Cameron promises Britons straight choice on EU exit

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Wednesday to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to stay in the European Union or leave if he wins an election in 2015, placing a question mark over Britain's membership for years.

Cameron ended months of speculation by announcing in a speech the plan for a vote sometime between 2015 and the end of 2017, shrugging off warnings that this could imperil Britain's economic prospects and alienate its biggest trading partner.

He said the island nation, which joined the EU's precursor European Economic Community 40 years ago, did not want to retreat from the world, but public disillusionment with the EU was at "an all-time high".

"It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time for us to settle this question about Britain and Europe," Cameron said. His Conservative party will campaign for the 2015 election promising to renegotiate Britain's EU membership.

"When we have negotiated that new settlement, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the European Union on these new terms; or come out altogether. It will be an in-out referendum."

The speech firmly ties Cameron to an issue that was the bane of a generation of Conservative leaders. In the past, he has avoided partisan fights over Europe, the undoing of the last two Conservative prime ministers, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

Britain would seek to claw back powers from Brussels, he said, a proposal that will be difficult to sell to other European countries. London will do an "audit" to determine which powers Brussels has that should be delegated to member states.

Sterling fell to its lowest in nearly five months against the dollar on Wednesday as Cameron was speaking.

The response from EU partners was predictably frosty. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius quipped: "If Britain wants to leave Europe we will roll out the red carpet for you," echoing Cameron himself, who once used the same words to invite rich Frenchmen alienated by high taxes to move to Britain.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country wanted Britain to remain a full EU member, but London could not expect to pick and choose the aspects of membership it liked.

Business leaders have warned that the prospect of years of doubt over Britain's EU membership would damage the investment climate.

"Having a referendum creates more uncertainty and we don't need that," Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP, told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"This is a political decision. This is not an economic decision. This isn't good news. You added another reason why people will postpone investment decisions."

The speech also opens a rift with Cameron's junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats. Their leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said the plan would undermine a fragile economic recovery.

And even allies further afield are wary: the United States has said it wants Britain to remain inside the EU with "a strong voice".

EUROSCEPTICS THRILLED

Cameron has been pushed into taking such a strong position in part by the rise of the UK Independence Party, which favors complete withdrawal from the EU and has climbed to third in opinion polls, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives.

"All he's trying to do is to kick the can down the road and to try and get UKIP off his back," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Eurosceptics in Cameron's party were thrilled by the speech. Conservative lawmaker Peter Bone called it "a terrific victory" that would unify 98 percent of the party. "He's the first prime minister to say he wants to bring back powers from Brussels," Bone told Reuters. "It's pretty powerful stuff".

Whether Cameron will ever hold the referendum remains as uncertain as the Conservatives' chances of winning the next election in 2015.

They trail the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, and the coalition government is grappling with a stagnating economy as it pushes through public spending cuts to reduce Britain's large budget deficit.

Cameron said he would prefer Britain, the world's sixth biggest economy, to remain inside the 27-nation EU. As long as he secured the reforms he wants, he would campaign for Britain to stay inside the EU "with all my heart and soul".

But he also made clear he believed the EU must be radically reformed. It was riskier to maintain the status quo than to change, he said.

"The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy," he said.

"WAFER THIN" CONSENT

The euro zone debt crisis was forcing the bloc to change, and Britain would fight to make sure new rules were fair to countries that didn't use the common currency, he said. Britain is the largest of the 10 EU members that do not use the euro.

Democratic consent for the EU in Britain was now "wafer thin", he said, reflecting the results of opinion polls that show a slim majority would vote to leave the bloc.

"Some people say that to point this out is irresponsible, creates uncertainty for business and puts a question mark over Britain's place in the European Union," said Cameron. "But the question mark is already there: ignoring it won't make it go away."

Asked after the speech whether other EU countries would agree to renegotiate Britain's membership, Cameron said he was an optimist and that there was "every chance of success."

"I want to be the prime minister who confronts and gets the right answer for Britain on these kind of issues," he said.

It is nearly 40 years since British voters last had a say in a referendum on Britain's membership of the European club. A 1975 vote saw just over 67 percent opt to stay inside with nearly 33 percent wanting to leave.

