Party General Secretary pays a working visit to the General Department of Politics

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PANO - Pary General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also Secretary of the Military Central Commission paid a working visit to the General Department of Politics, Vietnam People's Army on March 27th.

PANO - Pary General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also Secretary of the Military Central Commission paid a working visit to the General Department of Politics, Vietnam People's Army on March 27 th .

At the working session, on behalf of the General Department, Senior Lieutenant-General Ngo Xuan Lich, head of the unit, briefed the Party General Secretary on 68 years of building, fighting, development and achievements of the unit.

General Lich also pointed out short-comings of the Party and Politics General Department and offered some recommendation in the coming time.

On behalf of the Defence Ministry, General Phung Quang Thanh, Defence Minister emphasized that over the past years, officers and soldiers in the army had boosted their practice, solidarity with local people and among each other and heightened their political knowledge, vigilance and combat readiness posture while being loyal to the Party, the State and people and ready to undertake and fulfill any assigned missions. Moreover, troops have been united and tighten their effective cooperation with public security forces to ensure political security, social order and safety. They had also actively given consultancies to the Party and the State on building strong whole-people defence and efficiently carried out the work of military external affairs.

Having heard all reports by senior officers in the army, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong highly spoke of the good and serious preparation of the working session and affirmed the important role of the Party and Politics Department as well as the system of policial organisations and political staffs at all levels in Vietnam People's Army as it undertakes the task of building and organizing those who are the trainers while standing combat readiness to fight for the defence of the Party, the regime, the country and its people.

The top Pary leader praised the General Department of Politics for its well performance of a number of tasks, contributing to upholding ideology of the Party in the army, and ensuring that the army is always the faithful political force and a support of the Party and people in the cause of national renewal process and national construction and defence.

He affirmed that there is no country else in the world where the image of soldiers has a special corner in the heart of people like Vietnam with the image of Uncle Ho's Soldier. The Party, the State, people have strong belief and confidence in Uncle Ho's Soldier in fulfilling any assigned tasks.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that in 2012 and the years to come, new and rapid developments will be seen in Vietnam, in the region and in the world. Therefore, the missions for the army will have new developments to meet the more effective, rapid and higher demands. So, the General Department of Politics, political organs at all levels and their staff need to fully and thoroughly grasp their tasks to effectively carry out the work of Party and Politics.

He stressed that it is a need to promoting the work of popularizing the building of a strong and spotless Party commission in the army on media to fight against wrong viewpoints and doings of hostile and reactionary forces. He praised the People's Army Newspaper and the Magazine of Whole Army Defence and asked them to better such a task in the years to come.

Regarding suggestions by the General Department of Politics, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong asked the Party Central Office to collect and classify and then submit to him to later assign related sectors to deal with in order to create favorable conditions for the General Department of Politics to fulfill its tasks.

He also sent his regards to officers, soldiers and other staff in the army.

Reported by Hoang Ha

Translated by Mai Huong

Theo en.baomoi.com

Learning About Farm Animals at Houston Livestock Show

xem tivi truc tuyen | educator |

Houston"s annual Livestock Show and Rodeo features big name entertainers, rodeo contests, livestock auctions and a carnival, among other offerings, but it also helps educate an urban public about farm and ranch life and agriculture in general. Animals are the stars of this show.

This is where cows get all "prettied up" for judging or auction.

For families from farms and ranches, being around these animals is part of everyday life.

But they are in the minority, says the Houston rodeo's manager of agriculture exhibits, Joel Cowley.

"Less than two percent of the U.S. population is involved in production agriculture, directly involved, and of the six million people that live in the Houston Metro area, those that come to our show, this may be the only direct interaction they have with agriculture," Cowley said.

So there are many educational exhibits that explain where the food we eat comes from.

One attraction examines how worms contribute to soil fertility and another shows a bee hive behind glass, which helps city folk understand the vital role of these small creatures in pollinating many crops.

But it's the big creatures that draw the most attention.

For a lot of urban families, a great attraction of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the chance to see a lot of animals up close.

Kids can get a good look at cows, sheep, pigs and other farm animals.

They can also see newborn chicks, fresh out of the shell and other chickens at different stages of growth.

One of the most popular attractions for families is the Birthing Center, where they can see newborn calves, lambs and piglets.

If they come at the right moment they may even catch sight of one of these animals giving birth.

Volunteer guides with farm experience, like Jackie Hill, explain the process and answer questions.

Girl: "How do you know when the cows will give birth?"
Hill: "Their muscles will start to contract and they will start to dilate and open up and you hopefully will be able to see the head of the cow."

Having grown up on a farm in central Texas, Hill enjoys educating city folk about such natural events.

"It is surprising to me what little some kids know and some adults even," Hill said.

But she says she enjoys answering questions from people young and old.

