Computer software is often regarded as anything but hardware, meaning that the "hard" are the parts that are tangible while the "soft" part is the intangible objects inside the computer. Software encompasses an extremely wide array of products and technologies developed using different techniques like programming languages, scripting languages or even microcode or a FPGA state. The types of software include web pages developed by technologies like HTML, PHP, Perl, JSP, ASP.NET, XML, and desktop applications like OpenOffice, Microsoft Word developed by technologies like C, C++, Java, C#, etc. Software usually runs on an underlying software operating systems such as the Linux or Microsoft Windows. Software also includes video games and the logic systems of modern consumer devices such as automobiles, televisions, toasters, etc.

The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.

Member Management Software

KATHRYN, N.D. – All that's left of this southeastern North Dakota town is a bar, a church, a post office and about 55 people who call it home — but if floods like the ones that hit last spring begin to rise again, it could be destroyed.
That's led some to quietly joke that the town may not be worth holding onto at all. In conversations among townspeople and even local officials, some are wondering if moving Kathryn might be cheaper than the $5 million or more it could cost to replace the Clausen Springs Dam.
The mayor, however, won't even consider the idea of uprooting the town.
"Five million dollars is a drop in the bucket to save a town," Mayor Dave Majerus said of Kathryn, which is shrouded by rolling hills, pastureland and crop fields about 60 miles southwest of Fargo.
The conversation has revealed a deeper problem in the vulnerable community: Just who, if anyone, will foot the bill to repair the dam? It's one of up to 30 smaller, mostly earthen dams for which it could cost millions to fix damage caused by erosion.
Kathryn's 55 residents were evacuated for a few days in April after heavy flooding began eroding the dam, six miles west of the town. It was just one segment of the weather disaster that pummeled most of North Dakota, sending the Red River to a record level in Fargo and causing an ice jam on the Missouri River in Bismarck.
In a scene replayed across the state, trucks hauled in clay to fortify the dirt and grass spillway at the dam near Kathryn and North Dakota National Guard soldiers in helicopters dropped more than 100 one-ton sandbags to help shore it up.
Months after the rivers receded, the erosion damage to dozens of small earthen dams is still being assessed statewide. It's forcing officials to talk — if only halfheartedly — about the possibility of moving the town of Kathryn rather than fixing the dam. Other dams, which are not threatening towns, might never be fixed.
The Clausen Springs Dam is about 50 feet high and about 700 feet long and holds back a lake about the size of 50 football fields. It was built in 1967, before state dam safety standards were enacted, and created a picturesque lake and campgrounds. It protects Kathryn, which was founded in 1900 and named for a daughter of the president of Northern Pacific Railroad, which extended track to the area.
"Everybody likes it, but nobody wants to lay claim to it now because of the cost to repair it," Majerus said of the dam.
Lee Grossman, the assistant Barnes County state's attorney, said a written agreement between the state and county "doesn't say who's responsible when an act of God destroys the dam.
"That's still open for interpretation," Grossman said.
Money for some of the work could come through federal disaster funds, but they would only repair the dam to the state it was in before last spring's floods, said Todd Sando, an assistant engineer for the state Water Commission. The Clausen Springs Dam would still need county and state funds to bring it up to code.
County officials have hired an engineering company to provide an estimate of how much it would cost to repair the dam and to study how bad the damage would be if the dam failed. Chad Engels, an engineer with West Fargo-based Moore Engineering Inc., said rebuilding the dam and bringing it into compliance would cost "$5 million, give or take one or two million."
It would cost about $100,000 to repair the emergency spillway, restoring the dam to its pre-flood condition, Engels said. For about the same price, officials could also permanently drain the lake, he said.
It's unlikely Kathryn would be leveled by "a wall of water" if the dam broke, but it would likely be destroyed by floodwater and mold, Engels said. His firm is still working on its worst-case scenario study, but he believes floodwaters would reach 5 feet in the town.
"If the dam broke, water would be all over the place," he said.
It isn't clear how much it would cost to actually relocate the town, and the idea has not been formally proposed. No cost estimates have been drafted. But a similar idea was executed in a larger North Dakota town years ago for less than the estimated cost of repairing the Kathryn dam.

