US, Afghanistan Compromise on Night Raid Operations

Hot Girl | school health |

Afghanistan and the United States have reached a compromise on the controversial issue of night raids on Afghan homes by international forces.The agreement gives Afghan authorities veto power over planned operations and more say in the treatment of detainees.

The memorandum of understanding authorizing Afghan-led night raid special operations was signed Sunday in front of reporters by Afghan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak and the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen.

The Afghan defense minister says the agreement will take effect immediately.

He says as of today, special operations become Afghan-owned and will be conducted by the special contingent of the ministry of defense, ministry of interior and national security directorate in accord with Afghan judicial bodies.

Night raids had been a constant source of tension between the Afghan government and U.S. military. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called previously for an end to all international night raids, saying they are provocative when carried out by foreign troops. But NATO commanders have said the operations have proven extremely effective in apprehending Taliban insurgents and al-Qaida commanders.

The compromise reached continues to authorize night raids under Afghan leadership. General Allen says it also stipulates measures to ensure that special operations be conducted in ways that adhere to the rule of law.

"With this memorandum of understanding, the United States has not only formalized the Afghan special forces lead in special operations missions but has also agreed to ensure that those missions are conducted in a manner fully consistent with the Afghan constitution and Afghan laws," he said.

Under the deal, Afghan and supporting U.S. forces are required to apply to an Afghan judge for a warrant before operations are approved. Also, Afghan authorities will have control over prisoners taken in night raids and will decide whether to allow U.S. interrogators access to detainees.

Recently the two sides resolved another contentious issue when they signed a deal transferring Afghan detainees to Kabul's custody.

General Allen says these two agreements remove the last major obstacles to developing a long-term strategic partnership pact in advance of a May NATO Summit in Chicago. The partnership pact will authorize a reduced U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 withdrawal of most Western combat troops.

The signing comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in Afghanistan over the presence of foreign troops after a series of incidents, including the massacre of 17 Afghan villagers blamed on a U.S. soldier, and the inadvertent burning of Qurans at an American military base.

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At Least 23 Wounded in Afghan Blast

Tin The Thao | saint james medical school |

Officials in northern Afghanistan say twin bomb blasts have injured at least 23 people, including at least seven security personnel.

Authorities say the explosions tore through a market Monday in Baghlan province.

The French news agency says the second explosion happened after security forces arrived to investigate the initial blast and that half of those wounded were children.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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For Some New York Shoppers, No More State Sales Tax

intergirl | saint james medical school |

Many shoppers got a pleasant surprise on Sunday as New York State reinstated its sales-tax exemption on clothing and footwear items costing less than $110.

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Shoppers at Century 21 in Lower Manhattan got a pleasant surprise on Sunday, when New York State exempted clothing and footwear purchases under $110 from the state sales tax.

By KATE TAYLOR

Published: April 1, 2012

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"Oh, wow," Candy Conway, a mother from Pennsylvania who was shopping at Century 21 in Lower Manhattan with a friend, Brenda Alek, and the two women's teenage daughters, said when informed of the exemption.

"I wish we'd known that yesterday, because we bought stuff yesterday, too," said Ms. Conway, explaining that the group was here for a "girls' weekend." But the exemption, she added, would "bring us back here."

New York first exempted clothing and footwear under $110 from its 4 percent sales tax in 2000, but it has periodically suspended the exemption to balance the state's budget. Most recently, the tax was reinstated from Oct. 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, bringing in $330 million in revenue, according to Morris Peters, a spokesman for the New York State Budget Division. On April 1, 2011, the exemption was restored for items costing less than $55, with the lower threshold meaning an extra $210 million for the state, Mr. Peters said.

The state may be forgoing some revenue, but some shoppers said the exemption would be an incentive to buy more — and it certainly made the math easier.

Dalila Billon, 29, a tourist from France, was delighted when a sales clerk at Century 21 told her about the exemption. Because American retailers do not include sales tax in the price, as they do in France, "it's difficult to compare" prices here with the ones at home, she said.

Two sisters from Cape Cod, with matching gray bobs and black coats, were also pleased.

