Cuban dissidents mourn passing of leader Pollan (AP)

HAVANA ? Cuba's tiny dissident community gathered on Saturday to mourn the loss of one of its most prominent leaders, Ladies in White founder and leader Laura Pollan, who for years made her home a headquarters for planning protests against the communist government.

Family members, government opponents and diplomats gathered at Pollan's house in a working-class neighborhood of Havana, welcomed by her widower, formerly imprisoned dissident Hector Maseda. The U.S. Interests Section in Cuba brought a floral wreath.

"We have had a physical loss. It's not easy especially for me, because we have been together these past eight years," said Bertha Soler, who helped Pollan found the group in 2003 to press for the release of their husbands and 73 other activists, social commentators and government opponents imprisoned in a crackdown on dissent.

Pollan, 63, died Friday night of cardiorespiratory failure, a week after being hospitalized with an aggressive respiratory virus. Family members reported that Pollan's doctors tried for nearly an hour to revive her.

"They acquitted themselves well. Professionally they are very capable," Maseda said.

In the front living room, which for years was decorated with portraits of Maseda and 74 other dissidents jailed in 2003, only a painting of Pollan was on display Saturday surrounded by flowers, a rosary and candles. The last of the dissidents, including Maseda, were released earlier this year under a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church.

Pollan's body was cremated before dawn. Half the ashes were taken to her birth city of Manzanillo in eastern Cuba, and the rest were in the Havana home.

"We are going to do what she wished ... and scatter her ashes in a flowery field," Maseda said.

Pollan was one of the most prominent and vocal opposition figures in a country where those who dissent publicly risk reprisals or imprisonment. Even after the Ladies accomplished the goal for which they were founded, the group continued to protest against the government, which excoriated the women as traitors doing the bidding of the United States.

Soler, considered the group's No. 2 leader despite its avowed nonhierarchical organization, said the Ladies will continue their weekly protest marches following Sunday Mass, dressed in white and carrying gladiolas.

"Everything will continue as always, without the physical presence of Laura Pollan, but spiritually she will be with us," Soler said. "Tomorrow we will go to the Church of Santa Rita as we have been doing for eight years."

In Washington, the White House issued a statement praising Pollan and her group.

"The President's thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and colleagues of Laura Pollan, the founder of Las Damas de Blanco, who passed away Friday in Havana," it said. "Pollan and the quiet dignity of the Ladies in White have courageously voiced the core desire of the Cuban people and of people everywhere to live in liberty."

There was no mention of Pollan's death in Cuban state media, which normally ignores dissidents' activity except to accuse them of being stooges of Washington.

But the pro-government blog La Pupila Insomne noted her passing and said the doctor who attended her, Armando Elias Gonzalez Rivera, confirmed that she suffered from a viral attack.

Condolences also came from the Cuban exile community in Miami, where a Mass was announced for later Saturday in Pollan's honor.

Cuban-American singer and actor Gloria Estefan called Pollan "the personification of the strength of the Cuban woman" and "a shining example of courage, peace and perseverance that will serve as a guide to those who struggle for a free Cuba."

___

Associated Press writers Peter Orsi in Havana and Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111015/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_dissidents

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House panel looks at Solyndra loan restructuring (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration's decision to restructure a half-billion dollar loan to a failing solar energy company is back in the spotlight as a House panel resumes hearings on solar panel maker Solyndra.

Newly released emails show that the Treasury Department was concerned that the loan restructuring, approved earlier this year, could violate federal law. The deal was structured so that private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment on part of the loan in case of a default by Solyndra.

Administration officials have defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, Solyndra would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

Even with the federal help, Solyndra closed its doors Aug. 31 and let all of its workers go.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee say the hearing Friday will focus on whether the Energy Department broke the law when it agreed to restructure Solyndra' s debt in February.

