Conflict displaces 900,000 in Sudan border areas

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 900,000 people have been displaced or severely affected by fighting in two Sudanese border states, the United Nations said on Friday, sharply increasing its estimates and urging Sudan and rebels to let in badly needed aid.

Fighting between Sudan's army and SPLM-North rebels broke out in the oil-producing state of South Kordofan in June 2011, shortly before South Sudan became independent.

The violence spread in September 2011 to nearby Blue Nile state which also borders the new African republic.

Sudan accuses South Sudan of backing the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North), charges diplomats find credible despite denials by South Sudan.

Altogether 908,000 people have been displaced or severely affected in both states, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, revising upward its previous count of 655,000.

Around 350,000 people were affected in rebel-held areas in South Kordofan and 70,000 in Blue Nile, the U.N. report said.

"In SPLM-N areas, no humanitarian staff have been able to enter from within Sudan and no food aid has been delivered, despite intensive negotiations that have been going on now for more than 16 months," the United Nations said.

In August, Sudan agreed to let aid pass through its territory into rebel-held areas under an agreement brokered by the United Nations, the African Union and Arab League.

But the U.N. has been unable to win approval from Sudan to distribute aid during almost three months of talks. Sudan has blamed the rebels for the delay and state media has criticized the U.N. for failing to attend some meetings to discuss technical details, charges denied by U.N. officials in Sudan.

SPLM-North, which accuses the government of marginalizing large parts of South Kordofan and other border areas, has formed an alliance with other rebel groups to try and topple Sudan's veteran President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July last year, under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended their civil war.

They agreed to set up a buffer zone along their shared boundary last month after coming close to war in April. But there has been scant progress in parallel indirect talks between Khartoum and SPLM-North, which fought as part of the southern rebel army during the civil war.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conflict-displaces-900-000-sudan-border-areas-181826930.html

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A 3.5% growth expected for Kuwaiti construction with $125b spend ...

As Kuwaiti exhibitors at The Big 5, the region?s largest construction show, triple in numbers in recent years

Kuwait?s construction sector is expected to grow 3.5 per cent in 2012, according to a report from NGI commissioned by The Big 5 2012, with US$125 billion to be spent by 2015 according to Business Monitor International. Kuwait has always been seen as a market with significant spending budgets and lots of potential within the GCC?s construction industry, further highlighted by the substantial rise in Kuwaiti construction companies participating in The Big 5 over the past few years.

Taking place from 5 ? 8 November, at the Dubai World Trade Centre, The Big 5 brings together thousands of regional and international businesses, products and technologies from across the building and construction sector. The event has seen significant increase in Kuwaiti exhibitors from 2010 to 2011, with further growth expected this year again. Visitors to the event from Kuwait have also become more numerous year after year, with a rise of almost 36 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

?Kuwait?s influence at the event, and within the region?s construction industry as a whole, has grown consistently over the past few years,? said Andy White, event director, The Big 5. ?We have seen Kuwait?s presence at The Big 5 grew significantly in the past three years, together with an increase in the attendance of key buyers from the country, who attend our specially dedicated platform for decision makers with budgets of more than US$100 million, and are looking to be directly connected with the right products and contacts at the event.?

With a history spanning 30 years, The Big 5 has grown to become an extremely influential platform for those looking to build their presence in the Middle East market, as well as giving regional professionals access to the very latest information and trends from the international industry.

One Kuwaiti exhibitor set to capitalise on opportunities available during The Big 5 is insulation solutions company KIMMCO. General Manager ? Operation, Hannes Visagie, said: ?We look for specific events that will help us showcase our unique portfolio of products and superior technical services to our clientele.? The Big 5 creates a platform for us to do just that ? it allows us to meet and interact with a broad group of stakeholders, including existing and potential customers, distributors, influencers and government officials.?

The Big 5 2012 will take place from 5-8 November at Dubai World Trade Centre, with PMV Live, Middle East Concrete and FM EXPO taking place alongside. As a result of market demand, The Big 5 Kuwait will launch in September 2013, providing an unrivalled platform for the building and construction industry to access the opportunities and knowledge of the local market.

Source: http://emirates.tpg-media.com/2012/a-3-5-growth-expected-for-kuwaiti-construction-with-125b-spend-projected-until-2015/

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Canonical?s Mark Shuttleworth Tires Of Critics, Moves Key Ubuntu Developments Out Of Public Eye

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth says parts of Ubuntu 13.04 will be kept a secret, out of the public eye until its unveiling. The move, which he writes about on his blog, will sure to create a firestorm in the Ubuntu community,

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TUAKGvDe9kQ/

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Who?s in worse shape: RIM or Nokia?

