CA-NEWS Summary

Powers, Iran fail to end nuclear stalemate in Almaty talks

ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers and Iran remained far apart after ending two days of intensive talks on Tehran's nuclear program on Saturday, the European Union's foreign policy chief said, prolonging a stand-off that risks spiraling into a new Middle East war. The failure to reach a breakthrough deal aimed at easing growing international concern over Iran's contested nuclear activity marked a further setback for diplomatic efforts to resolve the decade-old dispute peacefully.

Embassies staying put in North Korea despite tension

SEOUL (Reuters) - Staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite an appeal by authorities in Pyongyang for diplomats to consider leaving because of heightened tension after weeks of bellicose exchanges. North Korean authorities told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday - after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month.

Two new bird flu cases in China amid poultry crackdown

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two more people have contracted bird flu in Shanghai, China's health ministry said on Saturday, as authorities closed live poultry markets and culled birds to combat a new virus strain that has killed six people. State-run Xinhua news agency said authorities planned to slaughter birds at two live poultry markets in Shanghai and another in Hangzhou after new samples of the H7N9 virus were detected in birds at the three sites.

Five die in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Five Egyptians were killed and eight wounded in clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town near Cairo, security sources said on Saturday, in the latest sectarian violence in the most populous Arab state. Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 gave freer rein to hardline Islamists repressed under his rule.

Assad says rebel victory would destabilize Middle East

BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad has warned that if rebel forces battling to overthrow him take power in Syria they could destabilize the Middle East for decades. The Syrian leader, locked in a two-year conflict which he says has been fuelled by his regional foes, also criticized Turkey's "foolish and immature" leaders and Arab neighbors he said were arming and sheltering rebel fighters.

South Africa's Mandela leaves hospital after pneumonia

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela left hospital on Saturday after more than a week of treatment of pneumonia that raised global concern about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader. "(He) has been discharged from hospital today ... following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition," the South African presidency said in a statement.

Soldier killed, four wounded as Yemen army fights separatists

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - A Yemeni soldier was killed and two others wounded, along with two passers-by, during a clash between the army and southern separatists near Aden on Saturday, a security official said. The clash took place in the town of al-Hawat, in al-Lahej province just north of Yemen's second city and main seaport, after separatists tried to close the marketplace.

Four civilians, three NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Six foreigners and an Afghan were killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, local and international officials said. Six people, including three NATO soldiers, died in a car bomb attack on a convoy of vehicles in Zabul province's capital, Qalat. Provincial governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasery, travelling in the convoy, was unharmed but a local doctor was killed, as were three American soldiers and two foreign civilians, according to local and NATO officials.

Suicide bomber kills 22 in Iraq election attack

BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 60 in a crowded election campaign tent in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Saturday, police and medics said. A decade after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq is still struggling with political instability and violence that in recent weeks has killed at least 10 candidates who had planned to run in forthcoming local elections.

New premier pledges to shield Lebanon from Syria dangers

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politician Tammam Salam was named prime minister on Saturday after he won a sweeping parliamentary endorsement, pledging to bridge the country's deep divisions and shield it from the dangers of neighboring Syria's civil war. Salam was designated after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose two years in office were dominated by efforts to contain sectarian tensions, violence and economic fallout from the Syrian conflict.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-005824843.html

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Global Religious Leaders Call On G8 To - Albany Tribune News

G-8 Countries

By Albany Tribune -- (April 5, 2013)

(Episcopal News Service]) ? Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby are among 80 religious leaders who have written to the G8 heads of government urging them to keep promises on foreign aid and to ?help to create an environment that encourages the conditions for inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic growth.?

The G8, or the Group of Eight, is an assembly of world leaders who meet annually to discuss global issues.

The G8 is made up of heads of government from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union also is represented at meetings.

The 39th G8 summit will be held in the U.K. June 17-18.

The full text of the letter and its signatories follows.

To G8 Heads of Government,

Today marks the start of the 1000 day countdown to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline. It is an appropriate moment to pause and to reflect on progress to date.