Before she read about the exemption going back into effect, "I said to my sister, 'I don't really want to buy any clothing here,' because you have to pay sales tax, and you don't in Massachusetts," one of the sisters, Diane Hanna, said. "I think it's good for New York State, because it makes it more competitive."

New Jersey exempts most clothing and footwear from its 7 percent sales tax, and some New York politicians, like the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, hope that their state's exemption will stop people from going over the border to shop for clothes.

In fact, with the exemption in effect, shoppers from the suburbs and perhaps those from nearby parts of Connecticut, which has a 6.35 percent sales tax, might be enticed by a simple calculation: Shop for clothes (under $110) in New York City, and pay no sales tax. And city residents might be enticed to stay.

New York City already exempts items under $110 from its 4.5 percent sales tax and will continue to do so. Most jurisdictions, including Nassau and Suffolk Counties, which charge a 4.25 sales tax, do not exempt such items.

At Fresh Meadows Shopping Center in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and at Green Acres Mall, just over the Queens border in Nassau County, few shoppers were aware that the exemption had been reinstated.

"Now that I know this, it would make a difference," said Ingrid Peter, a nanny from the Bronx who had crossed the border into Nassau to visit the Green Acres Mall with her sister and brother-in law. "Every little bit helps."

Then again, decisions about where to shop are driven by many factors, not all of which are rational.

Nick Arapias, 74, of Bayside, Queens, who was pacing the aisles in Kohl's at Green Acres while his wife shopped, said, "Listen, you know how women are. If my wife wants to go to Macy's in Manhasset, you think I can say no? Of course I can't."

Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

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The Bay Citizen

girl xinh | school of medicine |

Despite Deadly Fungus, Frog Imports Continue

By JOHN UPTON

Published: April 7, 2012

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A clerk serving Cantonese-speaking customers at a cluttered market in San Francisco's Chinatown reached into a tub of American bullfrogs. She drew a one-pound frog from the top of the pile. She whacked its head, sliced its neck and placed its body in a plastic grocery bag.

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Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

A Chinatown seafood-store sign warns that releasing frogs into the wild is illegal.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org .

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More than half the frogs imported into San Francisco every year carry the chytrid skin fungus.

The frog cost about $4. If it was sautéed, stir-fried or cooked in a clay pot and served with rice and vegetables, it could provide enough poultry-flavored white meat for a meal for at least two people.

Tests on the bullfrog by Raul Figueroa, a researcher at San Francisco State University, confirmed that it was infected with an invisible but virulent fungus. The chytrid skin fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or B.d., is harmless to humans but may have wiped out hundreds of amphibian species. Two other bullfrogs that The Bay Citizen bought from other Chinatown markets also tested positive.

The disease appears to affect only amphibians, and some species are immune to its effects while others succumb rapidly. It causes the amphibians' skin to thicken and leads to cardiac arrest.

American bullfrogs are native to eastern North America but are reared in factory farms around the world. Two million bullfrogs are imported into the Bay Area every year, according to federal import records, and millions more are shipped to other major cities.

Scientists and conservationists fear that the global trade could lead to the extinction of countless species of frogs and salamanders. Amphibians play subtle but substantial roles in California's ecosystem, eating insects and feeding wildlife.

American bullfrogs are an invasive species in California. State law requires markets to kill the bullfrogs when they are sold, although pet stores are allowed to sell them alive. Yet the bullfrogs make their way into rivers and lakes, where they spread the disease and devour everything from native tadpoles to ducklings.

Some of the bullfrogs that are free in the Bay Area are former pets. Buddhists may have released others during traditional ceremonies that liberate living creatures. Once in the environment, the frogs can reproduce.

Efforts to ban the live bullfrog imports have been strenuously opposed by Chinese-American leaders who defend their communities' rights to a traditional part of their diet.

A study of 493 fresh-bought frogs from San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York found that 62 percent were infected with the chytrid fungus.

"We don't know if the bullfrogs contributed to the introduction of B.d. into the U.S.," said Lisa M. Schloegel, a disease ecologist and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Biological Conservation in 2009. "But the bullfrogs are a constant source of infection."

