The fashion week for fall-winter 2014 season in New York

The fashion week for fall-winter 2014 season in New York

 

[caption id="attachment_12290" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Photo AFP - Stan Honda)[/caption]

 

Pieds dorés

 

Un mannequin présente une création de Naeem Khan durant la semaine de la mode pour la saison automne-hiver 2014 à New York.

 

Golden feet

 

A model presents a creation by Naeem Khan during the fashion week for fall-winter 2014 season in New York.

 

(AFP - Stan Honda)

 

(Agence France-Presse, 12 Wednesday February 2014 The Roman)

 

Tokyo stocks fall more than 3% after Fed taper move

Tokyo stocks fall more than 3% after Fed taper move

 

Tokyo (AFP) -x

 

Tokyo stocks plunged more than 3.0 percent on Thursday following a tumble in New York on worries over turbulence in emerging markets and the US central bank's decision to cut stimulus spending.

 

The Nikkei-225 index, which soared 2.70 percent on Wednesday, lost 3.22 percent, or 495.16 points, to 14,888.75 in early trade.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 30 Thursday January 2014 The Roman)

 

Moon and Venus

Moon and Venus

 

[caption id="attachment_11451" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Photo AFP - Stan Honda)[/caption]

 

Ciel

 

La Lune et Vénus se lèvent dans le ciel de Manhattan, peu avant l'aube, à New York.

 

Sky

 

Moon and Venus rise in the Manhattan sky, just before dawn, in New York.

 

(AFP - Stan Honda)

 

(Agence France-Presse, 29 Wednesday January 2014 The Roman)

(Translated: R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 30 Thursday January 2014 The Roman)

 

 

Swift snowstorm rolls through northeastern US

Swift snowstorm rolls through northeastern US

 

[caption id="attachment_11237" align="alignnone" width="400"] (A view down 5th Avenue in the snow as New Yorkers get hit with a winter storm on 21 January 2014 The Roman (AFP, Timothy A. Clary))[/caption]

 

By Robert MacPherson (AFP)

 

Washington — A major snowstorm rolled across the northeastern United States, with forecasters calling for as much as a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in some places before it leaves a cold snap in its wake.

 

Downtown Washington fell virtually silent after the federal government, seeing the swift-moving cold front approaching, closed its doors and told civil servants -- who Monday had the day off for the Martin Luther King holiday -- to stay home.

 

Many offices and schools followed suit, as 20 mile (32 kilometer) per hour winds whipped the falling snow through the unusually quiet streets.

 

Washington's Metro system reported half as many riders as a typical weekday, and business was so slow that many restaurants used Twitter to woo customers with bargain-priced drinks.

 

Enough snow was expected to fall on the US capital to turn the evening rush hour into a Beltway traffic nightmare, as the storm churned its way into New York and the northeastern New England states.

 

"The storm along the Mid-Atlantic Coast will deepen rapidly while moving northeastward to the Canadian Maritimes paralleling the coast by Wednesday evening," the National Weather Service said.

 

"The system will produce moderate to heavy snow over the mid-Atlantic coast into southern New England that will move into the Gulf of Maine by Wednesday morning."

 

In its wake, the storm will see temperatures drop as low as eight degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 Celsius) in Washington overnight -- with the mercury unlikely to climb back above freezing before Saturday.

 

FlightAware, a website that monitors air traffic in real time, said nearly 3,000 flights into, out of or within the United States had been cancelled Tuesday.

 

The lion's share of affected flights involved busy airports in the New York, Philadelphia and Washington areas.

 

National passenger rail operator Amtrak said it would operate "a normal Tuesday schedule," but it warned passengers to "anticipate some weather-related delays."

 

Private forecasting service AccuWeather call for snowfalls to be heaviest along a band stretching from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the northeasternmost state of Maine down the Atlantic seaboard into Virginia.

 

"Travel conditions will deteriorate rapidly due to slippery roads and diminishing visibility," AccuWeather said.

