Are you considering a Holiday Cruise? | Leisure Travel Reports

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By Bobbie Green ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

New Year?s Eve was unreal, far beyond our expectations.? This was our first time spending the holidays, Christmas and New Year?s Eve away from home and family. I was prepared to do it once and never again. I now know why the cruise ships book-up quickly over the Holidays.

We had a terrific time aboard Cunard?s Queen Victoria. They made the Holiday Cruise very special.? The Christmas decorations from forward to aft were elegant and festive. On our two-week cruise, there were six formal nights. This may seem extreme, but it did help create the Holiday Spirit. I found it refreshing to see everyone looking so chicly within our now seemingly casual world of jeans and island pants.

I was sure I would feel very lonely on Christmas Day, but, we had to get our breakfast finished and get to the Queen?s Room as the Captain reported over the speaker he has a strange object on his radar, he believes it to be Santa?s sleigh.?? Soon we heard Santa grumbling about eating too many pies and found himself stuck in the smoke stack, but the children aboard should hurry to the Queens Room and he would be there soon.? Children on aboard?I had hardly seen any.? I was very surprised to see how many there actually were?the ships staff had done a great job of keeping them entertained and out of the adult areas. The ship has multiple levels looking down onto the Queens Room dance floor allowing everyone a good view. Santa came in and greeted the ships Elves and the children seated on the floor, but not too close to his chair.? Santa knew and called each child by his or her name, to come up, sit on his lap and receive a present, starting from the youngest to the oldest, this personalization from the ships staff impressed everyone, especially the parents. Since there are no young, children left in our family, what a delightful Christmas morning we had enjoying the children with Santa.

The always cheerful, Keith Maynard, the ships entertainment director played Santa.? ?I love my work,? he says. ?I get to be different characters, I am an entertainer.? I have been on many ships and he is a gem among cruise ship directors.?

Later in the day, a choir made up of volunteer guest and staff, led Christmas Carols in the atrium.????????????

The evening entertainment in the showroom topped off the day with their Christmas presentation. It was not a flashy style show, but tastefully done with meaning of Christmas in mind.

On New Year?s Eve, after dinner all venues closed except for those on one specific deck. All bands and entertainers were located throughout this deck.? This Clever arrangement made the party night atmosphere outstanding. Everyone handsomely decked out in his or her party apparel. Countdown screens were also located throughout the deck.? It was like being at a sophisticated Times Square party. The Queens Room featured a Big Band Ball? A DJ with favorites and disco tunes were in the atrium. When Midnight arrived, the balloon drop in each venue was unreal.? I still cannot believe they could inflate that many balloons. After the drop we stood in balloons up to our knees, it was a little rough to dance, but it was wonderful. I cannot think of a better place to celebrate on New Year?s Eve at least once in your life. ?

Since this was my first holiday cruise I cannot compare this experience to other lines, but I do know Cunard lines will make your Holiday exceptional and I would not hesitate to take another on any cruise line, although Cunard will certainly be a tough act to follow.?? ?

Source: http://leisuretravelreports.info/go/2012/11/are-you-considering-a-holiday-cruise/

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Italian suspect can't recall stabbing US student

By Praxilla Trabattoni, NBC News

Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: ?ROME -- A 19-year-old American student is awake and talking after allegedly being stabbed by a friend who says he has no recollection of the events after a night of partying and drug-taking at a nightclub in Italy's capital, officials said Saturday.

The friend told?a judge Saturday that?he?didn't even want?to go clubbing Halloween night before the Thursday morning stabbing, his lawyer told NBC News.

The victim, New Jersey-born Fabio Malpeso, is "doing much better and is awake and has already spoken to his parents and sibling," Police Chief Lorenzo Suraci told NBC News. "Doctors are more confident on his recovery now."

Malpeso was in critical condition after the?attack, officials said.


Suraci said police hope to speak to Malpeso, who underwent surgery for stab wounds to his lungs and other parts of his body, when he recovers further.

Attorney Vincenzo Comi, who represents alleged assailant Reid Alexander Schepis, also said he was told Malpeso is improving.

