The UK Exchequer George Osbourne on Monday raised the issue of Vodafone tax case with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. According to the sources he also addressed the concern over the unpredictability of tax regime in India. ibnlive.com
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With almost a lot of things that you can do online ? shopping, training, studying ? can dating be far behind? Can you really find love via the internet? There are thousands of couples that can attest to that possibility. If you don?t know where and how to start, continue reading for the most important factors to consider if you want to try online dating relationship.
The internet has changed the way of life for a lot of people. Many have even found it more convenient to meet and date people online, making blind dates a thing of the past. Men and women can get to know people they like just by chatting. All you need is a computer or laptop and internet and you?re ready for an online dating relationship.
1. Find the best online dating service
There a number of online dating sites today where you can meet singles who are also looking for lifetime partners.
There are many free dating sites that you can become a member of. Choose a site that will satisfy your need and one that will be able to match you with someone compatible with your personality. There are sites that match people according to location, preference, age group, and interests. There are sites that can also help you gain more friends which will be one way of finding your match.2. Choose a profile picture that is recent and presents you well.
Online dating relationship starts with initial attraction. Once you have chosen a good dating site, you need to set up your profile. It is better to post a recent, great-looking solo picture. Choose a picture that will let you stand out and entice the opposite sex to send you a message. Remember, it is unwise to post a photo with your friends for you will only be compared with them.
3. If you enter into an online dating relationship, you have to keep in mind that there a lot of predators lurking in the internet today, just waiting for willing victims. Online dating will often result to a personal meeting, depending on what you will agree upon, and usually, matches are made according to geographical locations so meet ups are easier. This is important for women to realize: if a man asks to meet with you, make sure that you meet with them in a crowded place. Never meet someone, even though how much you trust him, in a place where you will be vulnerable. Safety should be your main concern.
Another thing, never give out personal information like your exact home address or telephone to someone you only met online. It is better be sure than sorry. What you want to prevent is to end up like some of the women who had a bad experience from online dating relationship. Do not be na?ve and gullible.
Getting into an online dating relationship is not all that bad, there are a lot of success stories out there and unfortunate incidents are few and far in between. As long as you take the necessary precautions, you?ll find success in no time.
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The Azamara Quest is tied up at the dock on arrival at the port in Sandakan, Malaysia, Sunday, April 1, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24 hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
The Azamara Quest is tied up at the dock on arrival at the port in Sandakan, Malaysia, Sunday, April 1, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24 hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Passengers from the stricken cruise ship Azamara Quest, queue to check in at a hotel in Sandakan, Malaysia, Monday, April 2, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24 hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Passengers wait to disembark on the top deck of the stricken cruise ship the Azamara Quest after docking at the port in Sandakan, Malaysia, Sunday, April 1, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24-hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Passengers from the stricken cruise ship Azamara Quest, Charles and Alison Skene from Aberdeen in Scotland disembark from a bus at a hotel in Sandakan, Malaysia, Monday, April 2, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24 hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Passenger from the stricken cruise ship Azamara Quest, Margaret Whawell from Melbourne Australia, arrives at a hotel in Sandakan, Malaysia, Monday, April 2, 2012. The Azamara Quest carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew, was left a drift for 24 hours after a fire broke out in one of the ships engine rooms on Friday night. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
SANDAKAN, Malaysia (AP) ? Smiling passengers voiced relief and gratitude after safely leaving a fire-damaged luxury cruise ship that was stranded at sea for 24 hours and limped without air-conditioning into a Malaysian port Sunday.
The Azamara Quest drifted off the southern Philippines with 1,000 people aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday, injuring five crew members. It restored propulsion the next night and reached the harbor of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late Sunday.
Two ambulances came out of the port shortly after the ship docked, followed more than two hours later around midnight by a fleet of buses taking passengers to hotels. Inside the buses, several people appeared tired, but many others smiled and one man waved to reporters waiting outside the port.
Malaysian police and consular officials from countries including the U.S., Britain and Canada were also present.
"I'm glad I'm safe," ship passenger Dorothy Irvine, a retired school principal from Toronto, told reporters at a Sandakan hotel. "The Azamara crew kept us informed all the time and went beyond the call of duty. The captain was phenomenal."
Margaret Whawell, of Melbourne, Australia, said there had been "no panic, no chaos, everything was under control."