 

"As the air turns colder, the snow will become dry and powdery. Increasing winds will cause extensive blowing and drifting snow."

 

The Washington Post's popular Capital Weather Gang blog forecast up to 10 inches of snow in and around the US capital, ahead of a return of sub-freezing temperatures later this week.

 

Organizers of Wednesday's annual March for Life rally on the National Mall, which typically draws tens of thousands of Americans who oppose abortion, said they were going ahead with the event.

 

In New York, a storm alert remained in effect until 6:00 am (1100 GMT) Wednesday with as much as a foot (30 centimeters) forecast for the metropolitan region.

 

Temperatures were set to fall below normal, to as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 12 Celsius) with winds gusting to 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour.

 

Dozens of schools either closed for the day or told parents to expect their youngsters to be dismissed from class earlier than usual.

 

Courthouses called off proceedings in the afternoon.

 

Across the Hudson River, New Jersey went ahead with its mid-day inauguration ceremony for re-elected governor Chris Christie, who is battling allegations he used his office to bully political foes.

 

But an evening gala on historic Ellis Island in New York Harbor to mark the start of his new term in office was cancelled due to the storm.

 

What the National Weather Service called a "fast moving but potent" snowstorm had earlier dumped seven inches of snow on airports the Chicago area, before temperatures fell to the freezing level.

 

Copyright © 2014 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 21 Tuesday January 2014 The Roman)

US weather: all 50 states fall below freezing

US weather: all 50 states fall below freezing

 

All 50 of America’s states recorded temperatures below freezing at some point on Tuesday and even the polar bear at Chicago zoo spent most of the day indoors, as bitterly cold air gripped the country

 

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Ice covers rocks and brush on the break wall at Edgewater Park in Cleveland (Photo The Telegraph))[/caption]

 

Parts of the country which were not victims of the “Polar vortex” that afflicted swathes of the US none the less suffered abnormally chilly weather as US authorities declared it the coldest Jan 7 on record.

 

The lowest temperature was reported at Embarrass, Minnesota, a township of just over 600 people, where the thermometer fell to -35F (-37C).

 

Once the wind chill factor was taken into account, the temperature felt as low as -45F (-43C).

 

On Hawaii the weather station on Mauna Kea, the island’s highest mountain, recorded a temperature of 21F (-6C), and temperatures plummeted at all levels in the southern states of the US mainland.

 

“It’s not unprecedented, but it is unusual,” a spokesman for the US National Weather Service said.

 

“Normally either Florida, Texas or Louisiana stays above freezing.”

 

In Chicago, the zoo’s polar bear, Anana, which has less insulating fat than if it lived in the wild, was kept in its heated indoor enclosure all day on Monday and only ventured outside briefly yesterday as the thermometer fell to -16F (-27C).

 

At least 21 people are believed to have died across the USA as a result of the cold blast which has crippled much of the country.

 

According to the latest official figures 187 million people have been affected by the severe weather.

 

Across the country wind chill warnings were in place for 32 states from Montana in the north to Florida in the south east.

 

School closures were reported from as far afield as Minneapolis and Chicago in the north to Atlanta and northern Florida in the south.

 

The eastern seaboard, which had escaped the initial impact of the Polar vortex, was also affected.

 

Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state, closed swathes of the state highways as a precaution.

 

In Illinois the governor, Pat Quinn, declared a state of emergency as the state wrestled with the most severe temperatures in two decades.

 

So cold was the temperature that water thrown into the air turned into ice before landing on the ground.

 

In Iowa, Tom Rauen became an internet sensation when he posted a film on YouTube showing a wet T-shirt turning into ice in a minute.

 

“I thought, 'Why not do something a little different?’ and wondered what would happen if we froze a T-shirt? How long would it take to freeze?

 

“I thought it would be cool if I could shape it into what it would look like if someone was wearing it. I left it standing up on the sidewalk for a while and when I brought it inside there was a little tear in it - just from it freezing, it had become it very brittle. I took the tear and just ripped the T-shirt in half like it was a piece of paper. It was crazy.”