Vance T. Vredenburg, a biology professor at San Francisco State University who specializes in amphibians. said he had seen "literally hundreds, and tens of thousands" of dead animals on the shorelines of lakes. "With this fungus pathogen, we have something the world has never seen before," he said. "It's jumping from species to species to species, and we have very little predictability about what species it's going to have an effect on."

American bullfrogs survive the pathogen but can transfer the fungus spores to other, less fortunate species. The fungus has torn through the Sierra Nevada, leaving the once-abundant mountain yellow-legged frogs on the brink of extinction.

Proposals to ban the live imports into California were initially pushed forward by conservationists and animal rights groups in the mid-1990s. A few years later, scientists perplexed by worldwide amphibian deaths discovered B.d.

Assemblyman Paul Fong, Democrat of Cupertino, who championed a bill last year that outlawed the sale of shark fins, opposes a ban on live frog imports. So does Senator Leland Yee, Democrat of San Francisco.

"It's a food stock that many Chinese-Americans rely on," Mr. Yee said.

Pius Lee, chairman of the Chinatown Neighborhood Association in San Francisco, said he warned Buddhists that "pro-animal groups are watching you" and suggested they free animals from containers without releasing them into the wild.

But Kerry Kriger, an ecologist who founded the Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Save the Frogs after studying B.d. in Australia, said regulations were needed.

"People set them free on purpose. They escape, and the water they're held in has chytrid in it — and that gets flushed out into the environment," Dr. Kriger said. "You can ship in as much chytrid fungus into the United States as you want right now, and that's what people do with the bullfrogs."

jupton@baycitizen.org

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Social Qs

tin tức tổng hợp, tin nhanh | school of medicine |

My husband, who is long divorced, pays his ex-wife much more than required child support. And he’s financed their children’s college accounts by twice the agreed amount. He does this because his ex-wife claims she is broke, even though she remarried a rich man and lives a lavish life. Worse, he’s started hiding his payments from me. It’s admirable that he’s so generous, but after six years of marriage, with my own child entering college, I feel taken advantage of. Do I have the right to speak up?

A New Payment Plan

By PHILIP GALANES

Published: March 29, 2012

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G. P., Long Island

Something tells me you’ve already spoken up once or twice (an hour). That may be why Hubby is paying in secret, annoying you further, and shrinking the pot of do-re-mi available to you and yours. Whoever said blending families was going to be easy?

Your feelings are natural. But asking your husband to do less for his children is not the solution here. (His ex-wife may not work, or her Richie Rich husband may have no interest in providing for her offspring.)

Try again. Say: "Honey, you need to do what you feel is right. But you can’t keep me in the dark about your payments. We’re in this together. So, let’s agree that you’ll be more forthcoming, and I’ll only vent when my head is about to explode. Deal?"

Or take a page from "Hunger Games": Stage a war to the death between Wifey No. 1 and you. The television rights alone will pay for a dozen college degrees — even the meal plans.

Up in Smoke

I am a smoker. (I know, it’s terrible.) But every time I try to give it up, I fall right back again. The problem is my boyfriend, who picks on me relentlessly and gets pretty nasty about my smoking. He makes me feel even worse about myself. (Otherwise, he’s a terrific boyfriend.) How do I get him to stop? Jeannie, Brooklyn

Just this once, I will let the ciggies slide. Your predicament sounds as rough as it was up on Brokeback Mountain (though probably not as sexy): "I wish I knew how to quit you," Marlboro Lights.

Find a peaceful moment (when no one is sniping or sucking on cancer sticks) and say: "I’m trying my best to quit. I know you’re only picking on me because you care, but could you go a little easier? You’re hurting my feelings."

Then show him your new homepage: nysmokefree.com , New York State’s excellent program for helping smokers quit — and keeping them smoke-free (with a hot line and everything). Good luck, Jeannie!

My Serfdom for a Ticket

I am a full-time intern at an arts organization. For months, I’ve been working with my boss on the annual fund-raising gala. Recently, I learned that everyone involved was given two tickets to the performance and the dinner afterward — except me. I will be working during the show, and only received one ticket to the dinner. Should I feel insulted that I’m being treated differently and can’t bring my partner to an event I spent hundreds of hours working on?