Trying to decide whether RIM (RIMM) or Nokia (NOK) gets the title of ?most troubled mobile device manufacturer? is a daunting exercise in a lot of ways, much like trying to decide whether someone is better off losing their kidneys or their liver. Looking at both companies? latest financials and their overall business strategies, though, and you can make a pretty persuasive case that Nokia is in even tougher shape than its Canadian counterpart.

Let?s start with RIM: In its last quarter the company lost?$235 million and its shares surged because it didn?t lose nearly as much money as analysts expected. And that really tells you all you need to know about RIM?s financial situation right now: It?s really bad. At the same time, though, this is a marked improvement over the $518 million loss the company posted in the previous quarter, which marked the first time the company had posted a net loss since 2004.

Nokia, on the other hand, has been losing even larger sums of money for a much longer amount of time. Finland?s former dynamo has lost money for six consecutive quarters and has regularly seen its quarterly losses top the $1 billion mark, including a $1.27 billion net loss last quarter. Granted, Nokia?s market cap is more than twice as large as RIM?s, but losing more than $1 billion in a quarter is never a good thing, especially if you?ve done it multiple times over the past year.

Looking past the financials, I think that Nokia is in worse shape than RIM in terms of long-term business strategy as well. RIM, for better or worse, is at least in control of its own destiny to some extent. Yes, it?s still losing important customers, its BlackBerry 10 operating system has been delayed and it hasn?t released a new smartphone in what seems like ages. But here?s the key: RIM is in exclusive control of its own operating system and it has a loyal customer base who will stick with it to the very last. This is important because people who still want the RIM experience have nowhere else to go: It?s BlackBerry 10 or bust for them and they will shell out cash to get it.

Nokia, on the other hand, isn?t so fortunate because it?s going exclusively with Windows Phone 8 and lots of companies out there are preparing to blitz the market with Windows devices in the coming months. The tragedy of this is that Nokia still has top-notch engineering talent that?s capable of crafting gorgeous-looking devices. But this doesn?t matter right now because the company?s partnership with Microsoft has so far proven to be utterly disastrous.

Nokia, for reasons that still confound me, decided to go exclusively with Windows Phone in exchange for? well, I?m not really sure what they?re getting in return. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said recently that Microsoft??could? give his company exclusive access to certain parts or aspects of Windows Phone in the future, although he said that the company hadn?t done so yet. He also cited unspecified contractual rights that Nokia received by being the first company to exclusively use Windows Phone, but wouldn?t go into any details about what those rights entailed.

What we know so far, though, is that these exclusive goodies haven?t translated into sales and they haven?t stopped Microsoft from forging ahead with plans to possibly undercut its OEMs once again by building its own smartphone. Elop this week said that his company expected everything to turn around soon because wireless carriers were tired of relying on iOS and Android as the dominant players in the wireless industry and would come flocking to Windows Phone 8 as an alternative. Even if this is true, who?s to say that carriers will flock to Nokia instead of, say, Samsung (005930) or HTC (2498), both of whom have put out Windows Phone 8 devices of their own recently?

With both RIM and Nokia in such dire straits, it wouldn?t be wise to bet on either of them pulling off a major comeback anytime soon. But if someone placed a gun to my head and asked me which company was most likely to survive over the next couple of years, I would have to pick RIM.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worse-shape-rim-nokia-175437313.html

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UN tackles organised crime, but will the public know the results ...

Transnational organised crime has a turnover estimated at US$ 870 billion annually. That doesn?t count the misery and suffering it causes. Organised crime is intertwined with corruption and like corruption has to be dealt with on a global level, through international cooperation.

This week governments are meeting at a UN conference in Vienna to discuss whether they are making progress in tackling international mafia activity, by implementing the necessary laws, institutional changes and practices.

The Mexican Minister of Interior, Alejandro Poire speaking to the press in Vienna on Monday said they are making progress and that international cooperation is making a difference.

But in places like Marseilles and Dominican Republic the news is different. When the Central Americas transparency forum met last week in Honduras, security was high on the agenda.

Crime is a constant traveller. Successes against crime in one country can sometimes drive it elsewhere?.in an era of ?displacement,? noted UNODC head Yuri Fedotov in his opening address.

Making international treaties effective

NGOs discuss UN efforts against corruption, but will they be involved when the UN tackles a similar treaty against organised crime?