 

The cold weather in the south triggered fears the Florida citrus crop could be hit.

 

America’s transport system continued to be hit.

 

In Illinois, more than 500 passengers were stuck on three Amtrak trains overnight after they were trapped by the snow.

 

Air travel was also hit with thousands of flights cancelled across the country.

 

However according to US weather forecasters the worst is over, with temperatures expected to climb slowly by the end of the week.

 

(The Telegraph, 7 Tuesday January 2014 The Roman)

 

We sent many informations to the United States through Paris Police.

 

(R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 8 Wednesday January 2014 The Roman)

 

US weather: all 50 states fall below freezing

US weather: all 50 states fall below freezing

 

All 50 of America’s states recorded temperatures below freezing at some point on Tuesday and even the polar bear at Chicago zoo spent most of the day indoors, as bitterly cold air gripped the country

 

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Ice covers rocks and brush on the break wall at Edgewater Park in Cleveland (Photo The Telegraph))[/caption]

 

Parts of the country which were not victims of the “Polar vortex” that afflicted swathes of the US none the less suffered abnormally chilly weather as US authorities declared it the coldest Jan 7 on record.

 

The lowest temperature was reported at Embarrass, Minnesota, a township of just over 600 people, where the thermometer fell to -35F (-37C).

 

Once the wind chill factor was taken into account, the temperature felt as low as -45F (-43C).

 

On Hawaii the weather station on Mauna Kea, the island’s highest mountain, recorded a temperature of 21F (-6C), and temperatures plummeted at all levels in the southern states of the US mainland.

 

“It’s not unprecedented, but it is unusual,” a spokesman for the US National Weather Service said.

 

“Normally either Florida, Texas or Louisiana stays above freezing.”

 

In Chicago, the zoo’s polar bear, Anana, which has less insulating fat than if it lived in the wild, was kept in its heated indoor enclosure all day on Monday and only ventured outside briefly yesterday as the thermometer fell to -16F (-27C).

 

At least 21 people are believed to have died across the USA as a result of the cold blast which has crippled much of the country.

 

According to the latest official figures 187 million people have been affected by the severe weather.

 

Across the country wind chill warnings were in place for 32 states from Montana in the north to Florida in the south east.

 

School closures were reported from as far afield as Minneapolis and Chicago in the north to Atlanta and northern Florida in the south.

 

The eastern seaboard, which had escaped the initial impact of the Polar vortex, was also affected.

 

Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state, closed swathes of the state highways as a precaution.

 

In Illinois the governor, Pat Quinn, declared a state of emergency as the state wrestled with the most severe temperatures in two decades.

 

So cold was the temperature that water thrown into the air turned into ice before landing on the ground.

 

In Iowa, Tom Rauen became an internet sensation when he posted a film on YouTube showing a wet T-shirt turning into ice in a minute.

 

“I thought, 'Why not do something a little different?’ and wondered what would happen if we froze a T-shirt? How long would it take to freeze?

 

“I thought it would be cool if I could shape it into what it would look like if someone was wearing it. I left it standing up on the sidewalk for a while and when I brought it inside there was a little tear in it - just from it freezing, it had become it very brittle. I took the tear and just ripped the T-shirt in half like it was a piece of paper. It was crazy.”

 

The cold weather in the south triggered fears the Florida citrus crop could be hit.

 

America’s transport system continued to be hit.

 

In Illinois, more than 500 passengers were stuck on three Amtrak trains overnight after they were trapped by the snow.

 

Air travel was also hit with thousands of flights cancelled across the country.

 

However according to US weather forecasters the worst is over, with temperatures expected to climb slowly by the end of the week.

 

(The Telegraph, 7 Tuesday January 2014 The Roman)

 

We sent many informations to the United States through Paris Police.