The lawmakers cite emails showing that Mary Miller, an assistant treasury secretary, said the deal could violate the law because it put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers. Miller told a top White House budget official that she had advised that any proposed restructuring be reviewed by the Justice Department before it was approved.

"To our knowledge that has never happened," Miller wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., called Miller's memo "startling" and said it appears that DOE violated "the plain letter of the law" in approving the restructuring.

"We need insight into Treasury's role in reviewing this loan guarantee," said Stearns, chairman of the energy panel's subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

Emails released last week show a wide disagreement among officials at the Energy Department, Treasury and Office of Management and Budget about Solyndra. Officials at the latter two agencies raised questions about the quality of the DOE's loan-vetting process and the special treatment Solyndra was given as its finances deteriorated.

Gary Grippo, a deputy assistant treasury secretary, and Gary Burner, chief financial officer at the Federal Financing Bank, are expected to testify. The financing bank made a $528 million loan to Solyndra in 2009.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Obama visited the company's Silicon Valley headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at its groundbreaking.

Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that the administration hurried budget officials to finish their review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama.

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said Thursday that the loan restructuring was legal.

"Based on a careful analysis of the terms of the restructuring, the career officials in the DOE loan program determined that the restructuring was legal and that it did not require Justice Department review," LaVera said.

Energy Department officials say the statute cited by the Treasury Department requires the Justice Department to approve a loan "compromise," in which a borrower is allowed to pay back less than the full amount of the loan. That was not the case in the Solyndra deal, they said.

And while one portion of the law makes clear that a federal debt cannot be subordinate to other financing at the time of the loan, another section provides officials with broad authority to take action to protect the taxpayer in an emergency situation, they said.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu approved the restructuring in February.

___

Follow Matthew Daly's energy coverage at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_go_co/us_solar_manufacturer_investigation

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Treasury officials: Never saw a loan like Solyndra (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Two senior Treasury officials said Friday that they had never seen a loan restructuring similar to an Energy Department loan to a failed solar panel maker.

The half-billion dollar loan to Solyndra Inc. was restructured earlier this year so that private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment on part of the loan in case of a default.

Treasury officials Gary Grippo and Gary Burner told a House committee they had never seen that occur in a federal loan. Grippo is a deputy assistant treasury secretary and Burner is chief financial officer at the Federal Financing Bank, which made a $528 million loan to Solyndra in 2009.

The two Treasury officials stopped short of declaring the loan restructuring illegal, as some Republicans allege.

"I can't give you a legal interpretation on that, sir," Burner told Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

Grippo, who oversees the financing bank, said it was not Treasury's job to make legal interpretations. Instead, he said Treasury officials correctly raised questions about the deal in a series of emails and memos.

"Our role is to be as helpful as we can," Grippo told the House Energy and Commerce Committee Friday.

Hours later, the panel's Republican majority released an email showing that a White House budget official also questioned the loan restructuring.

"I think they have stretched this definition beyond its limits," the budget official said in a December 2010 email, referring to DOE officials that were advocating the deal.

The release of the email came after a hearing on the Solyndra loan erupted in a partisan skirmish. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called the hearing "a rigged proceeding" and a "kangaroo court."

Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. President Barack Obama visited the company's headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new manufacturing plant.

Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that it received preferential treatment from federal officials have become an embarrassment for Obama and a focal point of GOP criticism of the president's green energy policies.

Waxman and other Democrats on the House energy panel criticized Republicans for not allowing the Energy Department to testify Friday and for blocking the release of an Energy Department memo that outlined the legal basis for its decision to restructure the $528 million loan to Solyndra.

"We are going to get only one side of the story. That's no way to run an investigation," said Waxman, a former chairman of the energy committee.

Republicans said Democrats were aware of the hearing terms before it started, but later agreed to enter the Energy Department memo into the record. Energy officials will be called to testify at a later hearing.

Democrats say they want "to get the facts on the table," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "That's what we're trying to do."

