Source: houzz
KRISTEN BUTLER, UPI.com
Joaquín Alcaraz Gracia had a heart attack and died shortly after winning a beer-drinking contest in Spain. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Odd News
Pope Francis has visited Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI ahead of his trip to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day — a trip Benedict had planned to make before retiring in February.
The Vatican said Francis spent about a half-hour Friday with Benedict and asked him for his prayers for the July 22-28 trip. Francis gave Benedict the booklet outlining the program as well as the commemorative medal that has been prepared for the trip.
Benedict participated in three World Youth Day events: in Cologne, Germany, soon after he was elected in 2005; in Sydney, Australia, in 2008; and Madrid, Spain, in 2011.
His doctors reportedly warned him against making the transatlantic flight to Rio for the 2013 edition, one of the reasons behind his decision to retire.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
British mobile phone giant Vodafone said on Friday that sales grew in the first quarter, as strength in emerging markets countered weakness in Europe.
Total sales, including joint ventures, grew by 2.5 percent to ??10.155 billion in the first quarter or three months to the end of June, compared with a year earlier, Vodafone said in a trading update, adding that it remains on course to meet full-year targets.
“We have made a good start to the year in our areas of strategic focus: growth in emerging markets has accelerated,” said Chief Executive Vittorio Colao in the statement.
However, sales in Northern and Central Europe fell 3.0 percent due to increased competition.
Southern Europe revenues dived 14.4 percent, with particularly heavy drops in Italy and Spain, as trading conditions remained “difficult” in the region.
But the group’s Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific region posted a 5.9-percent sales increase.
Vodafone added that its 7.7-billion-euro ($10.1-billion) takeover of Kabel Deutschland was expected to complete at the end of this year.
Colao added: “The proposed acquisition of Kabel Deutschland will create an excellent platform for our unified communications strategy in our most important market.
“Although regulation, competitive pressures and weak economies, particularly in Southern Europe, continue to restrict revenue growth, we continue to lay strong foundations for the longer term.”
The group had clinched a deal to purchase Germany’s biggest cable operator last month in a bid to grow in Europe.
Kabel Deutschland is Germany’s leading cable provider, providing television, telephony and broadband services to about 8.5 million connected households in 13 of Germany’s 16 federal states.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Elegant in tuxedos and white gloves, the six black pallbearers silently and gracefully remove the mahogany coffin bearing a Lima tire magnate from his mansion. They slide it into the Cadillac hearse that will parade Jorge Reyna’s body through the Chorrillos district where he was once mayor.
The pallbearers are in the job precisely because of the color of their skin, a phenomenon unique to this South American capital that was the regional seat of Spain’s colonial empire for more than three centuries. In fact, prominent citizens such as Reyna, a widely respected, charitable man of indigenous origin who died at age 82, request black pallbearers for their funerals.
“He planned his funeral and wanted it to be elegant,” said Reyna’s widow, Clarisa Velarde.
Blacks routinely bear the caskets of ex-presidents, mining magnates and bankers to their tombs in Lima. The peculiar tradition exists neither in provincial Peruvian cities nor in other Latin American countries with significant black populations such as Brazil, Panama and Colombia.
It is not a profession chosen by Lima’s blacks but is rather thrust upon them by a lack of opportunity, say Afro-Peruvian scholars. And racism remains so deeply ingrained in Peru that many don’t consider the practice discriminatory.
“Beyond the question of racism or prejudice, I think it is simply a question of employment,” said Jose Campos, a leading Peruvian black studies scholar and vice rector of the National Education University.
For 61-year-old Armando Arguedas, who like his fellow pallbearers never finished elementary school, it’s simply a job.
“Some people are friendly,” he said of those who employ him. “Some don’t even say thank you.”
Black pallbearers were even used for the recent funeral of the wife of former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
“We were never treated better,” said Arguedas. “The family members thanked us and paid us triple.”
Blacks are all but absent from Peru’s business and political elite and although slavery was abolished in 1854, only 2 percent of Peru’s blacks go to college. Afro-Peruvians are consigned largely to manual labor including as field hands in sugar cane plantations along the nation’s Pacific coast.
Census-takers don’t even register …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Thousands of protesters have jammed downtown streets outside the Madrid headquarters of the ruling Popular Party to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy amid allegations he received payoffs from a slush fund before his party won elections in 2011.