"He is obviously still under observation but he is awake and talking," Comi told NBC News. "He even asked about the situation and what is happening."

Earlier: Italy police say?student stabs sleeping American friend while on drugs

Comi said a judge on Saturday confirmed Schepis' arrest and will decide in the next day on a defense request that Schepis be held under house arrest.

Comi said that Schepis told the judge that he "did not remember anything of the episode."

"As he spoke of the events leading up to the tragedy he was crying desperately and sobbing throughout," Comi said. "He kept saying how sorry he was. Every time Fabio's name was mentioned he would break down. He just couldn't explain the events."

Comi said Schepis went "against his will" with Malpeso and two unnamed young men to the club Atlantic, where they were "drinking alcohol, smoking hashish and taking what he was told was ecstasy."

Schepis told the judge that it was the first time he had ever taken drugs, Comi said.

Schepis firmly denied buying the drug, Comi said. An unnamed friend among the foursome gave it to him, Comi said.

Schepis remembers seeing his friend?collapse, Comi said. He said he panicked and became?very agitated as he tried to think of how to help and?recalls?running to the bathroom, fetching a glass of water and throwing on his friend, Comi said.

Schepis said he then?started feeling ill and faint himself, Comi said. From that moment on he has no recollection of going back to the house or any of the horrific events that took place there, he said.

Schepis "woke up in the police station cell."

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

"Reid is a good kid; he comes from a good family,? Comi told NBC News. "Fabio and Reid were the best of friends. They were both in their second year of university but knew each other from before. Even their parents knew each other. This is another dramatic aspect of the whole tragedy. They were all friends."

"Reid is just a 20-year old kid who found himself in the middle of something he could never even have imagined," he said. "There was not a single sign that could have forewarned anyone of this tragedy."?

Yara Nardi / F3 Press

Alexander Schepis Reid is taken into custody Thursday after allegedly stabbing fellow student Fabio Malpeso in Rome, Italy.

Authorities earlier said the motive for the early Thursday attack in an apartment that overlooks Rome's famous Colosseum was unclear. However, detectives suspect "drug- and alcohol-related delirium" might be a factor.

Schepis and Malpeso are both second-year students at John Cabot University, an American college in Rome, Comi said.

A third man, an Italian in his 30s named Andrea Rinaldi, suffered injuries to his arms and hands trying to defend Malpeso, and was also in the hospital, police said. Rinaldi is the boyfriend of Malpeso's sister, Federica.

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The couple?had?returned to the flat about 6 a.m. Thursday and had not gone to the club with the foursome, as earlier reported.

The two unnamed youths with Schepis and Malpeso had returned to the flat, too,?but left before Malpeso was stabbed about 7:45 a.m., according to court testimony.

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/03/14905454-suspect-in-stabbing-of-us-student-says-he-cant-recall-events-after-taking-drug?lite

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Gillmor Gang: Shaken Not Stirred

Gillmor Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang ? Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor ? stumbled through and upon the possibilities of an orbiting metadata cloud. Mark our words, Instagram's success with the pre-teen set sets the table for powerful social graphs where photos share equal weight with GPS, swipe, and realtime contextual data. While we detoured slightly in anticipation of the social impact on the election, Obama and Chris Christie banishing the toxic politics of partisan nitpicking for some basic working together was a sight for sore eyes. Maybe Google and Apple can take a page from at book.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tOK0KnALs1I/

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Duke needed for The Duchess and The Countess's Strife.

Alright, hello and good evening to those that are experiencing darkness already. I am on the look out/search for a person who is willing to play the dark part of a Duke for a realistic Victorian Roleplay that two others are participating in with me.