The three-hour hearing focused on newly released emails that show that the Treasury Department was concerned that the loan restructuring, approved earlier this year, could violate federal law.

Administration officials have defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, Solyndra would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

Even with the federal help, Solyndra closed its doors Aug. 31 and let all its workers go.

A six-page memo released by the committee Friday outlines the legal basis for the Energy Department's decision to ensure that investors who provided additional funding to Solyndra would be repaid before the federal government if the company defaulted on the loan.

The Feb. 15 memo by Susan Richardson, the loan program's top lawyer, said the restructuring was allowed because a clause preventing private investors from moving ahead of taxpayers only applies to the original loan.

Continuing to block subordination ? the legal term for placing taxpayers' interest second ? is "inconsistent with the statutory scheme" and would make it harder for the government to restructure loans for troubled companies, Richardson wrote.

Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors ? Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP ? stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government.

Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House.

Madrone Partners is affiliated with the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

Barton and other Republicans ridiculed the Richardson memo, which Barton likened to a "fairy tale" that allowed DOE officials to do whatever they wanted.

"They basically say, we think we can subordinate it because the secretary of Energy has broad authority to do whatever he wants to do. That's not a real, reasoned legal opinion," Barton said.

He and other GOP lawmakers cited emails from Mary Miller, an assistant treasury secretary, indicating that the deal could violate the law because it put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers. Miller told a top White House budget official that she had advised that any proposed restructuring be reviewed by the Justice Department before it was approved.

"To our knowledge that has never happened," Miller wrote in an Aug. 17 memo.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., called Miller's memo "startling" and said it appears that DOE violated "the plain letter of the law" in approving the restructuring.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., called the GOP claims overstated.

"There was no criminal or serious misbehavior here, there just was some dumbness," Dingell said.

___

Follow Matthew Daly's energy coverage at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_go_co/us_solar_manufacturer_investigation

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5 turnovers send Cal to 30-9 loss to USC (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Zach Maynard's introduction to the Pac-12 has been anything but friendly.

The transfer from Buffalo threw three interceptions and lost a fumble in California's 30-9 loss to Southern California on Thursday night, sending the Golden Bears to their eighth straight defeat against the Trojans.

"Ever since I've been here, we've lost to them," senior receiver Marvin Jones said. "They've shut us out in the first half. I'm not going to say they have our number."

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The series has been decidedly one-sided ever since Cal upset USC 34-31 in triple overtime back in 2003. The Trojans have run away from the Bears since, with USC outscoring Cal 125-29 the last four years.

Matt Barkley threw two touchdown passes and USC took advantage of five turnovers by California, including four by Maynard. Marqise Lee and Brandon Carswell caught TD passes but it was the defense that bailed out USC (5-1, 3-1 Pac-12) on a night its offense struggled to click.

"Mistakes. Turnovers. You can't beat a good football team like SC when you turn the football over five times, especially down deep in their territory," Bears coach Jeff Tedford said. "There's no question there is some good things, but there are some things that absolutely need to be improved."

USC lost Lee to an apparent right arm injury in the first half and leading rusher Marc Tyler to a shoulder injury in the third quarter.

But after allowing 84 points and 946 yards the previous two games, the Trojans kept Cal off the scoreboard until late in the third and doubled their turnovers caused this season with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

Maynard committed four of Cal's five turnovers ? surpassing the team's season total coming into the game ? and the Bears dropped their sixth straight conference game since late last season. Cal is off to its worst conference start ever under Tedford.

"Are they disappointed? No question. Is the morale down right now? It's OK to be disappointed but not be discouraged," Tedford said. "There are tough weeks we've had the last few weeks. I have all the confidence in the world that they will come back. ... We're 3-3. There's a lot of football left."

Maynard threw for 294 yards and ran for a touchdown and his half brother, Keenan Allen, had a career-high 13 catches for 160 yards. But it wasn't enough to overcome the litany of mistakes.

