscjevuECi1hk1LzL1GnmHMPpMkTuf2rqGuoDw94Yqxcv6BhE2cm5zLmQj_V_cgcm2f1pmajf2LzEPu5Z7KO9tYqNszU8idNOj3HER1r1Q1EQZkYW0DlwB6e/s1600/Ethnic_albania.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9kCUFbJzWriy9RE62mRi4zscjevuECi1hk1LzL1GnmHMPpMkTuf2rqGuoDw94Yqxcv6BhE2cm5zLmQj_V_cgcm2f1pmajf2LzEPu5Z7KO9tYqNszU8idNOj3HER1r1Q1EQZkYW0DlwB6e/s400/Ethnic_albania.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vision of <span style="font-size: x-small;">"</span>Greater Albania"</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">See </span><cite><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.bmlv.gv.at/pdf_pool/publikationen/crime_omero.pdf"><span style="font-style: normal;">www.bmlv.gv.at/pdf_pool/publikationen/</span><b><span style="font-style: normal;">crime</span></b><span style="font-style: normal;">_omero.pdf</span></a>and </span></cite><cite><b><span style="font-style: normal; line-height: 115%;">S</span></b></cite><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">andžak region, not only the gateway for Balkans organized crime syndicates, but also for spreading Wahhbism to Europe?</span></b><cite><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/wahhabism-in-bosnia-herzegovina-part-4.html"><span style="font-style: normal;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/wahhabism-in-bosnia-herzegovina-part-4.html</span></a></span></cite></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">SANDŽAK IS AN IMPOVERISHED REGION IN SOUTHERN SERBIA</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8aHFZ2Tz_ExFQSQx53XsHveJLknmlV-V7M8YkWwF8-_129x6M4YzAkZTEBrcNvgGk9UfOnAi9o6IERhWnwceJDV5FiqAGUrjiuRe5b2MlFcn7FNEk8feMKNr-1FMmi3L_spsDAKMajeZ4/s1600/sandzakregion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8aHFZ2Tz_ExFQSQx53XsHveJLknmlV-V7M8YkWwF8-_129x6M4YzAkZTEBrcNvgGk9UfOnAi9o6IERhWnwceJDV5FiqAGUrjiuRe5b2MlFcn7FNEk8feMKNr-1FMmi3L_spsDAKMajeZ4/s400/sandzakregion.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">that is predominantly occupied with ethnic Bosniaks, (Bosnian Muslims)with the region technically extending into the northeastern part of MONTENEGRO as well. SANDŽAK is also populated with ALBANIANS within the Preševo Valley region. The citizens of SANDŽAK are fairly content with remaining a part of SERBIA, but have highlighted the dearth of economic activity, lack of political representation, and social woes (<b>mainly organized crime and drug use amongst the youth</b>) as primary obstacles for their communities. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">SLOW GROWING WAHHABI MOVEMENT </span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">These two factors are also targeted as being a reason that various frustrated youth been drawn by the small Wahhabi movement that’s steadily growing in the region. SANDŽAK was treated as a special interest region during the BOSNIAN war, where (SERBIAN military) General Mladić was strictly forbidden from killing Muslims on SERBIAN territory. The bulk of the terror reigned on SANDŽAK’S citizens included harassment and humiliation techniques. But this didn’t stop many SANDŽAK locals from being forcibly bussed across the BOSNIAN border to be killed. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">The pre-war census in 1991 stated that approximately 224,000 BOSNIAKS were living in SANDŽAK, with between 60-80,000 SANDŽAK refugees leaving the region in 1992 to WESTERN EUROPEAN countries, according to UN sources. It is a tell-tale sign of the devastation that the region experienced less than 20 years ago. The region has experienced significant trauma, and growing poverty and perceived discrimination have aggravated existing inter-ethnic tensions in the country. These tensions are simmering, and while they are not an imminent threat to SERBIA and the regions’ stability, the region’s BOSNIAKS must have their overall standard of living improved to enhance other integration mechanisms.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

KOSOVO: NATURAL RESOURCES JACKPOT?

FIRE SALE: “PRIVATIZING” KOSOVO, THE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT WAY Source: GSI The Balkan states of ALBANIA and KOSOVO are, without doubt, the mos...