It was the latest in a series of accidents hitting luxury cruise liners since January, when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.
Port officials stopped journalists from approaching the Azamara Quest on Sunday because of what a Malaysian agent for the ship's operator said was part of the company's instructions.
"Everything is normal except that it's very hot there because there is no air conditioning," New Zealand Deputy High Commissioner Brian Smythe told reporters before the passengers disembarked. "The New Zealanders I spoke to are fine. They were well taken care of."
The fire on the Azamara Quest had been extinguished immediately, but five crew members suffered smoke inhalation, including one who was seriously injured and needed hospital care, the ship's operator has said.
A Sandakan hospital staff member said a Guatemalan man was being treated, but could not give other details.
The 11-deck vessel, which features a casino, spa and shopping boutiques, was carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew members. Over one-third, or 201, of the passengers were American, according to lists of passenger and crew nationalities provided by the ship captain to the Philippine coast guard.
The passengers from 25 countries also included 98 from Britain, 89 from Australia, 45 from Canada, 39 from Germany, 32 from Austria, 16 from Belgium, 14 from New Zealand and 14 from Switzerland.
Azamara Club Cruises, the ship's Miami, Florida-based operator, said in a statement earlier Sunday that the ship was sailing at a top speed of only 6 knots (11 kilometers or 6.9 miles per hour) to reach Sandakan.
Company president Larry Pimentel is expected to meet with the passengers and crew in Sandakan by Monday.
Engineers on Saturday morning restored electricity in the ship to re-establish essentials including running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food preparation, the company said.
The company said the rest of the cruise would be canceled. It said it would fully refund the passengers and provide each guest with a future cruise certificate for the amount paid for the aborted voyage. Azamara Club Cruises is part of Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Passengers have been given several options for what to do in the next few days, such as fly home through Singapore, said Smythe, the New Zealand diplomat.
The crew includes 119 Filipinos, 58 Indians and 50 Indonesians. The vessel left Hong Kong on Monday for what was supposed to be a 17-day Southeast Asian cruise. It made a port call in Manila and left for Sandakan on Thursday. It had been scheduled to make several stops in Indonesia before arriving in Singapore on April 12.
Instead, the Philippine coast guard said it drifted Saturday in the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometers (70 nautical miles) south of the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef. The area lies between the Philippines and the island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia.
A month after 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy in January, a fire on the Costa Allegra left that ship without power and adrift in waters known to be prowled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days.
Both Costa ships are part of Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator.
___
Associated Press writer Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
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In the world of digital manipulation, photographic imperfections are an extinct phenomenon. What started as an offshoot of photography is increasingly been seen as mandatory for optimum artistic impression of images? True, digital manipulation is just not chosen past time for millions but a complete industry on its own. Like any other creative vocation it not only bread but creative satisfaction to those associated with the job. Though photography is an independent art but when digital manipulation techniques are blended into it, it leads to outstanding photographic results.
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There have been substantial developments in the area of digital manipulation in the last decade. On the one hand the simple techniques have improved upon their earlier version to create even better results.
And simultaneously several new techniques have been devised. By virtue of these fresh techniques even the most difficult manipulations tasks appear to be simple. The other benefit is that with the help of such technology, photo editing is no more a time consuming task. For optimum results one needs to explore with the technology and its various aspects.?
Digital manipulation and its scope:
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The scope of digital manipulation is not limited to handling with photographic imperfections. Though it is among one of the most practical uses of the technology but beyond that, it is used for various purposes. There are distinctly two diverse uses of the technology.
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The realistic purpose- Firstly it is for realistic purposes.
Where in manipulation is used to create amazing looking photographs. These photographs are then used for various purposes. Be it print or digital media, advertising, personal photos, to industrial purpose, the uses are unlimited. From big banner hoardings to magazine covers, digital manipulation is the trick behind all those perfect looking images. For high quality results it is mandatory to use digital manipulation tricks to the perfection.?
The illustrious purpose- The illustrious purpose is largely limited to the exhibition photography. More and more photographers are taking up image manipulation as the new way out for exhibiting unparallel art. They not only use the latest technology but also employ their best creative skills to create fabulous images. On several occasions, such projects are complex and demand maximum use of technology. Often the results are achieved by using one more than one techniques of photo editing.