Development is working. But challenges remain. The number of people living in extreme poverty has been halved ahead of time and 14,000 fewer children die each day than in 1990. Yet 1 in 8 people still go to bed hungry every night and over 2 million die of malnutrition each year.

Even as conversations accelerate as to what ought to replace the MDGs, we should not slacken our efforts towards realising existing goals. Meeting the remaining targets, while challenging, is possible ? but only if governments do not waiver from the moral and political commitments made over a decade ago.

Thirteen years on from the start of the Millennium the values and principles that drive these goals are as imperative as ever. The financial crisis may be a reason but is not an excuse for hesitation or deferral. The MDGs remind us that in addition to providing for the well being of our own societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold human dignity and the common good at the global level. Each individual has a value that can never be lost and must never be ignored.

With a focus on tax, trade and transparency, the UK Presidency of the G8 this year has the potential to advance the MDG agenda in ways that strike at the underlying causes of poverty, in particular by ensuring the wealth created by developing countries is not lost through unfair tax practices, a lack of transparency or a failure to secure the benefits of trade for developing countries.

As religious leaders from across the G8 we recommend that our Heads of Government take the following actions when they meet in June. First, fulfil existing commitments to spend 0.7% of national income on aid. Secondly, launch a G8 Convention on Tax Transparency committing signatory countries to prevent individuals and companies from hiding wealth so that it?s untraceable. Thirdly, press for greater financial transparency from governments of developing countries so that the citizens of these countries can hold their governments to account for the money they spend.

Reaching a purposeful consensus on these areas won?t be easy. But, if the political will and moral leadership is forthcoming, this year?s G8 could help to create an environment that encourages the conditions for inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic growth ? conditions that are desperately needed if we are to realise the MDGs and even greater things beyond.

Yours,

1. The Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury (UK)

2. The Most Revd Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster (UK)

3. The Most Revd Philip Tartaglia
Archbishop of Glasgow (UK)

4. Rt Revd Albert O. Bogle
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (UK)

5. The Most Revd David Chillingworth
Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane
Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (UK)

6. Revd Jonathan Edwards
General Secretary, Baptist Union of Great Britain

7. Mr Paul Parker
Recording Clerk, Religious Society of Friends of Great Britain

8. Mrs Val Morrison
General Secretary of the United Reformed Church (UK)

9. Rev Dr Michael Jagessar
Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church (UK)

10. Rev Dr Mark Wakelin
President of the Conference of the Methodist Church in Britain

11. Revd Simon Walkling
Moderator, National Synod of Wales of the United Reformed Church

12. Rev R. Kenneth Lindsay
President of the Methodist Church in Ireland

13. Archbishop Paul Hackman
Trans-Atlantic and Pacific Alliances of Churches (UK)

14. Commissioner Clive Adams
Territorial Commander, Salvation Army, UK and ROI

15. Revd Joel Edwards
Director, Micah Challenge International

16. Rt Revd Mar Theodosius
Diocesan Epicsopa, Mar Thoma Church (UK)

17. Rev Michael Heaney
General Secretary of the Congregational Federation (UK)

18. Rev Torbj?rn Holt
Chairman, Council of Lutheran Churches in the UK

19. Rt Revd Munib Younan
President, Lutheran World Federation (Jordan)

20. Ravinder Kaur Nijjar
Co-Chair of Religions for Peace European Women of Faith Network (UK)

21. Lord Indarjit Singh,
Network of Sikh Organisations (UK)

22. Mr Julian Bond
Director, Christian-Muslim Forum (UK)

23. Dr Natubhai Shah,
Chair/CEO Jain Network (UK)

24. Bhai Sahib, Bhai Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia
Chairman, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (UK)

25. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha?is of the United Kingdom and on behalf of its sister Assemblies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States

26. Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra,
Christian Muslim Forum Co-Chair and Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain

27. Mr Toufik Kacimi,
Christian Muslim Forum President

28. Ayatollah Dr Sayyid Fadhil Al-Milani,
Christian Muslim Forum President, and Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Centre (UK)