"I tried to force the ball on a couple plays," Maynard said. "There's a lot of mental errors. We've got to get better on our check downs and make a better play."

Cal fell behind 23-0 early in the third quarter before the offense finally got going, with Maynard leading the Bears to a field goal and then scoring on a 3-yard run with 6 seconds left in the third to cut it to 23-9.

But Maynard's third interception midway through the fourth led to Curtis McNeal's 2-yard touchdown run that made it 30-9 with 5:14 remaining. The Bears turned the ball over four times in the first half, including three alone by Maynard, and failed to convert a fake punt as they fell behind 20-0 at the break.

"The fact he really telegraphed every ball he was going to throw made it easy," said USC linebacker Chris Galippo, who picked off one of Maynard's passes. "When a quarterback stares down his targets like that, you just follow his eyes."

It wasn't quite as bad for the Bears as the game a year ago in Los Angeles when USC led 42-0 at halftime. Cal's defense actually did a decent job defending Barkley and the Trojans' high-powered offense, but USC took advantage of short fields for its scores.

Allen fumbled on Cal's fourth play from scrimmage to set the tone for the game, but the Bears withstood that miscue thanks to an odd play call by USC coach Lane Kiffin.

On fourth-and-goal from the 8, the Trojans lined up in an off formation and snapped the ball diagonally to Rhett Ellison, who dropped it for a turnover.

The Trojans capitalized on the next turnover as Nick Perry forced a fumble by Maynard that led to Andre Heidari's first field goal.

USC then broke the game open with 17 points in the second quarter, getting a 39-yard TD catch from Lee over fellow freshman Stefan McClure, a field goal after Galippo intercepted Maynard's pass deep in Cal territory and a 7-yard TD pass from Barkley to Carswell after punter Bryan Anger was stopped on a fake that made it 20-0.

Barkley completed 19 of 35 passes for a season-low 195 yards. Robert Woods, the nation's top receiver, was held to five catches for 36 yards.

Cal's only sustained drive of the half ended in the final minute when Maynard threw into triple coverage and was intercepted in the end zone by Dion Bailey.

___

Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: http://www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_california

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Behind closed doors, China leaders to ponder big choices (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's top leaders convene for their latest secretive conclave on Saturday, giving them a chance to ponder looming economic and political choices ahead of leadership changes in the world's second-largest economy.

This year, the five-day annual meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee will ostensibly focus on enlivening the nation's "cultural system": its state-run publishers, performance troupes and broadcasters struggling to balance the pull of the marketplace with the dictates of propaganda.

But the gathering will give central and provincial leaders a chance to discuss clouds gathering over China's economy, and the delicate politics of choosing a new leadership to take over when President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao step down after the party congress in 2012.

The central committee plenum will bring together some 370 officials -- more than 200 of them full committee members, the rest auxiliary members -- and it usually gathers at the walled-off Jingxi Hotel in west Beijing.

The government does not disclose details of what transpires at such meetings, and usually issues a vague summary of the outcomes after they end, allowing only guesses on the directions being mapped out.

In China, power resides in the party elite, and meetings of the Communist Party Central Committee are chances for powerful provincial chieftains to push their agendas and lobby for promotions for themselves or prot?g?es.

"These plenums always have a theme or excuse to meet, and this year it's culture, but that's also an excuse, or front, allowing the leaders to meet and discuss other issues," said Chen Ziming, a Beijing-based political analyst who was imprisoned after 1989 protests for advocating democratic change.

"Whatever the theme, Hu Jintao or whoever has the opportunity to depart from the theme and explore other issues."

However, China's top-down decision-making usually works in increments, and it's early for leaders to make big leaps in economics or politics, said analysts. When it ends on Tuesday, this meeting could emit rumblings of changes to come, but not thunderbolts of instant change.

CAUTION

Additionally, the advent of leadership changes makes officials even more cautious, discouraging them from policy gambles that could damage their prospects.

