Russia Foreign Ministry: U.S. Adoptions Should Be Suspended

MOSCOW -- Russia's Foreign Ministry is asking the government to suspend adoptions of Russian children by U.S. nationals following an "incessant string of crimes" allegedly committed by American adoptive parents.

Russian authorities say that at least 17 Russian children have died in domestic violence incidents in their American families.

The Ministry said Saturday that the adoptions should resume only after Moscow and Washington sign an accord that allows Russian monitors to visit the homes of adopted children.

A Pennsylvanian couple was convicted in November of the involuntary manslaughter of their son adopted from Russia.

In 2010, a Tennessee woman sent her allegedly violent adopted son on a plane back to Russia ? unaccompanied by an adult.

U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990s.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/11/russia-us-adoptions_n_1270704.html

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Is Islamic Finance ready for more standardization? | Exotic Foods

As new market participants enter the scene, Shariah banking continues to grow despite the threat of a global recession. But is the industry also progressing in terms of unity and transparency?

When bankers from East and West gathered in Manama at the 18th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference in November 2011, one topic was prevalent at nearly all discussion rounds: standardization.

But while Islamic Finance is expanding to new frontiers such as Uganda, France, Egypt, South Korea and Oman, the objective to make Shariah-compliant financial products more standardized appears more and more like a far-fetched daydream.

Let?s take France, with its legal environment based on the Napoleonic Code civil. The French jurisdiction differs greatly from British Common law or Case law, the predominant legal framework in England, the centre of Islamic finance in Europe. How shall a financial solution, let?s say an Islamic trade financing based on Murabaha, be used by a London-residing bank if it was legalized in France? Calls for more standardization overlook the individual nature of national jurisdictions, which still exist even in the 27-member states European Union.

The Common law is also used in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), one of the major Islamic banking hubs in the Middle East, while the jurisdiction in the UAE is based on a mix of the French Code Civil and Islamic law. ?Both legal environments differ too much from each other,? says Houram Houssani, Partner at the GCC?s largest law firm Al Tamimi & Co. in Dubai. ?This is why we think the DIFC will, legally, continue to exist as a state in the state within the UAE.?

At the same time, Qatar has implemented a strict separation between Islamic and conventional banking, banning Islamic windows at all conventional lenders in the country, a first in the industry.

Divergent views on Islamic Finance?s future

Anecdotal evidence also shows that the leading market participants do not agree at all in the direction Islamic Finance shall take, as AMEinfo.com has learned when from interviewing experts at conferences. One Islamic Finance consultant based in Dubai blames some banks for not operating in an Islamic way at all but ?running a Shariah-bank with a conventional window?. Other professionals are outraged that some financial firms try to develop Islamic derivatives or even Islamic hedge funds despite the fact that Shariah bans interest, short-selling and speculation.

In some cases, rules set by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), one of the most accepted international standard setting organizations, are even stricter than the guidelines for the conventional world. According to Rohit Verma, product management director at Oracle Financial Services, the IFSB ?has stricter capital requirements than those proposed in Basel III, with tier 1 and total capital requirements currently standing at 8% and 12% respectively. The minimum common equity requirements for Basel III are set at 4.5% and total capital requirements have been set at 8% with a 2.5% buffer,? Verma writes in an article published in New Horizon (Issue October ? December 2012). Although Basel III does not distinguish between conventional and Islamic banks, the rules are primarily set for the conventional world, as the Shariah finance universe stands for 1% of the global economy.

?Focus on a few things, not many things,? is a favourite piece of advice from legendary investor Warren Buffet. Maybe it is time for Islamic finance to focus on its strengths, namely to provide a non-conventional, non-interest ethical way of banking and investing rather than trying to put the whole industry under one hat, labelled ?standardization?, a task which seems to be ?Mission: Impossible? as more participants enter the scene.

Source: http://copamcdonaldsuruguay.com/is-islamic-finance-ready-for-more-standardization

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The Excitement And Increased Popularity Of Heli Skiing

Heli skiing is one of the most thrilling activities in the world of sports. It involves skiing on mountainous areas, and a helicopter (rather than ski lift) takes you to your beginning point. The sport started around the 1960's and has been growing in popularity over the years. Many people in various parts of the world engage in helicopter skiing today, however heli skiing is more popular in Canada than in many other parts of the world. Heli skiing in Canada has become popular in large part due to the terrain and landscape of specific areas that house some of the world's greatest skiing conditions.

