Posted on 30 September 2012. Tags: investment in stock
Investment in Stock vs. Savings
If you have a substantial amount of money, it makes more sense to make an investment in stock than it does to open a savings account. Many people feel security in housing their money in bank accounts because they know that the FDIC insures the deposit. However, if you look at the real rate of inflation these days, you will see that bank accounts do not offer enough interest to keep up with government money printing. By keeping your money in a bank account, you are actually losing money. It makes almost as much sense to bury the money in your backyard or hide it in your mattress.
An investment in stock involves some risks. Any well-balanced portfolio, though, can minimize those risks while maximizing the earnings. As long as you diversify your holdings in different types of investments, you should prosper in the long run.
Types of Investment in Stock
There are different ways to make an investment in stock. Straightforward investing involves the purchase of a company?s stocks. This turns the stockholder into a part-owner of the company. Most people with a passing knowledge of investment understand this. Many of them fear the possibility of a company setback significantly reducing the value of the stock.
There are safer ways to invest. You can buy shares in an index fund, which spreads its money out over several, diverse companies. This way the effects of any setbacks are lessened by the stability or success of other stocks in the fund portfolio.
You can also protect your money by simply diversifying your holdings. Do not lump all your money into one or even a few stocks. Spread your investment in stock over several diverse companies that will follow distinct trends in the market.
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The Mexican navy brought a suspected leader of the brutal Zetas drug cartel before news cameras Thursday, after catching the capo amid a violent rift within the powerful criminal gang.
The 42-year-old Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as "Z-50" and "El Taliban," stood stone-faced as marines presented him to the press, wearing a checkered long-sleeve shirt and a bullet-proof vest with two other captured suspects.
Marines detained Velazquez Caballero on Wednesday in a house in the central city of San Luis Potosi, from where he directed operations in four central and northern Mexican states, the navy said.
He was on the list of the 37 most wanted drug lords -- with a $2.3 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
The arrest shed light on a feud within the Zetas, with the navy saying Velazquez Caballero had defied one of the cartel's bosses.
But while the Zetas are divided, the arrest will likely not disrupt the cartel's operations because it is set up like a franchise with cells spread out in various states, analysts said.
"It's important, because El Taliban was a violent and cruel figure, but it does not weaken the Zetas," said Ricardo Ravelo, author of the book "Five Stories of the Zetas."
Velazquez Caballero had allegedly been the Zetas' regional capo in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato and Coahuila states since 2007, said navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara, a vice admiral.
"Some sources say he challenged Miguel Trevino Morales, alias 'Z-40,' starting a struggle for control of San Luis Potosi," Vergara said.
The power struggle is believed to have led to the execution of 14 of Velazquez Caballero's followers in San Luis Potosi in August, he added.
Mexico has been in the grip of a brutal drug war that has left some 60,000 people dead since the launch of a military crackdown against the cartels in 2006.
Authorities have attributed a series of murders near the US border in recent months to disputes among the Zetas.
Two weeks ago, 16 bodies were found in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. Nine of the bodies were hanging from a bridge, with messages from Zetas-linked gangs accusing each other of treason.
A navy source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that Velazquez Caballero had approached Gulf Cartel leaders to seek an alliance against Trevino Morales.
The weekly magazine Proceso has reported that Velazquez Caballero had posted street signs in the north and online videos accusing Trevino Morales of betraying some of his lieutenants and ratting them out to the authorities.
US authorities say the Zetas, who are led by Trevino Morales and Heriberto Lazcano, are one of Mexico's most powerful gangs alongside the Pacific region's Sinaloa federation, led by fugitive Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Much of the northeast is in the clutches of the Zetas cartel, which was founded by former Mexican special forces soldiers who went rogue and are known for decapitating and dismembering their enemies.
The Zetas were originally hired as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, but turned on their employers and have fought them for control of lucrative drug routes to the United States.
The navy struck a major blow against the Gulf Cartel this month, arresting its suspected kingpin, Jorge Eduardo Costilla, alias "El Coss," and another senior leader, Mario Cardenas Guillen, known as "El Gordo."
The weakening of the Gulf Cartel and Zetas infighting could clear a path for Guzman to grab the northeast coast, analysts said.
"This is great news for El Chapo. I'm sure he's sitting back and laughing right now," said Sylvia Longmire, a former US Air Force special agent and author of "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars."
"I'm sure El Chapo can work this to his advantage," she told AFP. "And I'm sure he's going to try."
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Experts Blame IT Spoofing on Lack of Awareness About Digital Security
RIYADH, 23 April ? Inadequate knowledge of firewalls and other elements of the data security system is rendering some of the Kingdom?s major organizations vulnerable to cyber attacks. ?One of the problems we have faced ?
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The pre-holiday procession of Chinese entrepreneurs bearing gifts for the officials who hold sway over their businesses highlights the ubiquity of corruption in China and the difficulty the government will have in stamping it out.
For the past few weeks, business people across the country have been preoccupied not with their companies' operations, but with delivering thinly veiled bribes to the officials who grant them permits, sign off on the quality of their products or validate their tax bills.
The gift-giving ahead of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, for which the country will virtually shut down for the week beginning on Monday, has created traffic jams and parking chaos outside many government agencies' offices, according to residents of several cities.
Bearing gift cards, premium liquor, luxury products and even airline tickets, entrepreneurs visit the officials they need to maintain good relations with or expect to receive favours from, perpetuating a culture of corruption about which foreign businesses frequently complain.
"It's the small potatoes that have the biggest appetites," said Li, a woman who runs a retail business in Jinan, capital of the eastern province of Shandong. She declined to give her full name.
KEEPING SCORE
Since early September, Li has been busy delivering gift cards, in particular to the district-level officials who sign off on the permits she needs to stay in business.
For this year's festival, she has had to hand out cards worth at least 5,000 yuan ($800) to each official she needs to keep happy. Before the Lunar New Year in the spring of each year, district officials expect double that, she said. Some also demand regular smaller gifts throughout the year.
"They all keep a record book of the reputations of gift-giving by people. If you're not generous enough or didn't perform well during a specific holiday, then word will spread fast," said Li.
Such widespread corruption is nothing new; it has long been recognised as a problem, and the government has taken steps to crack down, especially on officials who are caught red-handed.
But the prevalence of holiday bribe-taking on the eve of the early-November Communist Party Congress - at which a new generation of top leaders will be anointed and ahead of which Beijing is particularly sensitive about issues like corruption - underscores the degree to which it is entrenched.