The demonstration Thursday came after opposition leaders called for Rajoy to explain himself before Parliament or face a censure vote.
On Monday, Rajoy brushed off demands he should resign after text messages emerged showing him comforting a former political party treasurer under investigation over the slush fund and secret Swiss bank accounts. The treasurer has claimed Rajoy took under the counter payments, accusations denied by Rajoy.
The spectacle of alleged greed and corruption has enraged Spaniards hurting from austerity and sky high unemployment.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
It sounds great: Microsoft now offers a free year’s subscription to its Xbox LIVE Gold service if you pick up an Office 365 subscription or Office 365 University.
But dig into the terms and conditions attached to the promotion, and you’ll find out quickly that it doesn’t apply to everybody. In fact, if you purchased either subscription within the United States, you’re out of luck.
What this does imply, however, is that Microsoft hopes to beef up its international penetration of Office 365 by piggybacking it onto the more popular Xbox game console. The deal is available in Canada and Mexico, plus many European countries like France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Two of the so-called BRIC countries are also included: Brazil, and Russia.
But you’re also out of luck if you purchased any of the following, which are not eligible for the deal:
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Foreign tourists were among 23 people injured when an overnight sleeper train derailed in Thailand early Wednesday, the national rail operator said.
The Bangkok-Chiang Mai express service was carrying almost 300 passengers when seven carriages came off the tracks in the northern province of Phrae, according to the State Railway of Thailand.
Eighteen foreign tourists suffered minor injuries, including visitors from Australia, France, Spain, China, Japan and the United States, as carriages toppled onto their sides.
“Derailments happen quite often,” said State Railway of Thailand governor Prapat Chongsanguan, adding that the tracks were in the process of being upgraded.
“Initially we think that this time it’s due to old rail track,” he told AFP.
Services on the route were suspended for the day.
Safety standards are generally poor in Thailand and road traffic accidents are also common.
Thailand’s cabinet in March approved a plan to spend $68 billion on a high-speed railway and other transportation mega projects to drive the nation’s economic development.
Under the seven-year scheme, which has yet to be approved by parliament, 200 high-speed trains will whizz across the kingdom on four lines linking the capital Bangkok with the north, south and east of the country.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Jobs growth remains weak among the world’s 20 biggest economies, where almost a third of the 93 million unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, top labor and development officials reported Wednesday.
In a batch of new figures intended to push G-20 governments into action, the U.N.’s International Labor Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned the rate of employment growth remains low. The G-20 countries represent 80 percent of the world’s economic output.
Over the last 12 months, unemployment dropped slightly in half of the G-20 countries, but it rose among the other half.
It was highest, above 25 per cent, in South Africa and Spain. It was 11 percent or above in France, Italy and for the European Union as a whole, and above 7 percent in Britain, Canada, Turkey and the United States. Unemployment was below 5 percent in only four countries: China, India, Japan and South Korea.
Among the total unemployed, about 30 percent on average were jobless for over a year, the agencies said.
Youth unemployment rates were twice as high as those for adults in all G-20 nations but Germany and Japan and despite the wide use of subsidies to encourage hiring of young people in Britain, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
The weakness of the global economy even six years after the onset of the global financial crisis has “blunted” many countries’ efforts to find jobs for people, said Guy Ryder, the ILO director-general, and Angel Gurria, the OECD secretary-general, in a joint statement.
They advised labor ministers scheduled to begin two days of meetings on Thursday in Moscow that governments must ensure “a careful balancing between providing adequate income support for those out of work and with low incomes and activation measures which help them to find rewarding and productive jobs.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
SANGONERA LA VERDE, Spain, July 16 (UPI) — Police in Spain said a bicycle-riding gunman who interrupted morning mass was disarmed by a group of worshipping women. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UPI Odd News
A Utah man is recovering in a hospital in northern Spain after being gored by a bull at the annual San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Fox13Now.com reports.
Patrick Eccles, a junior at the University of Utah, was among thousands at the event last Friday when one of the bulls charged at three men, including Eccles. The other two victims are from Spain.
The 20-year-old has been interning in Barcelona for the summer. Eccles’ father said he asked his son not to attend the run, but he went anyway, joining thousands who race with the bulls along a 930-yard route from a holding pen to the city bull ring.