The town of Churchs Ferry was bought out by the government in 2000 because of the rising Devils Lake. Churchs Ferry was nearly cleared of homes after the $3.5 million Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout. The town had about 100 residents at the time; only a handful remain.

Gordon Broadwell, a retired farmer who lives on high ground two miles north of Kathryn, said he's safe from the floodwater if the dam breaks. But he thinks the dam is dangerous for his neighbors and the town if the area gets another flood like the one earlier this year.

"Next year, if the same thing happens, she'll let go," he said. "It would probably be better buying out Kathryn, which isn't much of a town to begin with."

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
Apple Inc's quarterly profit blew past Wall Street forecasts thanks to strong sales of Macs and iPhones and higher-than-expected gross margins, boosting its shares 4 percent on Tuesday.

The company continued to defy the global recession with a solid 13 percent jump in fiscal third-quarter net profit. It sold more than seven times as many iPhones -- 5.2 million units of its latest signature device -- as the year-ago period.

"The numbers are great. Their gross profits continue to surprise people and there is a return to product momentum ... a return to growth in the Mac business," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "And then the iPhone is doing tremendously well and that is a potent combination."

Apple reported a net profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended June 27, up from $1.07 billion, or $1.19 a share, in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share beat by far the average Street forecast of $1.18 according to Reuters Estimates, and topped even the most bullish "whisper" numbers of $1.30 to $1.35.

Sales of Macs and iPhones both beat analysts' expectations, helped by product refreshes and lower prices, while iPod shipments were toward the low end of forecasts.

Apple said it sold 2.6 million Macs, up 4 percent from a year ago, and 5.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, during which the company launched its third-generation iPhone 3GS and cut the price on the second-generation model to $99.

The iPhone is often thought of as more of a consumer device, but Apple said nearly 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies have bought at least 10,000 units and it is unable to make enough iPhone 3GSes to meet demand -- a shortfall the company said it is working to address.

Although the smartphone segment continues to grow more crowded with competitors, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said on a conference call the company is "years ahead of other people" in its competitive position.

IPHONE DRIVES

The install base for the iPhone and the iPod Touch -- which share operating systems -- is now 45 million, Apple said.

"The iPhone is the biggest driver right now, because the profitability is really high," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Ronald Gruia. "It's been an absolute success."

Yet there had been some concern about margin pressure heading into the results, given the product price cuts and the trend of higher component costs.

Although Mac units rose, revenue in the segment fell 8 percent from a year ago as average selling prices came down, a trend seen throughout the PC industry.

But Apple posted a gross margin of 36.3 percent, above the 34 percent some analysts predicted. That compared with 36.4 percent in the last quarter and 34.8 percent a year ago. The company saw margins at 34 percent in the September quarter.

Apple said component costs rose, but not as much as expected and it spent less than it planned in several areas.

"The overall takeaway is that Apple continues to execute in this tough environment," said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu.

"They do the hardware, software and service, and that really allows them to have a leg up against competitors."

Investors have pushed Apple's stock about 75 percent higher this year, well ahead of other big technology issues.

Apple issued a typically conservative outlook for the current quarter, forecasting earnings of $1.18 to $1.23 a share on revenue of $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion.

While that was below the average analyst estimate of $1.30 in earnings per share and $9.1 billion in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter, it had little impact on investors.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $8.3 billion in the June quarter, versus analysts' average estimate of $8.2 billion.

Cash and marketable securities totaled more than $31 billion, one of the biggest cash hoards in all of technology.

The results demonstrated the consumer appeal of Apple's products despite a troubled economy that has dented sales at competitors selling less expensive products.

Apple reported relative strength in consumer demand, and weakness in education, one of its key markets.

But iPods were a chink in its armor. Apple shipped 10.2 million iPods in the quarter, down 7 percent on the year. As iPod sales slow down, analysts see alternative catalysts on the horizon, with the expected launch of an iPhone in China and a rumored tablet PC or Internet device in the works.