 

(R.S.F. toshiki   eed news press, Agence France-Presse, 8 Wednesday january 2014 The Roman)

 

ATP WORLD TOUR SEASON REVIEW 2013 IN REVIEW: ATP HERITAGE PROGRAMME

ATP WORLD TOUR SEASON REVIEW

 

2013 IN REVIEW: ATP HERITAGE PROGRAMME

 

Best Of 2013

 

(by ATP Staff  | 21.12.2013)

 

 

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Media/Video-Landing/*/Tennis/Media/Videos/Uploaded/2013/8/24/ATP-Heritage-No-1-Celebration-Highlights.aspx#ooid=VndnZ4ZDrb7IAfo9Yjd0_KtluJJwqSnl

 

 

Thanks to the vision of the late ATP Executive Chairman & President, Brad Drewett, the ATP Heritage Programme was born in February 2013.

 

Marking 40 years of the Emirates ATP Rankings, the ATP Heritage Programme celebrates a remarkable journey taken by players, tournaments and fans since 1973.

 

A special commemorative coffee table book was published by the ATP during Wimbledon, celebrating all the year-end ATP World Tour No. 1s over the past 40 years.

 

The unique celebratory book, entitled ‘No. 1’, featured exclusive interviews with No. 1s past and present, as well as never-seen-before photography over the past 40 years.

 

‘No. 1’ is available for purchase at UK book stores, and online through Tennis Warehouse

 

Visit ATP Heritage Section

 

The protagonists then shared the same stage in New York at the No. 1 Celebration gala on the eve of the US Open.

 

Champions paid tribute to generations past and present as an unprecedented gathering of No. 1s took place.

 

Ilie Nastase, who became the first ATP World No. 1 on 23 August 1973, was present to be honoured on the night, along with successors John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Marcelo Rios, Carlos Moya, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Gustavo Kuerten, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

 

The four decades' worth of No. 1s shared a stage - and some fond memories as well.

 

The evening also included a tribute to Drewett, who had passed away in May following a battle with Motor Neurone Disease.

 

Federer thanked those that came before him, like childhood idol Edberg.

 

"It was important for me to have someone to look up to," said Federer, the record-holder for most weeks at No. 1.

 

''I know there's been a huge sacrifice at the players' level, just this generation and the players sitting here tonight, and even before that. We've put such huge effort in the game, and that's a platform we can enjoy today.''

 

As part of the ATP Heritage Programme, ATP WorldTour.com marked historic anniversaries throughout the 2013 season.

 

The Rankings That Changed Tennis

 

The 23rd August marked the 40th anniversary of the Emirates ATP Rankings.

 

After quickly earning legitimacy and credibility, the rankings have become an indispensable part of tennis accepted universally by players, tournaments and fans.

 

The Tour Born In A Parking Lot

 

Few tennis media conferences have resonated like 'The Parking Lot Press Conference', held 25 years ago on 30 August 1988, a seminal moment in ATP history.

 

With the ATP logo hastily duct-taped to the podium, a rented PA system and a parking lot for a venue, the 1988 press conference that crystalised momentum for the birth of the ATP Tour could be called 'no frills' at best.

 

http://www.atpworldtour.com/

 

(ATP, 21 Saturday December 2013 The Roman)

 

World's most expensive book sells for $14 mn

World's most expensive book sells for $14 mn

 

NEW YORK (AFP)

 

The first book printed in what is today the United States sold for nearly $14.2 million at auction in New York on Tuesday, Sotheby's said, becoming the world's most expensive book.

 

The translation of Biblical psalms "The Bay Psalm Book" was printed by Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and was offered at a one-lot auction by Sotheby's.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 27 Wednesday November 2013 The Roman)

 

Le ténor Roberto Alagna dit avoir retrouvé "une nouvelle jeunesse" The tenor Roberto Alagna said they found “A new life"

Le ténor Roberto Alagna dit avoir retrouvé "une nouvelle jeunesse"

 

Le célèbre ténor franco-italien Roberto Alagna, 50 ans, dit avoir retrouvé une "nouvelle jeunesse" et confesse que sa passion pour l'opéra lui a servi de thérapie dans les moments difficiles, dans une interview à l'AFP.