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For a Boomer, Sunscreens Came Late and Cancer Too Soon - NYT

<blockquote type="cite"><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">In retrospect, I should have taken a last look at the nose I was born with. This was on the first Wednesday of November in 2011, the day of a scheduled appointment with a dermatological surgeon for Mohs micrographic surgery, the purpose of which was to carefully remove some previously discovered skin cancer from the lower left side of my nose. But it was also the fourth day after a surprise autumn snowstorm that had left our home in north central Connecticut without heat or electricity and the surrounding landscape devastated by thousands of fallen trees. On the morning of my procedure I washed my hair and sponged my body with a few quarts of water heated in a stockpot on a gas barbecue grill outside the house, threw on some clothes and rushed out the door. The entire exercise felt like an inconvenience. Looking back, taking proper care of my freckled, reddish skin, descended from somewhere on the moors of Ireland, had always felt like an inconvenience.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">There was scarcely time to squint at my reflection in the near-darkness and run cold fingers over the contours of a nose that over the course of my five and a half decades on earth had been broken, punched, cut, slapped, tweaked, swollen, nuzzled, kissed, blown and sunburned (boy, had it been sunburned), and, unbeknown to me, would be roughly half gone in a few hours. I was in a hurry. The appointment was at eight in the morning, so I plotted out the rest of the day as I drove through a snowy, battered moonscape en route to the procedure: Home by 10, cut up and stack tree limbs until early afternoon, scarf down some lunch, work until darkness. No problem. This was the norm for me: to schedule my hours aggressively and resent any intrusion on my plans, whether for a day, a week or the rest of my life.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Mohs surgery involves progressively removing sections of cancer-afflicted tissue, microscopically examining the tissue and, if cancer is found, taking yet another larger and deeper slice. This process is repeated — in "stages," according to the language of the profession — until the cancer is gone. It's even more primitive than it sounds but it almost always leaves the infected area cancer free (though disfigured to varying degrees). The statistic quoted reassuringly by the surgeon's scheduler was that 80 percent of their patients are out of the office after one stage. Because my tumor (a basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer) was in the thin, alar wall of the nose, and near the bottom, I had been warned that some plastic surgery might be needed to smooth out the cosmetic damage (would it ever). In fact, removal of my cancer required 6 stages, 8 hours and 29 shots of Novocain. Office assistants who had been cheerful in the morning were averting their gazes by late afternoon. One of them blinked back tears when she gave me a phone charger to use.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">A plastic surgeon was brought in from a neighboring office suite and tipped his head to the side as he assessed the damage, which I had not seen and would purposely not examine for another five days. "You know,'' he said, "there are some great prosthetic noses out there.'' Hence the first of many decisions was made: That guy wasn't getting near me with a scalpel or a rubber nose, which I imagined would look like Bozo's. I walked into the fading daylight with a bandage the size of a throw pillow taped to my face, very much in need of a skilled facial plastic surgeon and with no conventional Internet access to find one. I tapped out e-mails and texts to college and professional friends on my phone, looking for advice. The local guy was prepared to operate in two days, and with my nose a wasteland of exposed tissue, cartilage and bone, the clock was ticking. Two hours after the last stage of cancer was removed, I had made an appointment with a New York plastic surgeon who was recommended by a family friend with high standards. In truth, my decision was based almost solely on my long-held belief that the best of almost everything is in New York, especially doctors and pastrami.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">The reconstruction would take place in three surgeries over six weeks, during which a chunk of tissue from my forehead would be used to build a new nose. This sounds medieval, but it's older than that: the Mayans had used forehead flaps to repair warriors whose noses had been sheared off in battle or by torture. Two days before the first procedure, my surgeon, Dr. Adam R. Kolker, insisted that I look at the damaged area so that I would understand the starting point in this process. I had avoided looking beneath my dressings, fearing that I would become emotionally engaged when I needed a clear head to make decisions. I looked in a hand-held mirror for less than 10 seconds. A notch the size of the first joint of my pinkie was entirely gone, extending from the rim into the middle of the nose; a much larger area, probably a little bigger than a quarter, was an open wound, dark brown in color, with flecks of white cartilage. Frankly, it was disgusting. And deeply dispiriting. Dr. Kolker explained that my "defect,'' (a technical term that seems to imply some sort of manufacturer's error) was in the upper 5 percent of skin cancer damage, in terms of size and severity. (The good news: basal cell carcinomas rarely metastasize, so this was a cosmetic issue, albeit a significant one). I would later learn that damage of this variety is usually seen in patients in their 70s and 80s, whose faces have already undergone many Mohs procedures.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Many in my generation resent the inconveniences of aging, injury and illness and regard them as if they are optional. This is delusional, but there you go. I had long expected that with enough vigorous exercise and attention to popular music tastes I could live indefinitely as I had in my 20s. I would be the cool dad to my kids (they would debate that this was ever true) and later drink tankards of beer after winning a road race trophy in the 80 to 84 age group. The reality is that life changes in a heartbeat. Mine changed when I looked in that mirror. (At the time I told Dr. Kolker to save me a photograph of the "before'' nose. He told me I would never want to see it, and he was right. I don't want to see it).</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">How did I get myself into this mess? The same way that Hemingway's Mike Campbell went broke in "The Sun Also Rises," "Gradually, then suddenly.''