Now, for this roleplay, you must be willing to play a rather cruel character. The Count and the Duke are both young men who have the idea of reputation and wealth being the most important thing drilled into their head, and are constantly and have constantly been ordered to use force on their wives that they knew for three days before marrying when they were 16. The men were... well, only a few years older. But anyway, the story introduction is in the roleplay which I will link. This roleplay will be strict and in need of good literate skills and dedication and time. I'm not saying the Count and Duke are completely monsters, but often I've read upon that wealthy men were quite cruel to their women because of the morals that had been taught to them, so the behavior will be a bit monstrous. The story is basically about what the Countess and Duchess go through and the final plan to murder their husbands and flee. But, of course, it may or not happen depending on how the events play out. Hell, you can even let the Duke have an affectionate feeling towards his wife further and further into the roleplay but the drastic measures to maintain a reputation and keep themselves at the top has resulted in some horrible things.

If you are interested and think you could handle this role, please visit here and post in the occ thread or send me a message. I'm hoping someone out there would be willing or enjoys playing this type of role. No judgment is needed; it's a roleplay.

Thank you! And I hope someone comes forward!

roleplay/the-duchess-and-the-countesss-strife/

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/EIFCzUv5H7U/viewtopic.php

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Commercial Real Estate Agents

by DebbieMcKiney on November 3, 2012

A financial performance of a commercial property is a good balance between optimizing the revenue and controlling the expenditure in the end. Generally, the income to be generated from rentals should be appropriate to the local property market only. High levels of rental have direct impact on the tenant?s or clients ability to trade in property management. High levels of rental will also move tenants to other properties nearby at the first opportunity. If your local property market has an abundance of vacant space, you need to be very careful as to how you manage and optimize your rental and tenant relations. Good financial work within a commercial property is usually obtained by very carefully establishing a property budget before the commencement of every financial year. The landlord and property manager will have relevant information and discussions material as part of putting this budget in place. For more information regarding financial year budget plans in respect to property management you may head towards some reputed online websites only.

You note that, a property with high outgoings or levels of expenditure will become unattractive to new tenants in any lease negotiation generally. If tenants are too worried about the levels of outgoings within the premises as part of the lease negotiation, then they are likely to request a gross rental from the landlord to remove the extra outgoings from the expenditure.

Source: http://myla-goal.com/?p=612

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A Post from My Colleague Jay Heiser: How much emergency power ...

Our home telephone is totally dependent upon the electrical power grid, and a lead acid battery of unknown age is all that stands between us and total loss of external connectivity.

Fiber to the home, which we?ve now had in 2 different houses, represents an opportunity for high speed, flexibility, and economics, providing a single source for television, telephone, and Internet.? Unlike analog phones and broadcast TV, ?advanced residential communications? in ?Smart Neighborhoods? offering ?Blazing Speed? that will ?exceed your expectations? are totally dependent upon a powered-up interface box. Unlike an old-fashioned copper phone line, or a TV antenna, you can?t receive fiber optic transmission without a powered device that splits out the three services and interfaces them to the in-home wiring. If the power goes out, the fiber no longer blazes?it flares out.

In order to maintain telephone service, high-tech homes have a backup battery hidden in the customer premise equipment.? Nobody claims they last over 8 hours, they are not routinely maintained, and common wisdom is that they often do not last that long.

It isn?t just the home fiber interface that requires power. The (currently unapproved) franchise agreement between our provider and the county requires 2 hour of backup for all distribution amplifiers and fiber optic nodes, 24 hours for all head end tower and HVAC, and at least one dispatchable portable generator to do something somewhere.? I don?t know how reassuring that is to people who have already experienced 2 multiday power outages this year.

Clearly, there are reliability advantages to the plain old telephone system (POTS), which only requires emergency power at the central office.? Given a choice, telecommuters with 2 lines sometimes do decide to make one of them analog?but increasingly, you don?t get that choice. Once a neighborhood switches over to fiber, the providers become extraordinarily reluctant to support copper.? Our new neighborhood has no POTS, and the single telecom provider has exclusive cabling rights for the remainder of my lifetime?and well beyond.