While the downfall of Bo Xilai - a one-time rising political star who was expelled from the Party on Friday on allegations including taking huge bribes - has embarrassed the Party and government, business people say such behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg, with corruption extending down to country townships and city districts.
WATCHES A NO-NO
Beijing's anti-corruption fight has had some impact.
With the Party's reputation singed by a series of corruption scandals and rising public ire over them, it has imposed a "frugal working style" rule on civil servants effective October 1, barring them from spending public money on banquets or fancy cars, and from accepting expensive gifts.
But rather than stamp out bribe-taking, the main result has been a shift in the types of gifts given, away from luxury watches and flashy handbags and towards things like gift cards that can be passed on with a handshake or left discreetly in an office, according to several business people.
Those sensitivities were heightened when an official in Shaanxi province was fired a week ago for discipline violations after internet users collated photos of him wearing a number of luxury watches on various occasions, prompting a flurry of criticism online.
"Watches are not popular now, they're too dangerous to wear," said a businessman named Zhuang, an entrepreneur in Nantong in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
To get around that, in addition to gift cards, many people give gifts together with their receipts, so officials can return the gift for cash, he said.
But there is no option but to keep on giving.
"If I don't make them happy, they will cause trouble for my company," Zhuang said.
(Additional reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Spain's Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro shows his papers reading "expenses of ministries get down 8.5 %" during during a news conference at Parliament in Madrid, Spain , Saturday, Sept. 29 , 2012. Spain's public debt will reach 90.5% of its gross domestic product in 2013 with new austerity budget, according to government documents. Spain also raised the forecast for this year to 85.5% from the 79.8% originally forecast. Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro spoke after presenting the 2013 draft budget that the government announced Thursday would cut overall spending by euro 40 billion ($51 billion). The budget also reduces funds available for unemployment payments by 6.3 percent, and support for Spain's royal house by 4 percent. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Spain's Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro shows his papers reading "expenses of ministries get down 8.5 %" during during a news conference at Parliament in Madrid, Spain , Saturday, Sept. 29 , 2012. Spain's public debt will reach 90.5% of its gross domestic product in 2013 with new austerity budget, according to government documents. Spain also raised the forecast for this year to 85.5% from the 79.8% originally forecast. Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro spoke after presenting the 2013 draft budget that the government announced Thursday would cut overall spending by euro 40 billion ($51 billion). The budget also reduces funds available for unemployment payments by 6.3 percent, and support for Spain's royal house by 4 percent. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Protestors hold a banner reading "you don't represent us" during a demonstration against austerity measures announced by the Spanish government in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. Spain's Parliament has taken on the appearance of a heavily guarded fortress with dozens of police blocking access from every possible angle, hours ahead of a protest against the conservative government's handling of the economic crisis. The demonstration, organized behind the slogan 'Occupy Congress,' is expected to draw thousands of people who call for Parliament to be dissolved and fresh elections held, claiming the government's austerity measures show the ruling Popular Party misled voters to get elected last November. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
MADRID (AP) ? Thousands of Portuguese enduring deep economic pain from austerity cuts took to the streets Saturday in protest, and Spanish demonstrators outraged over similar measures were preparing to approach parliament for the third time this week to vent their anger against tax hikes, government spending cuts and the highest unemployment rate among the 17 nations that use the euro currency.
In Lisbon, retired banker Antonio Trinidade said the budget cuts Portugal is locked into in return for the nation's ?78 billion ($101 billion) bailout are making the country's economy the worst he has seen in his lifetime. His pension has been cut, and he said countless young Portuguese are increasingly heading abroad because they can't make a living at home.
"The government and the troika controlling what we do because of the bailout just want to cut more and more and rob from us," Trinidade said, referring to the troika of creditors ?the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "The young don't have any future, and the country is on the edge of an abyss. I'm getting toward the end of my life, but these people in their 20s or 30s don't have jobs, or a future."
In Spain, marchers were preparing to again head toward parliament, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has an absolute majority and has pushed through waves of austerity measures over the last nine months ? trying to prevent Spain from being forced into the same kind of bailout taken by Portugal, Ireland and Greece.
The protests near Spain's parliament turned violent Tuesday and Wednesday nights when protesters clashed with riot police, who barricaded entry to the streets surrounding government buildings. Dozens of people were arrested and injured.
On Friday, Rajoy's administration presented a 2013 draft budget that will cut overall spending by ?40 billion ($51.7 billion), freezing the salaries of public workers, cutting spending for unemployment benefits and even reducing spending for Spain's royal family next year by 4 percent.
Investors worried about Spain's economic viability have forced up the interest rate they are willing to pay to buy Spanish bonds. The country's banks hurting from a property boom that went bust are set to get help soon from a ?100 billion ($129 billion) financial lifeline from the eurozone, and Rajoy is pondering whether to ask for help from the ECB to buy Spanish bonds.
Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Saturday that the budget cuts for next year were necessary to ease market tensions and try to bring down high interest rates Spain must pay to get investors to buy its bonds.
___
Associated Press television producer Yesica Fisch contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.
People gather around the burning wreckage at the crash site near Katmandu, Nepal, early Friday.
By NBC News wire reports
KATMANDU, Nepal -- A plane carrying trekkers to the Everest region crashed and caught fire just after takeoff Friday in Nepal's capital, killing 19 people.
The victims included British, Chinese and Nepali passengers, authorities said.
The pilot of the domestic Sita Air flight reported trouble two minutes after takeoff, and Katmandu airport official Ratish Chandra Suman said the pilot appeared to have been trying to turn back.?
The crash site is only 547 yards from the airport, and the wrecked plane was pointing toward the airport area.
Reuters said it was a twin-engine, propeller-driven Dornier aircraft.
Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash and identify the bodies. Suman said he could not confirm if the plane was already on fire before it crashed.
Villagers forced back by flames Cellphone video shot by locals showed the front section of the plane was on fire when it first hit the ground and appeared the pilot had attempted to land the plane on open ground beside a river.
The fire quickly spread to the rear, but the tail was still in one piece at the scene near the Manohara River on the southwest edge of Katmandu.
Villagers were unable to approach the plane because of the fire and it took some time for firefighters to reach the area and bring the fire under control.
Nepal officials: 6 survive, 15 killed as plane hits mountain in Himalayas
Soldiers and police shifted through the crash wreckage looking for bodies and documents to help identify the victims.