Cook said the company hoped to have an iPhone in China within a year.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs did not make an appearance on the company's conference call, despite rumors that he might. Jobs recently returned from a nearly six-month medical leave, where he underwent an a liver transplant.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple closed at $151.51 on Nasdaq and rose to $158.34 in extended trading.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel and Tiffany Wu; Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers opposed to federal funding for abortions said Tuesday the House leadership's health care bill contains a "hidden mandate" that would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to end pregnancies.
It's the latest controversy to hit the health care overhaul in a week that has seen Republicans sharpen their attacks and some Democrats start to waver on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
Abortion is not mentioned in the 1,018-page bill that Democratic leaders hope will be approved by the last of three House committees this week. Supporters of the legislation say that means the bill is neutral.
But abortion opponents say the bill's silence is precisely the problem.
Without an explicit prohibition on federal funding for abortion, it could be included in taxpayer-subsidized coverage offered through the health overhaul plan, abortion opponents say.
"We cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan," a group of 20 Democratic representatives said in a June 25 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
When the legislation was unveiled last week, it failed to include language abortion opponents were seeking. Now they are going public. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who helped draft the letter to Pelosi, plans to join lawmakers of both parties Wednesday at a news conference to criticize the legislation.
The Supreme Court has established a woman's right to abortion, but federal law prohibits government funds from being used to pay for the procedure in most cases. However, nearly 90 percent of employer-based private insurance plans routinely cover abortion.
The Democratic health overhaul plan envisions setting up a new health insurance marketplace — called an exchange — through which individuals and businesses could get coverage similar to what's now available for employees of large companies. Government subsidies would be available for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level. Abortion rights supporters say prohibiting plans in the exchange from covering the procedure amounts to taking away a right that women now have.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is trying to find a compromise, but that may not be easy. Not only do abortion opponents want to block funding, they also want to make sure that the procedure is not included in the benefits package.
Separately, another group of lawmakers wrote Pelosi on Tuesday urging a compromise that would leave the decision on abortion coverage up to insurers doing business in the exchange, but forbid the carriers from using any dollars from federal subsidies to pay for ending pregnancies.
"This solution maintains the current status quo in the private market — where insurance companies can choose whether to include this coverage in their plans and individuals can choose which plan (and what sort of coverage) fits their individual needs and values, while ensuring that no federal funds are used to pay for abortions," said the letter from Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and three other Democrats.
However, it's unclear whether insurance companies could keep federal subsidies separate from other funds they receive from individuals and employers to cover premiums.
In the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus vowed that he would not let abortion controversies "embroil" the health care overhaul.
"Health care reform is not about that issue at all," Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday. He said the Senate plan would be "neutral — status quo."
Obama, who supports abortion rights, sidestepped a question on the brewing controversy. "Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it's appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings and not get distracted by the abortion debate," the president said in an interview with CBS News.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he wants stronger ties with Brazil, especially in the commercial area, a top aide and possible successor to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

"He made what I consider a very strong and important statement," Lula's chief of staff Dilma Rousseff, speaking through a translator, said at the end of the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum, which brings together top U.S. business and top government officials from each country.

Rousseff, who is Lula's preferred candidate in Brazil's 2010 presidential election, said Obama dropped in on her and other forum participants during a meeting in the office of White House national security adviser Jim Jones.

The forum consists of 10 business leaders each from the United States and Brazil, who meet at least once every six months to make recommendations to the two governments on how to expand trade and investment ties.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached about $63.4 billion in 2008. The United States enjoyed a rare, but small, surplus with its llth largest trading partner.

Tim Solso, president of Cummins Inc and the U.S. co-chairman of the forum, said the participants urged the two countries to begin talks on a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement as a stepping stone to a broader trade pact.

White House deputy national security adviser Michael Froman said the two governments would explore that possibility, but had not made any decision yet.

Brazil's Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Miguel Jorge also participated in the forum, along with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

The two sides discussed progress on bilateral tax and investment treaties, as well as ways the two countries could cooperate on developing renewable energy source and addressing global climate change, officials said.

The CEOs recommended the United States eliminate its tariff on ethanol imports, a move that would benefit Brazil but face strong opposition from U.S. corn growers and their proponents in Congress, such as Senator Charles Grassley.

The government and business leaders called for conclusion of the long-running Doha round of world trade talks.

Froman denied the United States was dragging its feet in those negotiations, as some diplomats at World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva have complained.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has been "very active and engaged," including meeting this week in Singapore with trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

Rousseff blamed the slowdown in the talks on the global financial crisis, rather than the Obama administration.