Eccles was gored in the side and stomach, causing some internal bleeding. According to the Spanish hospital treating him, doctors had to remove his spleen after discovering it had been punctured by the bull’s horn.
The bull tossed one of the other two male victims on the ground with his horns and continued to attack him until people were able to tear the animal away. That man was gored in the groin, knee and thigh, but is expected to recover.
Eccles’ father said he had spoken to his son on the phone and he seemed to be in good spirits.
Click for more from Fox13Now.com
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
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Fernando Alonso gave a wide-ranging interview to German television station RTL, the Spanish driver and German interviewer conducting the session in Italian, driving a special Italian car on very special German track. Among many answers – from the industriousness of his native Ovideo, Spain to where he relaxes – Alonso gives Ferrari an eight out of ten for the season, admitting they don’t have the fastest car but they have a complete car, and refuses to give himself a number, only saying that he is more complete as well than when he first entered.
Beyond the normal-guy persona and wealth of topics, the 10-minute interview is neat for being able to watch Alonso hurl the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta over and around kerbs while he’s answering questions. You can check it all out in the video below.
Continue reading Fernando Alonso gives German TV interview driving Ferrari F12 at the Nordschleife
Fernando Alonso gives German TV interview driving Ferrari F12 at the Nordschleife originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
Nut-eaters reduce their risk of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in the journal Researchers, who conducted an analysis of a PREDIMED nutrition trial based in Spain, analyzed more than 7,000 people aged between 55 and 90 years… …read more
Spanish police said Monday they had arrested a notorious British drug dealer, Brian Charrington, whom they accused of running an international trafficking racket involving cocaine from Venezuela.
Police arrested 13 people overall in Spain and Venezuela, including Charrington, “one of the 10 criminals most investigated by European police and leader of an international drug-trafficking organisation”, a police statement said.
Officers seized 220 kilos (485 pounds) of cocaine hidden in an apartment in L’Albir, near the eastern resort city of Benidorm, and impounded property and bank accounts worth more than five million euros ($6.5 million), it added.
Charrington has been named by British media as a major drug baron active since the 1980s.
The statement said police would give more details of the arrests at a news conference on Tuesday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Don’t let depressed commodity prices fool you. They won’t stay depressed too long. The single most important global economic reality remains resource scarcity. At last, I see short-term commodity price depressants starting to dissipate. Very shortly, the overwhelming consensus against commodities will start to shift, possibly as early as yearend. Then the long-term upward climb of commodities will resume. Commodities slid mainly due to Europe’s fixation on austerity. They began to fall in 2011 at about the time the European Union started to falter. The euro zone hasn’t posted a single quarter of GDP growth since mid-2011. Overall regional unemployment stands well into the double digits, while auto sales hit generational lows. Even Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, is barely growing. Weaker economies, including Spain and Greece, sit mired in full-fledged depressions. As Europe represents the largest economic entity in this deeply interconnected world, its swoon instigated a sharp drop in global growth and therefore in demand for commodities. Now Europe shows signs of starting to recover, albeit very slowly. Forward-looking indicators including the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) surveys have gradually risen over the past year. Though the rise has been very slightly sloped, its persistence suggests that Europe, while hardly ready to boom, will soon start generating at least marginal positive growth. These glimmers of growth come as Europe’s leaders increasingly realize that austerity is a dangerous economic recipe. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s likely reelection in September and the growing danger of social unrest in Spain and Greece will spur more growth-oriented policies. Whether Europe grows at 1% or 1.5%, it will grow, and any improvement in this massive economy will alter worldwide economic dynamics for the better. One upshot will be commodities’ emergence from the doghouse. As that happens, I expect gold to start to outperform. On balance, precious metals, base metals, and oil alike tend to move in the same direction. During overall periods of rising commodity prices, precious metals outperform all the others. In commodity price slumps, precious metals tend to underperform. Since their 2011 peaks, both gold and silver have underperformed other commodities. From their highs, you can see weakness especially in commodities ETFs that track the precious metals markets. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) fell nearly 33% since its September 2011 high, and iShares Silver Trust (SLV), tracking silver, declined almost 60%. The price of oil, on the other hand, strong of late, stands roughly level with that of two years ago. Since oil ETFs like USO and OIL tend to have a negative bias, however, I don’t recommend them. If you have a futures account, you might want to buy long-dated oil futures, expiring at year end in 2014. In 2008, by contrast, gold outperformed, although silver did uncharacteristically underperform. The same was true in the 1970s. When commodities rose, gold climbed much faster, but mid-decade when commodities faltered, the 50% plunge in the price of gold far exceeded the decline of virtually any other commodity. Gold’s outperformance during periods of rising commodity prices is consistent …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Loren Steffy, Contributor The pain in Spain cannot be sustained. That’s the conclusion of the Spanish government, which is slashing its subsidies for wind power and other renewable energy as part of a deficit-fighting move. Spain is the latest European country to cut subsidies for clean energy — following similar moves in the U.K., Germany and Italy — because they’re driving up costs for consumers. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Monday he had no plans to bow to opposition parties demands that he resign following newspaper publication of text messages in which he tells a former ruling party treasurer under a corruption investigation to “stay calm.”