Seven passengers were British and five were Chinese; the other four passengers and the three crew members were from Nepal, authorities said.
Large number of local people and security forces gathered at the crash site. The charred bodies were taken by vans to the hospital morgue.
Gateway to Everest The weather in Katmandu and surrounding areas was clear on Friday morning, and it was one of the first flights to take off from Katmandu's Tribhuwan International Airport. Other flights reported no problems, and the airport operated normally.
The plane was heading for Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest. Thousands of Westerners make treks in the region around the world's highest peak each year. Autumn is considered the best time to trek the foothills of the Himalayan peaks.
More international coverage from NBC News?
In May, 15 people were killed when their plane crashed into a hill in northwest Nepal.
Autumn is the peak tourism season in Nepal which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest. At least 11 people were killed in an avalanche in northwest Nepal on Sunday.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Dec. 4: Nepal's top politicians hold their Cabinet meeting on Mount Everest to highlight the danger global warming poses on glaciers ahead of next week's climate change talks in Copenhagen. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
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When Janet Riordan returned home from a European vacation in January, she expected a storm of tail wagging and barking from her seven-year-old golden retriever, Reggie. The moment she saw him, she knew something was wrong. ?He came to me in my arms and appeared to be sobbing. I had never seen an animal behave like that,? said Riordan, who lives in Mequon, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A veterinarian confirmed her fears: Reggie had an aggressive form of lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. Riordan knew the toll that lymphoma could take. Four years earlier her father died of it. ?It was devastating,? Riordan said. ?I never thought I would lose my dad and my dog to the same disease.?
Pet owners share their homes, their exercise habits, and sometimes even their food with their four-legged companions. And increasingly, they are sharing the same diseases: Dogs and cats suffer from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, thyroid disorders, and asthma, just like humans.
Now researchers are examining the role that pollutants and other environmental factors may play in these dual diseases. Doctors and veterinarians have begun to work together to investigate common risk factors, such as pesticides, air pollutants, cigarette smoke, and household chemicals. ?Because our pets share our environments, they are exposed to many of the same pollutants as us,? said Melissa Paoloni, a veterinary oncologist at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland.
Pets, like many young children, often have higher exposures to lawn and garden pesticides and to household chemicals that can accumulate in dust or on carpets. Scientific research is beginning to reveal some links between their environment and their health. Lawn care chemicals may increase the risk of canine lymphoma and bladder cancer. Cats exposed to flame retardants have a higher rate of thyroid disease, according to one study. And researchers are launching the largest project ever to tackle disease prevention and treatment in dogs. ?People are beginning to realize the untapped resource that companion animals present for research in human health,? said Rodney Page, director of the Colorado State University?s Animal Cancer Center.
Studies in pets can never replace studies in humans, but they can present corroborating evidence. Linking pollutants to human health effects can prove controversial, ?but if we can find the same links in dogs or cats, that can have a powerful effect,? said John Reif, a Colorado State University veterinarian and epidemiologist. ?It?s one more piece of evidence that the link is a real one.?
Riordan will never know what caused Reggie?s lymphoma. Golden retrievers generally have a high rate of cancer, most likely for genetic reasons. But some research suggests that environmental chemicals may play a role in the development of lymphoma in dogs.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts and the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine questioned the owners of more than seven hundred dogs about use of pesticides. Roughly one-third of the dogs had been diagnosed with canine malignant lymphoma, while the other two-thirds had either benign tumors or were undergoing non-cancer surgeries.
Dogs whose owners reported use of professionally applied lawn pesticides were 70 percent more likely to have lymphoma, according to the study published in the journal Environmental Research in January. Dogs also were at higher risk of lymphoma if their owners used self-applied insect growth regulators on their yards, such as Nylar, Precor, and Gentrol, which control cockroaches, fleas, and other pests. However, dogs exposed to flea powders, sprays, and on-spot treatments were no more likely to develop lymphoma than those whose owners did not use them,
In addition, Scottish terriers exposed to certain herbicides, including the common weed killer 2,4-D, were more than four times likely to develop bladder cancer than those whose yards were untreated, according to a 2004 by Purdue University veterinarians.
Results of other studies have been mixed, with some showing an increased lymphoma risk in pets exposed to lawn chemicals and others finding no link. Malignant lymphoma in dogs closely resembles non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma. More than 60,000 Americans a year are diagnosed with the disease, making it the sixth most common cancer in the United States. ?The close interaction and shared household environments of dogs and their human owners provides a unique opportunity for evaluating how herbicide and pesticide exposure may contribute to human non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma,? the study authors wrote.
Pesticides may increase the risk of the disease in people, too. Last year, Danish researchers found that people with high levels of DDT and other organochlorine pesticides were more likely to develop non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma years later. ?Clearly dogs are not humans, but physiologically speaking, they are very similar,? said Lisa Barber, a veterinary oncologist at Tufts University and study author.
?The most heartbreaking thing is their short lifespan. It?s also what makes them useful models for human disease,? she continued. Because dogs live accelerated lives compared with humans, researchers can gather information on a lifetime of exposure much more quickly than in people.
Using animals as sentinels for human health is not a new concept. More than one hundred years ago, miners took caged canaries into coal mines to warn them of toxic gases. In the 1950s, thousands of people in Japan died or suffered serious effects from eating mercury-poisoned fish from Minamata Bay. Locals had first noticed strange neurological symptoms in cats, which they described as dancing in the streets before collapsing and dying.
Pets also played an important role in drawing a link between asbestos and mesothelioma. In the 1980s, researchers found high levels of asbestos fibers in the lungs of pet dogs diagnosed with the lung disease. The finding helped increase understanding of the threats that asbestos posed to people, said Reif from Colorado State.
More recently, researchers have found that ozone, the main ingredient of smog, may contribute to asthma in cats, and household tobacco smoke may be a risk factor for nose, throat, and lung cancers in dogs. A rise in hyperthyroidism in cats also has been linked to brominated flame retardants, which are used in upholstery and electronics and contaminate dust and canned cat foods. Cats with overactive thyroids ? which can lead to weight loss, increased appetite, hyperactivity and death ? had higher blood levels of the chemicals, according to one small study led by Environmental Protection Agency scientists.
Because of their meticulous grooming habits, cats may ingest a lot of dust. The link to hyperthyroidism in felines ?should be alarming to parents of crawling toddlers who explore their environments by putting everything in their mouths,? said Donna Mensching, veterinary medical director of the Washington Poison Center in Seattle.
