2 foreigners abducted in main Yemeni city

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Security officials say gunmen have abducted two foreigners outside their hotel in Taiz, Yemen's second largest city.

Police say the two were taken at gunpoint by unknown assailants outside the Taiz Plaza hotel on Monday.

The officials spoke anonymously in line with regulations. Neither police nor the hotel's management would comment on the nationality of the two foreigners.

It's the first abduction of foreigners in Taiz, on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen's president has warned that the al-Qaida branch in the country is expanding and using assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority.

The group claimed responsibility in March 2012 for killing an American teacher in Taiz, saying in a post on militant websites that he was proselytizing for Christianity.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-foreigners-abducted-main-yemeni-city-163620953.html

Justin Bieber Anne Frank will ferrell coachella zack greinke zack greinke jackie robinson Coachella 2013

Celebrity Splits: Which Couple Should Get Back Together?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/celebrity-splits-which-couple-should-get-back-together/

S B H c mitt romney mark zuckerberg mark zuckerberg

Indy 500 could be better than 2012's epic race

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? They raced 1-2-3 in line, trading the lead a whopping 15 times over the final, frantic 75 laps. All three drivers had a last-lap plan in mind when they zipped past the white flag, and it was Takuma Sato who acted first with a bold move for the win.

Sato pulled out of line, dipped inside of Dario Franchitti and tried to pounce as they headed into the first turn. Scott Dixon watched and waited from third, figuring he was now in position to slingshot past both for the victory.

Instead, Sato and Franchitti nearly touched. Sato spun out and into the wall and Franchitti zipped to his third victory in one of the most dramatic Indianapolis 500 finishes in memory. Some even argued it was one of the greatest Indy 500s ever.

It sure won't be easy to top on Sunday.

"I got a lot of comments from drivers in NASCAR and Formula One saying it was the best 500 they'd ever seen," Franchitti said. "But I think this year will also be a very, close exciting race."

The bar was certainly raised at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year with 34 lead changes, passing throughout the field, Franchitti rallying from the back to win and three close friends of the late Dan Wheldon sweeping the podium. So perfect it could have been a Hollywood movie script.

But the IndyCar Series has given every indication this season that Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway could be another thriller.

The series is off to a terrific start this year with three winners in the first four races, and for the first time since 1991 none of the winners drive for the mighty Penske Racing or Chip Ganassi Racing teams. Instead, it's been three wins for resurgent Andretti Autosport and one for A.J. Foyt Racing, which celebrated Sato becoming the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race.

So steady this season, Sato goes into Sunday as the series points leader. And, he'll start from the sixth row ? right next to Franchitti and Dixon.

Sato, who calls last year's race "an unforgettable day," has the chance to give Foyt his first Indy 500 victory since Kenny Brack in 1999. Sato's win at Long Beach last month was the first for the Foyt organization since 2002.

"We're here for it. We are here aiming to win the 500, so there is no reason why we cannot," Sato said. "Winning, I was so close last year. Knowing that now, how to get there, what you need there, so it's been a tremendous experience last year to hopefully I can translate it to... this year's performance."

The field is stacked, though, and has a pair of drivers trying to join the exclusive club of four-time winners. Franchitti and Helio Castroneves are each vying to join Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears as the only four-time winners of the Indy 500, a feat that's not been done since Mears' 1991 victory.

"What an incredible opportunity for the fans to have not only one, but two guys trying to make history," Castroneves said. "Forget about the names, forget about who it is. But imagine people who didn't even see the last time when the guy won four times."

They've got five Andretti Autosport cars standing in their way and two of them start from the front row.

Carlos Munoz, a 21-year-old Colombian making his IndyCar debut, will start second alongside Marco Andretti, who is once again considered a favorite but must overcome a curse that has limited his famous family to one win ? Mario Andretti in 1969 ? in 80 starts.

Andretti feels far more comfortable about his chances this year than he did last season, when he called the race "mine to lose." Graham Rahal, the other half of the closest rivalry in the mild-mannered series, doesn't consider his nemesis the favorite.

"Do I think it's Marco's race? No. Marco hasn't led in the pack all week," Rahal said. "He just sits in the back and runs a big lap time and pits."

Instead, Rahal thinks everybody is overlooking AJ Allmendinger, who will make his Indianapolis 500 debut seven years after he left open-wheel racing for NASCAR. A failed drug test cost him his NASCAR ride last summer with Roger Penske, but the team owner has given him a second chance with this IndyCar opportunity.

Allmendinger has been fast at Indy ? so good that struggling teammate Will Power used his setup in qualifying. Power said Allmendinger has the best car in traffic of all three Penske entries. Named after Foyt, his father's favorite driver, Allmendinger could complete his comeback Sunday.