For three weeks every year, a bit of the country comes into the city to help Houstonians learn more about agriculture and the many animals that are part of it.

Theo www.voanews.com

Economists Say Africas Foreign Debt Fuels Capital Flight

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New research suggests that mismanaged funds from foreign loans amount to more money than previously believed, according to the Africa Growth Initiative at The Brookings Institution in Washington.

Photo: Reuters

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma holds up a banknote bearing the face of former president Nelson Mandela in Pretoria February 11, 2012.

Osita Ogbu, a Brookings visiting fellow and professor of economics at the University of Nigeria, said billions of dollars in debt that Africa has accumulated in its post-colonial era are partially a result of irresponsible foreign lenders.

"Look, it took two to tango.  You knew that you were lending to a regime that was not representative," said Ogbu.  "You piled up debt knowing that the country did not have the capacity to pay.  And, in some instances, you saw part of the money come back to the bank that lent the original money."

Ogbu, who recently moderated a discussion for the book, Africa's Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent said the research by the book's authors, Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce, highlights how those loans resulted in capital flight throughout Africa.

"In twenty five low-income African countries, from 1970 to 1996, capital flight was $193 billion compared to $178 billion external debt," he said.  "If one dollar came in, eighty cents left in the form of private assets, but the debt remains public."

Ogbu added foreign lenders often knew the money was going to be converted into private assets that would leave the countries rather than go toward the projects they were intended to fund.

"In many instances, the project may not have been executed at all," he said.  "You begin to wonder how does a bank lend money for a project, and will disburse it fully, without even going to provide for that project."

The authors of the book suggest that international law applies to some of these odious debts, as they referred to them, which means the debts could be cancelled.

Theo www.voanews.com

Letter

du lich | educator |

The Canary in the Ice

Published: April 2, 2012

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To the Editor:

Re " Weather Runs Hot and Cold, So Scientists Look to the Ice " (front page, March 29):

Nature's best thermometer and most unambiguous indicator of climate change is ice. Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and carries no political baggage as it crosses the threshold from solid to liquid. It just melts.

The continuing loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is indeed affecting the weather beyond the Arctic. The canary of climate change is crying out, and ever louder.

HENRY POLLACK
Ann Arbor, Mich., March 29, 2012

The writer, professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Michigan, is the author of "A World Without Ice."

Theo www.nytimes.com

Arrests in Shootings End a Terrifying Weekend in Tulsa

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Nick Oxford for The New York Times

Jacob C. England's home in rural Tulsa where Alvin Watts lived with him. They were arrested in nearby Turley, officials said.

By MANNY FERNANDEZ and CHANNING JOSEPH

Published: April 8, 2012

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TULSA, Okla. — Late on Thursday afternoon, Jacob C. England, 19, posted a message on his Facebook page, expressing grief — and anger — over the second anniversary of his father's death. Mr. England's father, Carl, was shot on April 5, 2010, at an apartment complex here, and the man who was a person of interest in the case, Pernell Jefferson, is serving time at an Oklahoma state prison.

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Tulsa Police Department/Tulsa World, via Associated Press

Jacob England, left, and Alvin Watts have been arrested in connection with multiple shootings in Tulsa.

Mr. England is a Native American who has also described himself as white. Mr. Jefferson is black.

"Today is two years that my dad has been gone," Mr. England wrote, and then used a racial epithet to describe Mr. Jefferson. "It's hard not to go off between that and sheran I'm gone in the head," he added, referring to the recent suicide of his 24-year-old fiancée, Sheran Hart Wilde. "RIP. Dad and sheran I Love and miss u I think about both of u every second of the day."

Hours later, the authorities say, Mr. England and his friend and roommate, Alvin Watts, 32, waged what city leaders believe was a racially motivated shooting rampage in the predominantly black neighborhoods of north Tulsa early Friday morning, driving through the streets in a pickup truck and randomly shooting pedestrians. Three black people were killed, and two others were wounded in the attacks.

Mr. England and Mr. Watts, who is white, were arrested early Sunday morning after investigators received tips to the state's anonymous Crime Stoppers line, the authorities said. They will face three counts of first-degree murder, they said, and two counts of shooting with intent to kill.

At a news conference in downtown Tulsa on Sunday, police officials said it was too early in the investigation to say precisely what motivated Mr. England and Mr. Watts, and they stopped short of describing the shootings as hate crimes.

"You can look at the facts of the case and certainly come up with what would appear to be a logical theory, but we're going to let the evidence take us where we want to go," said the Tulsa police chief, Chuck Jordan.

In Tulsa — a city of 392,000, about 62,000 of whom are black — the shootings shocked, frightened and angered many black residents on Easter weekend and prompted an intense manhunt. The authorities formed a task force called Operation Random Shooter, made up of more than two dozen local, state and federal investigators from the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office and the federal Marshals Service. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also joined the investigation.