Toddlers with high exposure to the flame retardants have lower IQs, according to one study. The chemicals also have been linked to altered thyroid hormones in pregnant women, which might harm a baby?s brain development.
Looking at the way environmental pollutants might interact with genetics in animal breeds susceptible to certain diseases may benefit human health as well. ?We know something about their breed history and susceptibility to certain diseases, which may make it easier to tease out gene-environment interactions,? said Dr. Robert A. Hiatt, an epidemiologist at the University of San Francisco and a former family physician. The functions of certain genes are very similar in dogs and humans, according to Hiatt. ?What we learn from pets may also be applicable to humans,? he said.
One of many questions the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study aims to address is how environmental chemicals may interact with genes in a breed that is susceptible to health problems. An estimated 60 percent of golden retrievers die from cancer, according to the Morris Animal Foundation, a nonprofit group that is funding the study. As a breed, they may be genetically susceptible, regardless of what chemicals they may have been exposed to.
The nationwide study will enroll 3,000 young golden retrievers and follow them through their entire lives. Page, one of the lead investigators, likens it to the Nurse?s Health Study, one of the longest running women?s health studies in the country.
?The opportunity will be quite seminal and transformative in terms of exposure science, because it will offer a new set of data with which to evaluate similarities with human exposure data,? Page said.
This research also may help experts develop treatments for diseases. ?We can cure anything in a mouse, but so many times new drugs fail miserably when taken straight from lab animals to human trials,? said Heather Wilson-Robles, a veterinary oncologist at Texas A&M University.
Dogs and cats develop diseases spontaneously for many of the same reasons people do, which means experts can predict from pets how a new drug may act in humans. ?Mouse models are really important in the development of new treatments, but we are skipping a step when we take a drug from lab animals to humans without first looking to our veterinary patients,? Wilson-Robles said.
In Reggie?s case, Riordan and her vet looked first to human studies to form a treatment plan. He received chemotherapy and experimental high-dose vitamin C injections, a treatment that Riordan had uncovered while researching options for her father. ?We thought if it worked in humans, it might work for dogs,? she said.
In February, less than two months after being diagnosed with canine lymphoma, Reggie died. Riordan wasn?t aware of the link between lawn-care products and lymphoma in dogs, but, she said, ?we were always really careful about chemicals. We don?t use pesticides in our yard or a lot of chemicals in the house.?
While Riordan hopes researchers may one day be able to prevent dogs like Reggie from getting cancer, she knows tragedy comes with pet ownership. ?We love them so much that even if they don?t die of cancer, they will ultimately break our hearts,? she said.
This story was originally published by EnvironmentalHealthNews.org
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WEST PLAINS, Mo. (AP) ? After leaving high school as a teen mother, Ashley McCullough is back on track to receive a two-year degree and work as a respiratory therapist. But she first had to conquer a remedial math class and its core lessons on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division ? the same basic skills her now 6-year-old daughter will soon start to learn in elementary school.
"I didn't have my act together," the 23-year-old said. "I had a baby at 16."
McCullough is far from alone at Missouri State University-West Plains, a two-year school nestled in the southern Missouri Ozarks near the Arkansas border where roughly three out of every four students take at least one remedial class.
That's well above the national estimates of remedial participation rates of 20 percent to 30 percent at four-year schools and more than 50 percent at community colleges. And like their counterparts at public flagship universities, rural teacher colleges and urban commuter campuses, many of McCullough's classmates will drop out before advancing to the next course, let alone graduate or move on to a four-year school.
It's forcing those on the front lines to try dramatically different approaches, from tweaking the standards that determine who needs extra help to allowing remedial students to simultaneously take the introductory classes they were once barred from.
The changes come as impatient lawmakers in states such as Connecticut, Kansas, Ohio and Tennessee are restricting or eliminating remedial classes at public colleges, or even threatening to withhold money from schools that don't do a better job of preparing unprepared students for the rigors of college. In Washington, President Barack Obama has challenged two-year and four-year schools to improve workforce training and college completion rates.
"When you have 35 percent of students passing your course, that is not acceptable," said Missouri State math specialist Thora Broyles. "Something had to be done."
At West Plains, the first step was hiring an administrator to focus solely on what practitioners prefer to call developmental education, rather than assign the task to a disinterested or overburdened faculty member.
The nomenclature is more than symbolic, said Mirra Anson, who was hired as the school's "dev ed" director thanks to a five-year federal grant.
"With remedial education, the connotation is we are making up for things they didn't learn in high school," she said. "But with dev ed, we are developing the skills they need to have to be successful. There's a different connotation there. There's no need to remediate what they didn't have in high school, because that part of their life is over. So let's move forward now and talk about what you need."
That means no more lectures for Broyles' remedial math students, who instead work on self-paced lessons in computer labs. Rather than lecture, Broyles instead works individually with students, aided by two tutors culled from the ranks of advanced students. The approach, developed at Virginia Tech Univeristy, is known as the "Emporium" model. Some students complete the two remedial classes and a required college algebra class in one semester; others take weeks before even moving past simple equations.
"I like the fact they give you the option to work at your own pace," said McCullough, who completed high school in a home-based program after her daughter's birth and now has another child who soon turns 2. "I probably wasn't on the same level that everybody else was (who had enrolled) right out of high school."
New West Plains students struggling with basic grammar, punctuation and argumentative writing now take the same freshman composition course as their more advanced peers, but separate into smaller groups ? with the same professor ? for a pass-fail developmental English class that builds on the work covered in the more advanced writing class. The "accelerated learning program" is modeled on a similar effort at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland.
Sydney Wilson, an aspiring teacher from Houston, Mo., expects to receive her associate degree in the spring and a four-year diploma from the school in 2014 after successfully completing the accelerated English course.
The teacher "could take everything we were writing about in the first English class, and in the second class, we'd just write about it in more detail," Wilson said. "So I wasn't writing two separate papers for each class, it was just tied together as one."
Like most schools, West Plains uses student scores on the ACT or other standardized college entrance exams to determine who needs additional help. That approach has come under fire from some reformers who question whether other measures, such as high school grade-point average or course evaluation, are predictors that are more accurate. Two recent studies by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College found that up to one-third of new students in the examined school systems were improperly placed in remedial classes.