"I think that at this level a lot of things are quite uncertain because it's really up the top leaders to negotiate who should stay, who gets promoted and who is not. I think this part is not clear," said Bo Zhiyue, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute, referring to the leadership to succeed Hu and Wen.

Although Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang are the front-runners to succeed Hu and Wen respectively, the membership of the rest of the next standing committee, the party's leading core, will be settled only in the coming year through complicated give-and-take, said Bo.

"Gradually, they are going to narrow it down to two or maybe one long list of candidates for the 18th central committee. But for the top leadership -- the politburo members and the politburo standing committee members -- it is really up to, more or less, bargaining among the elites," said Bo.

The 18th central committee will be chosen at the party congress due to convene in late 2012, succeeding the current, 17th central committee.

Potential contenders for top positions who will gather in Beijing include: Bo Xilai, the charismatic boss of Chongqing municipality in the southwest, who has promoted an ambitious program to narrow economic inequalities; Wang Yang, the boss of export-driven Guangdong province in the south, who has cast himself as a more liberal leader; and Yu Zhengsheng, the boss of Shanghai, the country's coastal business center.

One player who will not attend is Jiang Zemin, the retired president likely to still have some say over key personnel decisions. But he attended a big anniversary meeting at the weekend, signaling that rumored ill-health has not incapacitated him.

DISCUSS, NOT RESHAPE, ECONOMIC POLICY

In economy policy, too, the central committee meeting is, at most, likely to flag government thinking, but not settle on any major changes to an economy that has grown rapidly but has suffered from nagging inflation and concerns about a global economic downturn.

Data released on Thursday showed China's trade surplus narrowed for a second straight month in September, with imports and exports lower than expected, reflecting global economic weakness and domestic cooling.

The central committee meeting also could "be an occasion to discuss contingency policy plans to any fallout of the euro zone sovereign crisis", Tao Wang, head of China economic research at UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong, said in a research note.

Any big steps were likely only in late 2011, when leaders hold their annual conference to set broad economic policy, said Wang.

"By then, we think policy-makers would have observed the deceleration in export growth as well as inflation, which would then prompt them to revise (their) policy stance," he wrote.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Brian Rhoads and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111014/wl_nm/us_china_politics

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Crockpot Food Preparation : Benefits And Drawbacks | Jawa Bali ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The actual slow cooker collects most of the fruit drinks since the heavy steam doesn't get away during cooking food that juices may become watered down and watering, which could affect the actual flavor with the food. ? Or even cautious, a slow oven can ... His website http://www.my-crockpot-recipes.org is really a 'labor associated with love' which gives delicious and simple to produce crockpot recipes and connected tips and advice. have a look at our internet site ...

Source: http://jawabali.com/fooddrink/crockpot-food-preparation-benefits-and-drawbacks/

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Sources: Would-be assassin linked Iran military unit to drug trade

The Texas suspect charged in the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States claimed in recorded conversations that his Iranian handlers were actively involved in the drug trade and could arrange for large shipments of opium to be delivered to a Mexican drug cartel, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the probe.

Reuters

Manssor Arbabsiar, in a 1996 Nueces County, Texas, Sheriff's Office photograph.

The criminal complaint against Manssor Arbabsiar, released by Justice Department officials this week, makes no mention of alleged drug smuggling by the Iranian Qods Force,?an?elite covert arm of the Iranian military whose top officials allegedly coordinated and funded the plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, according to U.S. officials.

But two U.S. law enforcement sources told NBC News that Arbabsiar, in recorded conversations with an undercover drug informant, said in coded language that the same individuals who were orchestrating the bombing plot against the ambassador were involved in drug dealing. He told the informant that his?Iranian handlers could arrange to provide Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel, with ?multi-ton? shipments of opium, the sources said.