29. Dr Manazir Ahsan,
Co-Chair Inter Faith Network, Director General Islamic Foundation (UK)

30. Mr Yousif Al-Khoei,
Director, Al-Khoei Foundation UK

31. Mr Ramesh Pattni,
Co-Chair Hindu Christian Forum, Hindu Forum of Britain

32. Mr Nitin Palan,
BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir (UK)

33. Mr Malcolm Deboo,
President, Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe

34. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari,
Chairman of the East London Mosque, and former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain

35. Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield
The Movement for Reform Judaism (UK)

36. Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner,
Movement Rabbi for the Movement for Reform Judaism (UK)

37. Rabbi Natan Levy,
Interfaith and Social Action consultant, Board of Deputies of British Jews

38. Rabbi Danny Rich
Chief Executive, Liberal Judaism (UK)

39. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg
Senior Rabbi of the Masorti Movement (UK)

40. Rabbi Avrohom Pinter
Charedi Rabbi (UK)

41. Rt Revd Paul Hendricks
Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Southwark and Co-Chair, Christian Muslim Forum (UK)

42. Anjum Anwar
Dialogue Development Officer, exChange Project, Blackburn Cathedral; Chair, Woman?s Voice; Trustee, Christian Muslim Forum (UK)

43. His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France
Ecumenical Patriarchate, President of the Conference of European Churches (Fra)

44. The Most Revd. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate, Episcopal Church (USA)

45. Rabbi Richard A. Marker
Former Chair, Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders (USA)

46. Mr Dave Courchene
Elder and Spiritual Leader, Anishnabe Nation, Eagle Clan (Canada)

47. Mrs Pascale Fremond
President, Religions for Peace Canada

48. Victor C. Goldbloom
Companion of the Order of Canada, Past Chair, National Executive, Canadian Jewish Congress

49. The Most Revd Fred Hiltz
Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada

50. Mr Mark Huyser-Wierenga
Chair of the Board, Citizens for Public Justice (Canada)

51. Rt Revd Susan C. Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

52. Mobeenuddin H. Khaja, O.Ont.
President, Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada

53. The Right Revd Gary Paterson
Moderator, the United Church of Canada

54. Pandit Roopnauth Sharma
President Hindu Federation and Spiritual Leader Shri Ram Mandir, Mississauga (Canada)

55. Mr. Prem Singh Vinning
President, World Sikh Organization of Canada

56. The Rev. Dr. James Christie
Director, Ridd Institute for Religion and Global Policy, University of Winnipeg, Canada

57. The Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton
General Secretary, The Canadian Council of Churches

58. Major Jim Champ
President, The Canadian Council of Churches

59. Dr. h.c. Nikolaus Schneider
Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany

60. Bishop Martin Schindeh?tte
Head of the Department for Ecumenical Relations and Ministries Abroad, Evangelical Church in Germany

61. Rev. Regina Claas
General Secretary, Union of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany

62. Revd Martin Affolderbach
General Secretary, G8 Religious Leaders? Summit Germany

63. Prof. Dr. Johannes L?hnemann
Vice Secretary of the Round Tables of Religions in Germany

64. Rabbi Dr. Henry G. Brandt
General Rabbi Conference of the Central Council of Jews in Germany

65. Mr Bekir Alboga
Deputy General Secretary of the Turkish Islamic Union of the Public Institution for Religion (Germany)

66. Dr. Timmo Guezelmansur
Head of the Center for Christian Muslim Dialogue of the Catholic Bishop?s Conference in Germany

67. Hilary Keachie,
Protestant Youth Federation Germany

68. Prof. Dr. Assaad Elias Kattan,
Orthodox Churches in Germany

69. Rt Revd Prof. Dr. Martin Hein
Protestant Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck (Germany)

70. Mr Michael Gerhard
Council of the Buddhist Union in Germany

71. Most Rev. Masanori Yoshimura
President, Japanese Association of Religious Organizations
Patriarch, Shinto Shinshu-kyo (Japan)