“I am going to see out the mandate the Spanish electorate gave me,” he told reporters at a press conference with visiting Polish counterpart Donald Tusk. “This is a stable government that is going to fulfill its obligations.”
Rajoy, who says neither he nor other party figures received illegal payments, did not deny exchanging text messages with now jailed former Popular Party treasurer Luis Barcenas. He claimed the messages demonstrated that the state “was not bowing to blackmail. This is a serious democracy,”
A former senator, Barcenas was a top member of the party’s treasury for some 20 years until he resigned in 2009 on being named a suspect in a probe of illegal funding of the party.
The mobile phone text messages, published by El Mundo on Sunday, date from before Barcenas was sent to jail. In them, Rajoy tells the former treasurer to “stay calm” but advises him that the situation is difficult.
“Luis, nothing is easy. But we are doing what we can,” one message says. “Cheer up.”
Barcenas was jailed last month while awaiting possible trial on tax fraud and money-laundering charges after the National Court found he had held some 47 million euros ($61 million) in secret Swiss bank accounts. Speculation has been rampant since then that he might try to drag the party and the government into the scandal.
Both the Swiss bank account and the slush fund probes have rocked the party and the country. They come while Spaniards are obliged to cope with harsh austerity measures, increased taxes and tough economic reforms aimed at reducing debt and 27 percent unemployment.
Rajoy boasted that the reforms were beginning to pay off and that he was not about to allow his plans for more reforms to be derailed.
“Let no one think we are going to be distracted from getting Spain out of the crisis,” he said.
Barcenas, meanwhile, appeared again Monday before the judge investigating the alleged slush fund. Leading daily …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faced calls to explain himself or resign over his alleged support for the ruling Popular Party’s disgraced former treasurer, who headed to court Monday over a slush fund scandal.
The 58-year-old, grey-bearded premier has denied any wrongdoing and refused to comment in past weeks on the growing controversy centred on former party treasurer Luis Barcenas.
Pressure on Rajoy mounted, however, as more allegations were revealed and as the 55-year-old Barcenas faced a High Court judge to answer questions over secret political payments.
Barcenas was called to appear in the Madrid court after conservative daily El Mundo last week published what it said was an original page from Barcenas’ slush fund ledger and delivered the document to the court.
The excerpt purportedly showed extra payments from a secret fund to party officials including Rajoy when he was a minister under then prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Barcenas is suspected of running a slush fund financed by corporate donors who were then rewarded with public contracts. The cash was allegedly used to supplement senior party members’ salaries.
In the latest blow to Rajoy, the conservative daily El Mundo on Sunday published friendly mobile text messages between the prime minister and Barcenas from May 2011 to March 2013, ending some two months after the scandal erupted.
“Luis, I understand, be strong. I will call you tomorrow. Best wishes,” said one of the messages reportedly from Rajoy to Barcenas, dated January 18 when El Mundo first published allegations over the slush fund.
“It is not good to try to determine what we will say or to comment on things that must be presented to the courts, which we must all respect,” read another message allegedly sent by Rajoy.
Barcenas reportedly told El Mundo in an interview published July 7 that the Popular Party had engaged in illegal financing for nearly 20 years.
The Popular Party has repeatedly denied secret financing allegations.
The leader of Spain’s main opposition Socialist Party, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, on Sunday accused the premier of “serious collusion” with Barcenas and said he was severing all contact with the prime minister and his party.
“Given the unsustainable political situation in Spain, the Socialist Party calls for the immediate resignation of Mariano Rajoy as head of the government,” he said.