Heli skiing and other mountain activities are popular since the Rocky Mountains run through Canada's western regions. There are various mountains in the region, many which are close in proximity to resorts and housing options, making runs easily accessible. Such mountains include alpine glaciers, steep chutes, gladed trees, and alpine bowls. The variation and number of runs are extremely enticing to those who crave fresh powder and having undefined lines to descend upon.

The terrains of this country have made Canada a leading destination for people intending to enjoy the mountain life and scenic views that only 2000 ft. mountains can provide. For those looking for an incredible ski experience in North America know that Canada's western region's house some of the best ski conditions, but also some pretty breathtaking views. Many heli skiing companies will offer sight-seeing trips to the recreational traveler, allowing no skiers to fly over the mountains taking in a bird's eye view.

Operators have also played a very great role in making heli skiing popular. These are spread in various parts of the country where skiing activities take place. They are very common in various parts of Canada such as Alberta and British Columbia. Resorts and heli skiing companies have been promoting heli skiing not just to people of this country, but internationally as well. As a result, the operators have made their bases good places for experienced and aspiring thrill seekers alike. The commitment shown by those providing services is one factor that cannot be ignored in considering elements that have led to the popularity of heli skiing. They provide group and even private packages to those in need of heli skiing services, and often the services also come with accommodation and meals as well.

The cost of the packages will differ depending on the packages that one wants and the level of service required. Other factors such as the quality of meals served and accommodation size will naturally vary according to the price of your package. These options will make it possible for you to get the best services of a heli skiing service provider. It is also important to know the number of people that will be involved in your heli skiing activities, as well as the number of days you will engage in skiing. While organizing such a trip may seem like a daunting task, many operators can help your experience much easier, allowing you to enjoy the mountains that much quicker.

About the Author:
Great Canadian Heli-Skiing is the leader in heli skiing BC programs. Offering unparalleled experiences in small group trips and heli ski holidays.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/The-Excitement-And-Increased-Popularity-Of-Heli-Skiing/3644432

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This Summer, Imagine In .The game of golf Holiday getaway ...

It is hard to imagine given its well known, but many experts have fifteen years since the legendary Hyperlinks at Crowbush Cove primary started out, developing President Edward cullen Tropical isle for the reason that prominent playing golf vacation destination in Canada.

Last 12 months the training course hosted former Masters champs Mike Weir and Vijay Singh, who dueled at Crowbush during the minute In .Icons of The sport of golfIn . occurrence, following the restaging of the legendary In .Duel in the sunshine,In . in between Jack Nicklaus and Dan Watson that took place in 2006, among the reddish colored crushed stone sand traps of Dundarave The Game. Sad to say for Canadians, Weir lost a tight coordinate to Singh. But each golfers download mozilla firefox came up aside with raves for Crowbush and the advantage of the city, with Singh announcing he would want to returning for any PEI getaway.

In .This is my brand new to President Edward cullen Tropical isle and that i truly enjoyed the excursion and the the game of golf. Ahead of we came up, Mike received laughed and said just what a impressive put PEI is, and what excellent golf courses the city has. I?d been glad every single child discover them for myself and I have to have the ability to returning for any getaway at some point,In . says Singh.

Both Weir and Singh praised the training course to remarkable, exclusive as well as a challenge.

Truthfully Singh and Weir are just a couple of the download malwarebytes antimalware lots of fans around the globe school golf clubs President Edward cullen Tropical isle has to offer from Rodd Brudenell Pond Holiday resort while in the far east to Grinding machine Pond The Game and Holiday resort under western culture. Even though PEI travel and leisure gives a variety of points of interest, playing golf has become a essential drawing element for tourists from around Canada and the You.Azines.

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As Credit score The sport of golf manager Baby trend Many days not long ago download nero observed, there are few places where offer far better, more cost-effective playing golf location in North America. He?s got a specific liking for Crowbush and its attached Rodd vacation resort.

In .If you are seeking a full playing golf getaway, then look no further than Rodd Crowbush The sport of golf and Seashore Holiday resort,In . says Many days.
But it?s not only media gurus and famous playing golf positives that happen to be lauding just what the Tropical isle has to offer.

In .Not surprisingly PEI would have been a fantasy come true,In . says Melissa from Gta, who arrived at the city this past year with her category of 5. In .We experienced extraordinary golf courses and ate extraordinary foodstuff.In .