"I believe that we'll sooner or later continue to an updated variant of the Doha round ... I'm not pessimistic about the situation," Rousseff said.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

BETHEL, N.Y. – Welcome to middle age, Woodstock Baby — if you're really out there.
The babies reportedly born at the Woodstock festival 40 years ago remain the most enduring mystery from that chaotic weekend that defined a generation. Depending on the source, there was one birth on that patch of upstate New York farmland between Aug. 15-17, 1969. Or two. Or three. Or none.
There is some tantalizing evidence. Singer John Sebastian is captured on film announcing that some cat's old lady just had a baby, a kid destined to be far out. A couple of surviving eyewitnesses say there were births. The concert's medical director told reporters at the scene there were two births: one at a local hospital after the mother was flown out by helicopter; the other in a car caught in the epic traffic jam outside the site crowded with more than 400,000 people.
But no one has come forward with a credible public claim of giving birth to a Woodstock baby or being born there. No one has produced proof that it happened. If babies were born at Woodstock, they have lived their lives ignoring — or unaware of — the fact that reporters and researchers have been on their trail for decades.
"I've searched, I've spoken to the doctors and nurses from the main hospitals that were there," said Myron Gittell, who wrote the new medical history, "Woodstock '69: Three Days of Peace, Music, and Medical Care."
Like many before him, he found nothing.
"Almost statistically, you'd think if there are a half-million people, and half of them were women, and 95 percent of them were of childbearing age, and fertile, and active. Just statistically, someone would have had to pop a baby."
Problem is: No one has been able to dig up a birth record.
Rita Sheehan, town clerk for Bethel, which hosted the concert, said there is no local birth certificate on record. Still, it's possible the birth was recorded in one of the surrounding towns. Gittell says there were births recorded in neighboring towns in that period, but the records are sealed under state privacy laws. There's no way to check whether the birth mothers were locals or out-of-towners (the likely pool of Woodstock Moms).
That leaves a few eyewitness accounts, like that of Gladys Devaney, who was a member of the volunteer ambulance corps in nearby Liberty. She answered an ambulance call to a tent at the festival and saw a young woman in labor. Her overriding concern then was that other medical workers took her stretcher as they rushed the woman away. But Devaney knew labor when she saw it.
"I heard her screaming," Devaney said. "I didn't get a good look at her, she was thrashing."
Devaney never found out whether they took the young woman to a waiting helicopter or somewhere else.
Elliot Tiber, the subject of Ang Lee's new movie, "Taking Woodstock," tops Devaney. He says he helped deliver a baby that weekend.
Tiber, who has a reputation for being a raconteur, said the woman gave birth at his parent's hotel near the site, which — like the entire area that weekend — was mobbed. The woman wore a leather jacket, came in on a motorcycle and just flopped down.
"I see she's starting to give birth," Tiber recalled. "It was like the quote from `Gone With the Wind': `I don't know nothing about birthing no babies, Miss Scarlet' ... I was screaming, just screaming. Everybody was standing around stoned saying, `Yeah, groovy!' They thought it was cool."
Tiber said the baby was taken away, though the mother came by in a cab a few weeks later with her baby in a blanket. He didn't get any names. He never heard from them again.
After four decades, the Woodstock baby trail has gotten colder. The young people who packed into Woodstock are retirement age now. A number of the emergency and medical workers involved, including the concert's medical director, Dr. William Abruzzi, are dead. And if a baby was born onsite, there are curious gaps in the record.
Press accounts at the time mentioning the births did not provide names. Abruzzi wrote an exhaustive account of the event in which he tallied six pages of medical incidents over the three days (11 rat bites, 16 peptic ulcers, 707 drug overdoses, among them). The paper, now in the collection of the Museum at Bethel Woods, the onsite museum, does not mention a single childbirth.

"It could be one of those myths that grow out of major events," said Bethel museum Director Wade Lawrence. "It could be like the story of the New York State Thruway being closed. It wasn't."

Maybe the best argument against a Woodstock baby is that no one in the past four decades has stepped forward to publicly and credibly claim they were born or gave birth at Woodstock. There is a theory that neither mother nor child particularly want Woodstock to define their lives, and have chosen to keep their distinction a private matter.

But it bears saying as the 40th anniversary of Woodstock approaches. If you are a Woodstock baby or a Woodstock mother, please consider contacting The Associated Press at woodstockbaby"at"ap.org.