72. Most Ven. Yukei Matsunaga
Honorary President, G8 Religious Leaders Summit 2008
Patriarch, Shingon Esoteric Buddhism (Japan)

73. Very Ven. Koho Murayama
President, International Religious Fellowship
Lord Chancellor, Soto Zen Buddhism (Japan)

74. Most Revd. Mitsuo Miyake
President, International Association for Religious Freedom
Senior Chief Minister, Shinto Konko Church of Izuo (Japan)

75. Most Ven. Jisho Omori
Patriarch, Benten-shu Buddhism
Chief Abbot, Myoohji Temple (Japan)

76. Most Ven. Nisshin Matsushita
Patriarch, Honmon Hokke-shu Lotus Buddhism
Chief Abbot, Myorenji Temple (Japan)

77. Rev. Takeshi Nishida
President, Itto-en Religious Community
Adviser, Religion for Peace (Japan)

78. Most Revd. Tsunetada Mayumi
Chief Priest, Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine (Japan)

79. Yoshinobu Miyake
General Secretary, G8 Religious Leaders? Summit Japan

80. Maulana Mohammed Shahid Raza, Muslim College

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/05042013-global-religious-leaders-call-on-g8-to-strike-at-causes-of-poverty/

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SKorea: NKorea may be preparing to test missile

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? A top South Korean national security official said Sunday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul.

North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the U.S. for ongoing joint military drills, and for their support of U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. Many nations are deciding what to do about the notice, which said their diplomats' safety in Pyongyang cannot be guaranteed beginning this Wednesday.

Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce Sunday that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch.

His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks ? which also include China, Russia and Japan ? that it abandoned in 2009.

The roughly two dozen countries with embassies in North Korea have not yet announced whether they will evacuate their staffs.

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said it was considering a plan to evacuate its diplomats. A statement released by the ministry on Saturday said that its embassy in Pyongyang has been preparing a contingency plan to anticipate the worst-case scenario, and that the Indonesian foreign minister is communicating with the staff there to monitor the situation.

India also said it was monitoring events. "We have been informed about it," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry. "We are in constant touch with our embassy and are monitoring the situation. We will carefully consider all aspects and decide well in time."

Seoul and Washington, which lack diplomatic relations with the North, are taking the threats seriously, though they say they have seen no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a large-scale attack.

Kim Jang-soo said the North would face "severalfold damages" for any hostilities. Since 2010, when attacks Seoul blames on North Korea killed 50 people, South Korea has vowed to aggressively respond to any future attack.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo had planned to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Martin Dempsey, in Washington on April 16 for regular talks. But tensions on the Korean Peninsula are so high that Jung cannot take a long trip away from South Korea, so the meeting will be rescheduled, a South Korean Joint Chiefs officer said Sunday. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The U.S. Defense Department has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for this week because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis, a senior defense official told The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to delay the test at an Air Force base in California until sometime next month, the official said Saturday. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the test delay and requested anonymity.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has followed provocations from North Korea with shows of force connected to the joint exercises with South Korea. It has sent nuclear capable B-2 and B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighters to participate in the drills.

In addition, the U.S. said last week that two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean Peninsula, and a land-based missile-defense system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its U.S.-based missile defenses.

The U.S. military also is considering deploying an intelligence drone at the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to step up surveillance of North Korea, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Three Global Hawk surveillance planes are deployed on Guam and one of them is being considered for deployment in Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the issue.

North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. It has threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, though many analysts say the North hasn't achieved the technology to manufacture a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.

North Korea also raised tensions Wednesday when it barred South Koreans and supply trucks from entering the Kaesong industrial complex, where South Korean companies have employed thousands of North Korean workers for the past decade.

North Korea is not forcing South Korean managers to leave the factory complex, and nearly 520 of them remained at Kaesong on Sunday. But the entry ban at the park, the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project, is posing a serious challenge to many of the more than 120 South Korean firms there because they are running out of raw materials and are short on replacement workers.