Source: http://www.museumofearthhistory.com/this-summer-imagine-in-the-game-of-golf-holiday-getaway-president-edward-tropical-islein

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In This Months Business Monthly

Seventeen years is a long time, even for a Twinkie. I thought about that as my seventeenth annual box of birthday Twinkies arrived in the mail last month. My sister Pat, who now lives in St. AugustineBeach, has dutifully sent me a box of?Hostess Twinkies, accompanied by a pack of birthday candles every year since 1995.This birthday Twinkie tradition started right here in HoCo with a column I wrote for a now defunct newspaper. In 1994, a fellow named Ed Pickett tried to buck the trend of declining newspaper readership by launching HowardCounties first ever daily newspaper. He called it the Columbia Daily Tribune.

It lasted three months.

I had met Ed in 1992 when he rolled into town and started a monthly business publication originally called the Columbia Business Journal. I don?t know how he got my name but he invited me to meet him for a drink at Piccolo?s (now Three Brothers Pizza) and asked me to write a column for his paper. After being threatened with a lawsuit by the Baltimore Business Journal, Ed changed the name to the Columbia Business Monthly, which was eventually shortened to The Business Monthly.Ed was a bit of bit of restless character and by 1994, with The Business Monthly actually making money, he decided to start a daily paper. The problem was he tried to do this with very little capital. By the time the paper ?suspended? publication he owed money all over town and he soon left for greener pastures.I stayed in touch with Ed for a few years after that. He ended up in Maine where he started the Bangor Business Monthly which, eventually grew to include monthly business papers in PenobscotBay and Kennebec under the banner of The Maine Business Monthly Group. Those papers ceased publication in May of 2001 due to declining advertising revenue. Undeterred, he then moved to Portland to try and start another daily paper called the Portland Morning Sun. It lasted for thirteen issues. Last I heard he was living in Pittsburgh.Through all of this, the birthday Twinkies have endured. You can read this months column here.

Source: http://writing-the-wrongs.blogspot.com/2012/02/in-this-months-business-monthly.html

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Lost treasures: Peking Man's bones

A crate containing some the world?s most important hominin fossils vanished amid war in 1941 ? along with secrets about the origins of language

Read more: "Nine lost treasures ? and why science wants them back"

In September 1941, Hu Chengzhi placed several skulls into two wooden crates. Around him, China was at war with Japan, so he was sending the skulls to the US for safekeeping. They never arrived. Hu was among the last people to see one of the most important palaeontological finds in history.

These lost skulls belonged to Homo erectus pekinensis, known as Peking Man. More than half a century later, evolutionary biologists would still love to get their hands on these fossils: not only would they help answer questions about early cannibalism among our ancestors, they could even shed light on the origins of spoken language.

The owners of the skulls died at least half a million years ago, and their remains were preserved in Zhoukoudian cave near Beijing, before being unearthed in the 1920s. At the time, they were the oldest hominid fossils ever found, and silenced sceptics who claimed that other similar Javanese fossils belonged to deformed apes. These bones clearly represented an early stage of human evolution. Their owners used tools, and were the earliest known wielders of fire.

A few years into the war in 1941, the keepers of the skulls decided to ship them abroad to avoid theft. The crates left Peking, but never made it to the port.

Noel Boaz, who co-authored a book about the lost fossils, Dragon Bone Hill, believes that the crates were taken onto a train, but discarded after the vehicle was captured by Japanese soldiers. "They would probably have been collected by locals, sold to apothecary shops, and ground up for traditional medicine as 'dragon bones'," says Boaz.

Call 1-800-bones

Despite this gloomy prediction, many people hold out hope that the fossils will be found. Some believe they are buried in the grounds of Beijing's American Embassy, while others think they may be hidden somewhere in the US, Japan or Taiwan, or resting on the ocean floor in the wreck of the Japanese steamer Awa Maru. An American woman claimed to have a box full of skulls that her husband brought home after the war. She met with a US broker on top of the Empire State Building in New York to demand $500,000, showed him a photo of the box, and disappeared.

In July 2005, the government of Beijing's Fangshan District announced a renewed attempt to find the bones, led by Yan Li from the Peking Man Museum. Li's committee set up a hotline, gathered 63 tips from the public, and pursued four of them. "To my knowledge, no leads uncovered by this group have panned out," says Boaz.

Fortunately, cast copies were taken but the original fossils contain extra details that could settle long-standing debates. For example, was Zhoukoudian fraught with cannibalism? "In later years, the consensus shifted toward the idea that hyenas formed the site, with the humans as victims," says John Hawks from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "The original fossils would allow a forensic investigation."