The major drug deal never materialized, however, and the allegations about Qods Force drug smuggling were not pursued because U.S. officials wanted to focus on the attempt to assassinate al-Jubeir on U.S. soil, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The officials said Drug Enforcement Administration director Michele Leonhart was even asked not?to appear at the press conference announcing the assassination plot charges -- a noticeable absence given that one of her agency?s informants uncovered the alleged plot. (President Barack Obama, however, later called and thanked Leonhart, said a law enforcement official.)


Arbabsiar?s assertions about? Qods Force?drug dealing? inject another puzzling dimension into a case that has triggered a crisis in U.S.-Iranian relations. While accusing the Qods Force of? arming terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and orchestrating? attacks against American? troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials have never publicly accused the organization of involvement in international narcotics smuggling.

If these allegations are true, ?They would be a game changer,? said Douglas Farah, a national security analyst who has closely studied Qods Force activities in Latin American and frequently testified before Congress on the issue.

The Qods Force has built up a significant presence in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, where it has forged close ties with the government of anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez, said Farah. The organization has also long had extremely close ties with,? and directly funded, Hezbollah -- a Mideast terror group that has long been linked to the drug trade and money laundering. But there has been no clear evidence linking the Qods Force directly to narcotics smuggling or to dealing with the Mexican cartels, said Farah.?

Read more reporting by Michael Isikoff in 'The Isikoff Files'

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment about the alleged drug discussions, saying the department was not prepared to discuss any aspect of the case that was not in the criminal complaint?released this week. ?This is not a drug case,? the spokesman said.?

The man behind the alleged plot, Arbabsiar, was an Iranian-American used car salesman with a long history of financial?troubles and brushes with the law, including criminal charges for? resisting arrest in 1987 and a 2001 arrest for driving without a proper license, according to a Texas law enforcement official. But he had never been accused of any narcotics charges, said the official.?

According to?the?criminal complaint released Tuesday, Arbabsiar first met in Mexico on May 24 of this year with a DEA informant who he believed was an operative of Los Zetas, one of Mexico?s most-violent drug cartels. The informant had previously been convicted of state-level drug charges, but avoided jail time and got the charges dismissed by agreeing to serve as a paid undercover informant for the DEA?s Houston field division, according to?U.S. officials.?

A U.S. law enforcement official said Arbabsiar came to meet the informant by pure happenstance: While living in Corpus Christi, he had developed a friendship with the informant?s aunt, the official said. .

According to the complaint, Arbabsiar asked the informant the first time he met him if he was knowledgeable about explosives, explaining that he was interested in attacking an embassy of Saudi Arabia. The informant replied that he was familiar with C-4, a type of plastic explosives, it said.

Within a week, Arbabsiar flew overseas and returned to the U.S. in late June, holding additional meetings with the informant that were secretly tape-recorded on behalf of the government.?In one of these conversations, on July 14, the informant told Arbabsiar that he could arrange to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, but that it would take four men and cost $1.5 million. Arbabsiar agreed, leading U.S. officials to describe the scheme this week as a ?$1.5 million? plot.?(A key part of the criminal charges against Arbabsiar relates to two later wire transfers totaling $100,000 to?a New York bank.)?

It is not clear precisely when the discussions about Qods Force drug smuggling took place.? But one analyst said that such claims by Arbabsiar could fuel skepticism about some aspects of the U.S. charges.?

?This raises additional question marks about this case,? said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and the author of an upcoming book on U.S.-Iranian relations. ?The Qods Force is associated with some other really nasty things, but not this. This doesn?t fit.?

But a senior U.S. law enforcement official disputed that analysis, saying that U.S. officials have received intelligence reports for some time indicating that Qods Forces officers have been working with Venezuelans -- including some officials in that country's?government -- who have been involved in shipping cocaine to West Africa. But so far, the official said, there has not been enough evidence to bring any criminal charges against Iranians who have been implicated.?

Source: http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/13/8308097-sources-would-be-assassin-linked-elite-iran-military-unit-to-drug-trade

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'Only archers who qualify will go to London Olympics'

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Only those archers who have qualified for the 2012 London Olympics will represent the country, even though they have won the quota places for the nation and not.