Obviously, there are many advantages to wireless, which becomes the channel of choice when the home or office phone is powered out.? Unfortunately, it tends to fail when it is most needed.? After hurricane Katrina, the FCC attempted to force providers to include 8 hours of backup for all cells (which would barely last past the excitement of the storm).? This?2007 blog post, correctly discussing the unlikelihood of that happening, states ?Well, we are likely headed for the big one here soon and it stands to reason we?ll want to have some cell phone service in the aftermath. As we saw last month during a 5.6 earthquake, you don?t have to have cell towers go down to lose service. There was enough congestion in that first hour?to bring conversations to a halt. But in a much bigger scenario, having additional power could keep information flowing in the hours after a disaster, helping speed aid and relief to the right places.? New York and New Jersey have just had their big ones, and information is still not flowing in the aftermath of that disaster.

Reporters based in New York city, and Gartner staff living in the areas hardest hit by Sandy have reported total failures of cell phone in their neighborhoods, with some providers apparently doing worse than others.? The FCC reported yesterday that ?the number of cell site outages overall has declined from approximately 25 percent to 19 percent? (the perceptive observer might ask, percentage of what population of sites).

In addition to significant traffic increases during a natural disaster, there are at least 3 reasons for cell phone failure, with the first one being particularly acute for cell systems:

  1. Power: Batteries get drained pretty quickly.? While a growing number of cells do have generators, the generators need fuel replenishment, which in the post-Sandy world is becoming a logistical problem for several reasons.? At the same time that the power grid is coming back online, a growing number of cell sites are running out of backup power.
  2. Physical damage: wind damage to antenna, or water damage to electronics can impact service, and it takes time after a disaster to deploy existing repair crews across a transportation-challenged region.
  3. Network failures: The backhaul networks between towers and the switching offices are subject to physical damage, especially from flood water, and they require electrical power (see 1 above).

There?s a lot to be said for the continuity advantages of POTS and analog phones, but other than rural areas, its likely to be phased out in favor of home digital connectivity and cell phones.? If you want to do some contingency planning, you might want to scout your neighborhood for pay phones.

Specific details on the post-Sandy status of each wireless provider can be?found in yesterday?s NYT blogs.

Source: http://blogs.gartner.com/business-continuity/2012/11/02/a-post-from-my-colleague-jay-heiser-how-much-emergency-power-does-your-home-phone-have-sandy-hurricanesandy/

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Syrian Tanks Enter Golan Heights DMZ, Israel Military Warns ...

With everyone's attention focused on the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, some may have forgotten that the Middle East is the proverbial powder keg, just waiting for an Archduke and a lit match, not necessarily in that order. Moments ago, Israel's military reminded us of just that when it reported that 3 Syrian tanks have entered the Golan Heights DMZ. Because it appears that the absolutely deranged and insane (or at least that's how it will be portrayed) Syrian regime is not satisfied with provoking the humanistic Western media with "offensive" measures taken against both Turkey and Lebanon, it now has decided to enter the lion's mouth, and is begging, just begging, for a UN-endorsed retaliation. How soon until Syria floats a submarine into New York harbor where it explodes but only after leaving a convenient note saying "Death to the Infidels, Love Syria." Or something just as realistic.

Syrian tank as seen in the border area.

Smoke marks the border area

From AP:

Israel's military says three Syrian tanks have entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights.

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A military spokeswoman says Israel complained to the U.N. peacekeeping force in the area after the tanks entered Saturday.

?

The spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol, did not elaborate. The relatively low-key response suggested Israel did not see the armor as an immediate threat.

?

There are concerns in Israel that violence from Syria's civil war could spill over a long-quiet frontier. Misfired Syrian shells have exploded inside Israel on several occasions. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

And translated from Israeli Ynet, which was the original source of the information:

Tanks entered the village of Bir Ajami, a few miles from the IDF outpost, and took part in fighting against rebel forces. Following entry, the alert level was raised Northern Command Heights area. Army also filed a complaint to the headquarters of the UN forces that enforce the ceasefire.

?

According to information received from the army, along with three Syrian tanks also operate two armored personnel carriers, but this report has not been verified.

?

Tanks entered the village of Bir Ajami, a few miles from the IDF outpost, and took part in fighting against rebel forces taking place in recent days. Stated, the incident exception, raised the level of alert and vigilance of the Northern Command area Heights. Addition, the last day several mortar shells fell shot in the internal conflict in Syria in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, one of which may be causing a fire broke out on Mount strength adjacent to the border.

