AP PHOTOS: Myanmar ready for historic Obama visit

AAA??Nov. 18, 2012?9:38 PM ET
AP PHOTOS: Myanmar ready for historic Obama visit
AP

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2007 file photo, Buddhist monks march on a street in protest against the military government in Yangon, Myanmar. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. Obama's roughly six-hour visit will be confined to Yangon, the main city where the military brutally crushed pro-democracy uprisings in the past, including a 2007 rally led by Buddhist monks and protests in 1988 led by student activists. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2007 file photo, Buddhist monks march on a street in protest against the military government in Yangon, Myanmar. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. Obama's roughly six-hour visit will be confined to Yangon, the main city where the military brutally crushed pro-democracy uprisings in the past, including a 2007 rally led by Buddhist monks and protests in 1988 led by student activists. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is silhouetted by the setting sun as she arrives to deliver her speech during an election campaign rally in Thongwa village, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Yangon, Myanmar. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. Myanmar was under military rule for a half-century until last year when a nominally civilian government took office and stunned the world with a rapid rush toward reforms. One of its early moves was to release Suu Kyi from house arrest, and allow her to campaign for parliament. She now leads a small minority in a chamber filled with former military men. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 1947 file photo, Gen. Aung San, then leader of the Myanmar government, arrives at 10 Downing Street, the residence and office of Britain's Prime Minister, in London. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. The White House has cautioned that Obama's trip to the former pariah state should not be viewed as a "victory celebration" but as an opportunity to press for urgent action still needed in Myanmar. Notably, freeing political prisoners and ending ethnic tension in remote areas. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, ascends the stairs towards the stage to deliver her speech during an election campaign rally in Thongwa village some 50 kilometerss from Yangon, Myanmar. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. Myanmar was under military rule for a half-century until last year when a nominally civilian government took office and stunned the world with a rapid rush toward reforms. One of its early moves was to release Suu Kyi from house arrest, and allow her to campaign for parliament. She now leads a small minority in a chamber filled with former military men. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2007 file photo released by the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, Buddhist monk walks past a motorcycle which was get burned in Yangon, Myanmar. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy. Obama's roughly six-hour visit will be confined to Yangon, the main city where the military brutally crushed pro-democracy uprisings in the past, including a 2007 rally led by Buddhist monks and protests in 1988 led by student activists.(AP Photo/ National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, File)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? President Barack Obama's historic visit to Myanmar on Monday is meant to show America's support for the country's transition to democracy.

The White House has cautioned that Obama's trip to the former pariah state should not be viewed as a "victory celebration" but as an opportunity to press for urgent action still needed in Myanmar. Notably, freeing political prisoners and ending ethnic tension in remote areas.

Myanmar was under military rule for a half-century until last year when a nominally civilian government took office and stunned the world with a rapid rush toward reforms.

One of its early moves was to release famed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, and allow her to campaign for parliament. She now leads a small minority in a chamber filled with former military men.

Suu Kyi's enormous popularity stems in part from her father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, who was assassinated in 1948.

Obama's roughly six-hour visit will be confined to Yangon, the main city where the military brutally crushed pro-democracy uprisings in the past, including a 2007 rally led by Buddhist monks and protests in 1988 led by student activists.

During his trip, Obama will meet separately with reformist President Thein Sein and Suu Kyi.

Here, in images, are scenes from Myanmar:

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-18-Myanmar-Photo%20Gallery/id-b1b3d2515e3a4554b4856f1b6f59b37c

jim jones tony stewart kurt busch kurt busch nba dunk contest 2012 act of valor woody guthrie

Techno Legal News: Intellectual Property (IP) Law Firms In India

Intellectual property rights in India encompass diverse aspects of intellectual property. These comprise trademark, copyright, patents, geographical indications, semiconductor protection and other such class.
With the expansion of intellectual property in India, the demand for intellectual property rights services in India has also augmented a lot. There are several high-quality IPRs law firms in India that are catering the requirements of different IPRs holders.

IP rights are difficult to invent and acquire. Thus, their protection and management must also be taken very seriously. All possible legal recourses must be undertaken to safeguard IP rights in India so that they may not be misused.

Source: http://tlnind.blogspot.com/2012/11/intellectual-property-ip-law-firms-in.html

new ipad solar flare joseph kony 2012 arian foster dennis kucinich apple ipad kony

Albany Treasurer plans to run for mayor

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://cbs6albany.com/news/top-stories/stories/albany-treasurer-plans-run-mayor-4271.shtml?wap=0

matt ryan matt ryan att wireless nfl nfl Mother Jones cars

NASA's Beautiful Climate Picture Makes You Forget Extreme Weather Is Possible

The world is utterly beautiful, especially when seen through the lens of picture of global aerosols—the solid and liquid particles that float around in our atmosphere. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AyjNI_30qM0/nasas-beautiful-climate-picture-makes-you-forget-extreme-weather-is-possible

osu football osu football oklahoma state santonio holmes raheem morris winter classic mt rainier

Iraq: Bombing Attacks Kill At Least 10

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Officials say separate bombings in northern Iraq have killed at least 10 people.