 

"On dit que l'on chante bien quand on est triste, mais moi je crois que l'on chante mieux quand on est heureux", souligne l'artiste dès le début de l'entretien au Metropolitan Opera de Manhattan, accompagné de sa partenaire, la chanteuse soprano polonaise Aleksandra Kurzak, 36 ans et enceinte de plusieurs mois.

 

"C'était dur pour moi de passer le cap des 40 ans", raconte-t-il, reconnaissant avoir alors vécu "une petite dépression".

 

"Mais 50 ans c'est plus facile. Je me sens en forme. Peut-être l'histoire du nouveau bonheur, le fait d'attendre un bébé. Je ressens une sorte de jeunesse nouvelle et de sérénité", dit-il.

 

"C'est comme un nouveau départ".

 

D'ailleurs, "on le sent dans ma voix. Elle est jeune, elle a de la lumière, elle est brillante. Tout le monde me dit ça", insiste le ténor d'origine sicilienne.

 

Né en 1963 à Clichy-sous-Bois, dans la banlieue de Paris, Roberto Alagna a déjà une fille, Ornella, la vingtaine, issue de son premier mariage.

 

Le bonheur et l'enthousiasme retrouvés du chanteur montrent qu'il est parvenu à laisser derrière lui les souffrances de sa séparation avec la soprano roumaine Angela Gheorghiu, sa deuxième épouse, avec qui il a formé durant des années un couple mythique de l'opéra.

 

Leurs noces avaient été célébrées en grande pompe en 1996 au Met par le maire de New York de l'époque, Rudolph Giuliani.

 

Pour Roberto Alagna, l'opéra a été "le fil conducteur" des membres de sa famille.

 

"Tout le monde a chanté dans ma famille. C'est grâce à l'opéra et au chant qu'ils ont supporté toutes les difficultés de l'immigration, de la pauvreté, de la situation économique, de la situation privée. Et moi aussi", confie l'artiste, qui a connu des moments durs, dont la mort de sa première femme Florence Lancien, décédée d'une tumeur au cerveau en 1994.

 

"L'opéra m'a tout donné"

 

"L'opéra pour moi c'est presque une thérapie. L'opéra m'a tout donné. C'est l'opéra qui m'a permis de m'affirmer, de gommer ma timidité, d'affronter le monde, de pouvoir me connaître moi-même. J'ai eu de gros problèmes de santé que j'ai aussi pu surmonter grâce à cette passion pour le chant", insiste-t-il.

 

"Si je n'avais pas eu cette passion, je serais déjà mort".

 

Aujourd'hui, Roberto Alagna se sent capable de chanter pendant au moins encore dix, voire vingt ans, et il est convaincu que les critiques et le public seront avec lui.

 

Le ténor interprète actuellement au Met le peintre Cavaradossi dans "La Tosca" de Puccini, aux côtés de la soprano américaine Patricia Racette.

 

En décembre, il chantera dans "Carmen" de Bizet à la Royal Opera House de Londres.

 

La présentation de "Tosca" samedi au Met sera retransmise dans le monde entier dans le cadre d'un programme comprenant 1.900 cinémas de 64 pays.

 

Selon l'artiste, cette initiative du Met s'inscrit dans la "période extraordinaire" que vit l'opéra.

 

"L'opéra n'a jamais été aussi populaire (...) grâce aux DVD, aux festivals dans le monde entier, à la musique dans toutes les publicités et les films", estime l'artiste, qui a commencé sa carrière dans des cabarets avant de remporter le concours Pavarotti de 1988 à Philadelphie.

 

Il rejette ainsi les clichés d'un opéra "élitiste" ou "inaccessible", expliquant que, comme dans toute discipline, il s'agit d'une question "d'apprentissage".

 

Sa vie est intimement liée à celle du Met, où il a commencé en 1996 avec "La Bohème".

 

Roberto Alagna admet toutefois être "plus nerveux" aujourd'hui qu'avant: "Plus tu atteins un certain niveau, plus on va te critiquer, plus les gens attendent un miracle".