Jack Henderson, a city councilman who is black and whose district includes all of the shooting sites, said that before the arrests, many in the area were terrified.

"A lot of people in my community have been calling me, afraid that they couldn't go outside, didn't know if they could even go to church, didn't know if they could go to the grocery store," Mr. Henderson said at the news conference.

"With these two people off the streets, people in my community as well as the rest of this city can feel that they are safer," he said.

Tulsa officials said the shootings were unlike anything the city had ever seen in its modern history. None of the victims knew one another, and all of them were shot within a few miles. Mr. Henderson said he had heard from constituents that in one of the shootings, the suspects had approached their victims at random and asked for directions. "When they turned around to walk away, they just opened fire," Mr. Henderson said.

In 1921, Tulsa was the scene of a riot that is one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in the nation's history, in which a mob of white Tulsans destroyed a black neighborhood and killed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of black residents.

After the Friday shootings, city leaders said that the anger in the black community had reached the point where people were talking about taking the law into their own hands. Asked on Sunday if he feared any sort of uprising, Chief Jordan replied: "I have much more faith in my fellow Tulsans than that. I think they let us do our job."

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Manny Fernandez reported from Tulsa, and Channing Joseph from New York.

Theo www.nytimes.com

Turkey Denounces Cross-Border Attack on Syrian Refugees

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Ankara has reacted angrily to an incident Monday in which Syrians were shot while seeking refuge in Turkey, with the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman warning that "necessary steps" will be taken if such incidents are repeated. The incident comes as Syrian forces intensify their crackdown on the opposition ahead of Tuesday"s United Nations cease-fire deadline.

Photo: Reuters

Workers walk between container houses on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern city of Kilis, Turkey, February 2012. (file photo)

The Turkish government strongly condemned Monday's incident, accusing the Syrian military of firing on Syrian refugees after they crossed over into Turkey. The incident occurred at the Kilis refugee camp on the Syrian border. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal says it was an unprovoked attack.

"Some Syrian civilians were trying to enter the Turkish border, [when] some of them were wounded and shots were fired at them. Two of those injured have died after entering Turkey. And two of the Syrian nationals who were inhabitants of the camp in Kilis were wounded. One police offer and a Turkish female translator working in the camp were also slightly injured," Unal said.

The Syrian charge d'affaires was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry to receive a formal complaint. Ankara is becoming increasingly alarmed over the deepening Syrian conflict and the growing numbers of Syrian refugees fleeing into Turkey. Observers expect Monday's shootings to add to that sense of alarm. Foreign Ministry spokesman Unal says Damascus has been warned there can be no repeat of such events.

"All the Syrian nationals or who've escaped from the persecution from Syria are under Turkey's full protection, and if these affairs are repeated, we will take necessary measures," Unal said.

Unal refused to say what those necessary measures might be. But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last month that if the crisis in Syria continues, his government is considering creating a safe haven in Syria for refugees from the conflict. Unal said that option remains on the table.

"No announcement has been released on that issue so far. That is one of the options we have been considering," Unal said.

Last week, Prime Minister Erdogan warned his country is prepared to take steps against Damascus if the current United Nations efforts to resolve the conflict fail. According to Turkish observers, that seems increasingly likely. Instead of winding down their operations in compliance with Tuesday's U.N. cease-fire deadline, Syrian security forces have escalated their crackdown. Damascus has also made last-minute demands for the Syrian rebels to lay down their weapons before Syrian security forces withdraw. The rebels have rejected that demand.

Theo www.voanews.com

Dont Call Her a Trophy Wife

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A one-stop destination for Times fashion coverage and the latest from the runways.

Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey in a video for Italian Vogue that began with text reading "Meet the Princess of Bel-Air."

By BROOKS BARNES

Published: April 6, 2012

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WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.

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Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey in her studio in West Hollywood.

IN "The Help," the hit book and movie about white Southern women and their black maids, Celia Foote is a twangy sweetie pie who marries rich and attempts (with painful eagerness) to fit in with the town's blue-blooded biddies. She gets a nose full of splinters from their slammed doors.

Change a few details and you have Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, the pretty young second wife of Brad Grey , the chairman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures.

Mrs. Grey's opulent wedding one year ago, attended by Hollywood royals like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, made her an official member of moviedom's AAA-list, with West Coast homes in Bel-Air and Holmby Hills. A New York perch comes via a recently purchased $15.5-million apartment at the Carlyle .

But don't call her a trophy wife. Mrs. Grey may have a Lilliputian figure, but she has big ambitions for a fashion studio and vintage clothing line that she runs from this town's trendy shopping district.