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The IDF said that although no mortar shell landed in Israel. Firefighters were extinguishing the fire place, and at the end of operation, the IDF and the saboteurs are expected to search the area and see if the fire broke out as a result of one of the shells fell. Does not damage the IDF post at the top of the mountain and there were no injuries. Meanwhile, the IDF blocked access to the border area.

?

In recent months intensified fighting between the rebels and the Syrian army in the Golan, especially in the village Joey thought linked to cell border, and recently also drifted south. A month ago, fell several mortar shells in agricultural areas in Israel, near the border with Syria to the north plateau. No injuries or damage. Apparently, it was bombs fired by Syrian army, in efforts to repel the rebels and end the violent conflict that affects the country in recent months.

?

The attack took place a day before the opening of an international conference in Doha, Qatar, which come with a Syrian opposition activists are expected to recognize the United States and its partners led the resistance. Since the beginning of the uprising doubted the effectiveness of leadership in exile due to the loose connection to the rebels fighting in the area.

Well, it's settled then: Syria can't wait to start a war, hopefully one which also involves Iran, and provokes the punishment of NATO and the west, but best if it keeps Russia and China out of it, because the last thing even Israel wants is to start World War 4.

In the meantime, the US naval update in the region shows a whopping 4 tactical groups now in the Arabian gulf: 2 carriers group, and two big-deck amphibious groups.

Source: Stratfor

Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (14 votes)

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-03/syrian-tanks-enter-golan-heights-dmz-israel-military-warns

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Comedy Central Discovers How Humor Factors Into Voting ...

(PCM) It?s almost Election Day which means we?re almost free of those unbearable ads that find candidates tearing one another down rather than boosting themselves up. Does anyone actually enjoy watching those? Does anyone even pay attention to them?

True, there are different ways to reach out to different types of voters, but word on the street is humor is quite a powerful tool, especially among the 80 million Americans in the Millennial generation, ages 16 ? 32. (For some perspective, that?s just as many as Boomers and twice as many as Gen Xers. With 60% of Millenials saying they are extremely or somewhere likely to vote, that?s almost 50 million votes!)

They?ve got the power of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but leading up to the 2012 election, Comedy Central partnered with TRU Insights and Insight Research to conduct an extensive research study seeking to define, frame and understand just how humor plays into Millennials? political beliefs, behaviors and capturing their vote.

As a Millennial myself, their findings may not be surprising but they are certainly something to take into consideration. Check out this informative, accurate and amusing video to see what they learned were 5 ways to win the Millennial vote through humor:

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Election Day is THIS Tuesday, November 6.
Whoever You Support, Make Sure Your Voice is Heard: Vote!

Did you like this? Share it:

Source: http://pcm-tv.com/news/2012/11/comedy-central-discovers-how-humor-factors-into-voting/

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NASA rover finds clues to changes in Mars' atmosphere

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2012) ? NASA's car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.

Learning what happened to the Martian atmosphere will help scientists assess whether the planet ever was habitable. The present atmosphere of Mars is 100 times thinner than Earth's.

A set of instruments aboard the rover has ingested and analyzed samples of the atmosphere collected near the "Rocknest" site in Gale Crater where the rover is stopped for research. Findings from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments suggest that loss of a fraction of the atmosphere, resulting from a physical process favoring retention of heavier isotopes of certain elements, has been a significant factor in the evolution of the planet. Isotopes are variants of the same element with different atomic weights.

Initial SAM results show an increase of five percent in heavier isotopes of carbon in the atmospheric carbon dioxide compared to estimates of the isotopic ratios present when Mars formed. These enriched ratios of heavier isotopes to lighter ones suggest the top of the atmosphere may have been lost to interplanetary space. Losses at the top of the atmosphere would deplete lighter isotopes. Isotopes of argon also show enrichment of the heavy isotope, matching previous estimates of atmosphere composition derived from studies of Martian meteorites on Earth.