And a scathing report released in May by the Washington-based nonprofit Complete College America called remediation "higher education's bridge to nowhere," traveled by nearly 1.7 million U.S. college students, with almost four in 10 community college remedial students not completing those courses and just one in 10 graduating from those schools.
The challenges of remedial education, though, transcend curriculum, said Rebecca Goosen, dean of college preparatory at San Jacinto College in Texas and president of the National Association of Developmental Education.
For many, life challenges become all consuming, she said, from the single mother losing a reliable babysitter to the teenager who can't afford to fix a broken-down car.
"People are trying to find the silver bullet," Goosen said. "It's a very complex issue...We are not going to fix, in a 16-week period, what's been broken for years."
In West Plains, college students also struggle to excel in a region marked by high poverty and unemployment, low cultural expectations and public schools where the quality of education varies widely, numerous students, teachers and school Chancellor Drew Bennett said in interviews.
For Bennett, that means offering students what he calls the "Missouri State-West Plains Promise," a one-time guarantee that allows students who receive a "D'' or "F'' grade that causes their grade-point average to sink below 2.0 to retake the same class the next semester at no cost ? provided the students have no more than two class absences, submit assignments on time, and seek outside help from teachers, advisors and tutors.
Bennett, an ex-Marine and National War College professor, reinforces that message and other important university missives by reaching students where they congregrate, which includes reminders and motivational tips posted in a weekly restroom newsletter known as the "Stall Study."
Yet for all of the schools' efforts ? its innovations have attracted acclaim from the Aspen Institute as one of the country's top 30 community colleges ? the hurdles its student face outside the classroom can appear insurmountable.
Single mother Kristi Hargrove, 39, returned to campus in 2009 after dropping out following just one semester nine years earlier: "I was too young to know any better and too young to care," she said.
Placed into remedial math, she struggled to keep up. But a series of personal upheavals ? from her brother's death to a broken engagement ? culminated with Hargrove again dropping out earlier this year, 20 credits shy of her associate degree in nursing.
"The pressure just kicked in, and I had to quit school," she said. "I call the Ozarks 'quicksand.' Once you're here, you're here (for good), and can't make enough money to get out."
Elizabeth Kusel, 42, returned to school at West Plains after first enrolling at a two-year school near her southern Oregon home more than a decade ago. A single mother, she lived in a women's domestic violence shelter with her two sons, ages 8 and 9, after her divorce and is now an honors student with hopes of attending the University of Virginia and law school at Stanford.
She too had to survive Math 20, the remedial class that defeated too many of her fellow freshmen. Kusel sympathizes with those who don't make it.
"There have been a lot of days I ask, 'Why am I doing this?'" she said. "It would be so much easier to go get a dead-end job and pay everything off and not go through this."
___
Alan Scher Zagier can be reached at http://twitter.com/azagier
Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your question.??Unfortunately, I don't think I can help very much.
As you found in your own research, there are no data on whether either U. urealyticum or M. genitalium can infect the oral cavity through oral sex, or on transmission by oral sex.??However, the available data -- for example, the infrequency of gonorrhea transmission by cunnilingus (in either direction) would suggest a similar low risk for both UU and MG.
In any case, these are not very important infections.??Most UU and probably most MG infections don't cause serious outcomes.??Mostly they are carried in the genital tract without causing important disease.??I don't recommend oral testing for them (we don't have tests available for them in my STD clinic and probably would find little use for them even if we did). Even if you were to have positive results for them on a throat swab, I wouldn't know how to interpret the result and would not necessarily recommend treatment.
So I don't recommend you do anything at this point.??If you continue oral sex (as well as vaginal and perhaps anal sex) with your partner and neither of you develops symptoms or problems, you can pretty much forget it.
As you probably know, expert advice would be available in person at your local NHS GUM clinic; or, as you suggest, a private STD clinic, such as London's Freedom Health Clinic.??But my guess is that either of these would agree with my opinion.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With college enrollment growing, student debt has stretched to a record number of U.S. households ? nearly 1 in 5 ? with the biggest burdens falling on the young and poor.
The analysis by the Pew Research Center found that 22.4 million households, or 19 percent, had college debt in 2010. That is double the share in 1989, and up from 15 percent in 2007, just prior to the recession ? representing the biggest three-year increase in student debt in more than two decades.
The increase was driven by higher tuition costs as well as rising college enrollment during the economic downturn. The biggest jumps occurred in households at the two extremes of the income distribution. More well-off families are digging deeper into their pockets to pay for costly private colleges, while lower-income people in search of higher-wage jobs are enrolling in community colleges, public universities and other schools as a way to boost their resumes.
Because of the sluggish economy, fewer college students than before are able to settle into full-time careers immediately upon graduation, contributing to a jump in debt among lower-income households as the young adults take on part-time jobs or attend graduate school, according to Pew.
As a share of household income, the debt burden was the greatest for the poorest 20 percent of households, or those making less than $21,044. In all, 40 percent of U.S. households headed by someone younger than age 35 owed college debt, the highest share of any age group.
"Comparing the debt to their economic resources, the lowest-income fifth of households are the ones experiencing the greatest stresses," said Richard Fry, a senior economist at Pew who analyzed the numbers.
Noting that college enrollment has continued to climb since 2010, Fry added: "Until college enrollment peaks, I would not expect the amount of outstanding student debt to level off."
The study released Wednesday is based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years and sponsored by the Federal Reserve. The numbers are as of 2010, the latest available for that survey. Separate Fed data have pointed to subsequent increases in student loans since 2010 that totaled $914 billion in the April-June quarter, but don't provide demographic breakdowns on who shoulders the biggest burdens.
Both President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger in this year's election, Mitt Romney, have been seeking to court young voters with differing visions on how to address rising tuition and growing college debt. Obama wants to make tax credits for college expenses permanent and expand Pell grants for lower-earning families. Romney says that making government the direct source of federal student loans has not worked and simply drives tuition higher. He stresses the need to curb college costs.
The Pew report found that the richest 20 percent of households, or those with annual income of $97,586 or higher, owed the biggest share of outstanding student debt ? 31 percent, up from 28 percent in 2007. The poorest 20 percent of households also saw their debt grow, to 13 percent from 11 percent.
The richest households saw significant increases in per-household debt. For those with annual income of $97,586 to $146,791, college debt rose from $25,921 in 2007 to $31,989. For the richest 10 percent, making at least $146,792, college debt increased from $36,033 to $44,810.
Across all households, the average outstanding college debt increased from $23,349 to $26,682. For the poorest 20 percent of households, the average debt rose from $19,018 to $20,640.
