AUD/USD: Australian Dollar losing ground as Chinese trade data ...

GCI Forex News - AUD/USD: Australian Dollar losing ground as Chinese trade data disappoints AUD USD

AUDUSD Movement

For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, AUD strengthened 0.14% against the USD to close at 1.0488.

LME Copper prices declined 0.7% or $55.0/MT to $7965.3/MT. Aluminium prices declined 1.5% or $31.5/MT to $2077.8/MT.

In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.0472, with the AUD trading 0.15% lower from Friday?s close, after Chinese trade balance data trailed economists? forecasts, dampening sentiment towards the Aussie.

The trade surplus in China has narrowed to $19.6 billion in November, more than market forecasts and compared to a $32.0 billion surplus recorded in October. The annual consumer price inflation in China has climbed to 2.0% in November, while the producer price index in China has dropped more-than-expected by 2.2% (YoY) in November. Separately, industrial production in China has jumped 10.1% (YoY) in November, while retail sales in China have risen more-than-forecast by 14.9% (YoY) in November.

The pair is expected to find support at 1.0455, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.0439. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.0492, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.0513.

The currency pair is trading just below its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.

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Source: http://forexnews.gcitrading.com/currencies/audusd/audusd-australian-dollar-losing-ground-as-chinese-trade-data-disappoints.htm

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Jenni Rivera, soulful, troubled Mexican music star

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2012, file photo, Jenni Rivera, from the film "Filly Brown," poses for a portrait during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American music superstar Jenni Rivera was found in northern Mexico on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. (AP Photo/Victoria Will, file)

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2012, file photo, Jenni Rivera, from the film "Filly Brown," poses for a portrait during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American music superstar Jenni Rivera was found in northern Mexico on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. (AP Photo/Victoria Will, file)

In this picture taken March 8, 2012, Mexican-American singer and reality TV star Jenni Rivera poses during an interview in Los Angeles. The California-born singer who rose through personal adversity to become a superstar adored by millions in a male-dominated genre of Mexican-American music, was confirmed dead in a plane crash in northern Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

In this picture taken March 8, 2012, Mexican-American singer and reality TV star Jenni Rivera poses during an interview in Los Angeles. The California-born singer who rose through personal adversity to become a superstar adored by millions in a male-dominated genre of Mexican-American music, was confirmed dead in a plane crash in northern Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

(AP) ? Jenni Rivera launched her career hawking cassette recordings of her songs at flea markets, but a powerful voice, soulful singing style and frank discussion of personal troubles powered her to the heights of a male-dominated industry, transforming her into the one of the biggest stars of the genre known as grupero.

Her life was cut short at its peak on Sunday by an airplane crash in northern Mexico that also killed six friends and co-workers.

The 43-year-old mother of five and grandmother of two became a symbol of resilience for millions of fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Her fame grew as she branched out into acting, appearing in independent film, reality TV and the televised singing competition "La Voz Mexico."

She had recently filed for divorce from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.

"I am the same as the public, as my fans," she told The Associated Press in an interview last March.

Rivera sold more than 15 million copies of her 12 major-label albums and won a string of Latin music awards. Her shows filled both the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Mexico's National Auditorium, a feat few male singers in her industry achieved.

Many of her songs dealt with themes of dignity in the face of heartbreak, and her shows were known for their festive atmosphere and her intimate interactions with her fans. She would fill song requests from fans who had suffered heartbreak and setbacks, and would often pull women and girls onto stage to personally tell them to keep moving forward.

The plane, being flown by two pilots, was taking her and her publicist, Arturo Rivera, her makeup artist, Jacob Yebale, and two friends, one named Mario Macias and another who was also identified as Gerardo, to the central Mexican city of Toluca after a Saturday night concert before thousands in the northern city of Monterrey. All were killed.

After the concert she gave a press conference during which she spoke of her emotional state following her recent move to divorce former Major League Baseball pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who played for teams including the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Rivera announced in October that she was divorcing Loaiza after two years of marriage.

"I can't get caught up in the negative because that destroys you. Perhaps trying to move away from my problems and focus on the positive is the best I can do. I am a woman like any other and ugly things happen to me like any other woman," she said Saturday night. "The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up."

Rivera's parents migrated from Mexico to California and founded the label that also propelled two of her five brothers, Lupillo and Juan Rivera, to careers as well-known singers of grupero music.