How big? Asked that question the other day, she picked up a copy of Salvador Dali's 1942 autobiography, "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali," and pointed to a passage: "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

If she was joking, it sure didn't seem that way. Mrs. Grey had even taped a blown-up photocopy of the paragraph to her office wall — a type of mission statement.

It's this kind of did-she-just-say-that? candor that has popped claws in show business society, which plays faster and looser than old-money circles in New York or even Pasadena, but still has unspoken rules of propriety. One is that ambition from mogul wives, unless it's for charity or political fund-raising, is best kept hidden. Another involves public perception. You may live a lavish life (stars, yachts, red carpets), but you work overtime not to appear as filthy rich as you are.

Flirting with Tinseltown clichés? Unspeakable.

Whether it's because she doesn't care, thinks she knows a better way or simply hasn't yet learned, Mrs. Grey in many ways has not played that game. The gossipy movie world's eyebrows started to arch soon after she started publicly dating Mr. Grey in 2008. There was chattering in particular about a party at the Cannes Film Festival where she was seen as being overly flirtatious with Steven Spielberg. Some players were also suspicious of the friendship she formed with Sue Mengers, the agent and Hollywood hostess .

Before Ms. Mengers died last year, Mrs. Grey became a confidante. But some members of Ms. Mengers's inner circle say it appeared as if Mrs. Grey were studying the older woman. "I definitely pursued Sue," Mrs. Grey said. " I really, really miss her."

And then there is The Video. In December, Italian Vogue posted on its Web site an over-the-top video profile of Mrs. Grey. It began with text reading "Meet the Princess of Bel-Air" and depicted her as a self-involved one-percenter riding in a chauffeured sedan and fixated on what to wear while walking the dog.

"I'm taking my role as a wife and a lover and a stepmother very seriously, meaning I want to be really, really good at it," she said to the camera, sitting on a bathroom counter in a short robe and smoking a cigarette in a Marlene Dietrich pose, her makeup heavy and her head wrapped in a red scarf.

The video landed in a who's who of in-boxes (David Geffen, half of William Morris Endeavor) to the point that The Los Angeles Times declared it " the hottest new film in Hollywood. " Some studio executives started quoting from it as they would a "Saturday Night Live" sketch.

"Contrived" is how a mortified Mrs. Grey, 34, now describes her video. "It did not turn out like I expected," she said, taking a nervous sip of Fiji Water. "But I'm not afraid of creative mistakes, and I'm sure I'll make more of them." Of the people mocking her, she said, "I really don't have any time for toxicity."

Mr. Grey, 54, maintains a tightly controlled public image, and Hollywood has been clucking with speculation that he winced at his wife's faux pas. In an e-mail, Mr. Grey struck a rolling-with-the-punches tone, saying he comforted Mrs. Grey by telling her, "when you make content, you try things, and they don't always work. You learn from it and figure out what's next."

Mr. Grey, whose producing credits include "The Sopranos," added: "My wife is a wonderful combination of creative spirit, optimism, intelligence, humor and beauty. I know her talent and hard work will continue to produce fabulous results."

The clip recently disappeared from Italian Vogue's site. "We removed the video because we usually respect our interviewee, and Cassandra told us she is much more of a behind-the-scenes person," a spokeswoman for the magazine, Laura Piva, wrote in an e-mail.

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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 8, 2012

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name and address of a Web site. It is NewYorkSocialDiary.com, not NewYorkSocialDairy.com.

Theo www.nytimes.com

Jazz stars headline Luala concert series

2 Hinh nen dep | saint james medical school |

A jazz performance featuring leading Vietnamese jazz saxophonist Quyen Thien Dac and his Phu Sa bandmates kicked off the spring-summer season of Luala concerts on Saturday, a series of free shows in downtown Ha Noi.

Giant steps: Tenor saxophonist Quyen Thien Dac and his band perform on the pavement yesterday to kick off the spring-summer season of Luala concerts. — VNS Photo Doan Tung

HA NOI —

Taking place on the pavement in front of the Music Publishing House, 61 Ly Thai To Street, the performance attracted a large number of passers-by and pedestrians, including many foreign tourists.

The open-air concerts aim to offer people the opportunity to enjoy different types of music.

During the two-hour show, the trio, consisting of Dac, who studied jazz in the US and Sweden, percussionist Le Quoc Hung and guitarist Vu Ngoc Ha, presented various famous international jazz pieces. They also performed their own compositions featuring Vietnamese folk melodies.

Besides the jazz concert, an open-air display of more than 60 colourful paintings by children aged from five to 12 from the Ha Noi Children Palace are on view. The display will run until Friday, following a mini exhibition by 10-year-old "junior painter" Vu Tuan Kiet, whose paintings have received positive comments by fine arts community www.soi.com.vn.

Another display featuring unique art installations by four Hanoian painters will start on April 26.

The spring-summer Luala concerts and art displays will be held every weekend until May 6. The music performances will take place from 4-6pm on Saturdays, and from 9-11am and 4-6pm on Sundays.