A police officer says Wednesday's attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk started with a parked car bomb explosion near offices of a Kurdish party followed by another bomb as police gathered, killing five and wounding four others.

He added that another parked car bomb hit an Iraqi army patrol in the Sunni-dominated town of Hawija to the west of Kirkuk, killing another five and wounding four others.

A health official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

Kirkuk is located some 290 kilometers (175 miles) north of Baghdad, is home of mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, all competing to control the city.

Earlier on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/iraq-bombing-attacks_n_2127493.html

ferdinand porsche gregg williams theraflu masters leaderboard frozen four joe avezzano kanye west theraflu

With key departure, Microsoft comeback looks like U-turn

9 hrs.

Wilson Rothman , NBC News

Microsoft has been revving all of its engines this holiday season in an attempt to prove it's as good (or better) than Apple and Google. Xbox gets "Halo 4," Windows Phone gets an update and impressive new hardware, Office gets a new version and Windows 8 makes its debut, marking the company's entrance into the tablet market. So why did the guy seen as most instrumental to the company's comeback just suddenly up and leave?

Though you may not know Steven Sinofsky's name, you've experienced his handiwork. After all, he is the man credited with salvaging Windows after the Vista debacle. Windows 7 wasn't flashy or radically innovative, though. It was a soundly engineered OS that just worked. The flash and radical innovation came with Windows 8, which Sinofsky unveiled last year and launched this October, along with the flagship Surface tablet. While Windows 8 has not been greeted with the ticker-tape-parade-level enthusiasm that came with Windows 7's launch, it does represent a new level of integration for a company famous for "silo" development of distinct products that don't really work together.

Take, for instance, the brightly colored tiles and side-scrolling interface of Windows 8. That look, once called "Metro" and now called "Modern," began on Windows Phone and migrated to Xbox last year. That interface was accompanied by crossover projects such as Xbox SmartGlass, a platform that lets tablets and phones control, communicate with, and send content to the Xbox console. While Microsoft's grand unification remains in its infancy ? the cross-platform development tends to range from superficial to glitchy, and Microsoft Office is notably a holdout from the new look and feel ? the signs have been pointing to a new shared direction for Microsoft's products.?

But with Sinofsky's sudden adios, the new question is, did he push the company forward or hold it back? Either way, this is bad for consumers: If he pushed it forward, then product development will certainly slow down while the company gets a new chief whip-cracker. And if he was holding everybody back, then the company will have to rebuild around a new vision ? and vision isn't in huge supply at Microsoft these days.

In other words, if Sinofsky's approach was the wrong way to go, then has Microsoft lost even more ground to Google and Apple than previously thought?

There is plenty of speculation as to why Sinofsky left. He has long been considered a successor to CEO Steve Ballmer, but he's also known to be somewhat prickly, and a?hard person for fellow managers to get along with. Sinofsky is compared to the late Steve Jobs both because he could inspire his troops to get a good product out the door, but also because he was a power grabber and no fan of compromise. The impression GeekWire's Todd Bishop had after interactions with "Microsoft misfit" Sinofsky was that he seemed "focused intently on controlling the success of his own division, and not all that interested in playing along with the rest of the company."

Kara Swisher's story in AllThingsD Tuesday says that when push came to shove, Bill Gates himself backed Steve Ballmer, and green lighted the decision ? deemed by the company as "mutual" ? to show Sinofsky the door.

Ballmer himself said in a statement that the "new era at Microsoft" requires "that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings." If this is a veiled comment on the fact that Sinofsky was divisive, then why are the products he mentions, including Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface and Xbox, all products that Sinofsky either once managed or worked to integrate?

Windows 8 was a comeback play for a company that had totally missed the mobile revolution perpetuated by its blood competitors. Microsoft is behind five years on phones and two and a half years on tablets. Yet one main reason for the slow development is because Sinofsky used the company's dependence on Windows sales ? and the fact that an increasing number of PC shoppers are instead?choosing iPads ? to justify grabbing tablet development from other divisions.

But Microsoft's decision to hold out and put full-blown Windows on a tablet has not been vindicated. The Surface RT tablet, though attractive and well engineered, is an oddity with sales that even Ballmer calls just "modest." Nobody knows what to make of the device that has both a phone interface and a computer interface ? especially since the OS bounces you back and forth with little warning.

Before Sinofsky's ascension, others in Redmond had been dreaming up cool tablets. Any nerd worth his or her salt can tell you tales of the Courier tablet, a mysterious, unique-looking pen-based tablet with two screens. In September 2009 ? before the world had seen the iPad for the first time ? Courier was spotted in leaked Microsoft?concept videos that were published, along with loads of screenshots and schematics, by the tech blog Gizmodo.

Courier was the brainchild of Xbox genius J. Allard, and was said to be a big part of the next wave of products from the Xbox-dominated Entertainment and Devices group. But before it could become a reality, Courier went poof, allegedly because it would take a bite out of highly profitable Windows sales. Both Allard and executive Robbie Bach left the company soon after, as Swisher notes.