Born on July 2, 1969 in Los Angeles, California, Dolores Janney Rivera Savedra studied business administration and often said with pride that she started her singing career in flea markets in the Los Angeles area, selling cassette tapes to fans.

She formally debuted on the music scene in 1995 with the release of her album "Chacalosa".

That successful album was followed with two other independent albums, one a tribute to slain Mexican-American singer Selena that helped Rivera expand her following. By the end of the 90s, she won a major-label contract, and built a loyal following that knew her as the "Diva de la Banda."

At the end of the 1990s, Rivera was signed by Sony Music and released two more albums, "If You Want to See Me Crying," and "Queen of Queens."

In 2002, she received her first Latin Grammy nomination, for best album in the band music category.

Even more widespread success came when she joined Fonovisa and released her 2005 album titled "Partier, Rebellious and Daring," which positioned her as one of the most renowned grupero singers and songwriters.

She was also nominated for Latin Grammys in 2008 and 2011.

She was also an actress, appearing in the indie film "Filly Brown," which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, as the incarcerated mother of character Filly Brown.

"Though she'll be remembered as an iconic singer, she was also a powerful actress whose full range of talents the world was just beginning to discover," the directors, producers, cast and crew of "Filly Brown" said in a statement.

Her most recent album, "Joyas Prestadas," or "Borrowed Jewels," won widespread praise and awards and helped cement her status as one of the brightest stars of Mexican-American music.

She was also filming the third season of "I Love Jenni," which followed her as she interacted with her family and toured through Mexico and the United States. She also played a key role in the reality shows: "Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and Raq-C" and her daughter's "Chiquis 'n Control."

In 2009, she was detained at the Mexico City airport when she declared $20,000 in cash but was really carrying $52,167. She was taken into custody. She said it was an innocent mistake and authorities gave her the benefit of the doubt and released her.

In 2011, her brother Juan assaulted a drunken fan at a popular fair in Guanajuato. In the face of heavy criticism among her fans and on social networks, Rivera publicly apologized for the incident during a concert in Mexico City, telling her fans: "Thank you for accepting me as I am, with my virtues and defects."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-10-Mexico-Obit-Rivera/id-9e227cb882a04dc4bd17f4ebcfd88509

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Go to China, top architect tells Scots graduates

ARCHITECTURE graduates are stacking supermarket shelves because there is ?nothing for them here? and it is easier to find work in China, according to a leading member of the profession.

Glasgow-based Alan Dunlop said a stagnant building sector, lack of commercial projects and red tape meant small Scottish firms had a better chance of winning contracts in the Far East than at home.

Dunlop is part of a British team short-listed to design a ?219 million tourist resort on a 150-hectare site on the South China Sea coast. His previous work includes the award- winning Hazelwood School in Glasgow for blind and deaf children and the city?s iconic Radisson SAS hotel.

Dunlop, a visiting professor at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, now spends much of his time in China.

He said: ?I?m telling all my students that the moment they qualify, get out to China because that is where the work is happening. There?s nothing ?really for them here.

?These students are leaving after seven years of architectural education and they?re not able to find a job, they?re stacking shelves in supermarkets.?

Dunlop said a lack of commercial building meant the only work available in Scotland was for big public projects, but that stifling industry rules put off small firms such as his from ?applying for them.

?To qualify for public projects you have to satisfy the pre-qualification questionnaire [PQQ], then you have to have ?10 million indemnity insurance and things like that, and this prohibits small firms like this one, despite my 25 years of experience, from ?competing for big projects. It is absurd. It?s as much to do with box ticking and, frankly, covering your backside, as it is about making sure you have got the right architect to do the job. It is really bizarre.

?But it?s not the same in ?China. They don?t require the same PQQ requirements and form filling. I can use the expertise and experience I have and then team up with a firm of architects based in China and compete for these huge ?international contracts.? Neil Baxter, secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, blamed the lack of opportunities here on misinterpretation of European laws on public procurement.

?People are so risk averse and so lacking in knowledge about what is required under European law, that they go way overboard with the stipulations and requirements, and they fundamentally get it wrong,? he said.

?They get it wrong in a way that is bad for the public purse and is very bad for private practice.?

Baxter said procurement ?experts might ask a firm applying to design a school in Scotland to show it had designed several others in the past five years. ?Very few practices have done that, so it ends up going to big practices, usually ones outside Scotland,? he said.