Nine more firms, including food and textile companies, have stopped operations at Kaesong, bringing to 13 the total number of companies that have done so, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

North Korea briefly restricted the heavily fortified border crossing at Kaesong in 2009 ? also during South Korea-U.S. drills ? but manufacturers fear the current border shutdown could last longer.

___

AP writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Louise Watt in Beijing and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-nkorea-may-preparing-test-missile-095436309.html

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Bitcoin: The Internet's secret currency makes its first public ...

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 7 hrs.

Financial brinksmanship in the Eastern Mediterranean seems an unlikely way for an obscure yet infamous virtual currency to become a household word, but that's what happened with the bitcoin. Over the last few weeks, bank turmoil in Cyprus and a frenzy of attention from the media have propelled the "crypto-currency" from the darkest corners of the Internet to the front page. But is this phenomenon a blip or a revolutionary new financial instrument?

Existing only as numbers on the Internet, bitcoins are not tied to any retailer or company or bank. They have no real-world value other than what people agree to. And yet, at the time of this writing, each of the 11 million or so bitcoins in the world could be exchanged for just over $130 in real money ? for a total value for the "currency" topping a billion dollars.

One way to look at it is like vintage baseball cards or comic books. There's a finite number of them out there, so as interest in owning them rises, the amount someone would pay for them goes up. And because there's a perceived value (an exchange rate), if someone is in the right market, that card or comic ? or bitcoin ? can be used to "buy" goods.

Bitcoin is accepted online for IT services and Web hosting, and a fair amount of tangible goods can be had for it, too. But just as you don't try using Action Comics #1 to pay for groceries, you can't use it just anywhere. This stuff isn't quite legal tender for all debts, public and private.

For years, bitcoin existed as nothing more than a meme among hackers and cryptologists, but the recent spotlight has caused it to be reevaluated.

"People are starting to realize they can now put their money in the cloud and access it anywhere, from any computer," Tony Gallippi, CEO of Bitpay, a company that facilitates bitcoin transactions with retailers, told NBC News.

Just two short months ago, one bitcoin hovered in the $10 to 15 range, and a $30 peak was considered ludicrously high. The surging valuation is indicative that, at the very least, people see it as more than just a nerdy hobby. Bitpay logged over $5 million worth of transactions in March alone, as people traded bitcoins for tangible items, mostly high-end electronics and precious metals.

But will you ever use bitcoin to pay for your pizza, or a new book on Amazon? Right now bitcoin is too volatile to be used for much other than highly geeky purposes. A few sites, deliberately courting the bleeding edge of Internet tech, accept bitcoin for services or products. But that isn't easy to do when a bitcoin may be worth $15 one month and $100 the next.

"The volatility that we are all witnessing stems from a lack of liquidity and market depth," Bitcoin Foundation secretary Jon Matonis told NBC News.

How (and why) bitcoin works
Bitcoin was created in 2009 by "Satoshi Nakamoto" ? almost certainly a false name ? in order to be anonymous currency, easy to use, self-regulating and free from any central authority.

Instead of relying on a government or bank issuer, the bitcoin system is entirely powered by users, transferred via unique, anonymous IDs. Whenever someone transfers bitcoins (or fractional bitcoins ? they can be divided almost infinitely) from one "wallet" to another, that transaction is broadcast throughout the network, where it is confirmed by "nodes" that store the entire history of every bitcoin generated.

"Imagine if you've got a ledger somewhere that says who owns how much of some random commodity," explains Reuben Grinberg, finance lawyer who published a paper on legal issues surrounding bitcoin in 2011. "Instead of having the ledger held by some financial institution, it's maintained by this global network of computers. It's protected against the malfeasance of a single bad player."

But instead of the ledger containing names, it's just a list of accounts ? pure numbers.

It's this anonymity that has led bitcoins to be associated with the purchase of illegal goods. The notorious "Silk Road" online shop ? accessible only through the mysterious, encrypted worldwide "Tor" network ? sells everything from marijuana to handguns. This gave many the impression that the bitcoin system was nothing but a handy way to break the law. (Of course, cash and a dark alley offer many of the same benefits.)