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Varied kinds of photo editing tools are used for bringing the most realistic impression but it largely depends on the artist to choose the most appropriate one. Whether too choose mask or to retouch an image, eye catching results are always the result of perfect choice of the editing tool.
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Image editing and ethics:
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When there are absolutely no reigns to the scope of image manipulation, it is important to note the difference between ethical and unethical use of the same. While it is absolutely correct to imply the best technology to digitally enhance the images for aesthetic purpose. But it is ethical to prevent photo editing of images used for journalistic or documentary purpose. Though the technology has proved immensely useful in varied fields but one cannot deny that it demands strong actions against the unscrupulous use of the same.
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ST. LOUIS?? Congratulations, Mega Millions winners! You've just won the biggest lottery in history! Move over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett!
Not so fast, Richie Rich.
There's no doubt that you're now each a member of the 1 percent. A life of comfort and leisure awaits, and managed wisely, it just might await your friends and family for generations to come.
Let's just not get carried away.
A luxury box at the stadium you can afford, but forget about buying the franchise and becoming the "No. 1 fan" of your favorite NFL or Major League Baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers just sold for $2 billion, besting the NFL record price of $1.1 billion for the Miami Dolphins by nine times your take-home winnings.
If you'd like to turn the keys at the sweetest pad in New York City ? an $88 million apartment at 15 Central Park West ? you'll have to spend nearly all of it to close the deal. But don't get into a bidding war: You're sure to lose out to the current owner, the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian billionaire.
Even if you're looking to become the next great philanthropist, your good deeds can't compete ? at least in terms of dollars and cents ? with that Gates guy. His foundation has given away close to $26 billion since it was established in 1994.
So, you've got some catching up to do. Don't worry, you're starting from a good place.
In the hours before the dramatic Friday night drawing, the jackpot was estimated at $640 million. If you each take the lump-sum payout, the cartoon checks made out to you will be worth about $150 million. Uncle Sam gets his share, and your state might, too.
All told, you'll each have roughly 100 million reasons to call April 2, 2012, the best Monday morning of your life.
If you follow the advice of those who know money, you won't splurge on those big-ticket items that you can afford, such as a top-of-the-line Gulfstream G650 jet ($64 million, excluding pilot, maintenance, hanger and fuel costs) and a place to fly it, your own private island (let's call that $25 million even).
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Had you won the whole pot, and invested the $300 million conservatively, Steve Fazzari, an economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said you could have expected to collect a nice "salary" of about $7 million "after taxes every year for the rest of your life and the rest of the life of your heirs."
Put another way, that's $19,000 a day. Forever. And even a one-third share of that is pretty sweet. "If you put it in perspective, you're pretty rich," Fazzari said.
It's more than enough to join up with the 1 percent, which the Congressional Budget Office pegged as households with incomes that average more than about $350,000 a year.
But it's still not all THAT much, at least according those buzzkills at Forbes. Just 30 years ago, the total after-taxes take of $300 million would have been more than enough to land a single winner on the magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2011, you would have needed $1.05 billion to tie four others for last place on a list topped by Gates.
In fact, your $100 million isn't even two-tenths of 1 percent of Gates' estimated $61 billion net worth. Using Fazzari's math on conservative investing, the Microsoft co-founder can expect to bring in an annual salary of $1.4 billion ? or 14 times your share of the historic jackpot.
But that's Bill Gates, America's richest man. Surely you'll be the richest guy on your block?
Perhaps, but not in the city centers of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In Chicago alone, Forbes says there are 18 billionaires, including six members of one family.
Even in a smaller city such as St. Louis, you're likely to find yourself a handful of zeros from the top: Under the Gateway Arch, the big money belongs to Enterprise Rent-A-Car's Jack Taylor and his family. They're worth an estimated $9 billion.
But none of that matters, right? So what if there are hundreds of billionaires out there whose wealth makes yours look like that of a pauper, or that there are limits you never imagined facing to a jackpot you could ever imagine winning. Surely that $100 million will at least solve all your cares and provide a lifetime of happiness.
Yeah, not so much.
"After they win the jackpot, most of them self-destruct and they end up much more unhappy than they were before," Dr. Tom Manheim, who offers financial therapy in Solana Beach, Calif. "It's really kind of a sad state of our economy where we think that money, once again, is going to bring us happiness and it doesn't."