?Alan is right, China is a much more relaxed regime. Things are decided by diktat and effectively they can still design on the basis of a pure quality decision. It is a nonsense, but China is an easier place for Scots designers to work than Scotland.?

He added: ?You end up pushing people out and effectively disallowing small practices. You could say it?s beneficial internationalisation, or you could say it?s a shame we?re not using local talent ?locally. That?s not sustainable.?

Dunlop is collaborating with the China office of Scottish firm John Thompson and Partners (JTP) and London-based Gillespie?s on the tourism ?resort project. Shanghai-based JTP partner Alan Stewart said: ?Five years ago we began working in ?China following an invitation by a local private developer to join a design competition for a settlement south-west of Shanghai.

?More work was to follow and soon we were faced with the problem of managing ?client relations 6,000 miles from home base. The strain on those working on Chinese projects and travelling to and within China proved unsustainable so we decided to take the plunge and establish a subsidiary China studio in 2012.?

Admitting that setting up a business there had involved negotiating a maze of employment and resident visas, as well as dealing with tax and ?licencing issues ? a process he described as draining ? ?Stewart said companies had to be fully committed to achieve success in China. He said: ?Chinese people prefer to do business with people they know and trust. ?Guanxi? is the term given to the networks of influence that pervades business culture. In practise it means building the relationship between client or business partners over time.?

Dunlop is also an external examiner at a new school of architecture in Suzhou, near Shanghai, where he hopes to help the English-speaking faculty become the first Chinese institution to gain full Royal Institute of British Architects accreditation. He said UK firms had a lot offer China.

?The education system in China has less emphasis on critical engagement and conceptual thinking, so that is a service architects in the UK are providing,? he said. Dunlop, JTP and Gillespie?s has reached the final three bids for the resort in the Dapeng Peninsula of Guangdong, from 39 initial submissions. The winner is to be announced ?early next year.

Twitter: @sloan1874

Source: http://www.scotsman.com/go-to-china-top-architect-tells-scots-graduates-1-2682396

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1966 Ford F100 - Charlotte NC

This 1966 Ford F100 is a cool mix of basic truck goodness and very slick custom. The bodywork is amazingly good, done to a much higher standard than the typical truck restoration, and the thundering 427 cubic inch dual-quad engine under the hood suggests something very special is going on with this one. Go try to find an F100 as nice as this; they simply don\'t exist. Before trucks were cool, these were used up and thrown away, but somehow, somewhere, these guys found an awfully nice one and gave it a show-quality facelift. Look how well that character line traces from the hood, through the doors, then down along the bed sides. It\'s as straight as a ruler. Note how flush the doors fit, and how nicely the bed tucks up behind the cab. That doesn\'t just happen, that\'s the result of hours of tedious hand work. Then put on a correct Rangoon Red finish that looks totally perfect for the mid-60s, and hit the road in style with chrome bed rails. Try to find a straight bumper or a perfect grille for one of these, too-talk about scarce! Although finished several years ago, this one has been meticulously maintained since complete - mostly driven to the local car shows and cruise-ins. Of course, they didn\'t forget that this was still a truck, so while the bed is as nicely finished as the body, it\'s still ready, willing, and able to work. Just on first glance, this truck is a slam-dunk. That vibe extends inside where it has been artfully updated to create a comfortable and stylish driving environment. The original bench seat has been recontoured so you fit better behind the wheel, and then covered in black velvet that\'s actually quite comfortable. The original door panels have been finished to match, and the original dash was painted to match the body, then wrapped in black vinyl to match the seat sides. A modern HVAC system was fitted under the dash in a way that makes it look like a period-correct dealer-installed accessory, and with R134a refrigerant it blows cold and will be easy to service in the future. There\'s also the original AM radio, which is a nice piece of nostalgia in the old truck, and with tinted windows, it looks cool and stays cool on hot days. Ford\'s workhorse 352 cubic inch V8 engine is long gone, but you won\'t miss it once you see the monstrous 427 they stuffed in there instead. Combined with a C6 automatic transmission and a 9-inch axle out back, it\'s a rugged powertrain that will always get you where you need to go. Topped with dual quads, it looks like a Thunderbolt engine found its way under the hood. Power steering and power brakes mean you can cruise without breaking a sweat, and there\'s just no sign of rust or neglect anywhere on this truck. The chassis is relatively stock, making this one heck of a sleeper, although the rumbling dual exhaust system might give you away at stop lights. 15-inch aluminum wheels look good but don\'t show off, so your secret is safe unless they notice the 427 badges on the flanks. Oh, and those fat 275/60/15 Goodyears definitely help hook it up. This is a very cool truck that you won\'t see at every show. Nicely finished with a metric ton of performance, it proves that good taste never goes out of style. Call today! This vehicle is located in our Atlanta showroom. For more information, please call (678) 279-1609 or toll free (877) 367-1835.