On April 15, jazz trio Phu Sa will share the stage with string musicians from the Viet Nam National Symphony Orchestra who also performed during last year's festival.

Hundreds of people of all ages gathered to enjoy orchestral performances during last year's event. The concerts were listed as one of the top 10 music events of 2011 by the Viet Nam Musicians' Association.

It is also one of the nominees for the title "Show of the Year" at the 2011 Devotion Awards, the winners of which will be announced on April 22. — VNS

Theo en.baomoi.com

American Seeks World Banks Top Job

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Top World  Bank officials will soon decide which of three candidates will become president of the global development institution.  Two of the candidates are finance experts - Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo. The  U.S. nominee is global health expert Jim Yong Kim.

Photo: Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) introduces Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim as his nominee to be the next president of the World Bank, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, March 23, 2012.

"They have more than doubled the number of people on treatment in the last 18 months," said Kim. "This is movement in the area of HIV/AIDS the like of which we've never seen before."

Over the course of his career, Jim Yong Kim, a medical doctor, has headed efforts to fight AIDS at the United Nations, founded a non-government organization that promotes health care around the world, and taught at Harvard's schools of medicine and public health.  He is now the president of Dartmouth College.

The Korean-born U.S. citizen impressed President Barack Obama, who nominated him for the World Bank job.

"It's time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency," said Obama.

Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi says Kim's work at the World Health Organization was impressive.

"He was a great success on the AIDS problem. He is an extremely suitable candidate for president of the World Bank," said Azumi.

Some development experts, though, say the bank focuses on promoting economic growth to pay for health care, education, and infrastructure.

World Bank veteran Uri Dadush is now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

" His [Kim's] background is actually very narrow.  Focused on health, whereas the bank has maybe 20 different sectors of activity," said Dadush.

Nancy Birsdall of the Center for Global Development says Kim may change the World Bank's culture.

"He [Kim] is very keen on what I would call developing a learning culture, based on evidence, that the role of the bank as a knowledge bank should be emphasized," she said.

Birdsall says Kim is likely to push the bank harder to form partnerships with emerging nations, do more listening, and be quick to learn from projects that fail and apply those lessons to new areas.

The World Bank's president has always been an American, but many major emerging economies want more of a say in the choice of leadership.

While this is the first time there have been multiple candidates, many stories in the financial news say U.S. political and financial clout mean Kim will probably get the job.

Theo www.voanews.com

Centuries-old Craft Becomes Modern-day Art

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In a scene that would be familiar to generations of artisans from the past, Anthony Corradetti shapes molten glass in the same way glass blowers before him have done for centuries.

Working in a Baltimore, Maryland, studio converted from an historic 19th-century foundry building, Corradetti is not making ordinary household items. Instead, he creates works of art.

The craft of glass blowing dates back more than 2,000 years. In the United States, it can be traced back to the early 1600s and the earliest European settlers.

In the last half-century, glass blowing has enjoyed a resurgence, but this time as an art form.

"It was a kind of a field that got taken over by industry," Corradetti says. "And they needed less glassblowers because everything was made by machines. But in the late 60s or early 70s, people started treating it more as an art form and teaching it in art schools. And now there're just some amazing things being made out of glass in small studios, such as mine, all over the country."

VOA

Baltimore glass blower Anthony Corradetti shapes a decorative bowl he will later sell in his studio gift shop.

The first step of glass blowing is to collect the molten glass on the end of a hollow steel rod, or blowpipe, which is then cooled down with water.

The item is shaped as the ball of hot glass is expanded by air pressure. Sometimes different colors are added and the piece is reheated in a furnace with temperature of more than 1200 degrees Celsius [2200 F].

Finally, the completed piece is detached from the blowpipe and given its final touches. It is then kept in an oven for 24-to-48 hours, to keep it from cooling too rapidly and cracking.

The process might look simple, but Corradetti says it takes a lot of attention and hard work. He also notes it's always a crowd-pleaser.

"People are really interested in glass blowing. It's a kind of thing that everybody has seen it as a child somewhere, and it leaves a big impression," he says. "Because when you watch glass blowing, it's kind of magical. It's the kind of thing that everybody wants to try once in their life."

Corradetti taps into that interest by offering classes and workshops. He also sells his own work - ranging from small decorative items and jewelry to large, artistic pieces - in the studio's gift shop.

After more than 30 years as a glass artist - first as a student and then operating his own studio - Corradetti still gets a thrill out of it.

"I like being in the environment," he says. "I like everything about it, the heat and just everything that goes along with making glass. The tools and the sounds and the smells and everything about it - I enjoy. I would never do anything...I couldn't do anything else."