</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">The damage that led to my skin cancer was almost certainly done in childhood and adolescence, when I was sunburned frequently. I could blame my mother for this, but in truth she took care to keep me in hats and T-shirts and slathered me in white, goopy suntan lotion, which was the standard of care in the 1960s and '70s. But she wasn't always there. I once spent the afternoon at a friend's pool and was burned so badly that my small town doctor made a house call and bathed me in ice water cooled with rubbing alcohol because I was covered in water blisters and running a dangerously high fever. There were other occasions: at daylong high-school track meets, on beaches in Florida and Cape Cod during college breaks and countless times on golf courses. Sun protection was an annoyance. (How could I approach that girl at the ocean with white gunk on my nose?). As a professional journalist, I incurred many surprise sunburns, like the time when an N.F.L. player decided he would prefer to do our 45-minute interview out on the field, rather than in the locker room, and I hadn't worn a hat or applied sunscreen. Through much of this, skin cancer was a distant echo. I denied its existence, I suppose, like a smoker pretends he is not destroying his lungs (though I'm guessing at this, because I've never smoked).</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">In my 40s, I began getting annual skin checks from a dermatologist, most of which resulted in dozens of precancerous keratoses being frozen with liquid nitrogen. (This was around the same time that my sister was found to have a serious melanoma, a far more dangerous form of skin cancer, although I was already getting checked by then). In the fall of 2009, I noticed what looked like peeling skin on my nose and made an unscheduled visit to the dermatologist. He froze the area and sent me along. The peeling returned, and bled when disturbed. The dermatologist froze it again and again it returned. Eighteen months passed before he elected to perform the biopsy that turned up the cancer. By then I could feel what seemed to be a pea-size lump in the wall of my nose, and was, in fact, a basal cell tumor. It's pointless to wonder if I should have pushed for a biopsy earlier, but I wonder nonetheless. I take some solace in my plastic surgeon's assurance that my outcome would have been similar, "18 months earlier or later,'' because skin cancer cells grow slowly.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Through the reconstructive surgeries, I spent six weeks with my nasal tissue graft tethered to its original home on my forehead by a tentacle of flesh and arteries, providing it with a blood supply to grow in its new home. It looked deeply weird. If I tapped the graft on my nose with my index finger, I would feel it on my forehead. I went out in public only to see the surgeon (and once for an emergency visit to my dentist; you should have seen the look on his face). In late December of that year, the graft was separated and allowed to live on its own, in essence giving me a new nose.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">It is not a perfect nose. We get only one of those, and we get it at birth. The procedure has left me with a vertical scar from my rapidly (and naturally) disappearing hairline to the inside edge of my left eyebrow, which is a little asymmetrical from the cutting. The nasal graft itself is slightly different in texture from the rest of my original nose, because forehead tissue is the closest match to nasal tissue, but it's not exactly the same. The graft is slightly enlarged where cartilage was transplanted from my left ear. There is a parabola-shaped scar line where the graft was sewn into my nose to cover the defect. The entire ensemble often feels strange; part of me, yet not fully mine. My surgeon will tinker some more before we're done, and nature will continue to blend the new into the old for years. Yet, the nose works fine now — I can breathe through it, blow it and sneeze with it. I have begun a collection of sun hats and bought a supply of sunscreen that costs more for three ounces than a bottle of decent wine. The truth is that given where I started, I am very fortunate.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Yet not a day passes that I don't wish I had stayed indoors more often as a kid, or worn a dorky, wide-brimmed hat as a college student. This regret accomplishes nothing useful, but I find it inescapable. I am keenly aware that I could have drawn much worse numbers in the cancer lottery; I never worked a day for the editor who gave me the most important break of my career 25 years ago, because he was given a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer right after hiring me and was gone in 13 months at age 50. I have a very healthy heart from lifelong exercise, a reasonably good diet and solid genes (the same ones that gave me red skin; DNA giveth and DNA taketh away). There's nothing I could do before the surgery that I can't do now, except possibly reprise my stirring cameo in the movie "Secretariat."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">I am a sports journalist by trade, which means that much of my work revolves around one-on-one interviews in which I'm trying to earn a subject's trust with my intelligence, preparation and, not least, appearance. My profession has a reputation for slovenliness, and I've always tried to defeat that stereotype. I had been a high school and college athlete and ran until age 50 before arthritis (more inconvenience!) forced me to become a cyclist, all in the name of staying lean and vibrant. I would dress professionally. Now I find myself wondering what subjects think of my face, and the only way to get past that worry is to focus more intensely on the substance of the interview. Paradoxically, it's made me better at my job.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Vanity is a complex partner. "Fortunately," I would tell people, "I wasn't attractive before the surgery." That's half true. Like most humans, I also wasn't unattractive. Now I pause to look at my reflection in mirrors, car windows, elevator walls and pretty much any reflective surface, trying to convince myself that others' assurances of my normalcy are sincere. (My wife and grown children are exhausted with this exercise, presumably, because one can only say ``You look fine,'' so many times before giving up). I study people's noses, coveting some and drawing strength from the imperfections of others, of which there are many.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">There is a constant energy in all of this. Life relentlessly doesn't pause for earthquakes and hurricanes, so it sure doesn't wait for a sportswriter to mourn the loss of his old nose or become accustomed to a new one. Family and friends thrive and grow or suffer and struggle. Seasons shift. Games are played and articles written. Lives change, but life surges forward.</p><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><em><br></em></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/booming/for-a-boomer-sunblocks-came-late-and-cancer-too-soon.html?ref=booming&_r=0&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/booming/for-a-boomer-sunblocks-came-late-and-cancer-too-soon.html?ref=booming&_r=0&pagewanted=print</a></blockquote>