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Leading conservative DeMint resigning Senate seat

FILE - In this June 14, 2011, file photo Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaks to media on Capitol Hill in Washington. DeMint announced Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 that he is resigning to take over at Heritage Foundation. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this June 14, 2011, file photo Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaks to media on Capitol Hill in Washington. DeMint announced Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 that he is resigning to take over at Heritage Foundation. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this June 17, 2011 file photo, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. speaks in New Orleans. DeMint announced Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 that he is resigning to take over at Heritage Foundation. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

(AP) ? Sen. Jim DeMint, patron saint of the tea party and a would-be Republican kingmaker, announced suddenly Thursday he would resign his South Carolina seat to head Washington's conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, a shift that reverberated through a soul-searching GOP.

Just two years into a second, six-year term, DeMint said he would step down on Jan. 1 to helm Heritage while continuing the conservative fight. The 61-year-old lawmaker, known to hurry home to South Carolina nearly every weekend, had signaled that this term would be his last, but his abrupt announcement shocked even his closest Republican colleagues.

"When he told me this morning, I about fell off my couch," said South Carolina's other senator, Republican Lindsey Graham. "I didn't see this coming."

Prizing ideology over electability, DeMint sometimes infuriated fellow Republicans, picking sides in GOP primaries with decidedly mixed results. He had no patience for centrist Republicans, pushing the party to the right while bankrolling candidates with millions from his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund.

In 2010, candidates he ardently supported cost the GOP eminently winnable seats. This year, DeMint had better success.

"One of the most rewarding things I've done in the Senate is work with the grassroots to help elect a new generation of leaders who have the courage to fight for the principles of freedom that make this country so great," DeMint said in his statement announcing his departure. "I'm confident these senators will continue the legacy of conservative leaders before them."

DeMint also has sometimes been a thorn in the GOP side on legislation, just this week criticizing House Speaker John Boehner's "fiscal cliff' counteroffer to President Barack Obama that would raise tax revenue $800 billion as crushing for American jobs.

DeMint's departure creates an opening for a new generation of hard-charging conservatives in the Senate ? Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and soon-to-be Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The strong conservative element is pitted against the establishment as the Republican Party tries to figure out its next moves after this year's defeat in the presidential race and the loss of congressional seats.

Shocked Senate Republicans were too courteous to say good riddance to DeMint, but a few made it clear that there were still hard feelings over the senator's political moves.

"I won," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said tersely when asked about DeMint backing her Republican primary rival Joe Miller in 2010, forcing her to run as a write-in candidate.

Democrats pointed out that they increased their numbers in this year's elections and will hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate next year.

"His effect on the system may have been more beneficial to Democrats than to Republicans," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who headed the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2010 and this year, said he and DeMint agreed as conservatives "on 95 percent of the issues, it's a lot of it has to do with tactics to advance the conservative cause through the electoral process. I wish him well."

Delaware and Colorado in 2010 are sore points for Republicans who were certain they could win the Democratic-held seats. DeMint backed Christine O'Donnell who prevailed over the more electable Rep. Mike Castle in the GOP primary; Democrat Chris Coons easily beat O'Donnell that November.

In Colorado, DeMint supported conservative Ken Buck who stumbled in his race against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Yet for the defeats, there are several Republicans who owe their seats to DeMint, and they expressed appreciation for a man they consider the chief instigator of the tea party movement.

"We have a much bigger liberty caucus in the Senate than we did before," Paul said. "I think a lot of that is thanks to Jim DeMint."

Said Florida's Marco Rubio: "I would not be in the U.S. Senate had it not been for Jim DeMint taking a shot on me."

In an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, DeMint said he was frustrated with the Republican Party when it held the majority during the George W. Bush administration.

"It's part frustration, but I am also reassured that we have now stocked the Senate with some of the strongest conservatives in the country today and that's a big change. So I'm leaving the Senate better than I found it," DeMint said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said DeMint forced Washington to address economic issues.