Theo www.voanews.com

Way of the World

may lam sua chua | saint james medical school |

Jobless Recovery Leaves Middle Class Behind

By CHRYSTIA FREELAND | REUTERS

Published: April 12, 2012

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NEW YORK — More bad news for the middle class: When the economy recovers, jobs in the middle won't. That is the conclusion of an important new study that connects a long-term trend in the labor market with the business cycle of recession and rebound.

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Nir Jaimovich, an economist at Duke University in North Carolina, and Henry E. Siu, an economist at the University of British Columbia, take as their starting point one of the most important continuing changes in Western developed societies. That shift is what economists, most notably David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have called the "polarization" of the job market. Maarten Goos and Alan Manning, extending the research to Britain, have more colorfully dubbed it the dual rise of "lousy and lovely" jobs.

Their point is that, thanks to technology, more and more "routine" tasks can be done by machines. The most familiar example is the increasing automation of manufacturing. But machines can now do "routine" white-collar jobs, too — things like the work that used to be performed by travel agents and much of the legal "discovery" that was done by relatively well-paid associates with expensive law degrees.

The jobs that are left are the "lovely" ones, at the top of the income distribution — white-collar jobs that cannot be done by machines, like designing computer software or structuring complex financial transactions. A lot of "lousy" jobs are not affected by the technology revolution, either — nonroutine, manual tasks like collecting the garbage or peeling and chopping onions in a restaurant kitchen.

An extensive body of economic research has shown that job polarization is happening throughout the Western developed world. It accounts for many of the social and political strains we have experienced over the past three decades, particularly the increasing divide between the people at the top and at the bottom of the economic heap, and the disappearance of those in the middle who were once both the compass and the backbone of our societies.

What's new about Dr. Jaimovich and Dr. Siu's work is that they have found that job polarization isn't a slow, evolutionary process. Instead, it happens in short, sharp bursts. The middle-class frog isn't being gradually boiled; it is being periodically grilled at a very high heat. Those spurts of change are economic downturns: Dr. Jaimovich and Dr. Siu have found that in the United States since the mid-1980s, 92 percent of job loss in routine, middle-skill occupations has happened within 12 months of a recession.

"We think of recessions as temporary, but they lead to these permanent changes," Dr. Siu told me. "The big puzzle about business cycles is, Why have we had these jobless recoveries over the past three recessions? These jobless recoveries are because you have these middle-skilled jobs that are being wiped off the table."

Economists are often in the business of collecting empirical evidence of the trends many of us civilians have long experienced in our daily lives. That turned out to be the case when Dr. Siu shared his research findings with his family.

"I told my father-in-law, who used to be an executive in the oil industry ," Dr. Siu said. "He said: 'That is exactly what happened. Every vice president had a secretary, then they fired them during the recession. But after the recession we had to pair up, and two vice presidents had to share one secretary."'

Another example may have been hinted at in the March U.S. jobs report. Those figures showed a decline of 34,000 jobs in the retail sector despite recent improvements in store sales. Some economists attributed that apparent mismatch to the power of technology, in this case e-commerce.

"That is certainly in line with our findings," Dr. Siu said. "Salespeople are one of the prime examples of routine jobs."

The Jaimovich-Siu paper concludes that "jobless recoveries are evident in only the three most recent recessions, and they are due entirely to jobless recoveries in routine occupations. In this group, employment never recovers beyond its trough level, nor does it come anywhere close to its pre-recession peak."

This is, Dr. Siu told me, "a stark finding." David E. Altig, the research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who has written a blog post about the paper, echoed that view. "One of the things you certainly note is that this is the mother of all jobless recoveries," he told me.

Dr. Siu urged me not to be too gloomy. "In the broad sweep of history, technology is good," he reminded me. "We've been wrestling with this for 200 years. Remember the Luddites."

That is an important point. All of us, even the hollowed-out middle class, would be much worse off if the Luddites had won the day and the Industrial Revolution, whose latest wave is the past three and a half decades of technological change, had never taken hold.

But it is also true that every seismic shift, including the current one, has winners and losers. And for the losers, adapting to today's world of lousy and lovely jobs may be even harder than it was for the artisans of the Luddite era to thrive in the Machine Age.

"What might be different today is two factors," Dr. Siu told me. "The pace of technological change is so much faster, and we live in such a complex society, that it is harder than ever to switch to a new occupation."

All of us are awaiting an economic recovery. We should be braced for one that offers scant comfort to the middle class.

Chrystia Freeland is global editor at large at Reuters.

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Few U.S. Options as North Korea Readies Missile Launching

may khu mui | saint james medical school |

WASHINGTON — With North Korea poised to launch a long-range missile despite a widespread international protest, the Obama administration is trying to play down the propaganda value for North Korea's leaders and head off criticism of its abortive diplomatic opening to Pyongyang in late February.