Bitcoin comes into its own
Anonymous currency available to anyone with an Internet connection would be useful in all manner of situations, but it was the events of the last few weeks that really began pulling Bitcoin's reputation out of the gutter.

First, the U.S. government acknowledged "decentralized virtual currencies" like the bitcoin by way of a branch of the treasury concerned with financial crimes. It's neither a positive or negative assessment, but it clarifies that bitcoin and its users are subject to existing laws regarding currency transmission and manipulation.

Second, a number of news sources reported a rush to buy bitcoins, made by panicked Cypriots looking to relocate their money from a failing bank system.

Regardless of the cause (and neither event seems to have been critical), the attention is real and has sparked debate about how one should consider bitcoin: Is it a commodity like gold? Is it more like a volatile stock? Is it like cash?

It's something new, says Grinberg. "It's sort of a hybrid of a couple different concepts. I can't hold it in my hand, it's not backed by the government, I can't pay my taxes with it." He thinks that it has some sort of future. ? but the currency must settle down before the typical online shopper has anything to do with it. Grinberg says that could happen ... "far in the future, but not in the near term."

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/bitcoin-internets-secret-currency-makes-its-first-public-appearances-1B9237667

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Oh, the places you won't go! World's 25 least-visited countries

Using UN statistics, travel writer?Gunnar Garfors found that top contenders for the least-visited award are often dangerous or remote. But some are just plain boring.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / March 29, 2013

Somali men look out across Mogadishu's fishing harbor in the early morning as fishermen land their catch and transport their fish to the market in the Xamar Weyne district of the Somali capital, March 16. Somalia is the second-least visited country in the world, according to a recent list compiled by travel writer Gunnar Garfors from UN statistics.

Courtesy of Stuart Price/AU-UN IST PHOTO/Reuters

Enlarge

For some travelers, getting off the beaten path is a point of pride, a way to see the parts of the world that don?t make it into glossy guidebooks.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

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But how many of those same adventurous travelers would be willing to visit, say, Somalia?

About 500, it turns out.

At least, that?s how many tourists found their way to the wartorn east African nation last year. ?

That makes Somalia the second-least visited country in the world, after the tiny pacific island nation Nauru, according to a recent list compiled by travel writer Gunnar Garfors from UN statistics.?

Little Nauru ? 8.1 square miles in size, population 9,378 ? got just 200 visitors last year, and it?s pretty clear why.

?There is almost nothing to see there,? writes Mr. Garfors, ?as most of the island ? is a large open phosphate mine.??

Indeed, most of the world?s least visited countries seem to fall in one of two categories. There are the Naurus, where you?ll puzzle over what to do, and the Somalias, where it?s simply too dangerous to do much of anything at all. (As Somalia?s Wikitravel page aptly notes, ?the easiest method for staying safe in Somalia is not to go in the first place.?)?

Most of the ?nothing to do? countries are the crumbs that dust a map of the Pacific Ocean: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Tuvalu. The latter shares with the Maldives the dubious distinction of having "highest elevation points" that are the lowest on earth ? 15 feet above sea level. Visit while you can, as rising sea levels could make the island uninhabitable within a century.

As for the ?too dangerous? countries, the list reads like a global primer in political conflict. For instance, despite its pristine national parks full of wild gorillas and elephants, the perpetually ungovernable Central African Republic (#23) is an unpopular destination for tourists. And its stock will likely continue to plummet ? last week a rebel alliance seized the capital, Bangui, and the president fled to neighboring Cameroon. (For more on the tempestuous politics of the CAR, read about the rebel alliance that took power there Sunday)

Afghanistan (#10) also suffers from tourism-deflating instability, which keeps visitors away from its rugged peaks, ancient Buddhist monuments, and Islamic holy sites, including the 12th-century Minaret of Jam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

?The Taliban have a message for foreign tourists who come to Afghanistan, especially if they are from any of the 50 countries that are part of the NATO-led coalition supporting the government: Big mistake,? writes The New York Times.