"There is no question in my mind that he raised the profile of important issues like spending and debt and helped galvanize the American people against a big government agenda," McConnell said in a statement.

DeMint's exit ensures a far more lucrative future for him than the annual Senate salary of $174,000. Edwin Feulner, the man DeMint will replace, made more than $1.2 million last year.

DeMint's decision creates an opening in South Carolina and the prospect of two elections in November 2014.

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley will pick a successor to serve two years until the next election. Among the potential candidates are several House members, including Rep. Tim Scott, who would be the first African-American Republican senator in decades.

The opening also ensures that much of the state's attention will be focused on that race while Graham seeks another term. A primary challenge to Graham now seems unlikely although he and DeMint have clashed at times.

"You could say what you like about the tea party, but without the tea party none of us would be talking about fiscal issues like we are today," Graham said. "Jim's biggest legacy is creating energy for those who believe in limited government."

Graham called DeMint "a strong voice. He didn't mind disagreeing with his colleagues. At the end of day I think the movement that Jim helped start is going to be alive and well in 2014."

DeMint had recently stepped aside as head of the Republican Steering Committee, handing off the chairmanship to first-term Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative he backed for the Pennsylvania seat held by Sen. Arlen Specter.

DeMint was poised to become the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee with the retirements of Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Olympia Snowe of Maine. The position would have given him a major say over highways, the Coast Guard and navigation issues.

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who has been in the Senate since 1987, said DeMint's decision reflects the markedly different outlooks of various lawmakers.

"People have different mind-sets, different goals," Shelby said. "Some people come up for a term or two terms, or a term and a half and leave and go on to different things. Some people come up to be long-distance runners, to make a difference, to work within the institution."

Joked Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.: "I think it's actually a good fit and it moves me up in the Commerce Committee."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-06-Senate-DeMint/id-cfd05aa4191744aeb839ad9b8731cbca

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Claudia Felser appointed Fellow of the American Physical Society

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Dec-2012
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Contact: Claudia Felser
felser-office@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-21284
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Chemist receives high distinction for her research into new materials

Professor Dr. Claudia Felser has been appointed a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). The fellowship represents a major accolade that is awarded for significant contributions to science. Through this appointment, the APS is honoring the German chemist's professional accomplishments in the field of Heusler compounds. These are new materials that are essential for the development of future technologies, such as spintronics. Claudia Felser has been a professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) since 2003 and in December 2011 was also appointed Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, where a new building to house the sputter system for her work group is currently being built. She is co-director of the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ) and has also been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of EUR 2.4 million, a form of sponsorship given by the European Research Council to individual excellent researchers.

The APS with its more than 50,000 members worldwide is the second largest scientific society for physics after the German Physics Society (DPG / Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft). The APS was founded in 1899 with the aim of promoting the physical sciences and making them more widely studied. The society awards fellowships to at most 0.5 percent of its total members in any one year, meaning that it has 250 fellows at present. It is considered a great honor to be selected for a fellowship, as those eligible are assessed by a peer review. Scientists who make major contributions to fundamental research or develop important scientific or technological applications are eligible for a fellowship. Professor Dr. Claudia Felser has been awarded her fellowship for "creating and understanding new Heusler materials with spintronic and energy functionalities", as her certificate of appointment states.

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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Claudia Felser
felser-office@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-21284
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Chemist receives high distinction for her research into new materials

Professor Dr. Claudia Felser has been appointed a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). The fellowship represents a major accolade that is awarded for significant contributions to science. Through this appointment, the APS is honoring the German chemist's professional accomplishments in the field of Heusler compounds. These are new materials that are essential for the development of future technologies, such as spintronics. Claudia Felser has been a professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) since 2003 and in December 2011 was also appointed Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, where a new building to house the sputter system for her work group is currently being built. She is co-director of the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ) and has also been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of EUR 2.4 million, a form of sponsorship given by the European Research Council to individual excellent researchers.