"AJ Allmendinger is a very good race driver. He's had quite a bit of experience," said Foyt. "I met his daddy the other day, I said, 'Why did you handicap that kid putting A.J. on him?'"

Allmendinger is one of 11 American drivers in the field of 33 ? there are also a record-tying four women ? and leading the red, white and blue charge is local boy Ed Carpenter, the only owner-driver in the field.

Carpenter, the stepson of IndyCar Series founder Tony George, is a graduate of Butler and a die-hard Indiana Pacers fan and the surprise pole-winner for the Indy 500. He is noted for his skills racing on an oval, and he's twice beaten Franchitti in wheel-to-wheel races to the finish line. But now he'll be leading the field to the green flag of his hometown race with all of Indiana watching.

"I don't feel the pressure," he said. "As far as the local fan base and support, it's fun. I don't think that translates into pressure."

Carpenter is powered by Chevrolet, which for the second year in a row dominated all the preparations for the Indy 500 and swept the first 10 spots in qualifying. But Honda showed more life in Friday's final practice, when it had six drivers in the top 10 of the speed chart. If that sounds familiar, it should ? last year, Chevrolet dominated leading into the Indy 500 but Franchitti won in a Honda.

"We have seen this movie before ? this is the same story of last year, and Honda had the advantage on race day," said James Hinchcliffe, who goes into the race with two wins this season for Andretti.

And race day is the only day that matters, according to Ganassi, who publicly called out Honda during the season-opening weekend at St. Pete when he questioned the manufacturer's desire to win. Ganassi went so far as to claim the only thing Honda wants to do is "sit around and hold hands and sing Kumbaya. I want to win."

Ganassi wasn't panicked Friday about Honda's performance so far at Indy, and said Sunday will be the "tale of the tape."

"I'd like to think we gave them a little bit of a spark there that started a bit of a fire, and that fire burns today very hot," Ganassi said. "I'm happy with how they responded, but this is in response . this is a long, not a one-race or one-day commitment we're looking for a response to, it's a season-long slog. A marathon we're involved in throughout the season. I'm sure they're up to the task."

So he'll wait and see if this year's running of "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing" can live up to last year.

"Last year is going to be tough to top, but what we've seen in practice so far indicates we are going to see a really similar race," Hinchcliffe said. "And I don't think fans are ever going to get tired of that kind of action."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indy-500-could-better-2012s-epic-race-143020458.html

brandon jennings the vow review luol deng culkin wooly mammoth no child left behind no child left behind

Make Smart Decisions With These Auto Insurance Tips | Insurance ...

There is a lot of complicated insurance jargon thrown out at you when you are purchasing auto insurance. You may find yourself feeling hopelessly confused and unsure of what anything means. This article discusses insurance industry terms in language that you understand. When you are well informed regarding the words used in your insurance policy, you can make a better decision.

If you buy aftermarket enhancements for your car, determine the insurance consequences should your car get damaged or stolen. Insurance frequently does not provide coverage for these parts, only covering the value that is added to the car?s entire value, and that may not be too much.

It is required by most state laws that you have sufficient liability insurance as a driver. As a responsible citizen, you should know your state?s insurance laws, and have a policy for at least the minimum requirement for your state. If you happen to be involved in an accident without insurance, you could be in violation of the law and also face serious monetary loss.

A large part of your monthly car insurance bill will depend on what kind of vehicle you buy. If your tastes lead you towards a luxurious car, the numbers on your insurance bill will rise accordingly. Choosing a safe and reliable lower end model can really save you some money in the long run.

Think about whether your car really needs those fancy, expensive accessories. Upgrades such as leather seats and a killer sound system are awesome, but these are not things you really need. The reason is because if your vehicle is stolen or totaled, you will not be reimbursed for its damage.

If you?re moving, it?s a smart idea to look into car insurance rates in the areas you?re considering. The rates can change depending on if you live in a rural or urban area, and they vary from state to state.

Having the right kind of insurance can save a person quite a bit of cash if they get into some kind of accident. A deductible is what you have to pay towards the repair of your vehicle.

With the knowledge you gained from this article, you can now make a better choice in auto insurance. Being an educated consumer is a good way to combat your confusion when shopping for auto insurance.

Professional-Info

Source: http://insuranceauto.professional-info.com/2013/05/25/make-smart-decisions-with-these-auto-insurance-tips-2/

cleveland news daytona race the cutting edge fox 8 news angelina jolie leg daytona artie lange

P&G brings back old CEO to jump-start growth: this week in the economy

Procter & Gamble turns to former CEO Lafley to try to improve growth, especially in fast-growing emerging markets. Also this week, extended jobless claims hit post-recession lows, durable goods pick up, and Ben Bernanke speaks to Congress.?