David Guttenfelder/Associated Press

The North Korean space agency's General Launch Command Center on the outskirts of  Pyongyang on Wednesday.

By MARK LANDLER and JANE PERLEZ

Published: April 11, 2012

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The White House is readying a blunt response to a launching by North Korea, which will include, as it has warned, the suspension of a food aid agreement announced just six weeks ago, a senior official said Wednesday. The United States also plans to rally worldwide condemnation of the launching, which Pyongyang insists is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but which Washington says would be a breach of North Korea's international obligations.

Beyond that, however, the administration's options are limited. The United States will not seek further sanctions in the United Nations Security Council, this official said, because North Korea is already heavily sanctioned and Washington needs to preserve its political capital with China and Russia to win their backing for future measures against Syria and Iran. The more likely scenario at the United Nations is a weaker statement from the Council president.

With North Korea telling reporters that it had begun fueling the rocket, the launching appeared imminent, confronting the Obama administration with a new diplomatic crisis after an agreement that American officials had hoped would open a new chapter with a traditionally hostile and unpredictable nation.

White House officials moved aggressively to deflect criticism of that deal, which offered North Korea food aid in return for a pledge to suspend work on its uranium enrichment program and to allow  international inspectors into the country.

Unlike the administration of President George W. Bush, this official said, the Obama administration did not give the North Koreans anything before they violated the agreement by announcing plans to go ahead with the satellite launching. And, he added, the administration expects the North Koreans to abide by the other terms of the deal if it hopes, as it has said, for a fuller diplomatic dialogue.

Still, for President Obama , who prided himself on not falling into the trap of previous presidents in dealing with North Korea, the diplomatic dead end has been a frustrating episode: proof that a change in leadership in Pyongyang has done nothing to change its penchant for flouting United Nations resolutions, paying no heed to its biggest patron, China, and reneging on deals with the United States.

Moreover, administration officials said they feared that the missile launching could be the first in a series of provocations, which could include the test of a nuclear bomb possibly fueled by highly enriched uranium. A nuclear test would almost certainly force the administration to go to the Security Council, they said.

"North Korea should stop engaging in these types of provocative and destabilizing actions," said a spokesman for the National Security Council, Tommy Vietor. "We'd like to see nations that have close relations with North Korea consider what else they could do to send a clear signal to this new leadership that it's time for them to move in a different direction."

At a nuclear summit meeting in South Korea two weeks ago, Mr. Obama leaned on China's president, Hu Jintao, to use his leverage to stop the launching. While administration officials said the Chinese were angry with Pyongyang and conveyed that message, it appeared to have not been enough to deter North Korea from a launching it says is intended to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the revered father of the country.

On Wednesday, Kim's grandson, Kim Jong-un, was named to the nation's top political post in a meeting of the Workers' Party, tightening his grip on power during a week of events marking the anniversary. North Korea has invited dozens of foreign journalists to cover the festivities, including the satellite launching.

The White House has urged media organizations not to overdo their coverage, saying it would give Pyongyang a propaganda victory. The satellite, one official said, was a "dishwasher wrapped in tinfoil." But that has not stopped news organizations from sending correspondents to Pyongyang, where they have filed frequent reports on preparations.

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Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Jane Perlez from Hong Kong. Bree Feng contributed research from Beijing.

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Mobile Card-Processing Machines for Marketers on the Road

camera giam sat | saint james medical school |

People do not carry as much cash as they once did, relying instead on debit and credit cards for even a cup of coffee. But until recently, entrepreneurs, trade show exhibitors and other small-business people who sell products on the road had to lug around a bulky machine and a stack of paper slips to process the cards, or risk losing business.

By MARTHA C. WHITE

Published: April 9, 2012

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Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

Sara Selepouchin, who sells housewares, used Square to accept payments at a recent show in Philadelphia.

Alesia Shute, an author whose childhood battle with cancer became the subject of her writing, motivational speaking and advocacy career, said she lost book sales because she did not accept cards.

"A lot of people don't carry cash anymore," Ms. Shute said. "They're not carrying their checkbook in their handbag. They're carrying a debit card." At one fund-raiser, she said, she had to send a would-be donor to an A.T.M. for cash.

About a year ago, Ms. Shute joined a contingent of small-business people using a new device that has revolutionized the payments process by allowing anyone with a smartphone or tablet that uses the Apple or Android operating system to process credit and debit cards.

Users say processing transactions with mobile readers — small attachments that plug into a phone's headset jack — is quicker, cheaper and less cumbersome than using the old machines that make hard-copy imprints of cards and are called "knuckle busters" in industry slang.

"The biggest thing is the portability," said Steve Chorazewitz, chief operations officer of Bottle Docker, a company that manufactures accessories for beverage containers. He exhibits the company's products at consumer trade shows, festivals and other events several times a year.