The main item on the agenda of the UN conference is how to measure progress under the 2001 United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its Protocols?this includes a protocol on human trafficking.

172 states are party to the convention. They meet every two years at meetings organised by the convention?s secretariat, the UNODC. This time round Mexico is sponsoring a resolution for a new review mechanism, with provisions pretty much identical to those for the? review mechanism for the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption.

The behind-the scenes discussions are tense. What looked like a shoo-in might just not be.

Mr. Fedotov opened the conference by highlighting two issues surrounding the mechanism: funding and the participation of observers.

On the funding issue, the question is whether the funding can be taken from the strapped UN budget. Some of the developed countries say no.

A role for civil society?

The ?participation of observers? issue is about the possibility of public interest organisations attending meetings of the oversight body of the UNTOC.

A resolution tabled by Norway and Switzerland says civil society should attend.

Another resolution tabled by China and Russia says they should not.

The author, Gillian Dell, talks to civil society about holding governments to their UN corruption commitments in Vienna last week

?

To clarify: The oversight body does not discuss any sensitive case-related information about organised crime. It discusses general issues to do with laws and institutions.

Public interest organisations, including those working with trafficked women, want to be present for a very simple reason: They want to understand and contribute to the on-going discussions and not just at the big meetings every two years.

This clash of positions is very familiar from past UN conferences about the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), for which UNODC also serves as secretariat.? Civil society participation and transparency were whittled away to a bare minimum at the UN conferences in 2009 and 2011 in conflict with principles outlined in the UNCAC itself, its rules of procedure and in the terms of reference of its review mechanism.

This is why a broad alliance of civil society organisations that are in Vienna this week are pressing governments there to take a stand for inclusion and access to information in the review process for UNTOC and its Protocols. They are led by the Vienna Alliance on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women and joined by many others including Transparency International and the UNCAC Coalition, composed of over 350 organisations.

Photo credit: International Anti-Corruption Academy

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About Gillian Dell

Gillian Dell is Global Programmes Manager at Transparency International.

Source: http://blog.transparency.org/2012/10/18/un-tackles-organised-crime-but-will-the-public-know-the-results/

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ENERGY STAR Homes = 26% of New Construction in 2011 ...

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Source:?U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on?ENERGY STAR.
Note:?Percentages represent number of ENERGY STAR single-family homes as a percentage of single-family housing completions reported by the?Census Bureau.

Homes built to voluntary ENERGY STAR? specifications made up about 26% of all new homes constructed in the United States during 2011. Under the latest update of the specifications that went into effect earlier this year, ENERGY STAR homes consume at least 15% less energy than those built to the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

There is currently no national?building energy code. States have adopted a variety of codes with different levels of stringency, mostly based on the?IECC, a building energy code created by the?International Code Council. Often the stringency of these state building codes and ENERGY STAR participation is correlated: all but one of the eight states lacking a statewide energy code have low ENERGY STAR participation, while Arizona?s strong utility support for energy-efficient construction has fostered a high penetration of ENERGY STAR qualified homes, even though there is?no statewide code?there.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated the?ENERGY STAR specification?for residential construction in 1995, creating homes that were 30% more efficient than the 1992 Model Energy Code (MEC). The specifications were revised to create Version 2 in 2006, and?Version 3?was released in 2012.

A home can get ENERGY STAR certification in one of two ways: the prescriptive path or performance path. Both paths have program requirements common to all qualifying homes across the nation. The prescriptive path incorporates predefined improvements based on a home?s IECC climate zone, while the performance path uses home energy modeling to account for savings based on a more flexible use of energy savings measures. A certified Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET)?home energy rater?verifies that specific requirements of the guidelines are met.

This article was originally published on the website of the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/18/energy-star-homes-26-of-new-construction-in-2011/

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New to the site, Help!

Hey there, Azrieldemourn! Welcome to RolePlayGateway. I'm Sato, a longtime member around these parts. Glad to help out.

First of all, and it's no big deal, just wanted to let you know you posted this in the wrong forum! The Roleplay Academy is for users who need specific one-on-one help with an area of their writing, or their roleplay. This, the Help forum, is the place for specific and technical site-related questions. Which is what you have here.

Just a housekeeping thing, not a huge problem.

Anyways! To answer your post. In my experience with characters and roleplays, anything with a ' or " mark sends the system into a frenzy. Someone else might duck in with a more material answer, but my general impression is that you won't be able to tag these characters unless their owners remake them without the quotes. No way around it as far as I can tell.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/3XYAkM16xBk/viewtopic.php

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