By Schuyler Velasco,?Staff writer / May 25, 2013

A.G. Lafley, shown here speaking in New York in 2010, retakes the reins of Procter & Gamble Co., effective immediately, after the sudden retirement of current chief executive Bob McDonald. Mr. Lafley led the household products giant from 2000 to 2009.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/File

Enlarge

P&G brings back former CEO:?If the current chief executive officer isn't working out, why not bring back the former guy? That's the strategy Procter?& Gamble Co. is using, announcing Thursday that former CEO A.G. Lafley would take the reins of the maker of Tide, Crest, Pampers, and other household products. He replaces CEO Bob McDonald, who will retire June 30.

Skip to next paragraph Schuyler Velasco

Staff writer/editor

Schuyler Velasco is a writer and editor for the Monitor's business desk.? She writes about consumer issues, sports, and the occasional sandwich.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; // google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Although it has a commanding presence in US households, P&G has struggled to grow sales in emerging markets overseas ? a strategy that Mr. Lafley himself initiated before he retired in 2009. The sudden leadership move may have more to do with morale than strategy. Known as a charismatic leader, Lafley told the Associated Press that he would continue the company's strategic course, which has reaped some results recently by cutting costs, introducing new products, and focusing on core developed markets as well as developing ones.

On Friday, the day after the announcement, P&G's stock jumped up 4 percent.

Jobless claims get back on track: Following an unexpected rise two weeks ago, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 23,000 to 340,000 claims last week, according to the Labor Department. Continuing claims, meanwhile, fell to 2,912,000 from 3,024,000 from the week before, their lowest level since 2008. ?Continuing?claims?have been steadily improving in recent months and now stand 11.7% below year-ago levels,? Barclays Research economist Cooper Howes wrote in an e-mailed analysis. ?This week?s data cover the survey week for the May BLS employment report and, in our view, suggest that the separation side of the labor market has improved since April.?

Durable goods on the rise: According to the Commerce Department, orders for durable goods from manufacturers jumped by 3.3 percent ($7.15 billion) in April, far exceeding analysts? expectations. Most of that increase ($5.09 billion) was in orders for transportation equipment. Also, orders for vehicles increased 1.9 percent. Aircraft orders rebounded as well, by 26 percent. The only dim spot in the report was shipping of durable goods, down by 0.6 percent.

?We are probably in for another month or two of declining shipments during the spring,? Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHSGlobal Insight, wrote via e-mail analysis. ?But if orders continue on their current pace, shipments should rebound in the summer. But clearly, the mini-boom in manufacturing over the previous two quarters is over, and the sector is settling into a softer growth trajectory that is more consistent with the overall economy.??

Bernanke goes to Congress: Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke testified before Congress?s Joint Economic Committee Wednesday. In wide-ranging remarks, he warned that withdrawing Fed stimulus too soon could stall economic recovery. The Fed chief pointed to fiscal policies as a drag on growth ? ?In particular the expiration of the payroll tax cut, the enactment of tax increases, the effects of the budget caps on discretionary spending, the onset of sequestration, and the declines in defense spending for overseas military operations are expected, collectively, to exert a substantial drag on the economy this year,? he said.

You can read Bernanke?s full testimony?on the Fed?s website.

Things get worse Abercrombie & Fitch.? On the heels of the controversy surrounding the apparel brand?s exclusion of plus-sized customers, Abercrombie & Fitch posted dismal financial numbers for the first quarter, with same-store sales plunging 15 percent. Abercrombie stock fell 10 percent on the news.? CEO Mike Jeffries blamed most of the loss on inventory shortages.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Fp96Z41YSlk/P-G-brings-back-old-CEO-to-jump-start-growth-this-week-in-the-economy

New Orleans Pelicans chris brown hillary clinton apple stock Pro Bowl 2013 Kick Ass Torrents jamarcus russell

Anecdote: Writing oral stories

When you see a poem you know it's a poem.

When you see a screenplay you know it's a screenplay.

Most people, however, have never seen an oral story written down. Probably because it's an oxymoron. Yet there are times when it's useful to write an oral story down. For example, when you're helping a company create the story of their strategy.

Let?s look at the difference between oral and written stories and then I'll describe a significant problem that can happen when you write down an oral story for a company.

First and foremost we talk quite differently to how we write and read. For example, when we speak we say things in short bursts.