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Davos and Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-promise-britons-straight-choice-eu-exit-075348579--business.html

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Clinton: 'very promising leads' on Benghazi attack

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the FBI is "following some very promising leads and putting together cases" as they investigate the Sept. 11 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Clinton told lawmakers on Wednesday that she had gotten an update on the probe in recent days from FBI Director Robert Mueller, who returned from a trip to Libya last week. She said the FBI is now trying to determine "how best to respond" to the leads they have.

But Clinton vowed that those responsible for the attack would be brought to justice even if it takes some time.

"We will respond," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-23-US-US-Clinton-Libya-FBI/id-3c177c185d8d43e980f84d3c3d56d64a

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Senquez Golson giving up baseball at Ole Miss | gulflive.com

"He is a tremendous young man and has been a pleasure to work with this past year." ??Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco, on Senquez Golson

Pascagoula native Senquez Golson will no longer play baseball at Ole Miss and focus solely on football, Rebels baseball coach Mike Bianco announced on Tuesday.

Golson, a sophomore, played both sports as a freshman for the Rebels last year. He started six games at cornerback for the Ole Miss football team this past fall, and will participate in spring football practice rather than play baseball.

"Senquez and I met recently and talked about his future and he has decided at this time that he wants to focus on football," Bianco said in a statement. "As such, he will not be participating in baseball this spring and will instead be going through spring drills and continue to work with the football team in preparation for the 2013 season."

Golson was a highly sought after prospect in both sports coming out of Pascagoula High School in 2011, turning down a lucrative offer to sign with the Boston Red Sox after that team drafted him in the eighth round. He played in 22 games as reserve outfielder and pinch-runner for the Rebels' baseball team in 2012, batting .204 with five RBIs and five stolen bases.

In football, Golson played in 12 games and totaled 16 tackles and an interception as a true freshman in 2011 then added 36 tackles and three interceptions as a sophomore. The Rebels went 7-6 and won the BBVA Compass Bowl in 2012, their first season under coach Hugh Freeze.

Bianco wished Golson well in his departure.

"He is a tremendous young man and has been a pleasure to work with this past year," Bianco said. "We know he will continue to be successful on the football field and will be watching with excitement when coach Freeze and the Rebels start their season again this fall."

Source: http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-sports/2013/01/senquez_golson_will_focus_sole.html

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Eliteratur-Blog ? Blog Archive ? Internet Marketing Companies ? The ...

23 Januar 2013 AUTOR:

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Source: http://www.eliteratur-blog.de/2013/01/internet-marketing-companies-the-value-of-online-marketing-service-providers/

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Study: High school grad rate highest since '76

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday.

Officials said the steady rise of students completing their education is a reflection of the struggling economy and a greater competition for new jobs.

"If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The national dropout rate was about 3 percent overall, down from the year before. Many students who don't receive their diplomas in four years stay in school, taking five years or more to finish their coursework.

Some 3.1 million students nationwide earned their high school diplomas in the spring of 2010, with 78 percent of students finishing on time. That's the best since a 75 percent on-time graduation rate during the 1975-76 academic year.

The only better rate was 79 percent in 1969-70, a figure the department wouldn't vouch for.

There were tremendous differences among the states in 2010. Fifty-eight percent of students in Nevada and 60 percent in Washington, D.C., completed their high school education in four years. By comparison, 91 percent of students in Wisconsin and Vermont did, according to the report.

Graduation rates increased by more than a percentage point in 38 states between 2009 and 2010, the study found. Only the District of Columbia saw its graduation rates decline between by greater than a percentage point during those years.

Among the most significant factors of the increase was the dire U.S. economy after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. During the 2009-10 academic year, unemployment ranged from 9.4 percent to 10 percent.

"When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago it wasn't great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK," Duncan said.

But those jobs are gone and won't come back, he said.

California, the nation's largest public school system by enrollment, led the nation in new graduates in 2010, turning out almost 405,000. It also produced the most dropouts: almost 93,000. That translated to a rate of about 5 percent, above the national average.

During the 2009-10 academic year, some 514,000 students dropped out of high school nationwide. Still, the rate declined from 4 percent during the seven previous academic years, when data was sometimes incomplete or represented averages of states that reported figures.