But few people in Spain expect Rajoy to step down given his party’s outright parliamentary majority.
An editorial in leading daily El Pais on Monday demanded an explanation from the premier.
“Out of respect for the democratic system, the citizens and his own party and voters, the head of government must give a true explanation to parliament,” it said.
“Otherwise it will be impossible for him to regain his credibility.”
Rajoy has so far resisted calls to appear before parliament over the scandal and has carefully avoided even mentioning the name Barcenas.
But he is expected to face the press Monday after hosting a visit by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The corruption allegations have outraged Spaniards suffering in a recession with a record unemployment rate of more than 27 percent. Dozens …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
So, lets start with the bad news: My Visa application to attend Akademy 2013 in Bilbao, Spain got rejected and so, I missed out on (a) meeting all you wonderful people, (b) giving a presentation on my GSoC project at the ‘Students Program Presentation’, and (c) organizing my very first BoF. Nevermind, there will surely be many more ‘Akademy’-s in my life. 
Moving on to the good part: I am quite in pace with my stipulated GSoC time-line.
I am done with adding all the Scenario Units that I had proposed to add to the Basic Course Skeleton, namely:
The Basic Course Skeleton now comprises of nineteen complete Scenario Units as shown below:
Also, I have created both the ‘ArtiKulate বাংলা’ (ArtiKulate Bengali) and the ‘ArtiKulate हिन्दी’ (ArtiKulate Hindi) courses.
In the Bengali Course, I am done with translating seven whole units to Bengali along with all the unit titles. In the translated units, all the related phonemes have also been tagged for every phrase.
Below, you can see a part of the ‘আবহাওয়া’ (Weather) scenario unit showing some words, expressions and sentences.
In the Hindi Course, all the unit titles have been translated to Hindi.
By Week 7, I will be done with translating the entire Basic Course Skeleton to Bengali as well as Hindi and the recordings for the Bengali Course should also be ready by then. In other words, the ‘ArtiKulate বাংলা’ Course will be completely ready by Week 7 and the ‘ArtiKulate हिन्दी’ Course will only have the recordings left.
BTW, all the Akademy 2013 attendees, please DO NOT forget to attend the two BoFs on Artikulate scheduled on Wednesday, July 17. The BoFs will be organized by Andreas Cord-Landwehr (IRC Nick: CoLa) on ‘Personas for Language Learning Apps’ and ‘How to contribute to Artikulate’ at 09:30 hours and 10:30 hours respectively.
Cheers! o/
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is sure he will add to his attacking options before the start of the new season.
City are keen to add to their strike force after selling Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez to AC Milan and Juventus since the start of the year.
The Etihad Stadium side have been strongly linked with Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo and Fiorentina forward Stevan Jovetic.
With Sergio Aguero yet to link up with the squad’s pre-season trip to South Africa, Edin Dzeko is the only senior forward at Pellegrini’s disposal.
But, having seen his team beaten 2-0 by Supersport in his first game in charge at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Sunday, he is confident that there will be additions before the new campaign begins.
He said: “We are working on new players that can arrive at Manchester City.
“We are not in a hurry to bring them now but we are clear that we need two or three more players.
“It’s important to have a very good squad. I said before we came to South Africa that we needed to play for each position and that’s what we are looking for and I’m sure that we will have it.
“It’s difficult to say a date but before July finishes I think we will have more players.”
Pellegrini has confirmed that Brazilian defender Maicon, who only joined from Inter Milan last summer, is set to leave the club.
The right-back has not travelled to South Africa and is being linked with a move to Serie A side Roma.
Pellegrini said: “Maicon didn’t come here to the pre-season and he will not stay in the squad at Manchester City this year.”
City are next in action against AmaZulu on Thursday.
New signing Jesus Navas and fellow Spain international David Silva will not join their team-mates until the trip to Hong Kong next week but Aguero and fellow Argentina player Pablo Zabaleta are set to join the squad this week.
Pellegrini maintains that results are irrelevant after so little pre-season training.
He added: “We are just starting the season so it’s not always important to win but for us it’s important to give minutes to the whole squad.
“The players were clear with what they had to do in this game. I spoke with them before the match and we had four or five days working and the first match it’s important but not to change all our preparations for the season to give our best in the first game.
“We’re not prepared to play the way we want them to play.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