 

Le ténor, qui mène aussi une carrière de chanteur populaire, regrette enfin "qu'avec cette crise économique mondiale, on trouve beaucoup d'excuses pour fermer plein de choses" et de lancer "une sonnette d'alarme: +n'abandonnons pas la culture+".

 

(Le Point, 9 samedi novembre 2013 la Roman)

 

 

The tenor Roberto Alagna said they found “A new life"

 

The famous tenor Franco-Italian Roberto Alagna, 50, said he found a "new youth" and confesses that his passion for the opera he has served as therapy in difficult times, in an interview with AFP.

 

"They say they sing well when you're sad, but I think they sing better when we are happy," said the artist at the beginning of the interview at the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, with his partner, the Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak singer, 36 years and several months pregnant.

 

"It was hard for me to pass the age of 40," he says, while acknowledging that he lived "a small depression."

 

"But 50 years is easier. I feel fit. Perhaps the story of the new happiness, is expecting a baby. I feel a new kind of youth and serenity," he said.

 

"It's like a new beginning."

 

Moreover, “We feel it in my voice. She is young, she has a light, it is brilliant. Everybody says to me," insists the Sicilian tenor.

 

Born in 1963 in Clichy -sous -Bois, a suburb of Paris, Roberto Alagna already has a daughter, Ornella, twenties, after his first marriage.

 

Happiness and enthusiasm found the singer show that it is able to leave behind the pain of his separation from the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, his second wife, with whom he has trained over the years a golden couple of opera.

 

Their nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at the Met in 1996 by the mayor of New York at the time, Rudolph Giuliani.

 

Roberto Alagna, the opera was "the common thread" of his family.

 

"Everyone in my family sang . Thanks to opera and singing they have endured all the difficulties of immigration, poverty, the economy, the domestic situation. And I also, "says the artist, who has known hard times, including the death of his first wife Florence winds down, died of a brain tumor in 1994.

 

"Opera has given me everything"

 

"Opera for me it's almost therapy. Opera gave me everything. This is the opera that has allowed me to assert myself, to erase my shyness to face the world, to know myself. I had major health problems that I have also been able to overcome with this passion for singing," he insists .

 

"If I had not had this passion, I 'd be dead."

 

Today, Roberto Alagna feels able to sing for at least another ten or twenty years, and he is convinced that the critics and the public will be with him.

 

Tenor currently interpreter Met the painter Cavaradossi in "Tosca" by Puccini, alongside American soprano Patricia Racette.

 

In December, he will sing in "Carmen" by Bizet at the Royal Opera House in London.

 

The presentation of "Tosca" at the Met on Saturday will be broadcast around the world as part of a program involving 1,900 theaters from 64 countries.

 

According to the artist, this initiative is part of the Met 's "special period" that saw the opera.

 

"The opera has never been more popular (...) through the DVD, festivals around the world, music in all advertisements and films," said the artist, who began his career in cabarets before winning the Pavarotti competition in Philadelphia in 1988.

 

He rejected the clichés of "elitist" opera or "unreachable", explaining that, as in any discipline, it is a matter of "learning."

 

His life is closely linked to the Met, where he began in 1996 with "La Boheme".

 

However, Roberto Alagna admits "more nervous" today than before : "The more you reach a certain level, the more one will criticize you, most people expect a miracle."

 

The tenor, who also has a career as a popular singer, finally regrets "with the global economic crisis, there are many excuses to close a lot of things" and launch "an alarm bell : +do not give up culture+".