The APS with its more than 50,000 members worldwide is the second largest scientific society for physics after the German Physics Society (DPG / Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft). The APS was founded in 1899 with the aim of promoting the physical sciences and making them more widely studied. The society awards fellowships to at most 0.5 percent of its total members in any one year, meaning that it has 250 fellows at present. It is considered a great honor to be selected for a fellowship, as those eligible are assessed by a peer review. Scientists who make major contributions to fundamental research or develop important scientific or technological applications are eligible for a fellowship. Professor Dr. Claudia Felser has been awarded her fellowship for "creating and understanding new Heusler materials with spintronic and energy functionalities", as her certificate of appointment states.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/jgum-cfa120712.php

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Cave Shooting Collection Heading to Japan

A costly collection of tough shmups

Cave Shooting Collection

Japanese shoot-em-up maker CAVE is one of the few developers responsible for keeping the shmup genre alive (and, some would argue, for the genre's ever-dwindling popularity). We've covered several of their Xbox 360 shooters in our Co-Op International column, including Dodonpachi Resurrection and Espgaluda II. Now Japanese fans who have somehow abstained from buying most or all of the company's Xbox 360 output have reason to rejoice. The Cave Shooting Collection is coming to retail overseas, complete with a whopping 9 retail shmups, all of their DLC, and the company's sole XBLA genre entry, Guwange.

The Cave Shooting Collection includes:

  1. Akai Katana Shin (available in the US as Akai Katana)
  2. Deathsmiles (available in the US)
  3. Deathsmiles IIX (available in the US via Games on Demand)
  4. DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu (available in Europe as Dodonpachi Resurrection)
  5. DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label
  6. Espgaluda II: Black Label
  7. Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets
  8. Mushihime Sama
  9. Mushihime Sama Futari
  10. Guwange (XBLA, available in the US)

The collection will retail for 29176 yen, which translates to about $354 USD. If you consider that each game besides Guwange retails for between $40 and $80, that's not a terrible deal. Also, Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets (a compilation of two quirky and impossibly difficult titles) has been out of production for a long time, so you can't get it any other way besides paying high Amazon seller or eBay prices. However, only some of these titles are region-free, so you'd need to own a Japanese Xbox 360 to take full advantage of the collection.

Muchi Muchi Pork & Sweets

Get more Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets details at Hardcore Gaming101

The Cave Shooting Collection doesn't have an official release date yet, but import games dealer Play Asia already has a product page ready to go whenever preorders open up. All 10 games support 2-player local co-op.

Reads: 452

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Co-optimus/~3/PUemTMs0rsc/cave-shooting-collection-heading-to-japan.html

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Trafficked maids to order: The darker side of richer India

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom.

Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's middle-class homes.

"They sent me many places - I don't even know the names of the areas," said Kerketa, 45, from a village in Chhattisgarh state in central India. "Fifteen days here, one month there. The placement agent kept making excuses and kept me working. She took all my salary."

Often beaten and locked in the homes she was sent to, Kerketa was forced to work long hours and denied contact with her family. She was not informed when her father and husband died. The police eventually found her when a concerned relative went to a local charity, which traced the agency and rescued her together with the police.

Abuse of migrant maids from Africa and Asia in the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia is commonly reported.

But the story of Kerketa is the story of many maids and nannies in India, where a surging demand for domestic help is fuelling a business that, in large part, thrives on human trafficking by unregulated placement agencies.

As long as there are no laws to regulate the placement agencies or even define the rights of India's unofficially estimated 90 million domestic workers, both traffickers and employers may act with impunity, say child and women's rights activists and government officials.

Activists say the offences are on the rise and link it directly to the country's economic boom over the last two decades.

"Demand for maids is increasing because of the rising incomes of families who now have money to pay for people to cook, clean and look after their children," says Bhuwan Ribhu from Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), the charity that helped rescue Kerketa.

Economic reforms that began in the early 1990s have transformed the lifestyles of many Indian families. Now almost 30 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are middle class and this is expected to surge to 45 percent by 2020.

Yet as people get wealthier, more women go out to work and more and more families live on their own without relatives to help them, the voracious demand for maids has outstripped supply.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

There are no reliable figures for how many people are trafficked for domestic servitude. The Indian government says 126,321 trafficked children were rescued from domestic work in 2011/12, a rise of almost 27 percent from the previous year. Activists say if you include women over 18 years, the figure could run into the hundreds of thousands.

The abuse is difficult to detect as it is hidden within average houses and apartments, and under-reported, because victims are often too fearful to go to the police. There were 3,517 incidents relating to human trafficking in India in 2011, says the National Crime Records Bureau, compared to 3,422 the previous year.