E. G. M., New York

Try not to make this personal. Your boss is focused on raising buckets of cash from no more than a few big donors and hundreds of plates of rubber chicken. You are the last thing on her mind. And because you’ll work during the show (and I hate to break it to you, probably during the dinner, too), your partner may get lonely. You’ll be up and down like a (low man on the totem pole) jack-in-the-box. Don’t stew. Find your boss in a good mood and say: "Depending on ticket sales, can we spare a seat for my partner? I’d love to show him what we created." Then live with the answer. You are not an employee yet, though you may want to be. Stay on your boss’s good side.

Time to Build Cooperation

I am building a new house. Every time I walk in, the workers are blaring music — in Spanish, no less. I can’t hear myself think, much less have a conversation. Is it rude to ask the workers to turn off the music when they see me coming?Anonymous

You may feel like an interloper at your site, but I promise, you are paying for every last nail. (Also, the music would be just as deafening in English. Happily, volume knobs work in all languages.) Ask your contractor if he could kill the tunes when you come for meetings. There will be no insurrection — though the joint will be a little less caliente.

For help with your awkward situation, send a question to SocialQ@nytimes.com or SocialQ on Facebook . You can also address your queries on Twitter to @SocialQPhilip . Please include a daytime phone number.

Theo www.nytimes.com

Tourism sector targets Japanese visitors

Xem tivi truc tuyen | columbia university summer school |

The country has targeted to welcome 1 million Japanese tourists by 2015 as Japan has always been among the top five markets for Viet Nam"s tourism sector for recent years.

Japanese tourists arrive in the central city of Da Nang through Tien Sa Port. Viet Nam was ranked the third most attractive destination to Japanese tourists in the ASEAN region. — VNA/VNS Photo Vu Cong Dien

HA NOI — The country has targeted to welcome 1 million Japanese tourists by 2015 as Japan has always been among the top five markets for Viet Nam's tourism sector for recent years.

Viet Nam ranked the third most attractive destination to Japanese tourirsts in the ASEAN region with nearly 482,000 Japanese coming to the country last year, up 8.9 per cent from the previous year, although it was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in March last year.

The first two months of the year saw nearly 110,000 Japanese visiting Viet Nam, up 16.9 per cent year-on-year.

Viet Nam has significant advantages to attract Japanese tourists including stable political security, 15 days visa to be exempt from Japanese guests travelling to Viet Nam, near distance between Viet Nam and Japan (only 5 hour direct flight), many cultural similarities between two countries, good diplomatic relationship and various tourism resources of Viet Nam which meet the Japanese people's tastes.

However, deputy director of the Viet Travel Channel Company Ho Kim Dung said that it was not easy to be access to Japanese tourist market as Japanese arrivals are high demanding while Viet Nam's tourism service quality has remained restricted.

The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) also admitted that there remained difficulties to attract Japanese tourists including limited expense for promoting tourism, no tourism promotion office in Japan, lack of marketing strategies for this market and restricted tourism products quality.

Therefore, the goal of attracting 1 million Japanese tourists by 2015 is deemed as ambitious but given available air links, efforts of travel firms in both countries and the appeal of Viet Nam as a favourite destination of Japanese tourists, industry insiders expected that the target would be achievable.

Nguyen Minh Man, director of the Communications Division of Vietravel, which receives roughly 1,000-1,500 Japanese arrivals monthly on average, said that the target would be met if all domestic tourist companies considered the attraction of Japanese visitors a key task from now to 2015 and focused on it to create a comprehensive promotion campaign to attract the visitors.

VNAT has so far drawn up a scheme with various specific activities intended to attract more Japanese visitors, including the inauguration of a representative office in Japan late this year. When the office is in place, marketing and advertising projects on television and in newspapers and direct interactions with customers will be conducted in a more regular basis.

Besides creating website in Japanese language to promote Viet Nam tourism on the base of studying taste characteristics of Japanese market, VNAT will also establish the group of Viet Nam-Japan tourism development and step up training the Japanese tour guides as well as the human resources to improve customer service quality.

An expansion of direct flights between the two countries is also considered a measure to attract more Japanese tourists to Viet Nam. — VNS

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