For a Boomer, Sunscreens Came Late and Cancer Too Soon - NYT

In retrospect, I should have taken a last look at the nose I was born with. This was on the first Wednesday of November in 2011, the day of ...

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New BlackBerry CEO optimistic despite loss (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBgmOfaF77y4R0SxhkS9QLA5UrERgYxGPibFPXYf7W6j1GPiqh3dv8hvcWMC2QHtKyyxYP43WluT-M5l1JcN0j9kCpTc0fEmjbadLvLKBq7g3VegOBnufJSy8od6RVBZfvPdmvfQvh1p4/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBgmOfaF77y4R0SxhkS9QLA5UrERgYxGPibFPXYf7W6j1GPiqh3dv8hvcWMC2QHtKyyxYP43WluT-M5l1JcN0j9kCpTc0fEmjbadLvLKBq7g3VegOBnufJSy8od6RVBZfvPdmvfQvh1p4/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="cnnStorySource" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #999999; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NEW YORK (CNNMoney)</div><h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">BlackBerry said goodbye to its terrible 2013 with yet another awful quarterly financial report -- but interim CEO John Chen was able to talk the stock higher.</h2><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shares of <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BlackBerry</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(<span class="inlink_chart" style="background-image: url(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/5.0/buttons/assorted_icons.gif); background-position: -200px -160px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px 19px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=BBRY&source=story_quote_link" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BBRY</a></span>)</span> initially fell more than 7% in premarket trading after the struggling smartphone maker said Friday that it posted a whopping $4.4 billion loss during the quarter that ended in November.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Excluding one-time costs, BlackBerry reported a loss of 67 cents a share. Sales fell 56% over the year to $1.2 billion. Both of those figures were worse than what Wall Street expected.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the stock shifted gears once Chen kicked off BlackBerry's conference call. The stock rose nearly 1.5% in early trading after the market opened.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The market has spoken and we have listened," said Chen, who took the interim CEO spot at BlackBerry last month after the company <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/04/technology/blackberry-fairfax/index.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">abandoned its plans</a> to sell the company and ousted CEO Thorsten Heins.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The closed up more than 15%, possibly because more than a quarter of BlackBerry shares are held by short sellers: investors who borrow shares and immediately sell them with the hopes of buying them back when the price drops.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">A surprise jump in a stock's price can force short sellers to cover their positions quickly, buying back the stock en masse in order to cut their losses -- and sending shares higher in the process. It's a phenomenon known as a short squeeze.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chen stressed on the call that despite a lot of bad publicity and the mounting losses, the company has "a very solid base." In particular, he cited BlackBerry's engineering talent and its cash position -- which now stands at $3.2 billion, up from $2.6 billion in the previous quarter.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">He used the word "turnaround" several times, though he warned that parts of that process could take a while. Chen is no stranger to uphill battles: As CEO of the once-struggling software company Sybase, he turned it around before selling it to <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SAP</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(<span class="inlink_chart" style="background-image: url(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/5.0/buttons/assorted_icons.gif); background-position: -200px -160px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px 19px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=SAP&source=story_quote_link" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SAP</a></span>)</span> in 2010.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chen also talked up BlackBerry's new five-year strategic partnership with Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of electronic parts. Under the terms of the deal announced Friday, Foxconn will develop and manufacture certain BlackBerry devices and manage that inventory itself.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The BlackBerry chief praised Foxconn's "world-class supply chain," its access to emerging markets and its ability to both design and manufacture hardware. BlackBerry's internal design teams will focus on software and high-end phones, Chen said, adding that the rest of the hardware development would be left to Foxconn.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The partnership will first focus on a smartphone for Indonesia and other emerging markets, which is set for early 2014. Foxconn is the Apple supplier that has made headlines over the past few years for myriad <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/29/technology/apple-foxconn-report/?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">labor violations</a> in China.