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Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries - Easy Healthy Dessert

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:29:32 -0400

Summer means bountiful berries and delicious desserts, but when it comes to ripe and luscious strawberries combined with rich and dark chocolate, more often than not, a platter of Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries can easily serve to be the perfect answer for your dessert needs, without being overly heavy! The summer in California gives us huge red strawberries that can be amazingly sweet, and with a packet of Ghiradelli's delightful dark chocolate, you are all set to make a dessert that's pretty...

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IIFA 2008 Performances (Hot Performance Videos in 3GP)

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:15:00 -0400

IIFA 2008 Performances (Hot Performance Videos in 3GP Download)

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Mission Istanbul
Katrina
Kareena
Govinda
Dia
Ritesh Deshmukh
Priyanka and Harman
Akshay Kumar

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Premier Indian Entertainment Portal | The Biggest Collection of Hindi Song
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IIFA 2008 Performances (Hot Performance Videos in 3GP)

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:15:00 -0400

IIFA 2008 Performances (Hot Performance Videos in 3GP Download)

Download:

Mission Istanbul
Katrina
Kareena
Govinda
Dia
Ritesh Deshmukh
Priyanka and Harman
Akshay Kumar

Unlimited Hindi Song
Premier Indian Entertainment Portal | The Biggest Collection of Hindi Song
Click here to visit the site

Fresh faces at polling places help boost voters’ trust in elections

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:18:00 -0400

A new study has revealed that recruiting young and fresh faces as staff at polling places can boost voters’ trust in elections.

Political scientists from Brigham Young University and Kent State University have revealed that new poll workers recruited from local schools, unions and businesses can help enhanced voters’ trust in elections.

The study conducted by BYU political scientist Kelly Patterson and BYU’s Quin Monson showed that voters’ evaluations of poll workers relate to their level of trust in the voting process. With more trust comes higher voter turnout, the researchers say.

By studying voters and poll workers in Ohio during the November 2006 election showed that voters gave higher marks to precincts staffed by new poll workers recruited from local schools and businesses.

“If you want to improve elections, improve it from the ground up and get new blood in the poll worker force,” said Patterson.

“Quality poll workers matter, particularly in the November election where many voting stations will be crowded or have new equipment that voters may be unfamiliar with,” he added.

In Ohio’s Franklin County, local employers, unions and teachers were asked to recruit their employees and students to serve as poll workers.

A concerted effort was made to invite young poll workers who would be comfortable with new voting technology.

In the BYU–Kent State study, both poll workers and voters completed evaluations about their experience. An analysis of voter evaluations shows voters gave more positive evaluations to polling places with the new recruits.

“It is as if, consciously or unconsciously, poll workers communicate their sense of adequacy and preparation to voters as they interact with them on Election Day,” Monson said. “Voters can smell fear and uncertainty.”

The study will appear in the July issue of American Politics Research. (ANI)

Inflation in Pakistan 31 percent in a week

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:18:00 -0400

Latest figures issued by Pakistan's Federal Bureau of Statistics indicate that inflation has jumped over 31 per cent during the last one week.

This is first instance of inflation jumping to a record high in the history of Pakistan, lending an urgency to the need for Government intervention to hold millions of people falling into poverty trap.

The figures show that the prices of goods and services for the lowest income group increased as much as 31.6 per cent during the week ended on July 3 as compared to the same week of the last year.

The official figures, which are based on Sensitive Price index (SPI) showed that out of surveyed 53 items, the prices of 45 products mainly essential food commodities increased during the last week (June 27 to July 3) as compared to the same week of the last year.

Most of the economists say the government is partly responsible for current wave of inflation. They say other than 'imported inflation', caused by high-energy prices, the 'homegrown inflation' is also becoming problematic. (ANI)

Afghan Governor blames Pakistan, Iran for attacks on the British

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:16:00 -0400

The Governor of Afghanistan’s Musa Qala district, which lies to the north of the country’s Helmand province, Mullah Abdul Salaam, has blamed the Pakistanis and the Iranians for attacks on British troops.

Salaam, a former Taliban commander, gave a warning yesterday that infiltrators from Pakistan and Iran were deliberately attempting to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan.

He said that the insurgency attacks against coalition forces, which have accounted for the worst coalition casualty figures in a single month since the war began, were now principally the work of outsiders rather than the Taleban.

“They come from Pakistan, they come from Iran,” Mullah Salaam said in an interview with The Times and two other newspapers.

“It is like a sickness that everybody is doing suicide bombs. There is nothing like suicide bombs in our religion. It is nothing to do with our religion,” he added.

The Governor, who spoke in the office of his compound in the heavily protected District Centre of Musa Qala, insisted that the war against the Taleban and its allies was being waged in the name of democracy.

As for his relationship with President Karzai, which has occasionally come under strain, he said: “It is a good relationship with our President. We have good relations because he is our Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and I don't have any problem [with that]. If I had any problems with him I don't think I would be Governor any more.” (ANI)

Rained out Wimbledon final could cost tennis chiefs a million pounds

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:15:00 -0400

If the Wimbledon men's final on Sunday is rained out, tennis chiefs could face a loss of up to a million pounds.