Source: http://hamaraphotos.com/news/sports/only-archers-who-qualify-will-go-to-london-olympics.html

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Can PPC Publishing Muck Up the Look of Your Web site ...

Article by Terry Henry

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Lee Child on Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise, and 'The Affair'

Lee Child talks about Jack Reacher ? his quirky and wildly popular creation ? and how he started writing thrillers in the first place.

An ATM card, a passport, and a toothbrush.

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Those are the possessions of Jack Reacher, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound former Army MP who drifts into precarious situations no matter how far afield he wanders. Reacher is laconic, violent, and fond of coffee and cheeseburgers.

He?s also, of course, one of the most popular characters in contemporary fiction.

Former British TV producer Lee Child, 56, created Reacher, giving his hero the physical prowess to right the wrongs he encounters. Unlike many recurring characters in mystery and thriller novels, Reacher bears few scars, save a couple of physical blemishes from previous battles and skirmishes.

He dispenses justice without regret, has a strong sense of justice but never broods and enjoys life off the grid. (Among other quirks, he doesn?t have a driver?s license and stopped paying taxes after leaving the Army in 1997.) Reacher lacks both mental and physical baggage, opting to throw clothes away when they?re dirty and buy new ones, typically at whatever discount store can be found.

The latest Reacher adventure, The Affair, has just been published, the 16th book in the series. It answers a question long posed by Child?s avid readers, the so-called Reacher Creatures: What made him leave the Army? For Child, the possible plots for his creation seem infinite. Work has already begun on a new novel and the first movie based on the series, starring Tom Cruise, was scheduled to begin shooting last month.

Child, who divides his time between New York and France, recently spoke with The Monitor about Reacher, the wonders of Helen Mirren, and other topics in a telephone interview. Following are excerpts from that conversation:

"The Affair" deals with the early part of Reacher?s career and why he left the Army. Why did you want to tell this story?

Because readers have always wanted to know two things, essentially. They?ve gotten used to Reacher as he is now and they?ve always had two questions.

What was he like when he was in the Army, and that was answered in the eighth book, called "The Enemy," which was a prequel and it was set during his military service. And the other question I?ve always had, of course, is why did he leave the Army. So that is the question this book answers. It?s the 16th book, people have been asking this questions for years and they deserve to find out.

You had lost your job in television when you wrote the first Reacher book. Given what?s going on in the economy now, it?s somewhat of an uplifting story, but how concerned were you in 1995 when that happened?

You?re right, it?s happening all over again. There was a wave of it back then and there?s a wave of it now. I was pretty concerned. With one-half of my brain I was terrified, basically, because I was just coming up to 40 years old. That?s not a great time to be out of work and I felt too old and too tired to start at the bottom of something else. And I didn?t want another boss and that kind of thing.

The other half of my mind, I just played a psychological trick on myself. I knew that you couldn?t do this if you were worried about it, so I just assumed that it would work. I just made myself 100 percent convinced that it would work. Which is a ludicrous thing to do because saying that you?re going to make a living writing fiction is a bit like saying you?re going to get hit by lightning twice on the same day that you win the lottery. And it happened.

How difficult was the first book and how long did it take?

It took five months and it was really not difficult. I was in such a sort of burning rage about everything, I was just full of energy and it came quickly.

Why make him a drifter?

That was a reaction against everything else. I believe, in general, if you can see a bandwagon, it?s too late to get on. Everybody else had their series running that were employment-based and location-based. In other words, their guys were a cop in L.A. or a private eye in Boston or whatever. Why compete with things that were already so good? Let?s do something entirely different: no job, no home, let?s see how that would work.

And an ATM card, a toothbrush, and a passport, right?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/f4JVZaRKttc/Lee-Child-on-Jack-Reacher-Tom-Cruise-and-The-Affair

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