Other countries on the list, like Guinea Bissau (#14), Libya (#15), and East Timor (#18), have seen their reputations ? and infrastructure ? hobbled by recent wars or uprisings.

But not every country on the list is too dangerous or boring to visit. A few are simply effectively sealed off to the outside world.

All foreign visitors to North Korea (#16) are limited to a state-curated itinerary and must have an official government ?minder? by their side at all times. But for the few Western tourists who venture into the country, that?s part of the appeal. ?You will rarely get to see propaganda done more explicitly,? Garfors writes.

Except, perhaps, in Turkmenistan (#7), where visitors who brave the onerous Soviet-esque visa application process were, at least until 2010, rewarded with sites like a 50-ft. golden statue of former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov in the capital Ashgabat, which rotated throughout the course of the day to face the sun. But the country?s most indisputably impressive site is a massive flaming crater deep in the Karakum Desert. Measuring 230 feet across and almost 70 feet deep, the so-called ?Door to Hell? has been burning continuously since Soviet scientists lit it on fire in 1971. ?

Obscure? Yes. But that's part of the charm.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/NWsRTQMB3ZM/Oh-the-places-you-won-t-go!-World-s-25-least-visited-countries

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Huawei Pinnacle 2 (MetroPCS)

The Huawei Pinnacle 2 is a little bit misleading; it's less of a sequel than it is a late-night rerun. It's basically the same phone?as the original Pinnacle, with a slightly different look. Now, the Pinnacle wasn't a great phone a year ago, and the Pinnacle 2 isn't a great phone today. But for just $59, it gets you unlimited access to talk and text on MetroPCS for $40 per month, and the physical QWERTY keyboard makes it a solid choice for texters. So considering the carrier's lack of other feature phones, the Pinnacle 2 may not be great, but it's good enough.

Design and Call Quality
The Pinnacle 2 measures 4.51 by 2.39 by 0.47 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.63 ounces. It's very comfortable to hold and handle, and its slightly larger size means room for a bigger keyboard than the original. The phone is made entirely of glossy black plastic, save for a shiny, plastic silver ring around the front. The cheap materials attract a lot of fingerprints, but the phone itself feels solid.

The 2.4-inch display features 320-by-240 pixel resolution. It's sharp enough, but it would have been nice to see something a little bigger or higher-res than the original. Below the display are some simple function keys, and below that is a four-row, BlackBerry-style QWERTY keyboard. It's a decent keyboard, so I can't complain too much. That said, compared with the original Pinnacle, it's actually a significant step down. The keys, while raised and angled, are all crowded on top of each other, so it's easy to press the wrong letter when you're typing, especially if you have fat fingers like I do. But it's still much easier to type on than a number pad, so you'll get your money's worth if you're buying this phone to text.

The Pinnacle 2 is a tri-band 2G 1xRTT (850/1700/1900 MHz) CDMA device with no Wi-Fi. The phone is 2G only, as MetroPCS lacks a 3G data network. The carrier has 4G LTE, but only some of its smartphones operate on it. Slow data aside, $40 per month gets you unlimited talk, text, and Web data. That makes it a great deal, provided you live in a MetroPCS coverage area and can put up with the slow internet speeds.

Call quality is mediocre. Voices sound low and digitized in the phone's earpiece, but loud and distorted on the other end. The speakerphone is far too low to hear outdoors, or even in the car. Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset, but there's no voice dialing. Battery life was average at 6 hours, 27 minutes of talk time.

User Interface, Multimedia, and Conclusions
The Pinnacle 2 has the same simple user interface as other MetroPCS feature phones. The home screen links you to the main menu, apps, and widgets. The main menu has all your standard features, like call logs, contacts, messages, a music player, settings, and tools. Apps pulls up icons of all your Web-based applications on the phone's home screen, and Widgets gives you quick access to a clock, calendar, music player, and weather info, all displayed on top of your home screen.