Nationally, students were most likely to drop out of high school during their senior year, with roughly one in 20 quitting before graduation day. In every state, males were more likely to drop out.

Arizona had the highest dropout rate, at 8 percent, followed by Mississippi at 7 percent. Washington, D.C., schools also posted a 7 percent dropout rate, the Education Department projected based on previous years' reporting.

Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming had dropout rates rise more than one percentage point, while Delaware, Illinois and Louisiana saw noticeable decreases. Delaware dropped from about 5 percent to 4 percent. Illinois dropped from roughly 12 percent to 3 percent. And Louisiana dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent.

"The trends are hopeful but our high school dropout rate is still unsustainably high and it's untenable in many of our African-American and Latino communities. We have a long way to go here," Duncan said.

Nationally, white and Asian and Pacific Islander students were among the least likely to leave school without a degree, with only 2 percent dropout rates. Hispanic students posted a 5 percent dropout rate, followed by blacks at 6 percent and American Indians and Alaska Natives at 7 percent.

"There's no young person who aspires to be a high school dropout," Duncan said. "When someone drops out, it's a symptom of a problem. It's not the problem itself. Something has gone radically wrong."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-22-Graduates%20and%20Dropouts/id-870e10063f6a4f34873d14370132b693

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Burma civil society groups on study trip to Sri Lanka ? Karen News

Community workers flew from Rangoon on Saturday 19 January, to Colombo, Sri Lanka to meet with and learn from the experiences of civil society organisations who had experienced years of conflict.

Ma Thiri Myat Htin, the organiser and the Program Manager of the Intensive Asia Program, spoke to Karen News. Ma Thiri Myat Htin said that the people in the study group included members of the Myanmar Lawyers Network, the Kachin Peace Network, the Myanmar Journalist Network, and the Karen Women Action Group. The 10 member group is expected to be back in Rangoon on the 28thof January.

Speaking to Karen News, Ma Thiri Myat Htin said.

?We are going to meet with human rights organizations and peace groups in Sri Lanka. Then, we plan to meet with the government officials, department heads and senior leaders. We are going to a country that has had a similar situation to our country to learn.?

It is expected that the 10-member group on its return to Burma, would share with organizations what they learnt ? the knowledge and experience gained while in Sri Lanka.

Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe, Director of the Karen Women Action Group, told Karen News.

?We are going to meet not only civil society groups in Sri Lanka, but also government officials. I hope that we can learn some from some good examples to take back to our country.?

Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe said that she is delighted that their group has got the chance to to take part in human rights and peace process related to the current situation in Burma.

Related Posts:

Tags: Burma, Education, human rights

Source: http://karennews.org/2013/01/burma-civil-society-groups-on-study-trip-to-sri-lanka.html/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=burma-civil-society-groups-on-study-trip-to-sri-lanka

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Landlords welcome deductible property tax ? MyHome.ie Blog

The Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) has welcomed the clarification from the Minister for Finance that the Local Property Tax, due to apply from the summer, will be a tax deductible expense from rental income.

?At last, there is some tangible recognition for landlords, who are providing an essential service in housing 20% of people in Ireland (700,000)?, said Stephen Faughnan, chairman of the IPOA.

?However, we are concerned at the Minister?s suggestion that it will be introduced on a phased basis.?

Responding to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Deputy Finian McGrath (Independent, Dublin North-Central), the Minister said: ??The Thornhill Group recommended that the Local Property Tax (LPT) paid in respect of a rented property should be deductible for income tax or corporation tax purposes, in a similar manner to commercial rates. This is not provided for in the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, but it is the intention of the Government to introduce such a provision on a phased basis.?

The IPOA have been campaigning for all local service charges to be tax deductible and have questioned why the LPT provision would not be introduced at the same time as the new tax.

?It makes no sense to say that an expense, which is clearly a business expense, should be delayed in being allowed against rental income,? said Mr. Faughnan.

?Landlords have already been penalised by the refusal of expense status for the Household Charge and the Non-Principal Private Residence Charge, not to mention the refusal of expense status for 25% of interest paid on borrowings. We hope the Minister will act speedily with this proposal.?

Source: http://blogs.myhome.ie/2013/01/22/landlords-welcome-deductible-property-tax/

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