Conviction rates for typical offences related to trafficking - bonded labor, sexual exploitation, child labor and illegal confinement - are also low at around 20 percent. Cases can take up to two years to come to trial, by which time victims have returned home and cannot afford to return to come to court. Police investigations can be shoddy due to a lack of training and awareness about the seriousness of the crime.

Under pressure from civil society groups as well as media reports of cases of women and children trafficked not just to be maids, but also for prostitution and industrial labor, authorities have paid more attention in recent years.

In 2011, the government began setting up specialized anti-human trafficking units in police stations throughout the country.

There are now 225 units and another 110 due next year whose job it is to collect intelligence, maintain a database of offenders, investigate reports of missing persons and partner with charities in raids to rescue victims.

Parveen Kumari, director in charge of anti-trafficking at the ministry of home affairs, says so far, around 1,500 victims have been rescued from brick kilns, carpet weaving and embroidery factories, brothels, placement agencies and houses.

"We realize trafficking is a bigger issue now with greater demand for labor in the cities and these teams will help," said Kumari. "The placement agencies are certainly under the radar."

NATIONAL HEADLINES

The media is full of reports of minors and women lured from their villages by promises of a good life as maids in the cities. They are often sent by agencies to work in homes in Delhi, and its satellite towns such as Noida and Gurgaon, where they face a myriad of abuses.

In April, a 13-year-old maid heard crying for help from the balcony of a second floor flat in a residential complex in Delhi's Dwarka area became a national cause c?l?bre.

The girl, from Jharkhand state, had been locked in for six days while her employers went holidaying in Thailand. She was starving and had bruises all over her body.

The child, who had been sold by a placement agency, is now in a government boarding school as her parents are too poor to look after her. The employers deny maltreatment, and the case is under investigation, said Shakti Vahini, the Delhi-based child rights charity which helped rescue her.

In October, the media reported the plight of a 16-year-old girl from Assam, who was also rescued by police and Shakti Vahini from a house in Delhi's affluent Punjabi Bagh area. She had been kept inside the home for four years by her employer, a doctor. She said he would rape her and then give her emergency contraceptive pills. The doctor has disappeared.

ONE ON EVERY BLOCK

Groups like Save the Children and ActionAid estimate there are 2,300 placement agencies in Delhi alone, and less than one-sixth are legitimate.

"There are so many agencies and we hear so many stories, but we are not like that. We don't keep the maids' salaries and all are over 18," said Purno Chander Das, owner of Das Nurse Bureau, which provides nurses and maids in Delhi's Tughlakabad village.

The Das Nurse Bureau is registered with authorities - unlike many agencies operating from rented rooms or flats in slums or poorer neighbourhoods like Shivaji Enclave in west Delhi. It is often to these places that maids are brought until a job is found.

There are no signboards, but neighbors point out the apartments that house the agencies and talk of the comings and goings of girls who stay for one or two days before being taken away.

"There is at least one agency in every block," says Rohit, a man in his twenties, who lives in one of scores of dilapidated government-built apartment blocks in Shivaji Enclave.

With a commission fee of up to 30,000 rupees ($550) and a maids' monthly salary of up to 5,000 rupees ($90), an agency can make more than $1,500 annually for each girl, say anti-trafficking groups.

A ledger recovered after one police raid, shown by the charity Bachpan Bachao Andolan to Thomson Reuters Foundation, had the names, passport pictures and addresses of 111 girls from villages in far-away states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Chhattisgarh, most of them minors.

The Delhi state government has written a draft bill to help regulate and monitor placement agencies and has invited civil society groups to provide feedback.

But anti-trafficking groups say what is really needed a country-wide law for these agencies, which are not just mushrooming in cities like Delhi but also Mumbai and other towns and cities.

The legislation would specify minimum wages, proper living and working conditions and a mechanism for financial redress for unpaid salaries. It would also specify that placement agencies keep updated record of all domestic workers which would subject to routine inspection by the labor department.

In the meantime, victims like Theresa Kerketa just want to warn others.

"The agencies and their brokers tell you lies. They trap you in the city where you have no money and know no one," said Kerketa, now staying with a relative in a slum on the outskirts of south Delhi as she awaits compensation.

"I will go back and tell others. It is better to stay in your village, be beaten by your husband and live as a poor person, than come to the city and suffer at the hands of the rich."

(TrustLaw is a global news service covering human rights and governance issues and run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters)

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trafficked-maids-order-darker-side-richer-india-152346305.html

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