The weatherman has warned that heavy rain is a certainty, and could last through the afternoon.

According to The Mirror, almost 13,000 Centre Court fans will get their tickets worth 91 pounds each refunded if a downpour limits play to less than an hour.

Spectators can't use them if the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal match is postponed to Monday.

All England Club Spokesman Johnny Perkins, however, said: "We have money in the coffers to cover it." (ANI)

Ronaldo may undergo ankle surgery next week

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:14:00 -0400

Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo is set to have ankle surgery next week, which could leave him racing against time to start the season for Manchester United.

A specialist flown out by United to assess the damage to the forward’s right ankle examined Ronaldo, 23, in Portugal yesterday.

United club doctor Steve McNally and his counterpart from the Portuguese Footballer Federation met the player on Wednesday to resolve a problem troubling Ronaldo since March.

But United delayed a decision on surgery until they get the verdict of their own specialist.

Ronaldo will have to wait at least four weeks before he can start training, The Sun reported. (ANI)

Military action by US, Israel in Iran 'would destabilise Iraq'

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:14:00 -0400

Iraq will be plunged into a new war if Israel or the US launches an attack on Iran, Iraqi leaders have warned.

Iranian retaliation would take place in Iraq, The Independent quoted Dr. Mahmoud Othman, the influential Iraqi MP, as saying.

The Iraqi government's main allies are the US and Iran, whose governments openly detest each other. The Iraqi government may be militarily dependent on the 140,000 US troops in the country, but its Shia and Kurdish leaders have long been allied to Iran.

Iraqi leaders have to continually perform a balancing act in which they seek to avoid alienating either country.

The balancing act has become more difficult for Iraq since George Bush successfully requested 400 million dollars from Congress last year to fund covert operations aimed at destabilising the Iranian leadership.

Some of these operations are likely to be launched from Iraqi territory with the help of Iranian militants opposed to Tehran.

An embarrassing aspect of the American pinprick war against Iran is that many of its instruments were previously on the payroll of Saddam Hussein.

The one community in Iran most likely to oppose the Tehran government is the Iranian Kurds. (ANI)

Roman Abramovich admits paying out billions on political favours

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:13:00 -0400

Roman Abramovich, the owner of the Chelsea Football Club, has admitted to paying billions of dollars for political favours and protection fees to get his hands on the former Soviet Union's mineral wealth.

The one time penniless street trader has now amassed a 11.4 billion pound fortune, as explained for the first time in his own words in court papers seen by The Times.

Abramovich paid older oligarchs so that he could obtain a big share of Russia's oil and aluminium assets and to escape unscathed from the deadly post-communist carve-up.

He famously emerged triumphant after the “aluminium wars”, in which more than 100 people believed to have been killed in gangland feuds over control of the lucrative smelters. He avoided the fate of a rival oligarch who annoyed the Kremlin and ended up being transported to jail in Siberia for ten years.

Abramovich, 41, has been forced to tell his story because his mentor Boris Berezovsky, 62, is suing him for four billion pounds at the London Commercial Court.

The exiled Berezovsky claims that Abramovich became an enforcer-type figure for Vladimir Putin, passing on alleged threats of confiscation - and the jailing of a friend - to pressure him into selling shares in former state assets cheaply.

Abramovich has retorted with a 53-page defence that accuses Berezovsky and a Georgian oligarch of demanding huge sums for helping him to rise from obscurity.

The man from Georgia, Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, emerges as the key intermediary, passing messages between the former friends. Patarkatsishvili was offered 500 million dollars by Abramovich, the defence papers admit, for protecting him in the aluminium wars.

The Georgian was found dead in the bedroom of his country house in Leatherhead, Surrey, five months ago. Tests showed that he had advanced heart disease. He was 52.

Abramovich launches his defence with an icy riposte to his old pal.

Abramovich's vast wealth is founded on the Siberian oil company Sibneft, which was privatised by President Yeltsin in 1995 in an auction that some experts suspect of having been rigged. The Chelsea owner now admits paying Berezovsky, then nicknamed “Godfather of the Kremlin” because of his influence over President Yeltsin, to secure the oil business.

The Chelsea owner's next target was the aluminium industry. After privatisation, smelter managers, metals traders and journalists were reported to have been killed as groups battled for control.

Abramovich now admits that he owed his success to the late Georgian oligarch. “Mr Patarkatsishvili did ... provide assistance to the defendant in the defendant's acquisition of assets in the Russian aluminium industry,” he states.

Berezovsky escaped Russia after criticising President Putin. Abramovich says that Berezovsky asked him to buy his interests in ORT for 150 million dollars.

Abramovich discloses that there was a showdown at St Moritz airport in Switzerland in 2001 when Patarkatsishvili asked him to pay 1.3 billion dollars to Berezovsky.

Abramovich was also willing to pay off Patarkatsishvili. He states that he agreed to pay 585 million dollars “by way of final payment”.

Abramovich denies that he helped himself to Berezovsky's interests in Sibneft and aluminium or that he threatened a friend of the exile. (ANI)