When we speak /
We say things in short bursts. //

Yet we can write a sentence that is much longer and more elaborate than we would normally speak. Punctuation helps a reader but doesn't go far enough for a speaker (more on this below).

When we talk it?s quite reasonable to repeat ourselves. We can say the same thing a few times and no one will give it a second thought. It gives us time to gather our ideas and emphasise our point. In fact repetition helps our audience hear what we are saying.

Repetition is spurned in prose unless it?s a literary effort of Joycean proportions. But in business writing it?s a no no.

And ?it's a no no? would never pass for business writing but we could easily and acceptably say it. We can speak colloquially but brows wrinkle when we write it.

Most of the time we are speaking we use short, simple words. When we're chatting with colleagues and recounting what happened in the meeting we all just went to (editor, please replace 'went to' with 'attended'), we use short, concrete phrases.

?Did you see Bob?s face when Bronwyn said we?ll need to create a new job role? I can see this being a problem.?

People don't speak corporateez. Most people, that is.

We don't typically say transformation, core competency, retrospective coherence (yep, I've heard that), strategic leverage, commercial sustainability, I could go on.

Now let me explain the problem that often happens when you try and write down an oral story such as the oral story of the corporate strategy.

When it?s written down it looks a lot like any other business document in that there are words in paragraphs but the writing seems overly informal and even naive. Things might be repeated and there are informal phrases all over the place. So the business language wordsmiths appear and begin to make it sound like a piece of business writing. I've even had footnotes added!

YOU MUST RESIST THIS URGE.

Here's what I suggest you do.

First write the story in a format that doesn?t look like normal business prose.

Much like a poem, break up the story based on the short bursts we speak in. At the end of each line either insert a ?/? to indicate a minor pause and the sentence just flows on to the next phase or a ?//? when there's a bigger pause. This is how experts in discourse analysis write conversations down.

The great advantage to this approach is that it looks different. Internal comms immediately thinks, "Whoa, what in the hell is this?" And you can share with them the difference between oral and written stories.

Let me know if you have ever had this challenge and how you dealt with it.

Source: http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2013/05/writing_oral_st.html

British Open MC Chris Colorado shooting suspect accuweather Finding Nemo 2 Provigil dez bryant

What If There's No Internet?

I email. I search. I shop. I Facebook. I stream. I Skype. Every year I seem to do these things a little bit more. Stroke by stroke, as I slip deeper into the Internet's embrace, I find myself wondering:

"What would happen if the Internet went away?"

Can it? It was famously built to be indestructible, with no center, no hub, no "off" or "on" switch. It is, after all, a creature of the U.S. Defense Department, designed, supposedly, to survive a global war.

I know, of course, that it's voluntary. People can shut down their websites, information can disappear; some domains can peel away; its ocean cables are vulnerable to attack, but as to knocking out the whole thing, is that possible?

In his book An Optimist's Tour of the Future, writer Mark Stevenson asked Vint Cerf, one of the original team of computer scientists who put the thing together, if there was any way to pull the plug, in spite of the fact that it doesn't have a plug. Here's Vint's answer:

If every internet service provider in the world decided one day just to shut down the routers, that would pretty much screw the Internet ... So the answer is, it's technically possible, but would require cooperative action that's extremely unlikely."

There are tens of thousands of service providers around the planet. It's hard to imagine them all doing anything in unison. But what if they were targeted? What if a talented cyber-attack team went in with the intent to take knock the whole system down? Could they?

"Well," says Vint, "there are hostile actions going on every day all the time and they're capable of rendering parts of the Net inoperable but I don't think the machine would stop in and of itself ... We launched the Internet in January 1983, and as far as I'm aware the entire system has never been shut down since."

But what if he's wrong? Scientist David Eagleman has imagined four ways the Internet might be severely compromised. The first threat on his list is a powerful solar flare, knocking out multiple satellites simultaneously. That's the scenario you'll see here, in this short French video, directed by Francois Ferracci.

It's Oct. 10, 2020. A couple is on a date. They've only recently met, he's crazy about her, and he's snapping (or digitally producing) thousands of pictures ? of her, of them, of Paris; he's the kind of lover who wants to record everything all the time. She's a little put off by his techie ardor, but he's obsessed ? until, all of a sudden, his gadget freezes. He can't take pictures any more. The images he got start ? they start to fade.

He's more than alarmed; he's paralyzed. She, however, she is going to teach him a lesson. With one simple gesture, she shows him something more permanent than the Internet. Something small and portable.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/05/24/186509291/what-if-there-s-no-internet?ft=1&f=1007

easter april fools pranks atlanta braves Happy Easter Game Of Thrones Season 3 campfire Kordell Stewart