Chile rescue shaft 'nears miners'

The Japanese cabinet has approved a plan to pump more than $60bn (£38bn) into the country's struggling economy.

The aim of the plan - which still needs approval from parliament - is to boost growth, jobs and spending.
The Japanese economy is suffering from deflation and a strong currency; prices keep falling, but consumers hold off spending in hope of lower prices.
Analysts said the key problem is that the yen is at a 15-year high, making exports more expensive.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Japan set interest rates at just above zero.
Japan's Nikkei newspaper said the plan could boost GDP growth by up to 0.6% and help to save jobs.
Yen dollar doldrums An extra budget is needed from parliament to fund the stimulus plan. This is expected to be submitted to parliament for debate later this month.
A previous stimulus package, announced last month, was intended to create about 200,000 jobs and shift GDP into positive territory, but was criticised as not going far enough.
Continue reading the main story

JAPANESE YEN V US DOLLAR

Last Updated at 08 Oct 2010, 04:10 GMT

¥1 buys	change	%
0.0121	0.00	+0.07

More data on this currency pair

At the heart of Japan's woes is the strong yen, which has gained almost 50% in value against the dollar since mid-2007.

Japan has been stuck for the last 20 years in what economists call a "liquidity trap" - falling prices, interest rates stuck at zero, but savings rates remaining stubbornly high.
Much of the recent yen strength is actually to do with dollar weakness - the US has also cut rates virtually to zero and faces the risk of sinking into a liquidity trap just like Japan.
Despite the additional spending measures in the supplementary budget, Mr Kan has made clear that Japan must cut its budget deficit in the medium term.
Japanese government debt has risen to about twice the size of its economy during the last two decades of poor growth.

Security contractors in Afghanistan 'fund Taliban'

Heavy US reliance on private security in Afghanistan has helped to line the pockets of the Taliban, a US Senate report says.

The study by the Senate Armed Services Committee says this is because contractors often fail to vet local recruits and end up hiring warlords.
The report demands "immediate and aggressive steps" to improve the vetting and oversight process.
Some 26,000 private security personnel, mostly Afghans, operate in Afghanistan.
Nine out of 10 of them work for the US government.
Private security firms in Afghanistan provide guards for everything from diplomatic missions and aid agencies to supply convoys.
In August, Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave private security companies four months to end operations in Afghanistan.
'Mr White' "All too often our reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan has empowered warlords, powerbrokers operating outside Afghan government control," Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate committee, said.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

If your option is either using the local nationals who may be working for a local headman or warlord, or importing somebody from another part of Afghanistan - which automatically makes them a target - you may not have a whole lot of choice”

End Quote Doug Brooks private security contractors' organisation

"These contractors threaten the security of our troops and risk the success of our mission," he added.

The report paints a disturbing picture of how some of those hired have little training or experience in firing weapons, while other contractors are warlords with known links to the Taliban, the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Washington says.
The document gives several notorious examples, including a man the Americans have nicknamed Mr White - after a character in the violent film Reservoir Dogs.
He is said to have funded the Taliban and to have hosted a meeting with a senior commander responsible for a wave of roadside bombs targeting Nato troops.
The report also says that - by funding warlords with their own private militias - the US is undermining its declared aim of creating a more stable Afghanistan.
It warns that the growth of a lucrative private security industry has drawn new recruits away from the Afghan police and army, where salaries are lower.
In response to the report, Doug Brooks, the president of a body that represents private security contractors, said contractors in the field faced hard choices regarding who to employ.
"If your option is either using the local nationals who may be working for a local headman or warlord, or importing somebody from another part of Afghanistan - which automatically makes them a target - you may not have a whole lot of choice," he told the BBC's World Today programme.
"There's an aspect to this, a best value aspect, that I think the US government has ignored for too long. The tendency among Congress is simply to go for the cheapest things they can find, the cheapest contractors, and that undermines I think the more quality contractors," Mr Brooks said.
The latest report follows July's Congressional inquiry, which said that trucking contractors paid tens of millions of dollars a year to local warlords for convoy protection.
In recent months, US forces in Afghanistan have pledged to increase their oversight of security contractors and set up task forces to track the money spent among sub-contractors.

counter strike clans best ever if u want to join

www.hell-fire.omgforum.net
www.bbclan.omgforum.net

Murder captured by Street View car

Juha-Matti Laurio	Thursday, October 7, 2010 12 hours ago • 74 views
NOTE: Don't open those links if you don't want. From Gizmodo Blog: <<.... This is one case: A murder in Belo Horizonte, in the State of Minas. You can see the body covered in a black plastic, surrounded by the military police. >> gizmodo.com/5656497/murder-cap ... The original source: em.com.br/app/noticia/tecnolog ...

Google's Mp3 Player

Google has a nice little MP3 player you can use on your site, as Amit Agarwal found out by digging through Gmail code. Just append the URL of an MP3 file to "http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=".
Below I've included a link to a podcast using Google's MP3 wrapper in a simple Iframe... and now you have streaming capabilities and a Google Video-like interface with a progress bar and sound adjustments.


A new GMail feature lets you play MP3 files right inside the GMail homepage without having to download the MP3 song or open an external media player. You can use the Gmail MP3 player to embed MP3 files into your website or blog.

When you receive an MP3 audio file as an email attachment, click the play button and Google will play the audio file for you in a Gmail popup window.

The GMail Mp3 player is actually the Google video player that's playing the audio file. In fact, you can play any MP3 files from the embedded Google Video player without even having to login to GMail. Here's the secret URL:

http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=MP3_URL

To embed MP3 songs in your Blog or website, use the following Google Video Player wrapper code:


<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" flashvars="audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL" width="400" height="27" quality="best"></embed>


Remember to replace MP3_URL with the actual location of the MP3 file on the web and play it inside Google Video. Odeo also provides an MP3 player that you can put into blogs but with Google, you can change the size of the MP3 inline player, background colors and autoplay mode with the parameters - backgroundColor=0xEEEEEE&autoPlay=true

Related trick: Embed MP3 Audio Files in Web Pages