In recent years, Americans have cut back on several other types of borrowing such as credit card use, with average household indebtedness falling from $105,297 in 2007 to $100,720 in 2010. Broken down by income levels, however, average total indebtedness for the bottom 20 percent of households by income actually rose from $17,579 in 2007 to $26,779; for the higher income groups, average indebtedness either was unchanged or declined.
___
Online:
Pew Social & Demographic Trends: http://pewsocialtrends.org/
Consistency is the key to clear thinking. Aristotle described the principles of logical reasoning already in the year 345 B.C. Twenty four centuries later, his conclusions remain applicable. Entities should be defined on the basis of their essential characteristics. Actions lead to consequences. Today's events are the result of previous occurrences. Those few principles govern reality. How to formulate your long-term objectives
When a man formulates his long-term objectives, he should strive to write them clearly and break them down into simple steps. A comprehensive philosophy that cannot be summarized into a few sentences is of little practical use.
Ambitious goals require sustained effort, often over a period of decades. Reducing complex strategies to simple formulas motivates us to attain intermediate targets. Happiness is the result of preceding actions that generate slow incremental progress. Sharp thinkers look, at the same time, far into the future and close into the present. You cannot escape the requirement of clarity
There is no way of escaping the requirement of clarity. Talking about forthcoming achievements becomes irrelevant if we are unable to define what we need to do today. The feasibility of long-term ambitions depends on man's ability to reduce them to sequential steps.
Mistakes arise from the temptation to move too fast towards our objectives. Disorganized ventures fall prey to their own chaos. Without a well-designed plan, self-reliance turns into doubt and convictions into prejudice. Without a method to filter out irrelevancies, man gets lost in secondary roads that lead him away from his goals. Unclear expectations undermine reason
Lack of thoughtfulness leads to exaggerate problems and blow inconveniences out of proportion. Unclear expectations undermine reason. Confusion renders tasks heavier than they have to be. Contradictory values bring about unbridled emotions. Inconsistent criteria waste energy in endless discussions and destroys the ability to perform well.
In the kitchen, only detailed recipes give consistent results. Eating well is the overall objective, but actual cooking relies on specific ingredients, temperature, seasoning, and a formula that combines them. Failing to identify concrete elements of action makes impossible to implement plans and deprives man of confidence on his own abilities.
Imprecise plans and performance criteria blind our eyes. Today's random actions destroy yesterday's creations. Self-inflicted contradictions lead to failure, anger, and anxiety. A company whose employees render erratic, unpredictable services is doomed. Never trust individuals who are long on philosophical talk and short on implementation details. Condense your strategy into a simple formula
Quality controls are useless if people don't know what they are doing. Quality requires clear objectives, purposeful thinking, and continuous action. If you want to be taken seriously, break down your twenty-year goals into monthly steps. The workable approach to happiness is a rational connection between our present actions and our life objectives.
Manufacturers follow a production formula to ensure that they are using the right materials. Check-lists permit managers to assess if a worker is sufficiently trained to do his job. A company's compensation plan aligns the interests of employees with the corporate goals.
Nobody can figure out all right answers all the time, but if you condense your strategy into a formula, mistakes will be self-correcting. Chaos leads to more chaos, but a recipe can be improved from experience. Breaking down long-term goals into detailed steps is of critical importance in business and private life.
For more information about rational living and personal growth, I refer you to my book about how to be rational? "The 10 Principles of Rational Living" [Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
[Image by EDD07 under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The San Diego County Water Authority announced a tentative agreement Thursday to buy all of the output of what will be the Western Hemisphere?s largest seawater desalination plant.
As part of its latest round of "spring cleaning," Google just announced that it is shuttering AdSense for Feeds. The service, which allows publishers to earn a bit of extra revenue by adding Google's ads to their RSS feeds, will be retired on October 2 and will close on December 3. Given that Feedburner?has long been expected to be on one of Google's next spring cleaning lists, it doesn't come as a surprise that the company is now shutting down the only way it was actually making money from the product.
Opening batsman Chris Gayle says he remains confident the West Indies can advance to the finals of the ICC world Twenty20 tournament currently underway in Sri Lanka.
Gayle sounded upbeat as the West Indies prepared to take on defending champions England in their first game of the super eight phase of the competition Thursday, CMC reports.
?We are very confident. Our main worry was to cross this hurdle which was actually to make it to the super eight so I am pretty much confident we should do well. I am very confident we can go straight to the end,? said Gayle Wednesday.
?The guys will be more relaxed. The first game was a pressure game and the second game was a pressure game as well. I think they are more relaxed and eventually they will come into their own and then they can play the cricket which everyone knows they are capable of."
The West Indies advanced without winning any of their two games in the group phase of the competition.
They lost their rain-affected match against Australia on the Duckworth Lewis method while there was no result in Monday?s rained out encounter against Ireland.
Gayle, who smashed a top score of 54 in the game against Australia, says he is pleased with his current form.
?We are looking at the depth in our batting. It?s a long way down to number eleven and it?s a situation where I don?t really want to go out there and be aggressive and don?t give myself that actual chance to actually get accustom to the condition,? said Gayle.
?I still want to be myself and get accustomed to the wicket, maybe one over and then take it from there but I don?t want to take it for granted and say we have a lot of batting and then when we go out there I play a rash shot and get out and then it cost the team."
Total knee replacements: Effective, costly and boomingPublic release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Brown jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu 319-356-7124 University of Iowa Health Care
Total knee replacement is a very common and safe surgery that's used to relieve severe pain and disability caused by knee osteoarthritis, and to improve patients' quality of life. However, it's also very expensive at approximately $15,000 per procedure. With an estimated 600,000 total knee replacements performed annually in the United States, the aggregate annual cost for total knee replacement (also known as total knee arthroplasty or TKA) is $9 billion.
Researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine studied trends in TKA surgeries over a 20-year period from 1991 to 2010 and found a tremendous growth in the number of TKAs performed in the U.S. Medicare population. The study, published Sept. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), suggests the growth is driven by both the increase in the number of older Americans and increased demand among older adults for total knee replacements.
"For policy makers, a main finding of the study was the dramatic growth we saw in the number of first time TKAs done in this population of Medicare patients," says Peter Cram, M.D., UI professor of internal medicine and lead study author. "The growth was driven by an aging population -- there simply are many more adults over age 65 now than there were 20 years ago -- and within this population, demand of this procedure has doubled."