Email and IM clients are included for most standard accounts, and both worked fine. The Obigo 5.0 Web browser can read WAP sites, but it's frustratingly slow. If you're interested in Web access, you're better off with a smartphone, which will give you much greater access to the Internet for the same monthly price.

The Pinnacle 2 has 30MB of free internal memory. There's also an empty microSD under the battery cover that worked with my 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards. The phone plays MP3, M4A, and WAV music files, but you need to place them in a specific folder it generates on the microSD card. Music sounded okay through a pair of wired 3.5mm headphones, but a bit of fuzz and hiss came through, especially between tracks. Quality was disappointingly tinny over Bluetooth. Video playback is virtually nonexistent. The phone struggled to play QVGA files, and audio didn't work.

The 1.3-megapixel camera doesn't seem to be improved from the phone's first incarnation. There's still no flash or auto-focus, and photos look dark and blurry. You can record video this time around, but it's tiny, choppy, and extremely low resolution. Don't buy this phone for the camera.

The Huawei Pinnacle 2 is an average phone at best, but it's the only texting phone available from MetroPCS right now. If you prefer sending messages to making phone calls it'll do, but there isn't much of a reason to recommend it other than by default. Your other option, the Huawei Verge, is an utterly barebones feature phone that's only good for talking. Considering you don't have to pay for an additional data plan, it might be worth it to look into getting a smartphone. It'll cost the same $40 per month, but will expand your capabilities dramatically. A good place to start is the?LG Motion 4G, which gets you a lot more power, performance, and features for just a little extra money up front.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ExVl6eGVX0M/0,2817,2417333,00.asp

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Web Marketing Tips To Improve Your Business - Empower Network

To a beginner, affiliate marketing may seem complex and confusing. However, taking the time to research and understand the process can be well worth the effort, as web marketing has the potential to be a very lucrative venture. There?s no need to worry because the tips that are listed below can help you avoid that.

Keep a copy of your most effective emails so you can easily send them out again if you need to attract new customers. To attract new customers, always send them your emails that have generated the best responses; this will hook them in at the first contact.

Make sure you are one up on your competition by building a solid Google Plus following. Make your Google Plus ID known amongst your followers on Facebook and Twitter, and place the Google Plus icon for your website right next to the other links on your site for social media. Make sure your content provides customers an incentive to follow your site.

Start slowly when you are just starting to get into the web marketing business. Doing this makes it far more likely that you will experience early success and learn something while doing so. This can help you take down competitive niches as you are well informed.

Knowing what is happening with your website in real time is essential. This kind of reporting lets you see exactly how many visitors you have had, at what time, and whether or not they made any purchases.

Do not let your site be overtaken with an excess of banner ads. This will make your site look horrible and drive off potential customers. Make sure that your site has enough content to compliment the banners on each page.

Look for companies that are constantly creating new products that you can promote. Join a reliable company that has multiple products for great repeated business. Don?t get involved with the ?product of the week.?

You can expand on the success of your affiliate marketing by developing and demonstrating every possible alternate use for your product. Show off different uses for the product using videos or photographs.

When you first start out doing online marketing, you usually have to spend some money in order to make more money. Do invest money back into your affiliate marketing campaigns by advertising with various websites and services. Websites like Facebook and Google are great sites to place your advertising ads since utilizing them properly can produce great returns for your money.

Tracking systems that are owned by a vendor can be a scam. Use a reputed tracking system to avoid this issue.

By hashing out who you are trying to market to, you will be able to tailor your message better to your prospective affiliates. Advertising products that are a poor fit won?t do you any good; get products that your readers will want and they?ll appreciate it.

Marketing with affiliate programs is not always burdensome, in spite of the detailed approaches out there. It requires a certain level of research, networking and hard work, but the investment of your efforts is worthwhile for the success of your site. Internet marketing can improve your business if you follow these tips.

Affiliate marketing programs are somewhat affordable, and much easier to work with than you would probably picture. Use this guidance to view just how simple and effective affiliate marketing could be when done correctly. My favorite for 2013 is MLSP.

Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/kingdomengineer/blog/web-marketing-tips-to-improve-your-business/

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