People have been looking for you.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Most state government workers are staying home for the second time this month while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers work to close California's $26.3 billion budget deficit.
Without a balanced spending plan, the state was operating in a lopsided manner as the recession drags down tax collections. The projected deficit amounts to more than a quarter of the state's general fund, and to conserve cash, the state has begun issuing IOUs to contractors and government workers are being furloughed three days a month.
A state-sponsored children's health insurance program planned to stop enrolling new clients Friday, the first time that the Healthy Families program has done so since it started in 1997. And at least one more major bank was scheduled to stop accepting the state's IOUs.
California's budget impasse brought rebuke Thursday from state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who warned that further delays on resolving the state deficit will threaten the state's ability to build schools, highways and levees.
Lockyer said the state's recent credit-rating downgrade could jeopardize its ability to secure financing for infrastructure projects, which would hurt businesses, local governments and ultimately, taxpayers.
"Give Californians and the world a pleasant surprise for once: Balance the budget now, and get back to the work of getting our state back to work," Lockyer said in a statement.
It was not clear if a meeting would be called Friday. The governor didn't meet with Democratic lawmakers on Thursday.
Schwarzenegger is in disagreement with state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, over how the state should repay $11 billions to schools once the economy recovers.
The Democrats said Schwarzenegger could guarantee future money for schools with a statutory change. But the governor's administration disagreed, saying such a change would require voter approval.
Education advocates prefer to get the repayment pledge in writing because they feel the governor hasn't always made good on his promises. Back in 2005, the administration agreed to repay $2.9 billion to public education after the state's largest teachers union accused Schwarzenegger in a lawsuit of taking school funding and refusing to pay it back.
"Our position is that there should be some legislative clarification on what's owed and when it will be repaid to schools," said Sandra Jackson, a spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association, considered one of the most influential forces in California politics.
Republican legislators said they wanted to concentrate on the current problem — the funding shortfall for the fiscal year that began July 1 — rather than future scenarios.
Most state agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, will be closed Friday but state prisons, hospitals, police and firefighters were operating, along with and parks and jobless centers. Healthy Families, which offers reduced-cost medical coverage to low-income children, was scheduled to close to new enrollment.
Advocates fear as many as 570,000 children would be denied access to health coverage.
"Every possible opportunity must be taken advantage of and every avenue must be exhausted before taking the drastic and devastating step of denying health care to children," said Wendy Lazarus, founder of The Children's Partnership, in a statement.
Friday also marked the last day Citigroup Inc. planned to accept IOUs after extending the deadline by one week.
Bank of the West and some credit unions have said they will continue to accept IOUs but JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co. and other major banks have already stopped honoring California's warrants.

DALLAS – Meet Tony Romo, jokester.
The Dallas Cowboys quarterback is starring in an online video spoof, endorsing a few toungue-in-cheek items.
The video, provided Thursday to The Associated Press by funnyordie.com, opens with Romo alone on a football field, in a shirt and a cap with the logo of one of his real sponsors, Starter. He says you might not have realized he endorses some "50,000" products — including gasoline that tastes like chocolate and vice versa.
The 29-year-old Romo also pokes fun at the tabloids that have covered his love life, including his relationship with singer Jessica Simpson.
Funnyordie.com spokeswoman Carolyn Prousky says the video was shot last month and that Romo received no fee. Starter spokeswoman Maria Dolgetta says the sportswear maker sponsored the video.
___
On the Net:
http://www.funnyordie.com

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
US retail giant Wal-Mart on Thursday announced plans to develop a database that it said would revolutionize shopping by putting information about products' sustainability at consumers' fingertips.

The database, dubbed the sustainability index, could put information about how environmentally-friendly suppliers, manufacturers and their products are, just a garment label or barcode-scan away for shoppers, according to Wal-Mart executives speaking at a webcast gathering of their suppliers.

The index would be put together in three phases, the first of which involves surveying Wal-Mart's 100,000-plus suppliers about how they operate, where a product is made and what goes into it.

That stage got under way Thursday, when the 15-point survey was sent out to some US manufacturers.

The questionnaire covers everything from a manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions and location of factories, to water use and solid waste disposal.

The next step in compiling the index will be to create a consortium of universities that would work with suppliers, retailers, NGOs and governments to develop the database.