Cram notes that the growth also reflects the success of the total knee replacements as well as an increased desire by older adults to maintain a more active lifestyle.
"This is an incredibly effective surgery. Although it is a major surgery, it is extremely well tolerated and it allows people to remain active as they age," he says. "But the increased in numbers means that this procedure represents a major health care expense for Medicare program.
"Our findings highlight the challenge of controlling costs in an ageing population that wants the highest quality care possible " Cram adds.
The analysis included 3,271,851 Medicare patients (age 65 years or older) who underwent first time TKA and 318,563 who underwent revision TKA.
The researchers found that the number of first time knee replacements increased more than two and a half times from 93,230 in 1991 to 243,802 in 2010, while per capita utilization doubled from 31.2 procedures per 10,000 Medicare enrollees in 1991 to 62.1 procedures per 10,000 in 2010.
In addition, the number of revision TKA procedures more than doubled from 9,650 in 1991 to 19,871 in 2010 and per capita use of the procedure increased by almost 60 percent.
Cram noted a second important finding of the study was the decrease in the number of days TKA patients spend in hospital following surgery (also know as length of stay). During the 20-year study period, length of stay decreased from approximately eight to four days. At the same, time the study showed an increase in the rates of readmission.
"We are discharging patients sooner after their surgery because of the incentives that Medicare places upon the hospital, physician, and medical team," says Brian Wolf, M.D., UI professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation and senior author on the study. "It's not surprising that with increasingly shortened hospital stays, more patients are being readmitted after discharge."
The study showed all-cause 30-day readmission rates increased from 4.2 percent in 1991-1994 to 5.0 percent in 2007-2010. For revision TKA, a decrease in hospital length of stay was accompanied by an increase in all-cause 30-day readmission from 6 percent to 9 percent and an increase in readmission for wound infection from 1.4 percent to 3.0 percent.
"Patients should be aware that discharge is likely to happen within a few days of the surgery and that there is a chance of readmission due to problems," Cram says.
"Readmission is also a cost to hospitals and increased readmission rates eliminate some of the cost savings achieved by shortening the initial length of stay."
###
In addition to Cram, researchers involved in the study included Xin Lu and Brian Wolf, M.D., with UI Health Care; Stephen Kates, M.D., and Yue Li, Ph.D., at University of Rochester; and Jasvinder Singh, M.D., at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The study was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Care Media Relations, 200 Hawkins Drive, Room W319 GH, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1009
MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Brown, 319-356-7124, jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Total knee replacements: Effective, costly and boomingPublic release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Brown jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu 319-356-7124 University of Iowa Health Care
Total knee replacement is a very common and safe surgery that's used to relieve severe pain and disability caused by knee osteoarthritis, and to improve patients' quality of life. However, it's also very expensive at approximately $15,000 per procedure. With an estimated 600,000 total knee replacements performed annually in the United States, the aggregate annual cost for total knee replacement (also known as total knee arthroplasty or TKA) is $9 billion.
Researchers at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine studied trends in TKA surgeries over a 20-year period from 1991 to 2010 and found a tremendous growth in the number of TKAs performed in the U.S. Medicare population. The study, published Sept. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), suggests the growth is driven by both the increase in the number of older Americans and increased demand among older adults for total knee replacements.
"For policy makers, a main finding of the study was the dramatic growth we saw in the number of first time TKAs done in this population of Medicare patients," says Peter Cram, M.D., UI professor of internal medicine and lead study author. "The growth was driven by an aging population -- there simply are many more adults over age 65 now than there were 20 years ago -- and within this population, demand of this procedure has doubled."
Cram notes that the growth also reflects the success of the total knee replacements as well as an increased desire by older adults to maintain a more active lifestyle.
"This is an incredibly effective surgery. Although it is a major surgery, it is extremely well tolerated and it allows people to remain active as they age," he says. "But the increased in numbers means that this procedure represents a major health care expense for Medicare program.
"Our findings highlight the challenge of controlling costs in an ageing population that wants the highest quality care possible " Cram adds.
The analysis included 3,271,851 Medicare patients (age 65 years or older) who underwent first time TKA and 318,563 who underwent revision TKA.
The researchers found that the number of first time knee replacements increased more than two and a half times from 93,230 in 1991 to 243,802 in 2010, while per capita utilization doubled from 31.2 procedures per 10,000 Medicare enrollees in 1991 to 62.1 procedures per 10,000 in 2010.
In addition, the number of revision TKA procedures more than doubled from 9,650 in 1991 to 19,871 in 2010 and per capita use of the procedure increased by almost 60 percent.
Cram noted a second important finding of the study was the decrease in the number of days TKA patients spend in hospital following surgery (also know as length of stay). During the 20-year study period, length of stay decreased from approximately eight to four days. At the same, time the study showed an increase in the rates of readmission.
"We are discharging patients sooner after their surgery because of the incentives that Medicare places upon the hospital, physician, and medical team," says Brian Wolf, M.D., UI professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation and senior author on the study. "It's not surprising that with increasingly shortened hospital stays, more patients are being readmitted after discharge."
The study showed all-cause 30-day readmission rates increased from 4.2 percent in 1991-1994 to 5.0 percent in 2007-2010. For revision TKA, a decrease in hospital length of stay was accompanied by an increase in all-cause 30-day readmission from 6 percent to 9 percent and an increase in readmission for wound infection from 1.4 percent to 3.0 percent.
"Patients should be aware that discharge is likely to happen within a few days of the surgery and that there is a chance of readmission due to problems," Cram says.
"Readmission is also a cost to hospitals and increased readmission rates eliminate some of the cost savings achieved by shortening the initial length of stay."
###
In addition to Cram, researchers involved in the study included Xin Lu and Brian Wolf, M.D., with UI Health Care; Stephen Kates, M.D., and Yue Li, Ph.D., at University of Rochester; and Jasvinder Singh, M.D., at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The study was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Care Media Relations, 200 Hawkins Drive, Room W319 GH, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1009
MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Brown, 319-356-7124, jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A San Diego woman accused of strangling her infant son, and throwing him out of a third-story window to his death was ?calm and unconcerned about the baby,? a police sergeant testified Tuesday.
Zewoinesh Badasso, 32, of North Park, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 7-month-old son, identified in court records as David N.
Badasso's defense attorney said her client told her she was opening a third-story window while holding her baby on Sept. 7 when?the boy fell to his death.