Sara Selepouchin, an illustrator who travels once or twice a month to sell her line of embellished housewares at craft and trade shows like the New York International Gift Fair, said she, too, had been converted. "When I travel, I try to slim down as much as I can," she said. Her card reader is so small, "I put it in the change purse of my wallet," she said.

To process a payment, a customer's card is swiped through a slot in the reader and the data is sent to a mobile application on the merchant's phone. Customers "sign" the screen using a finger and a receipt is sent to the buyer's e-mail address or cellphone as a text message.

The mobile payment tools also help protect customers' credit card information, said Philip Blank, managing director for the security, risk and fraud practice of the financial services research company Javelin Strategy and Research. No hard copies exist for a thief to steal. Buyers' card information is not stored on the seller's handset, and customer account information is encrypted, he said.

"The problem with the old-school machines is it's very easy for someone to make a copy" of the printed card information, Mr. Blank said.

Ms. Selepouchin said the reader gave her peace of mind in this regard. "It always made me nervous because I'd be walking around with not only cash but 75 or 100 people's credit card information in paper form," she said. "It wasn't secure at all."

A few players operate in this field. Square Inc., begun in 2010 by Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder, is one. EBay introduced its PayPal Here device in March. Intuit, the tax and accounting software company, offers a similar device called GoPayment.

In March, Eventbrite, the online ticket seller, introduced a credit card swiper that plugs into an iPad 's charging slot and is aimed at organizers of conferences, concerts and other events. Eventbrite's device can be used to sell tickets and merchandise at event sites.

Megan Quinn, director of products for Square, said that more than half of the merchants using Square had not previously accepted credit cards. "By accepting credit cards on Square, they're actually processing more transactions and seeing greater profit," she said.

Processing payments via smartphone also speeds the payments, generally completing them within a couple of days at most. Processing hard copies of credit card payments could lead to a delay of at least several days before a payment was posted to the merchant's bank account.

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Carbon credits to benefit farmers

phan mem quan ly nha hang | saint james medical school |

Improved farming practices, especially in rice cultivation, would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and provide economic benefits for rural farmers in Viet Nam through participation in a carbon-credit programme, according to international experts.

A farmer harvests winter-spring rice in the southern province of Hau Giang. A carbon credit programme with improved farming practices would provide economic benefits for farmers. — VNA/VNS Photo Duy Khuong

HA NOI —

Although Viet Nam's greenhouse-gas emissions are relatively low, emissions would triple by 2030 unless significant emissions-mitigation options are undertaken, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute and International Fund for Agricultural Development.

In addition, if the country did not adapt to climate change, farmers' living conditions and production capacity would be adversely affected, they said.

As Viet Nam is a country based heavily in agriculture and with many of the poorest people living in rural areas, linking poor farmers to voluntary carbon markets could provide significant economic benefits from activities that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

The farming community could earn millions of dollars a year of income from carbon credits, according to experts who spoke during a seminar held recently in Ha Noi.

At the seminar, experts also discussed emissions-mitigation options and governmental policy.

With more than 60 per cent of the population in Viet Nam active in the agricultural sector, there is significant mitigation potential through improved agricultural practices.

"There is significant potential for climate change mitigation in Viet Nam, but careful assessment regarding yield, production and environmental aspects is needed," said Claudia Ringler, senior research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute.

According to the institute, mitigation potential in Viet Nam is largest with rice and in rural areas where approximately 7 million ha of paddy crop are harvested annually, and where the majority of the country's poor live.

"One of the challenges of carbon-market entry for developing countries is the small size of farms and the lack of institutions that can organise these farmers and include them in carbon markets," said Dao The Anh, director of the Centre for Agrarian Systems Research and Development.

Last year, the Government affirmed its commitment to reducing agricultural emissions while enhancing economic growth and reducing poverty. It targets increasing agricultural production by 20 per cent and reducing emissions and the poverty rate by 20 per cent by 2020.

The institute along with the International Fund for Agricultural Development have launched a strategic programme to advance innovative policies designed to help the poor benefit from climate-change mitigation and improved market access.

Viet Nam remains a country heavily grounded in agriculture. In 2010, approximately 63 per cent of the working population were active in agriculture. By 2020, the share is expected to be 59 per cent.

At the same time, the country has enjoyed very rapid growth across all major sectors over the last decade. As a result, greenhouse-gas emissions per capita have increased exponentially.

According to experts, the country accounts for a significant share of greenhouse-gas mitigation potential through improved agricultural practices as well as improvements in other sectors.

In rice farming, a major greenhouse gas emitted is methane, which is produced by anaerobic decomposition of rice straw in flooded fields.

Most farmers in the country do not have expertise on how to cut emissions during farming procedures.

In addition, many of them lack sufficient knowledge about land reparation, water management, seed preparation, harvesting and fertiliser application. — VNS

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