A technology company is being sought by Wal-Mart to create an open platform to power the index, Wal-Mart chief executive Mike Duke told the meeting at the retail giant's headquarters in Arkansas.

Wal-Mart pledged to put up funds to get the index off the ground but Duke stressed that the database is not intended to benefit only the retail titan.

"It is not our goal to create or own this index. We want to spur the development of a common database that will allow the consortium to collect and analyze the knowledge of the global supply chain," Duke said.

The third and final phase would see the index up and running, and consumers accessing and benefiting from it.

John Fleming, chief merchandising officer for Wal-Mart, outlined how the index might work, while stressing that the end product was several years down the line.

Consumers might point their multi-application handheld devices at a product while shopping online or in-store to get information about the product.

With a T-shirt, they might see the field where the cotton came from, probably with a picture of the farmer, Fleming said.

"There would be information about how much cotton was used, how many 'product miles' were consumed to get that T-shirt into the store.

"That will make a difference in terms of what products customers consider," especially with future generations of consumers who care deeply about the environment and sustainability, he said.

PARIS – Media monitor Reporters Without Borders says five photographers and a cameraman have been detained in Iran over the past week.
The Paris-based group listed five Iranian photographers seized Saturday, nearly a month after the June 12 presidential elections that prompted a wave of opposition protests. It says French-Iranian cameraman Said Movahedi was detained July 9.
The reason for the arrests is unclear.
Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Thursday that "The Iranian government fears images" of the protests.
The group says at least five other photographers or cameramen have been injured by police or militias during the crackdown on opposition protesters. It says 41 journalists are behind bars in Iran.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana's area includes more than one-hundred and twenty millon square meters of land, of which twenty-five million will be developed in its first phase. It also includes 8 kilometers of beach and coasts, 5 of which are considered to be among the most spectacular in the Caribbean, locally considered to be neck-in-neck to the beaches of Bahia de Las Aguilas (literally, Bay of the Eagles) located in the southwestern municipality of Perdernales- often referred by past visitors as some of the most beautiful in the world.

Dominican Republic Villa

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) –
Pakistan and India vowed to cooperate in the fight against terror in the wake of the devastating Mumbai attacks, leaders of the rival nations said after rare talks on Thursday.

"Both leaders affirmed their resolve to fight terrorism and cooperate with each other to this end," according to a joint statement after the meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in Egypt.

It was only the second meeting between the nuclear armed neighbours since the November attacks in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai which cost 166 lives, and raised hopes of a resumption of peace talks.

"Prime Minister Singh reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice and Prime Minister Gilani assured that Pakistan will do everything in its power in this regard."

The statement described terrorism as "the main threat to both countries" but the two premiers also agreed that action on terrorism should not be linked to peace talks.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where more than 50 heads of state were meeting on the second day of the developing world's most important get-together.

Relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, deteriorated sharply after the Mumbai bombings which New Delhi blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Pakistan has said that it would "probably" put the five accused of involvement in the attacks on trial this week.

It is the first top-level meeting since Singh met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a summit in Russia last month.

Pakistan on Wednesday expressed some optimism over the direction relations with its neighbour were taking.

"There has recently been some forward movement in our relations with India," Gilani said. "We hope to sustain this momentum and move towards comprehensive engagement. We believe durable peace in South Asia is achievable."

The Mumbai siege left in tatters a fragile peace process launched in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict, including a territorial dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Peace "will be facilitated by the resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir," Gilani said.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon has been holding talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salim Bashir since Tuesday in preparation for Thursday's meeting.

More than 50 heads of state from the developing world are gathered in Sharm to tackle the fallout from the global economic meltdown, with calls for a "new world order" to prevent a repeat of the crisis.

Cuban President Raul Castro said at the opening session on Wednesday that the financial crisis had hit developing nations the hardest.

"Every country in the world must seek just solutions to the global economic crisis," Castro told the 118-member body.

"We call for a new monetary and economic world order... we must restructure the world financial system to take into consideration the needs of developing countries."

India said members should play a bigger role on the world stage.

"Developing countries must be fully represented in the decision-making levels of international institutions," Singh said.

India, along with host Egypt, is one of the founding members of the NAM, the largest grouping of countries outside the United Nations, aimed at giving a voice to the developing world.