Scientists theorize that in Mars' distant past its environment may have been quite different, with persistent water and a thicker atmosphere. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission will investigate possible losses from the upper atmosphere when it arrives at Mars in 2014.

With these initial sniffs of Martian atmosphere, SAM also made the most sensitive measurements ever to search for methane gas on Mars. Preliminary results reveal little to no methane. Methane is of interest as a simple precursor chemical for life. On Earth, it can be produced by either biological or non-biological processes.

Methane has been difficult to detect from Earth or the current generation of Mars orbiters because the gas exists on Mars only in traces, if at all. The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in SAM provides the first search conducted within the Martian atmosphere for this molecule. The initial SAM measurements place an upper limit of just a few parts methane per billion parts of Martian atmosphere, by volume, with enough uncertainty that the amount could be zero.

"Methane is clearly not an abundant gas at the Gale Crater site, if it is there at all. At this point in the mission we're just excited to be searching for it," said SAM TLS lead Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "While we determine upper limits on low values, atmospheric variability in the Martian atmosphere could yet hold surprises for us."

In Curiosity's first three months on Mars, SAM has analyzed atmosphere samples with two laboratory methods. One is a mass spectrometer investigating the full range of atmospheric gases. The other, TLS, has focused on carbon dioxide and methane. During its two-year prime mission, the rover also will use an instrument called a gas chromatograph that separates and identifies gases. The instrument also will analyze samples of soil and rock, as well as more atmosphere samples.

"With these first atmospheric measurements we already can see the power of having a complex chemical laboratory like SAM on the surface of Mars," said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Both atmospheric and solid sample analyses are crucial for understanding Mars' habitability."

SAM is set to analyze its first solid sample in the coming weeks, beginning the search for organic compounds in the rocks and soils of Gale Crater. Analyzing water-bearing minerals and searching for and analyzing carbonates are high priorities for upcoming SAM solid sample analyses.

Researchers are using Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether areas in Gale Crater ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Curiosity. The SAM instrument was developed at Goddard with instrument contributions from Goddard, JPL and the University of Paris in France.

For more information about Curiosity and its mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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


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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/8JmnPM8SYnU/121102151611.htm

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AngloGold suspends operations because of sit-ins

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? AngloGold Ashanti said Friday it suspended operations at two mines in South Africa after hundreds of workers staged a sit-in over pay.

Workers at the TauTona and Mponeng mines northwest of Johannesburg have since held talks with management and work is expected to resume Sunday night, the company said. Two days of work were lost at the Mponeng mine because of damage underground, and one day at TauTona because of the sit-in, it said.

AngloGold Ashanti is the world's third largest gold bullion producer and said that the people staging the sit-ins represent between 2 and 5 percent of the workforces at each mine.

The company's South African operations accounted for approximately 32 percent of total group production during the first half of the year, it said. Prior to this dismissal process, approximately 35,000 people were employed across AngloGold Ashanti's South African operations.

Tens of thousands of miners have staged wildcat strikes in South Africa over the past three months, affecting gold and platinum output. Violent strikes at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine saw more than 40 killed, and the company says the nearly six weeks of strikes affected the company's production and led to its decision to restructure. Lonmin reached a deal with its miners that awarded them pay increases of up to 22 percent.

The Lonmin strikes and negotiations spread to other mines in the past few months.

Anglo American Platinum miners in Rustenburg have been on strike for seven weeks, and 12,000 workers who were fired and then reinstated still have not returned to work. It said its offer for the miners to return to work is still open.

"The company currently does not have sufficient staff for safe operations in the affected areas and continues to carry out essential services only," it said in a statement.

Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, the world's top platinum producer, said it is losing an average of 3,694 ounces of platinum per day and to date 141,640 ounces of platinum have been lost.

"We have been patiently appealing to our workers to get back to work so that the situation in Rustenburg and the north of Pilanesburg can go back to normal," said the CEO Chris Griffith. "We are disappointed that the offer, which was made to employees to alleviate some of the hardship as a result of the no-work no-pay principle, has not yet been accepted."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anglogold-suspends-operations-because-sit-ins-172325618.html

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