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">S&P Capital IQ analyst James Moorman was ho-hum on the announcements. In a note to clients Friday, he said the Foxconn partnership "makes sense" and will help the company better manage its costs. But it wasn't enough to outweigh the drop in sales. Moorman kept his rating on the stock at "hold."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BlackBerry's brutal 2013: </strong>The company kicked off the year by finally launching its long-delayed <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/30/technology/mobile/blackberry-10-rim/?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">BlackBerry 10</a> operating system in January. But its first device on the platform, the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/20/technology/mobile/blackberry-z10-review/?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">keyboardless Z10</a>, fared poorly.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">BlackBerry took a nearly <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/20/technology/mobile/blackberry-earnings/2013/09/27/technology/enterprise/blackberry-earnings/index.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">$1 billion writedown </a>on unsold Z10 phones in September -- and Chen alluded to that when talking about the Foxconn deal, saying the partnership will reduce BlackBerry's exposure to that kind of risk.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The new phones still aren't catching on with customers though. The company said Friday it sold about 4.3 million phones during its most recent quarter -- but 3.2 million of them were devices on the older BlackBerry 7 operating system.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Faced with declining sales and market share, the company also announced in September it would <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/20/technology/blackberry/index.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">cut 4,500 jobs </a>-- or 40% of its workforce -- and that it would<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/23/technology/mobile/blackberry-private/?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> seek a buyer</a> to take it private.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">But just last month, BlackBerry <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/04/technology/blackberry-fairfax/index.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">abandoned its plans</a> to sell the company and got rid of Heins.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chen faces a daunting task. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/05/technology/mobile/blackberry-ceo/?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Experts criticized</a> Heins' failure to prioritize BlackBerry's business-focused customers. Instead, BlackBerry tried to replicate the mass consumer success of <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apple</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(<span class="inlink_chart" style="background-image: url(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/5.0/buttons/assorted_icons.gif); background-position: -200px -160px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px 19px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AAPL&source=story_quote_link" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AAPL</a></span>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/snapshots/670.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortune 500</a>)</span> and <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Google's</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(<span class="inlink_chart" style="background-image: url(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/5.0/buttons/assorted_icons.gif); background-position: -200px -160px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px 19px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="inlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=GOOG&source=story_quote_link" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">GOOG</a></span>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/snapshots/11207.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortune 500</a>)</span> Android.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">BlackBerry changed gears in September and said it would focus on corporate customers and so-called "prosumers." It also said it would scale back its device offerings from six to four. But analysts said it was too little and too late. Chen, unsurprisingly, is more hopeful.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Arial, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I know there has been a lot said about BlackBerry, but let me remind you that at BlackBerry, we are not dwelling on the past," Chen wrote in a company <a href="http://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/11/a-message-from-john-s-chen-blackberry-executive-chair-and-ceo/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">blog post</a> a few days after his appointment. "We are looking towards the future." <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/20/technology/mobile/blackberry-earnings/index.html?iid=EL#TOP" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="To top of page" border="0" height="7" src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/images/bug.gif" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="7" /></a></div></div>

New BlackBerry CEO optimistic despite loss (BLOG)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) BlackBerry said goodbye to its terrible 2013 with yet another awful quarterly financial report -- but interim CEO John C...

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