CT scans would also allow us to peer inside the skulls. The middle ear's shape could tell us about Peking Man's ability to discriminate between frequencies relevant for spoken language. While this doesn't prove they had language, it would suggest they had one of the right adaptations, and help to pinpoint when human language emerged. The Peking Man, then, remains one of science's most important missing persons.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Why is it too difficult to get a home equity loan? - IdeaMarketers.com

Scenario:

I have defaulted on my mortgage. My total mortgage debt amount is $90,000. I want to take out a home equity loan to resolve the issue. My friends are telling me that I can use the loan to pay my other bills also, which will be great for me. This way I will be able to get rid of debts sooner. However, I am also hearing that it is quite difficult to get home equity loans. Is it true? My best friend is trying his best to get a home equity loan for past few months. He has not been successful yet. Why is it so hard to qualify for home equity loans? I just can't understand. Thanks for sharing any information.

Solution:

Yes, it is true. A lot of homeowners try to take out home equity loans to pay off their mortgages. However, only few handful people are able to qualify for these loans. Most of the homeowners' applications are rejected by the lenders due to poor credit score, insufficient cash flow, lack of sufficient equity, etc.

It is said that around 27 percent of the American homeowners had negative equity in the last quarter of 2010. The only soothing fact is that the figure has slightly declined in the first quarter of 2011. According to the recent report published by CoreLogic, this figure has dropped down to 22.7 percent.

The top 5 states with highest number of home equities are Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California. This implies that the maximum number of homeowners in these states will face problems in qualifying for home equity loans.

Even the people with sufficient equity in their homes may find it difficult to get home equity loans. This is mainly because of the recent changes that have taken place in the mortgage industry. Here are the few changes which have taken place in the mortgage industry lately:

Decline in the number of mortgage lenders, brokers, servicers, etc. who used to deal with home equity loans.

Recent increase in foreclosures and short sales has made the lenders assume that homeowners are not interested in making payments on the loans. This has made the lenders wary of lending including home equity loans.

According to the new government rules and regulations, the lenders need to have high reserves. This has lead to the reduction in all types of lending.

However, this does not mean that you don't have any chance of securing a home equity loan. There are still a number of lenders who give home equity loans. If you have regular source of income, equity in your home, decent credit history, etc. then you can get a loan. It will be much easier for you to obtain a loan if you can pledge collateral against it.

Finally, make sure you have all the important financial documents (paycheck, income tax, etc.) with you before submitting the loan application. This is because the lenders will check all the documents before approving your application.

Jessica Bennet is a contributing financial writer at MortgageFit Community. She has been writing on finance for quite some time. She is an active participant in the forums wherein she helps people with suggestions to their mortgage problems.

This article has been viewed 7 time(s).

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Source: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=2977086

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Prosecution urges rejection of Sandusky request over visit (Reuters)

HARRISBURG, Pa (Reuters) ? Pennsylvania prosecutors who have charged Jerry Sandusky with sexually abusing boys filed a fierce response on Tuesday to the former Penn State assistant football coach's request to be allowed to see his grandchildren in his home.

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15-year period and has been tethered to his house under the terms of his release on bail in December that barred contact with anyone under age 18. He has maintained his innocence.

His indictment last November prompted Penn State to fire Joe Paterno, the beloved long-time head coach who died on January 22, and triggered the ouster of university president Graham Spanier.

Sandusky's attorney, Joe Amendola, asked the court last month to let Sandusky see his grandchildren under the supervision of an adult, to visit with adult friends in his home, and go to Amendola's office to work on his defense.

But Attorney General Linda Kelly, after receiving information that Sandusky had shoveled snow outside his home last month and was recently observed on his home's rear deck watching children play at a neighboring school, said Sandusky was fortunate to be under house arrest in the first place.

"He has been granted the privilege of being confined in his own home, which is spacious and private and where he can eat food of his own preference and sleep in his own bed at night," Kelly wrote in response to Amendola's request for bail modification.

But she said there were no conditions of bail that could ensure the community's peace of mind if Sandusky were allowed to have contact with children or "to circumvent house arrest under the pretense of assisting in preparing for his defense."

In a related note, Amendola, in one of four motions filed with Judge John Cleland, asked the court to order the attorney general's office to turn over hundreds of pages of pre-trial documents that were redacted by prosecutors.

Sandusky, Amendola, and state prosecutors could get the answers to their legal maneuverings during a Friday morning appearance in Centre County Court. The attorney general's office was also seeking approval to bring in a jury from another county to hear Sandusky's trial later this year.

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120208/us_nm/us_pennstate_sandusky_grandchildren

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