Likewise, the Windows Phone group could have stretched that experience to a tablet fairly easily, because phones and tablets have similar chip architecture. This could have been a boost for (still miserable) Windows Phone sales, because it would have inspired developers looking for alternatives to iOS and Android. But the decision was made to shrink Windows to fit a tablet, rather than expand Windows Phone to do the same. Android and iOS both started as phone platforms that expanded.

The only precedent for Microsoft's ultimate?decision was its own awful "Tablet Edition" that launched in 2001 and lingered in the nursing home of unsuccessful products for all too long.

History was hard on those first Microsoft tablets, and it may well be as cruel to the new ones, now that their father is out of the picture. Was it wise for Microsoft to "protect" Windows by sitting out the tablet race for two and a half years??Likewise, ditching classic Windows on the larger PCs to build interest in tablets may not prove?to be a good idea either.?Sinofsky may have been shrewd at consolidating power and motivating workers to produce results, but his ideas were not necessarily the best: Back in 2006, he brought the hate-it-or-love-it-but-mostly-hate-it "ribbon" interface to Microsoft Office, something I personally won't ever let him off the hook for.

No matter how we see this episode in Microsoft's timeline two decades from now, this shake-up suggests a lack of direction that?will affect the company ? and the consumers buying its products ? for years to come. A few months ago, we saw Microsoft slowly?driving along a bumpy comeback trail. After Sinofsky's departure, it looks like it's just stuck in the mud.

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science?editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/key-departure-microsoft-comeback-looks-u-turn-1C7040452

rodney atkins fergie one republic michael dyer suspended new years ball drop new years rockin eve new york times square

Planning a holiday for the whole family - The Lost Dogs' Home

Taking your dog on a holiday with you can be the most memorable experience for you and your family ? after all they are part of the clan! Pets love our company and most of them also enjoy the great outdoors.

With the holiday season around the corner, last week we ran a story providing a few tips on what to do if you?ve decided to holiday without your pets this year.

Today, we provide handy tips for those of you who think holidays are not complete without your furry family member joining in.

- Identify, Update, Reunite: Before leaving home it is imperative your pet is identified with a microchip, collar tag and they should be registered with your local council. Equally important is to make sure all contact information corresponding to your pet?s identification is up-to-date. If you are going on an extended holiday, perhaps consider changing your contact details to where you are staying and always include your mobile phone number in your contact information. You should also include an emergency contact for someone your trust and who is not on holidays with you.

Keep in mind while you can make sense of your holiday surroundings your pet may not be able to. Being in an unfamiliar environment can make some pets anxious and therefore at greater risk of escaping and going missing.

- Will your pet enjoy the holiday as much as you? Research pet friendly destinations and accommodations that will have plenty of opportunities for you to enjoy the holiday with your pet- i.e. parks, dog-friendly beaches. Keep in mind cats feel safer in a familiar place, so perhaps they are better suited a holiday house if you have one or a place they have been to before and/or travel to regularly.

Some pets are more anxious than others, so while you may want to take them with you, they may in fact be happier left at home, or somewhere secure like a boarding facility. It?s important to consider will your pet really enjoy your holiday destination and will they be safe.

- Research and book in advance: Some places advertised as pet friendly do not accept pets during certain times of the year so it is important to make sure the accommodation provider is aware that you will be bringing your pet. Keep in mind that some may have restrictions on breeds and sizes.? Have a list of questions handy like, where is the nearest park, is my pet permitted in doors, will a kennel/pen be provided, and is there an extra fee for bringing a pet?

- Start off small: If you are considering holidaying with your pet, it may be a good idea to do a test run with a weekend away first, rather than an extended holiday. You will be able to find out a lot about how your pet copes with travel in just a couple of days.

- Invest some time in obedience training: A well-mannered, trained and socialised dog will make better company particularly when you are travelling. It will make holidaying more enjoyable for you as well as others around you.

- Vaccination and worming: Make sure your pet?s vaccinations and worming are up to date prior to your holiday, especially if they are likely to mix with other dogs and cat.

- Pack: A first aid kit is good particularly if you are camping. Make sure take pack ample food (especially if they are fussy eaters!) and water for your pet, prescribed medication, insect repellent, treats, protection for the sun and cold, toys and games. It is important to take your pets bed and any familiar things that will help them feel more settled and at home.

Online resources

There are a range of online resources.

Planning a holiday with your pooch? http://www.holidayingwithdogs.com.au/

Listing of parks and beaches to take your pooch http://www.dogsonholidays.com.au/holidaying/

?

Please remember these are just a sample of tips to assist you.

To hear the Pets-A-Loud team?s favourite pet friendly holiday destinations and for more information on holidaying with or without your pet, tune into the program on Joy 94.9. If you are not in Melbourne, you can stream Pets-A-Loud live.

?

Source: http://dogshome.com/planning-a-holiday-for-the-whole-family/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=planning-a-holiday-for-the-whole-family

wisconsin recall doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey sarah palin today show dallas tornado video