Founded in 1955, NAM's 118 member states represent around 56 percent of the global population. NAM states consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dunking or bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

If the nuts curled together when they warmed up then this was deemed to be a good omen, but if they jumped apart then it was time to look for another sweetheart. Islanders from Lewis traditionally poured ale into the sea in libation to a marine God called “Seonaidh” or “Shoney”on Celtic Samhain or Halloween, so that he would send seaweed to the shore to fertilise the fields for the coming year. Seonadh in Scottish Gaelic means, sorcery, augury, or Druidism, and it is possible that the custom of Shonaidh is the direct link to an ancient form of Celtic god worship that has been Christianised. As "Seonaidh", which is Gaelic "Johnny", it may also be a reference to one of St John, and an invocation of him.

http://www.hullabaloocostumes.com/

BEIJING (AFP) –
Top US trade and energy officials were set to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases sought to step up cooperation on climate change.

US Trade Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, both ethnic Chinese, arrived here seeking to open China's markets to US green technology while urging Beijing to set hard targets on gas emissions.

"The US and China are two great nations, and clean energy is one of the great opportunities of our time," Chu said Wednesday as he announced the establishment of a US-China Clean Energy Research Centre.

"Working together, we can accomplish more than acting alone."

The centre, which will have headquarters in both countries, is aimed at allowing scientists and engineers from the two sides to work together, according to the US government.

It is also aimed at serving as a clearinghouse for information, with key issues initially to be looked at including energy efficiency, clean coal technology and low-polluting cars.

The visit by Locke and Chu comes ahead of a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December when over 180 nations are due to negotiate a new climate agreement to replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.

China and other developing nations are refusing to agree to compulsory cuts in emissions under the new deal, saying developed countries must shoulder the responsibility for the decades of emissions that have led to global warming.

But the US officials in China have been trying to convince Chinese leaders that the world has no choice but to work together more closely.

"Mother Nature... doesn't discriminate between carbon that comes from the United States or China... we share the same atmosphere and if we do not act, we'll all suffer," Locke said here during a business lunch on Wednesday.

"As the two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the United States and China have a special responsibility to take action."

Locke and Chu were expected to discuss the issue with Wen during a meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Their visit to China comes ahead of the first US-China strategic and economic dialogue, to be held in Washington next week.

LONDON (AFP) –
The government announced plans Wednesday to slash emissions with a huge increase in the use of renewable energy to generate one third of the country's electricity needs by 2020.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said tackling climate change would require "comprehensive changes" in Britain's economy and society, as he unveiled proposals to cut emissions from transport, agriculture and industry.

Forty percent of electricity would come from renewables such as wind and wave energy, and nuclear and "clean fossil fuels", he said.

Britain has committed to cuts of 34 percent in emissions by 2020, and has signed up to European Union targets to source 15 percent of all energy from renewable sources by the end of the next decade.

It has already reduced greenhouse gases by about 21 percent compared to 1990 levels, including cuts that companies have purchased through the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).

Explaining how the targets would be met, Miliband said that by 2020, 30 percent of electricity would come from renewables and a further 10 percent from nuclear and coal plants where emissions were captured and stored.

The fuel sources were "the trinity of low carbon and the future of energy in Britain", the minister said.

The government has come under fire over the potential costs of "greening" the British energy sector, but Miliband insisted it would be less costly than feared because of technological advances.

He said the new measures would not increase energy bills before 2015 but admitted bills would rise afterwards by as much as eight percent. But there will be some grants available to make homes more energy efficient.

Miliband also said up to 400,000 jobs could be provided by green jobs from sectors such as low-carbon industry, recycling and waste.

On the day Britain's jobless rate surged to its highest for 12 years, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said: "The transition to a low-carbon economy provides an important part of the answer of where the future jobs are going to come from".

"This is a challenge that every economy is facing, and we are determined that by setting clear policy now, Britain positions itself to benefit both economically and environmentally from the transition," Mandelson said.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England, the RSPB and National Trust said in a joint statement that a renewable energy revolution in Britain was long overdue.

They added: "We look forward to working with government to ensure this takes place within the timescale needed to tackle climate change."

Greenpeace generally welcomed the plans, but urged the government to back them with sufficient funding.