 

(Le Point, 9 Saturday November 2013 The Roman)

(Translated: R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 9 Saturday November 2013 The Roman)

 

 

NY shares soaring, $ 323, since 10-month one year high price

NY shares soaring, $ 323, since 10-month one year high price

 

ＮＹ株急騰、３２３ドル高　上げ幅１年１０カ月ぶり

 

【ニューヨーク共同】１０月１０日のニューヨーク株式市場のダウ工業株３０種平均は米財政協議の進展期待で大幅続伸し、終値は前日比３２３・０９ドル高の１万５１２６・０７ドルとなった。

 

終値ベースの上げ幅としては２０１１年１２月２０日以来、約１年１０カ月ぶりの大きさ。

 

４営業日ぶりに１万５０００ドル台を回復した。

 

ハイテク株主体のナスダック総合指数は８２・９７ポイント高の３７６０・７５。

 

幅広い銘柄で構成するＳ＆Ｐ５００種株価指数は３６・１６ポイント高の１６９２・５６の大幅高となった。

 

連邦債務の上限引き上げで、財政協議進展との情報への期待感から、ダウ平均は全面高の展開となった。

 

(共同通信)

 

（神奈川新聞、2013年10月11日）

 

 

NY shares soaring, $ 323, since 10-month one year high price

 

(New York Kyodo) Dow Jones Industrial Average of the New York Stock Exchange on the 10th October was sharply higher in the progress expected of the U.S. financial consultation, the closing price was $ 15,126.07, compared with the day before $ 323.09 high.

 

Since December 20th 2011, the size of the 10-month and one year as of high price, based on the closing price.

 

It recovered the $ 15,000 units in four business days.

 

NASDAQ composite index of high-tech shareholder of 3760.75, 82.97 points higher.

 

S & P 500 stock index to be configured in a wide range of issues was a significant high of 1692.56, 36.16 points higher.

 

At the high end raising the federal debt, from expectations for information and financial consultation progress, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the deployment of full high.

 

(Kyodo News)

 

(Kanagawa Shimbun, 11 Friday October 2013 The Roman)

(Translated: R.S.F. tohiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 11 Friday October 2013 The Roman)

 

 

U.N. sued in U.S. court over Haiti's cholera epidemic

U.N. sued in U.S. court over Haiti's cholera epidemic

 

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Human rights lawyers filed a class action lawsuit against the United Nations on Wednesday to seek compensation for Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic they blame on U.N. peacekeepers.

 

The decision to file suit in New York comes after the United Nations said earlier this year that it would not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation claimed by cholera victims in impoverished Haiti, where the epidemic has killed over 8,300 people and sickened more than 650,000 since October 2010.

 

"Haiti today has the worst cholera epidemic in the world," said Miami attorney Ira Kurzban, who announced the lawsuit at a joint news conference with the human rights groups Bureau des Advocats Internationaux (BAI) and Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH).

 

"Before these events, Haiti did not know of cholera for 100 years. Cholera was brought to Haiti by U.N. troops," Kurzban said.

 

The lawyers filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in New York's Southern District, seeking $2.2 billion (1.3 billion pounds) for the Haitian government to eradicate cholera along with unspecified damages for as many as 679,000 victims for personal injury, wrongful death, emotional distress, and loss of use of property and natural resources.

 

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Haitians and Haitian-Americans maintains that the cholera was introduced by U.N. troops brought to Haiti from Nepal, "a country in which cholera is endemic and where a surge in infections had just been reported."

 

The troops were stationed near a tributary of the Artibonite River and discharged raw sewage that carried a strain of cholera into Haiti, sparking the epidemic, the lawsuit said.

 

"The U.N. knew or should have know that its reckless sanitation and waste disposal practices posed a high risk of harm to the population, and that it consciously disregarded that risk, triggering an explosive epidemic," the civil rights groups said in a joint press release.

 

Asked to comment on the suit, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said: "We don't discuss claims brought against the U.N."

 

The United Nations was working on the ground in Haiti to provide assistance to those affected, he added. The United Nations was committed to do all it can do "to help the people of Haiti overcome the cholera epidemic," Haq said.

 

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY

 

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said in Geneva on Tuesday that Haiti's cholera victims should be compensated, though she did not say who should compensate them.

 

"I still stand by the call ... of those who suffered as a result of that cholera be provided with compensation," Pillay said.