So, uh, yeah, congratulations, we guess, to the Mega Millions winners.
(And no, those of us who didn't win aren't bitter. Not one little bit.)
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Recipients for Energy Audits, and Renewable Energy Development Assistance
Mar 31, 2012 (Agriculture Department Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) ?
Release No. 0111.12
Contact:
Dane Henshall (202) 260-0996
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Recipients for Energy Audits, and Renewable Energy Development Assistance
WASHINGTON, March 30, 2012 ? Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA has selected for funding 10 projects nationwide to help rural small businesses and agricultural producers reduce energy consumption and implement renewable energy technologies. The funding will be made available through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which was authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.
?For the first time in 13 years, imported oil accounts for less than 50% of the oil consumed in America. That is because we are producing more domestically, using more alternative fuels, and using less energy through energy efficiency efforts,? said Vilsack. ?Through the REAP program, USDA has partnered with more than 13,000 of America?s farmers, ranchers and rural businesses to save energy and improve their bottom line by installing renewable energy systems and energy efficiency solutions. USDA will continue to help make America more energy efficient, and in doing so, more competitive by encouraging rural small businesses to continue to build renewable energy systems?
In Cumberland County, Maine the Greater Portland Council of Governments has been selected for an $80,000 grant to develop on- and off-shore wind projects. In Somerset County, the Maine Community College System (Kennebec Valley Community College) has been selected to receive a $100,000 grant to provide four energy audits and renewable energy development assistance for 140 agricultural producers and rural small businesses across the state.
In Weld, Larimer and Boulder Counties, CO., the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association has been selected for a $50,000 grant to conduct energy audits for farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses in making energy-efficiency improvements to their operations. It is estimated that 140 rural businesses and 60 agricultural producers will be assisted through this project.
REAP loan guarantees and grants can be used for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements; and grants for feasibility studies, renewable energy development assistance and energy audits. Funding of each recipient is contingent upon the recipient meeting the conditions for the grant. The following is a complete list of award recipients announced today.
Energy Audits and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Recipients by State
Arizona
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority; $100,000 grant
Colorado
Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association, Inc.; $50,000 grant
Florida
Talquin Electric Cooperative, Inc.; $100,000 grant
Georgia
University of Georgia; $100,000 grant
Kentucky
University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc.; $100,000 grant
Maine
Greater Portland Council of Governments; $80,000 grant
Maine Community College System; $100,000 grant
Oregon
Oregon Department of Energy; $100,000 grant
Washington
Washington State University; $90,000 grant
Wisconsin
Dairyland Power Cooperative; $60,000 grant
Since taking office, President Obama?s Administration has taken historic steps to improve the lives of rural Americans, put people back to work and build thriving economies in rural communities. From proposing the American Jobs Act to establishing the first-ever White House Rural Council ? chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack ? the President wants the federal government to be the best possible partner for rural businesses and entrepreneurs and for people who want to live, work and raise their families in rural communities.
USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has an active portfolio of more than $165 billion in affordable loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America.
Copyright (C) 2012 Federal Information News Dispatch, Inc.
Article source: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?storyid=%7B3fe0422b-99d7-435d-a4cf-670094d1f4fe%7D&src=main
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Kansas coach Bill Self, previously awarded Sporting News' Coach of the Year honors, added to his hardware collection Sunday when he was voted Naismith Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year.
Self, whose Jayhawks will play Kentucky in the NCAA championship game Monday night, becomes the third Kansas coach to win the award from the Atlanta Tipoff Club, joining Larry Brown (1988) and Roy Williams (1997).
Self beat out Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Kentucky's John Calipari and Missouri's Frank Haith for the Naismith award, which was voted on by a nationwide panel of journalists, coaches and administrators.
"This is a terrific honor. When you think of postseason awards, anything that has (James) Nasmith?s name in front of it is a huge award and certainly I'm very proud of this," Self said in a statement. "It is a reflection of how our team performed all year long. There are so many good coaches out there to choose from but I am honored they picked me."
Self, in his ninth season at KU, led the Jayhawks to a 31-7 record and a record eighth consecutive Big 12 regular-season title. He is 269-52 at KU and 476-157 overall, including the 2008 national championship.
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