For more, visit NBCSanDiego.com
But in an interview outside the courtroom, defense attorney Amy McDonald indicated she will not argue that Badasso is innocent, but will instead claim that Badasso suffered from ?post-partum psychosis?.
McDonald said witnesses told her that Badasso was a very loving mother who snapped and killed her child. She said Badasso might not have a memory of what actually happened that day.
A stranger called police?after finding the baby on the ground below a unit inside Park View Apartments on 39th Street in North Park.
Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney said the medical examiner determined that David had been strangled and had found ligature marks on the boy's neck, and other injuries that showed he had been beaten.
McDonald said her client was in custody when told of David?s death and appeared to be shocked and saddened.
However, a police sergeant who was present inside the apartment when officers questioned Badasso said she appeared uncaring.
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Mohammed Morsi, President of Egypt, addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Mohammed Morsi, President of Egypt, addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Mohammed Morsi, President of Egypt, addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approaches the podium before addressing the 67th United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Members of the U.S. delegation leave the room before Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi assigned himself the heavyweight's role in the Middle East on Wednesday, declaring in his first speech to the United Nations that the civil war raging in Syria is the "tragedy of the age" and must be brought to an end.
In a wide-ranging address that touched on all major issues confronting the region, Morsi also decried Israeli settlement-building on territory Palestinians claim for a future state and condemned a film produced in the United States that denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
He urged all U.N. member nations to join in an effort to end what he called "the catastrophe in Syria" that pits the regime of Bashar Assad against opposition forces trying to end 40 years of dictatorship. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the 18-month conflict.
Morsi has called for Assad to step down and said Wednesday that "the bloodshed in Syria and the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded must be stopped."
Morsi, an Islamist and key member of the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, opened his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly by celebrating himself as Egypt's first democratically elected leader who was swept into office after what he called a "great, peaceful revolution" that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
He then quickly inserted himself into the thorniest issues in the Middle East, demanding that the United Nations grant membership to the Palestinians, with or without a peace agreement with Israel.
"The fruits of dignity and freedom must not remain far from the Palestinian people," he said, adding that it was "shameful" that U.N. resolutions are not enforced.
The Palestinians are expected to again ask for U.N. recognition and formally make application to the world body in November, after the U.S. presidential election. President Barack Obama said when the Palestinians sought recognition last year that Washington would block the move until there was a peace deal with Israel. The focus of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been on hold for four years, is a two-state solution that would formally grant the Palestinians the rights of an independent country.
In his bid to end the violence in Syria, Morsi has invited Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to join a contact group, though the Saudis have not yet participated and the fighting in Syria continues unabated. While Morsi wants Assad to step aside, he said Wednesday that he opposes any foreign military intervention.
The U.N. Security Council, which could call for intervention or global sanctions against Syria, is deadlocked because Russia, Assad's main protector, and China have blocked a series of resolutions brought by Western governments.
Morsi also denounced as an obscenity the anti-Islam video that portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, a child molester and a fraud, insisting that freedom of expression does not allow for attacks on any religion.
He also condemned the violence that swept Muslim countries last week in reaction to the video. At least 51 people were killed, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans targeted in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
"Egypt respects freedom of expression. One that is not used to incite hatred against anyone. One that is not directed toward one specific religion or culture. A freedom of expression that tackles extremism and violence. Not the freedom of expression that deepens ignorance and disregards others," Morsi said.
He appeared to have been responding to Obama's General Assembly speech Tuesday in which the U.S. leader again condemned the video but sternly defended the U.S. Constitution's free speech guarantees.
In Cairo, Egyptians watched Morsi's speech closely for signs of how he would conduct his presidency. Sahar Abdel-Mohsen, a 31-year architect, praised Morsi's condemnation of the Assad regime, but questioned his assertions about free speech.
"How can he talk about freedom of expression when there are many protesters in detention in Egypt, including minors, and when people are locked up for the so-called contempt of religion?" she said.
The head of the Arab League, meanwhile, called for the international community to criminalize blasphemy, warning that insults to religion pose a serious threat to global peace and security.
Nabil Elaraby's comments to a special session of the U.N. Security Council put him at direct odds with the United States and its Western allies, which are resolutely opposed to restrictions on freedom of expression. However, Elaraby said that if the West has criminalized acts that result in bodily harm, it must also criminalize acts that cause "psychological and spiritual harm."
Earlier Wednesday, Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for past fiery denunciations of the United States and Israel, spoke at length about his vision for a new world order without the "hegemony of arrogance."
Of Israel, he cited what he termed the "continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation."
The U.S. delegation boycotted Ahmadinejad's speech in response to the "paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel" included in a separate address delivered by the Iranian president on Monday.
"It's particularly unfortunate that Mr. Ahmadinejad will have the platform of the U.N. General Assembly on Yom Kippur, which is why the United States has decided not to attend," Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., said in a statement.
Thousands of protesters in yellow vests emblazoned with photos of Iranian dissidents they said were killed by the Iranian regime gathered outside U.N. headquarters during the Iranian leader's speech. Speakers included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was threatened by members of the protest crowd as he walked near the United Nations. He was confronted by the angry mob, said New York police spokesman Paul Browne. The diplomat flagged down police officers, who helped him get to a safe spot. Browne said the threats were believed to have been verbal.
In his speech on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad did not refer to Iran's nuclear program. Israel and Western nations contend that Tehran is using what it insists is a peaceful nuclear program as a cover for developing the ability to build atomic weapons.
Tough sanctions have been imposed on Iran as punishment for its failure to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to prove the peaceful nature of its drive to enrich uranium to levels that could be used to build a nuclear weapon.
Israel has threatened a military strike against Iranian nuclear installations, but Obama insists there is still time to solve the dispute through diplomacy. He has vowed, however, to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear arsenal.
Outside the U.N., Alex Mohammed, 40, a restaurant manager from Chicago, stood next to a mock jail cell with a noose next to it, and a cartoon of Ahmadinejad standing under a series of hanged Iranians' legs and the inscription: "We don't have political prisoners in Iran ? anymore."
"It's getting worse in Iran, because the dictator is taking away more freedoms, including freedom of speech, and jailing journalists," said Mohammed, who has family in Tehran.
___
Associated Press writers Maggie Fick and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo, Verena Dobnik in New York, and David Stringer and Ron DePasquale at the United Nations contributed to this report.
As part of its latest round of "spring cleaning," Google just ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
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