 

An independent panel appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to study the epidemic issued a 2011 report that did not determine conclusively how the cholera was introduced to Haiti.

 

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said evidence strongly suggested U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal were the source.

 

Cholera is an infection that causes severe diarrhoea and can lead to dehydration and death.

 

It occurs in places with poor sanitation.

 

In November 2011, the Boston-based IJDH filed a petition at U.N. headquarters in New York seeking a minimum of $100,000 for the families or next-of-kin of each person killed by cholera and at least $50,000 for each victim who suffered illness or injury from cholera.

 

Ban launched a $2.2 billion initiative in December 2012 to stamp out cholera over the next decade in Haiti.

 

Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said in February of this year that the world body advised the representatives of the cholera victims that "the claims are not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities."

 

The IJDH said at the time it was disappointed by the U.N. decision and would pursue the case in court.

 

Under Section 29 the United Nations is required to make provisions for "appropriate modes of settlement" of private law disputes to which the world body is a party or disputes involving a U.N. official who enjoys diplomatic immunity.

 

It was not immediately clear how the issue of diplomatic immunity for the United Nations would impact the lawsuit.

 

Kurzban said the lawsuit seeks to clean up the waterways and sanitation systems.

 

"Cholera is treatable, easily treatable, if the country has clean water and sanitation."

 

"We feel the U.N. has an obligation to clean up the mess that they made."

 

(The Star Online, 10 Thursday October 2013 The Roman)

 

FBI shuts down 'black market website Silk Road'

FBI shuts down 'black market website Silk Road'

 

Silk Road, a website that sold illegal drugs worth millions of dollars, has been shut down after its alleged founder was arrested and accused of hiring an assassin to kill a customer who threatened to reveal the identities of other users.

 

[caption id="attachment_9092" align="alignnone" width="400"] (The FBI have hut down Silk Road, a website that sold illegal drugs worth millions of dollars (Photo: ALAMY))[/caption]

 

The FBI announced that Ross Ulbricht, also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, was captured “without incident” by agents at a public library in San Francisco on Tuesday and charged with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.

 

Mr Ulbricht, 29, is accused by US prosecutors in New York of using the site as a marketplace for large quantities of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD since 2011 to customers paying with Bitcoin, the digital currency.

 

In an extraordinary 39-page criminal complaint, he is also accused of soliciting a user of the site to carry out a “murder-for-hire of another Silk Road user”, who was threatening to unmask thousands of vendors and customers unless his $500,000 drug debt was cleared.

 

More than $1 million worth of sales a month were estimated to be taking place on Silk Road, which offered users anonymity by operating on the so-called Tor network, which masks the location of computers accessing it.

 

All transactions were required to be completed in Bitcoins, which are also designed to provide cash-like anonymity to users.

 

Authorities said they had seized 26,000 bitcoins worth some $3.6 million as part of their raid on Mr Ulbricht.

 

Softer drugs such as marijuana, as well as other black-market goods such as malicious computer software, were also available for sale on the website, which last night showed a holding page created by the FBI, announcing: “This hidden site has been seized”.

 

Prosecutors argue that Mr Ulbricht, a former physics student at the Universities of Texas and Pennsylvania, was in effect running a multi-million dollar money laundering operation through the website.

 

The complaint also alleged that he approached a user of the site with the screenname redandwhite after another, FriendlyChemist, had posted a message on the site threatening to publicly disclose the identities of thousands of other users.

 

“In my eyes, FriendlyChemist is a liability and I wouldn't mind if he was executed,” he is said to have written.

 

In a follow-up message he is said to have provided a real name and address in British Columbia, Canada, for the troublesome user.

 

After being quoted a price of up to $300,000, Mr Ulbricht allegedly complained that “not long ago, I had a clean hit done for $80k”.

 

A price of $150,000 was eventually agreed, according to the messages.

 

No killing is believed to have been carried out.

 

Mr Ulbricht is due to appear in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday.

 

(The Telegraph, 2 Wednesday October 2013 The Roman)